How many people recall the Oriental Café in West Gate? It was one of the places frequented by soldiers in WW1. An extension hurriedly finished at that time provided extra seating accommodation for customers, plus a room with smoking and billiard facilities.
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My mother May Hextall, worked at the Oriental Cafe until her marriage in 1935. She worked with a friend Marion who came from Nottingham. She named me, her daughter, after this friend. She had happy memories of her days working with Mr Bumble, the manager. She would often tell us how she would travel home by bus after work and other passengers would remark what a lovely smell of coffee they had noticed as she got on to the bus. Mr Bumble, I think, made her wedding cake.
I was born in 1947 so it probably closed before I was around but I remember my parents talking about it on many occasions they seem to have liked the place when they were young.
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