Lower Precinct Circular Cafe (Rotunda)

Lower Precinct appears to be still under construction here. Post copied from topic Restaurants, cafes and coffee bars on 29th Oct 2016 10:07 am

The proper full-on Swedish chef complete with hat! Seriously though, what must locals have thought of that when built considering how it was before. I've always wondered why they made such a feature out of the lower half of Smithford Street - why 'lower' it at all?

So what was on the menu at the Mushroom cafe? I have recollections of snack food stuff.

I remember the Circular cafe being a Wimpy. I tasted my first burger there, but what I liked most was the ring doughnuts with a big blob of cream on top. I'm probably wrong but I would have said it was a Wimpy in the 60s.

Me too - I was sure it was a Wimpy in the early 60s, when big John always gave me a double burger for the price of a single

So I was right. I know that when I was a kid, I wouldn't have gone in had it not been a Wimpy Bar, not because I liked Wimpy's but just because it seemed like a place that a young kid could go..

Hi all One of the trade-marks of Wimpy was the "Benderbuger", a circular sausage kind of thing. I had one there in the circular cafe about 1960-ish, so if it was not Wimpy, someone else must have been trading their wares.

I also seem to remember it being a Wimpy in the 60's. I agree about the doughnuts and cream they were very good.

Here are a set of stills from British Pathe News site showing the Wimpy run Lady Godiva/Peeping Tom Round Cafe

Superb sleuthing there, Deanocity, confirming - via Pathe News stills - the official name of the circular cafe as Lady Godiva (and the Peeping Tom was the name of the take-out at the base of the Mushroom, nothing more than a peep-hole on the Lower Precinct, with a few tables and chairs in better weather). Of course, the still also confirms that it was - at the time - a Wimpy bar, but that much was determined a while ago.

I remember the circular cafe being a Wimpy. I had my first burger there in the 60s.

There is a debate going on, on a local facebook forum, about whether the circular cafe originally rotated. I just wondered if anyone on here might know?

It didn't

No, it definitely didn't rotate.

No it never did.