Tea Rooms, Holborn

For years the only reason I passed through the otherwise sad-looking southern part of Museum Street was to look at this painted signage and at the cheeky scenes painted on the windows of the clothes shop next door. The tea rooms opened in the early 1960s but closed when the lady who ran them retired in the early 2000s. The clothes shop also closed around the same time and both businesses laid empty for a while. But then the premises next door became a mini cab office and the enticing women disappeared. As for the former cafe, it found recently a new owner, who splashed a thick coat of very unattractive black paint all over the façade, including the sign. That's it then, gone!


I wonder whether this sign didn't pre-date the 1960s? Indeed, for as long as the tea rooms remained opened, there was a more modern (1960s style that is) plastic sign. So maybe there was already a cafe there before the 1960s?


The sign is gone but Peter Vogel at Nutmegger Workshop produced an excellent near-replica of it.

Location: Museum Street / Picture taken on 23/04/2009