Fascinated to read all the material you have gathered on this great institution. My own Kardomah memories are of two branches in Manchester. First, the large establishment at the Lewis’s end of Market Street – a three-storey place with 'nippies’ and change humming in vacuum tubes. A delicacy to be had there was herring roes on toast. But the branch of K in which I spent most time was at the posher end of the city, in St Anne’s Square. As soon as you went down the steps into the fragrant interior it felt like being abroad. as the cafe was patronised by groups of Manchester’s Levantine communities. You could hear Arabic spoken there, Greek and Yiddish. The most distinctive feature of this branch of K was a large fireplace over which was the motto ‘Die werkt met lust verlangt geen rust’ – Dutch, I’m fairly sure, meaning something like ‘He who enjoys his work does not long for leisure’. I wonder whether the Kardomah company ordered this fireplace, or whether it was a feature of the building before Kardomah took it over?
Best wishes
Ian Buckley
