THEY are disappearing one by one, our old cafes. For decades they bustled with life, filled with the noise of chatter, clattering plates and hissing urns, serving up sausage and chips and mugs of tea each day.
But once the closed sign is up for good, it’s the end of an era and those little caffs become fading memories and museum relics - quite literally, in the case of Fountains Cafe.
Run by the same family for 55 years in the Oastler Market, the cafe closed in 2023 and has now been ‘re-created’ at Bradford Industrial Museum. The cafe had barely changed since it opened in 1968 - when I interviewed the producer of the film Funny Cow, which filmed scenes there, he said it was a perfect setting for a Sixties period drama - and its ‘retro’ furniture, crockery and signage has been acquired by Bradford’s Museums Service and displayed in the Cafe Gallery.
Egg, sausage and chips and ice-cream with a wafer (Image: Bradford Museums and Galleries Service)
It was a sad day when Fountains Coffee House and Grill closed. The popular cafe was opened by Paul and Mary Georgiou, whose son Michael later took it on with wife Stella. It was one of many independent cafes in Bradford; most run by immigrant families from across Europe. El Greco, The Acropolis, Jackson’s - I frequented these cafes as a teenager, usually after school with my pals, eking a frothy coffee out until the bus came. Happy times.
My first taste of ‘cafe culture’ was as a little girl when my grandma took me to a cafe in Halifax Borough Market, which always felt like a treat.
One of Bradford’s great caffs was The Italia in Great Horton. Fondly recalled by poet John Hegley from his Bradford University days, it had a mixed bag of diners, from students to lorry drivers, tucking into hearty servings of spicy stew or lasagne with chips. The guys from New Model Army and Terrorvision were regulars, and Game of Thrones actor Enzo Cilenti, whose grandparents ran the cafe, worked there as a teenager. When I asked readers for memories of The Italia there was a lively response:
* “I met my husband there. We got talking over mugs of tea and big piles of spaghetti. Very romantic!”
* “Our student house was a few yards from the Italia, I lived in that house with the woman who became my wife. We visited (the Italia) years later. As the waiter brought my wife’s meal, he stopped before putting the plate down. She asked if everything was okay and he replied: “It’s just that you used to have eggs, chips and beans, not eggs, chips and peas’.”
* “Beautiful home-cooked food - from a spotless kitchen and a sense of community. I was gutted when it closed, because I’d never see the wonderful people there again.”
* “Penne arrabiata at the Italia was our Friday treat. The Cilenti family knew all my kids from babies.”
* “Lasagne and chips, that awesome thick bread and butter and a big mug of tea. They treated regulars like family.”
Last year Baxandall’s, run by Cypriot couple Eric and Pat Iasonides, closed after more than 30 years. Their homemade moussaka, with gravy, was legendary. When the Kirkgate Market cafe closed customers recalled happy days there as kids, and as workers on lunchbreaks or the butty run. “Where will I go now?” sighed an 80-year-old regular.
What’s left for those loyal cafe-goers, particularly the older ones? High street chain coffee shops lack the cosy charm of family-run cafes. And once you get your head around all the mocaccinos and chai lattes, you’re hard pressed to find a table that isn’t occupied by someone hunched over a laptop.
We hold old cafes close to our hearts because we went there with parents, grandparents, friends and dates. Working people were the “heartbeat” of Fountains Cafe, said writer Mick Martin, who preserved customers’ memories in a play. “For many, it can feel like their own life and part they have played in the town’s history is also razed to the ground and lost,” said Mick. “It was a melting pot for market life; a place where working-class men and women and migrants from all over the world worked, ate, met and talked. Cafes feed much more than our bellies - they’re a fulcrum for everyday life.”
