Cadena Cafe memories: Worcester readers loved tasty cakes

Sheena Payne-Lunn, one of the organisers of Worcester Life Stories, posted the picture, with a somewhat tired looking Cadena Cafe just creeping into the frame.

In fact, the Cadena was recently mentioned by former Worcester News scribe Mike Pryce in his weekly Nostalgia column.

Mike wrote: "Of all the buildings in High Street, few are more instantly recognisable than the five-storey, bay windowed property on the corner with St Swithin’s Street. For many years it was the Cadena Cafe, a popular meeting place for the local café society."

And the response to Sheena's picture would bear that out.

The photograph that triggered the reminiscing. The Cadena is on the left of the frame

Philip Bannister evoked some wonderful images when he wrote: "The Cadena was a very smart cafe which very occasionally I was taken to as a child.

"The upstairs was quite large which sometimes had a trio of quite elderly ladies playing a musical accompaniment.

"If you were having afternoon tea, the gorgeous cakes would be brought on a three-tier cake stand and the waitress knew what to charge by counting how many were left.

"Our favourite waitress was Elsie, a rather large lady who was most efficient and friendly. We often wondered if she got to eat the left over cakes!

"The real treat though was going up in the wood-panelled lift which seemed much smarter than the usual ones of the day which had metal trellis-type doors."

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Judith Dockerty also painted a wonderful picture with her memories: "My mother and aunt had afternoon tea at the Cadena every Wednesday afternoon and I was taken with them during school holidays.

"I also remember the trio of elegant (I won’t say elderly now) ladies, playing piano, cello and violin.

"I always chose a chocolate eclair from the selection of cakes and in the winter we had fingers of buttered toast served on silver dishes with a domed lid! Our waitress was called Olive."

Alice Partridge was a former employee at the cafe, although her memories of lifts in the building were slightly different from Philip's.

"I used to work in the Cadena cafe in the early 70s my first Saturday job.

"It had a rickety old lift for staff to use to get to the changing room!"

Maggie Thorne also worked there.

She posted: "I had my first Saturday job at the Cadena Cafe.

"I worked mostly downstairs we had to get in a lift right to the very top of the building to have our break.

"We also had to keep a check on the sugar cellars as there were some naughty schoolboys who used to loosen the top so when you went to get a spoonful of sugar you ended up with a cupful and a very wet lap."

Anne Coyne posted: " The wedding reception for my first marriage was upstairs in the Cadena in 1958."

Tricia Saunders can recall going to children’s parties upstairs at the cafe – and, very appropriately, can also remember a girl named Mary Taster!

Maureen Coley can still remember the smell of coffee wafting out of the cafe, while Tim Lewis was fond of the place, too: "Ah the Cadena! Going downstairs to make a cup of coffee last an hour."

Janet Harford said: "I remember going down stairs and having a ice bun cake. In the middle to late 60s," while Terri McGuiness Laverick was succinct: "Cream cakes, enough said."

A much earlier photograph of the Cadena. This one dates from the 1930s

The picture also had another strand to it – several readers had tales to tell about catching the bus at the bus stop in the frame.

Jenny Beacham said: "That was my bus stop. I remember fainting there as a teenager and being carried into Goddards to come to a very embarrassed teenager!"

Nick Cull added: "I remember waiting for the W10 bus there. (Bath Road.) Nearby was where you waited for the W6 (London Road)."

Geoffrey Perry posted: "I used to catch the bus to go home from this bus stop, plus catch the bus to go to school (Nunnery Wood) – also used to have drink now and again here at the Cadena with my best mate Chris Bullock."

And because all great stories have a happy ending, we leave the floor to Jean Fowler.

"I met my husband Mike at the Ministry of Agriculture in London Road where we both worked.

"I had a car at 17 and used to drive past the bus stop, one day I stopped and gave him a lift to work, that was in the sixties. We have now been married for 54 years."