British Restaurant

A British Restaurant in Woolmore Street, Poplar, London in 1942.

British Restaurants were communal kitchens created in 1940 during the Second World War to help people who had been bombed out of their homes, had run out of ration coupons or otherwise needed help.^[1] In 1943 2160 British Restaurants served 600,000 very inexpensive meals a day.^[2] They were disbanded in 1947. There was a political dimension as well, as the Labour Party saw them as a permanent solution to equalizing consumption across the class line and guarantee a nourishing diet to the poor.^[3]

They were set up by the Ministry of Food and run by local government or voluntary agencies on a non-profit basis. Meals were sold for a set maximum price of 9d (equivalent to just under 4p, about $2 US or £1 GBP in purchasing power 2008) or less. No-one could be served with a meal of more than one serving of meat, game, poultry, fish, eggs, or cheese.^[4] Ordinary restaurants in the UK were not subject to rationing but some restrictions were placed on them, for instance no meal could be more than three courses and the maximum price was five shillings (equivalent to $10 or £5 in buying power by 2008). In 10% of the Restaurants the meals were prepared at central depots. Schools were often used because they had cafeterias and kitchens. In London mobile canteens delivered meals to air raid shelters and on the street in the aftermath of air raids.^[5]

Originally called 'Community Feeding Centres', the name British Restaurants was chosen by Prime Minister Winston Churchill.^[6]

By mid-1941 over 200 of these restaurants existed in the London County Council area, although the Wartime Social Survey conducted in 1942-43 indicated they were more popular in London than in the rest of the country.^[7] In November 1942 there were 1,899 restaurants, in November 1943 there were 2,145 and in December 1944 there were 1,931.^[8] 546 authorities made profits and 203 made losses, though they were set up to be not-for-profit.

Some smaller places did not qualify for a British Restaurant but instead had what was termed a Cash and Carry Restaurant with meals being delivered from a British Restaurant in the area.^[9]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to British Restaurants.

• Rationing in the United Kingdom
• Victory garden

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to World War II home front in the United Kingdom.

Further reading

• Atkins, Peter J. "Communal Feeding in War Time: British Restaurants, 1940-l947," in Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska et al. eds., Food and War in Twentieth Century Europe (2011) pp 139-54 excerpt and text search