'Spam a la Greque' served at the White Tower restaurant, 1 Percy Street, W1.
Everybody knows there was extensive food rationing during the second world war, in London, as well as the rest of the country. However meals eaten away from home, whether in expensive West End restaurants or industrial canteens, were what was called, ‘off ration’.
Rationing hadn’t lasted that long before it was soon noticed by many people, especially those working and living in the West End, that the rich seemed to be able to enjoy close to pre-war levels of gastronomy at the best restaurants and hotels.
Chaufroid de Volaille Yorkaise served at Piccadilly's Regent Palace Hotel. The chef hasn't gathered yet that it won't matter how much poking around he does, he won't make it look edible.
American Schnitzel Garni from a Russian restaurant
Spam served at Francati's. Mmm.
Vol au Vents of spam and white sauce with lettuce. Yum.
An Americanised Chinese meal made with, you've guessed it, more Spam
Many people bitterly resented the ostentatious gorging on expensive meals. There was a definite sense of, what was described by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food at the time as, ‘an inequality of sacrifice’.
In 1942 the Government acted by creating a flat maximum charge that prevented restaurants providing meals to customers that cost more than five shillings (25p). Although it was pretty easy for a few of the more salubrious restaurants to charge extras over and above this sum (say for the orchestra or the dancing and the like) generally though, the aim of the new law worked, and it pretty well made the morale-dissipating effect to disappear.
That said, it didn’t really matter how luxurious and expensive your establishment was, decent meat, along side many other ingredients, was often very hard to source. So throughout the war the ubiquitous Spam increasingly found itself on restaurant menus. The cheap reconstituted pork product was invented in 1937 in America, and the name is either an abbreviation of Spiced Ham or short for Shoulder of Pork and Ham. No one seems to know.
The fascinating photos above were taken by Ralph Morse for Life magazine and published January 1944.
Planked Spam, double yum. A more typical British use of Spam during WW2 and beyond would have been Spam Fritters. These were often served in Fish and Chip shops as fish became more scarce.
During a daylight raid on 25th October 1940 a huge bomb landed on the Blackfriars Road destroying some trams which were trying to temporarily shelter from the onslaught. As the photograph shows us it was obviously to no avail. On the other side of the road, on the corner with Union Street, a building, known originally as the Surrey Chapel but subsequently as the Blackfriar’s Ring, was also very badly damaged.
The Surrey Chapel around 1900. The photographer would be standing where The Ring pub now stands.
The Blackfriars' Ring partly destroyed by a bomb October 1940.
The Ring was an octagonal building built in 1782 by the charismatic church orator Reverend Rowland Hill as a chapel (he thought that the shape ‘prevented the devil hiding in any of the corners’). Disused and empty by the end of the 19th century, it had been a boxing ring since 1910 when Bella Burge and her husband, the ex-prize fighter Dick Burge, acquired the lease believing it would make an ideal wrestling and boxing ring. They named it, simply, ‘The Ring’ and it would become the first indoor boxing ring for the working classes – the sport until then had been generally fought by working class men in front of an upper class audience.
Bella of Blackfriars’ as she was known, was also the first to break the taboo of women attending boxing bouts when in 1914 she and her actress friends (she was close to music hall star Marie Lloyd and her family practically all her life) were the first to become female regulars at ‘The Ring’.
After the first bombing raid, The Ring was still standing, albeit badly damaged, but another bombing raid during March 1941 almost completely destroyed the building and it was eventually demolished.
The blitz on London had been continuing since the previous September and by now over 40,000 people had lost their lives and an incredible 250,000 people were homeless.
The Ring, now completely destroyed and ready for demolition. March 1941.
Blackfriars Road, June 2009. The Ring pub can be seen in the distance.
Surrey Chapel and 'The Ring' would have been situated across the road on the right where Palestra House now stands. Palestra is Greek for a public place used for wrestling. Although I expect you knew that.
Bomb damage underneath the bridge is still visible 68 years later.
Two or three weeks after the bomb that almost completely destroyed the Blackfriars’ Ring, another bomb silently dropped onto the more salubrious surroundings of Jermyn Street at 3am on 17th April 1941. The Luftwaffe had just introduced a new terrifying weapon – the parachute mine – it was packed full of high explosives, was eight feet long, two feet wide and weighed two and a half tons. They were designed to explode in mid-air purposely to cause a greater loss of human life. When the bomb exploded above Jermyn Street it severely damaged several buildings including an apartment block called Duke’s Court, which happened to be the home of one of the country’s favourite recording artists – Albert Alick ‘Al’ Bowlly.
The popular singer was killed instantly. Although, it was said, that his body strangely appeared untouched even though the massive explosion had blown Bowlly’s bedroom door off its hinges and it had fatally smashed against his head.
During his career Bowlly recorded over 1000 songs and was said by many to have invented the style of singing called ‘crooning’ where the singer utilises the amplification of the microphone or even a megaphone. The last song he recorded was on 8th April, just a week before he died. It was prophetically called When That Man Is Dead And Gone. The song was actually about Hitler and written, earlier that year, by Irving Berlin:
What a day to wake up on
What a way to greet the dawn
Some fine day the news’ll flash
Satan with a small moustache
Is asleep beneath the lawn
When that man is dead and gone
A devastated Jermyn Street, 17th April 1941
Bowlly, along with many other victims from that night of intensive bombing, was buried in a mass grave at the Westminster Cemetery on the Uxbridge Road in Hanwell. It was one of the worst nights of the Blitz and there was no time or energy for sentiment. His name on the monument was spelled Albert Alex [sic] Bowlly.
I personally came across Al Bowlly when several of his recordings were used in Dennis Potter’s Pennies From Heaven and also ‘The Singing Detective’. It could be said that, in relation to other singers of his time, probably more popular than he has ever been. His recordings have also appeared in some of the great cult films of the last few decades including The Shining, Withnail And I and Amelie.
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