Rover Showroom / Food Office / Intershop / Litten Tree

I was wondering if anyone remembers the Food Office better than I do. I have a clear recollection of the inside - it had like a bank or post office counter, with teller's stations, each with a sort of grille in front, and there was a big sort of table in the middle, where people picked up either a book to be validated, or a record card, which they then took to the right queue at the counter, the "teller" than stamped it, and did something else, and the punter came away with a new book of coupons. There was a row of wooden (folding?) chairs that some had to wait on. But I'm jiggered if I can remember the outside. I know it was close to the Barracks Market, and remember walking past the Three Tuns to get to it. Was it in a temporary building? Wasn't it sort of around behind the Geisha Cafe, or the other nearby shops in Hertford St?

My father once said it was on the corner of Warwick Row and the square with the Dome newsagents, now occupied by a furniture shop.

Wasn't it where Benley's was, what is now The Litten Tree?

That would have been The Three Tuns. The Food Office must have been on the other side of the (then narrow) entrance to the Bull Yard.

I remember going with mum to the Food Office to get a new Ration Book (I had lost mine). I think it was just a little further along from the Litten Tree (maybe 15/20 yards) towards Greyfriars Green.

Not so sure about that On the Greyfriars Green side of The Litten Tree is the Reform Club, then a row of shops which in years gone by included Hanson's tobacconist (an important port of call for my dad for his St Bruno!) The Litten Tree is not on the site of The Three Tuns, the furnishers on the Bull Yard side of The Litten Tree is where The Three Tuns was, and the Litten Tree (before that, Benley's etc) is, I'm sure, where the Food Office was PS I delivered newspapers to both The Reform Club and The Three Tuns in the 60s!

Had the Three Tuns moved then as when I went to it as a teenager it was around the corner from the Litten Tree in the Precinct on the right the entrance was, with a tunnel running across the Precinct.

No Morgana, the Three Tuns didn't move until 1965.

You could even say it didn't move at all, it was knocked down, and built elsewhere. I'm pretty sure it was the other side to the Three Tuns. I'd have bet on a temporary building, but I can't recall the outside at all! Strange how memory works, isn't it? The building that was put up on its site, wasn't that Foulkes's?

M'mm, I'd forgotten the Reform Club. Is it still there?

I think the Food Office was where the original Three Tuns was on the corner of Bull Yard & Warwick Row, it was known then as the Three Tuns Commercial Hotel. Regards.

Definitely not, sorry - the Three Tuns was still there when I went with my mother to the Food Office - we walked past it towards the Barracks Market.

Certainly is Look on Rob's site and you'll see there's only one building between the Reform Club and The Three Tuns which I think you'll find was The Food Office (the bus stop outside was known as the Food Office in the 1950s as I recall)

I remember Foulkes's shop well from my childhood. It was a hardware & DIY shop, probably more modern and commercial than Mattersons. It seemed to be my father's favourite shop, as we would go there on every trip to town. I don't recall exactly when Foulkes's closed down, but would guess about 1961-ish. It then became Benley's, which was a downmarket department store, a sort of early Primark. My mother would not countenance purchasing anything from there, she thought it was all tat.

Hi MR and Mr D-Di I'm not disputing what you say MR, but we didn't go past the Three Tuns in that direction. Maybe there was an entrance behind the building, for collection of ration books. I remember it was quite a large room, the counter was I guess an old bank counter in mahogany, which had I suppose shelf units between each "teller's" grille, so must have been about 6 feet high; and there were about 9 or 10 "tellers" - each had two or three surname initial letters to cater for. The Three Tuns was still in use then, and well after the food rationing ended. I guess it must have been pulled down about 1958 - maybe dutchman could find out?? Another shop there was Lee Beesley and Co, the electrical contractors. I can't remember if it was next to Foulkes's, but was close. On a wet Saturday morning in 1963 or 4, I was a passenger in my brother's Herald, going towards Warwick Rd past the bus stops at the narrow end of Greyfriars Green, when this stooped figure who'd just got off a bus, made a beeline for the other side, in Lee Beesley's direction, ignoring the traffic. My brother braked, slowing but not stopping, until the figure - he was complete with bowler, brolly and pale mac - realised the car was there, stopped dead, and turned to face us. Bro had to brake sharply, and stopped about 5 feet from the man. The poor chap in a Victor 101 behind couldn't stop on the wet road, and shunted us. When we stopped again, the figure was steadying himself with his hands on the bonnet! The figure was old Mr Beesley. He usually drove a Rover 90, but liked a 'wee dram', so went on the bus. He was about 80 then, we were told. He wasn't hurt, but I was - I had bad whiplash from the impact, and still suffer pain from it today. The Victor was badly damaged; its left headlamp had been bent down and sidelamp up so that they shone 'in each other's eye', so to speak - without cracking the glass. We went with the owner to C&E Motors in Queen Vic Rd to help him get home, and everyone was standing chatting and smoking around it, when someone said "I can smell petrol." The owner opened the boot, which had about an inch of petrol from a ruptured jerrycan swilling around in it. You've never seen cigarettes put out so quickly!!! Bro's Herald estate car had a bent back bumper, stopping the rear door opening, and a shattered rearlight cluster, but apart from a badly bent passenger seat, that was all. Mr D-Di, Foulkes was still there then, for sure. I think it probably closed about 1965, 1966 maybe. It was a good shop, and a shame to see it go.