Cosy Corner Cafe (I Think It Was Called)

A Memory of Upminster.

I remember this cafe on the corner opposite The Bell pub and in front of what was, or became, the National Westminster Bank. They sold Glojoy lollies - the best flavour being spearmint which 'creaked' when you bit into them! I remember all the shops shown in the Frith Collection of Upminster and Cranham, where I was born in 1946. The Silver Horn ice cream shop, the Swan Library, Ports flower shop (who supplied my wedding flowers) Edwards (?) the grocers where they sold biscuits from square tin boxes along the front of the counter, Roomes Stores cafe for tea and French fancy cakes on Saturday afternoons). Sissleys Cycles opposite a good fish and chip shop in St Mary's Lane. Kinda's where all our school uniforms were sold (Oglethorpe and Gaynes), Woolworths. All this and a great park to play in.

Sainsbury's came later and another supermarket on the corner of Howard Road, which sold fantastic custard cream biscuits. Later, too, the Sombrero coffee bar (where I met my husband) was opened in St Mary's Lane - my first experience of frothy coffee or hot blackcurrant juice and a jukebox.

Too many happy memories to recall here (mostly food-related!) Happy days!