Coffee Tavern

The old coffee-house known to three or four generations of Manchester men as Brown’s, Sainsbury’s and Sefton’s is soon to be transformed for its new owners, Messrs Walker and Homfray’s, by Colonel Westcott. The change will be considerable, but the architect, it appears, is going to retain as far as possible the character of the first-floor room, which has remained untouched during the rearrangement of recent years. In this small dark smoke-room, furnished with small and solid mahogany tables, the cotton men of Lancashire have met for years to drink coffee and play dominoes, or more rarely chess. Until the last year or two this room was packed on Tuesdays and Fridays, and so filled with smoke that it was scarcely possible to discern from one end the face of a friend seated at the other. The turbulence of smoke, coffee and noise lasted until two o’clock exactly, when its creators dispersed rapidly. In its new form the restaurant will be open all day and seven days a week. [Manchester Guardian 20 September 1933 page 11]

Reference           Manchester Guardian 20 September 1933 page 11