Lockhart’s Cocoa Rooms

The river Thames deposits its finds by weight; heavy objects together, small items made from lead, pewter or brass (such as tokens, coins and buttons) often found nestling discreetly among other metal such as iron scrap from ships, boats and barges, while sherds of pottery, much lighter in weight than metal or glass, can be found strewn higher on the foreshore, nearer the Embankment wall.

And there’s a particular section of the Thames Foreshore where I often find fragments of pottery showing a logo from a long gone business, trade, restaurant or café. These broken fragments from London’s past can often be found in sweeping, elegant, parallel lines draped across the gravel and sand, and every time I come here I make a beeline for this spot to see what’s turned up on the low tide. I’m rarely disappointed.

On one occasion last year I found this fragment of a cup with the name ‘LOCK -‘, a hint of a pattern, and the word ‘COCOA’ underneath. I have a broad knowledge of Victorian and Edwardian social history but had no idea what this was or what it referred to, other than obviously something to do with a hot, sweet drink. After I’d got home and cleaned up my finds it was time to make some tea, fire up the computer and start to research where the logo had come from. It wasn’t long before I had a complete name – Lockhart’s Cocoa Rooms.

Lockhart’s Cocoa Rooms offered cheap, good quality refreshments and were the Victorian equivalent of our modern day coffee shops such as Caffè Nero, Starbucks and Costa, with many outlets across the country. As my photo shows they had their own plates, saucers, cups and mugs complete with the Lockhart’s logo – blue on white Victorian transferware that quickly became recognisable by all who ate in their establishments.

The Cocoa Rooms had their origins in the Victorian Temperance Movement, a social movement against the consumption of alcohol. The Temperance Movement promoted alcohol education and campaigned vigorously to pressurise Parliament to pass new laws restricting the sale of alcohol. People were encouraged to ‘take the pledge’ (ie give up alcoholic drinks) and this became a mass movement throughout the 19th Century. Essays and pamphlets were published warning against alcoholic excess and drunkenness.

The Temperance Movement was earnest and well meaning but was above all motivated by a genuine concern for those affected by alcohol and struggling to function in their day to day lives because of it. Increasing numbers of men and women were often too drunk to hold down work and provide for their families, wives and children were then evicted from their homes and women were routinely exposed to domestic violence at the hands of inebriated partners. It was a vicious cycle.

An alternative to public houses and gin palaces was therefore seen as socially imperative in order to give people practical options to alcohol. Condemnation of drinkers was not enough, so cocoa houses and billiard halls came into existence; an alternative meeting place in a teetotal environment yet offering pleasant menu choices at a reasonable price.

Originally called ‘British Workmen’s Public Houses’, in June 1875 a limited liability company of that name was formed in Liverpool under the chairmanship of Robert Lockhart, who later set up a company under his own name and established a chain of Cocoa Rooms throughout the UK that became known as ‘Lockhart’s Cocoa Rooms’.

I’d never heard of Lockhart’s Cocoa Rooms prior to finding this sherd of pottery and this is probably because the Cocoa House Movement is one of the least remembered of Victorian passions during the last quarter of the 19th century, so there isn’t as much information about it. Nor do I recall seeing Lockhart’s mentioned in any books I’ve read or in documentaries of this period yet plenty of grainy black and white photographs exist of branches of Lockhart’s in multiple British cities and towns.

The Cocoa House such as Lockhart’s (there were other Cocoa Houses too but with different owners and names) remained at the very centre of the Temperance campaign although its message was aimed firmly at working class men as opposed to drinkers from, say, the middle or upper classes who, it was thought, were able to exercise greater self-control over their drinking habits.

Early attempts at establishing Lockhart’s Cocoa Rooms were slow and not overly successful due to them principally being religious, amateurish and well meant philanthropic efforts, but eventually a more business-like brand emerged offering a clean, pleasant environment selling decent refreshments and soft drinks, and eventually growing quickly to occupy much larger premises in most of the major towns and cities across the country.

By the end of the 19th century there were over sixty Lockhart’s Cocoa Rooms outlets in London alone and approximately eleven in Glasgow, three in Leeds, nine in Newcastle, two in South Shields, with one each in Darlington, Jarrow and Gateshead. The head office of Lockhart’s was eventually located at 75, Bishop Street, Anderston, Glasgow.

Each branch of a Lockhart’s Cocoa Rooms usually employed five or six members of staff from a cook to waitresses plus also a manager. Their reputation was good and they were known for being well managed and well supervised, offering tea, coffee, cocoa, aerated (fizzy) drinks and refreshments at affordable prices. They even had their own token, similar to a coin, equivalent to the amount of one old penny (1d), which entitled a customer to a penny’s worth of refreshments at any Lockhart’s Cocoa Rooms of their choosing.

While researching census information for another writing project I’m currently working on, I discovered the records for the Pursglove family of Hackney, London. The 1901 Census showed them living at 95 Hertford Road, with Albert Pursglove listed as the married head of the family. He was 38 years old and his job was listed as ‘Manager of Lockhart’s Cocoa Rooms.’ We aren’t told where but in all likelihood it would have been somewhere in the centre of London.

The 1911 Census showed that the Pursgloves had moved to 95 Mortimers Road, Kingsland (still in Hackney) and that Albert had been promoted to ‘Branch Manager Lockhart’s Cocoa Rooms’; clearly going up in the world although how much longer he would have continued to work in this role isn’t clear. I haven’t yet been able to look at later census records for this family and Lockhart’s Cocoa Rooms began to start closing branches in the 1920’s, all their premises eventually sold. A decade later in the 1930’s the country was badly hit by the global economic depression, unemployment and job loss on a huge scale and the imminent approach of a second world war looming darkly on the horizon. The era of Temperance, Cocoa Houses and specifically Lockhart’s Cocoa Rooms would have felt like a distant memory from another time.

I recently watched a YouTube video of a group of mudlarks deep in the Thames Estuary searching for finds. One of them, wading far out into the mud, was seen picking out what looked like an almost intact tea pot. As the camera panned onto what he’d found in more detail I could clearly see the logo of Lockhart’s Cocoa Rooms on the side of the pot. An extraordinary find.