British Restaurant opens in West Wickham – WW2

I chose this one because my mother and Grandmother volunteered there British Restaurant A British restaurant was opened in Glebe Way, West Wickham, on Wednesday.  The Mayor of Beckenham, (Alderman W.J. Sampson, J.P.), and Wickham members of the Borough Council attended the opening ceremony. The restaurant faces the new fire station and takes in three or four empty shops in this long row of pre-war shops and flats in tenanted.  The Municipal restaurant, by the way, is to be known as “The Yew Tree.”  Apparently it is named after the tuckshop…

Communal Kitchens coming to Beckenham – WW2

Communal kitchens were created in the 1940’s, during the Second World War, to help people who had been either bombed out of their homes, run out of ration coupons or otherwise needed help.   These community feeding centres were named ‘British Restaurants’ by the, then, Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.   Set up by the Ministry of Food, the centres were run by the local government or volunteers.  Both my mother and grandmother helped at the British Restaurant which operated in West Wickham, Kent. Meals were sold at a set price of 9d…