During WWII, the Walker Art Gallery was taken over for use by the Ministry of Food. Food as we knew it became difficult to obtain and was rationed, people were encouraged to grow their own. In September 1940, Lord Woolton, the Minister of Food and himself from Liverpool asked the Liverpool tenements architect, Lancelot Keay to draw up plans for what were to become known as 'British Restaurants' Over 2000 of these establishments were to open across the land, the idea being that affordable food would be available to all whilst saving on fuel and power within the home.

On 11th November 1940, Lord Woolton opened the fast moving Keay's first British Restaurant called 'Byrom' (1st photo) integrated into part of the newly built Fontenoy Gardens tenement scheme. The second called 'Myrtle' (2nd photo) was opened by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool in Falkner Street on 3rd March 1941, again as part of the tenement block of Windsor Gardens, itself part of the larger Myrtle Gardens sceme.

In fact four of the first six 'British Restaurants' were contained in tenement developments, the other two being in Warwick Gardens and Prince Albert Gardens.

The photos below are from the LRO and can be seen in full by using the scroll bar.






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