Cafes and Greasy Spoons


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I could be wrong about a petrol station as such but do seem to remember a place with the old style pumps of those days. Perhaps we may be lucky and Robbie has a picture from back then?

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What isn't common knowledge is a lot of these transport cafes did deals with drivers swopping the odd gallon of sump oil for a meal hence "greasy" part of their title. Obviously I can't name these b

J25 (Sandiacre) to J26 (Nuthall) opened in November 1966 J26 (Nuthall) to J28 (Pinxton) opened May 1967

There was a petrol station and garage workshop into the mid eighties, as I used them when I lived in Saxondale village.

There was a petrol station and garage workshop into the mid eighties, as I used them when I lived in Saxondale village.

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I am fairly sure the Elbow had three entrances.

One on Mansfield Road we all agree about, one up the steps direct into the café from Huntingdon Street, that's the one I used most mornings having walked up from the gas board (always a big pile of gas board tool bags near the rear door). A further one on Huntingdon Street that led to the B & B side of things.

I think you are right - can't quite picture the exact location but I recall residents did enter from outside the café on the Huntingdon Street side.

Anyone remember the Geo Akins bookies next door? - my that was grim but probably of its time

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#127

The Harlequin caff was before my time, but if it was on the corner where the post office used to be, as shown in #122, the garage and petrol station was a couple of hundred yards away situated here...

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.949473,-1.016449,3a,37.5y,171.3h,91.64t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1soe9tA1nMKzMkA3oDLUqbYA!2e0

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Harlequin Building is still there and I'm told has reopened recently as a cafe, Used to be run by a family called Gentry, talking of 1970/80's. Have trawled through all these postings but can't find any reference to one opposite the eland pub at new basford, I'm sure I posted about it, opened by a foreign guy maybe Polish? who had name of "Chet" and his wife, they also had one in Hucknall both cafe's full of pinball machines,had to get 3,4 or 5 in a line and "won" replays, once they got to know you they would buy back those (I think illegal) if lucky or pinball wizard type could get alot of money from them.

In later years the eland st one was owned or managed by I think an Irishman and his wife, if I remember correctly she murdered him and locked his body in the outside toilet after a week or two the chemists next door complained re the drains smelling! Council workmen broke down the door, it was said at the time " hundreds of flies as big as sparrows" were eating the body!

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#133 Again I think you are right on the third entrance. I hung in and about there around 1978 when I was on the dole and for a bit afterwards when I started work. It was closed for a long time before eventually being demolished.

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^^^^^^^^^^ My first visit to the Elbow would be Feb 1962, as an apprentice for EMGAS I was based at Woodborough Rd, so it was just a short walk up the hill for a cracking bacon and tomato sarnie and a big mug of tea.

EMGAS split Nottingham into six 'districts' and as you were moved from one to another the first thing you did was sort out the local cafes. One of my favourites was on Wollaton Road Beeston, just up from the high road on the right, lovely and clean, good food and a great selection on the juke box, you could get a half decent dinner in there for just a couple of bob. That's 10 pence to the young'uns.

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I have just remembered something else about the café in Beeston. Back in those days we travelled on public transport using bus tokens supplied by the board. Nottm corporation for their bus's and big green and blue jobs for the likes of Trent, Barton and West Bridgford.You could clear your bill at the café for double what it cost using these bus tokens, helped the lady who owned it and we got free meals.

Another way of using shall we say 'surplus' big greenies and blueys was to save them up to pay for your run to Skeggie in the summer.

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He will be along soon, he must have memories to share of those days. It was quite an education for a young lad, we worked from the city slums to the biggest house in the Park, where the tradesman's entrance was still opened by the downstairs maid. I remember going into a cellar in the Park to check the meter and walking into a wine cellar, must have been 2000 bottles down there most of them covered with dust.

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A bit off topic but some of these caff's were quite simply the downstairs and kitchen of terraced houses on main roads, same with grocery shops which struck me as being odd as a few doors away esp in New Basford there would be a former corner shop used as a dwelling house with the big windows covered in closed lace curtains 24/7, this was very much a DIY thing as opposed to today's trend of turning empty shops into houses crammed full of students (Mansfield Rd for example,) ££££££££££££££££,s lol

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Loved Tess's cafe on the bottom of Derby rd. oppisite kiddies corner shop. George and tess were family friends and the apple pie in there was to die for. I had a serious eye accident when i was a kid and practically lived in the eye hospital on the Ropewalk. 5hours waiting to see Dr. Haworth and i was hungry!! Food in Tess's was top notch. PS food in the Amoy chinese next door was good an'all!!

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Some of my favourites, all long gone.

Blyth Hill Top services. Theres a mobile phone TV mast there now and nothing else, but it was an all nighter and saw many police officers during the night and early morning. I recall one bloke in a jag, who was as drunk as a skunk, coming into the cafe. I advised him not to get into his car and drive away. I was in full uniform at the time. He didn't really say much as probably he could not. He got into his jag in the car park, I pulled in behind him, and flashed my lights. He went onto the A1 and as soon as I could I put on the blues. He didnt stop! He was doing possibly 25MPH so not difficult to catch, but I had to overtake him and push him into the hard shoulder. First thing he said to me - "My friend is the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire." I had to remind him I was a Nottinghamshire Constabulary officer.

Cafe opposite the bus station in Worksop. Again a copper's haunt..

Third was a cafe on Fleet Street in London. Used to work around the clock. Totally reliable and had lawyers, drivers, market people at all hours. I went searching for it a couple of years ago. its now a coffee shop (of a certain well known brand)

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Ashley #143: There was a café on Ilkeston road that fitted the description you give of "the downstairs and kitchen of terraced houses on main roads". In 1974 or perhaps '75, I approached the owner of the Café ( I think it was called "The Shangri La" and asked if she would sell the illuminated sign. She wanted a small noticeboard for the wall outside, so in exchange for making one for her, she gave me the sign. I set it up in my bathroom, where it was the main source of lighting for many years afterwards.

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My late Mother used to tell me stories about dyeing her legs with tea and drawing a "stocking" line and going to the Mikado cafe next to Griffin & Spalding's. She worked at Dolcis and said the rock cakes were the best in town.washed down with tea in very posh pots!

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  • 3 months later...

It's a long time since I found a good transport café; the last one was Jim's greasy spoon on the A74 at Beattock southern Scotland; demolished to make way for the M74 some years ago. Are there any good transport cafés still remaining?

Flash of memory.....Last time I visited Jim's I found a fiver on the central reservation of the (then) dual carriageway - which was nice :)

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