Citylife in Lichfield September 2021

The Big Fisherman on Bird Street
Re-opening of the Little Barrow Hotel
1972
New Moon Indian restaurant Bore Street
Eateries of Old
Lichfield
By Jono Oates
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Lichfield has always been a food lovers’ paradise and today,
with a range of cuisine from across the world, Lichfield truly
is a ‘City of Flavours’. International cuisine, however, has
always played a part in the restaurants of Lichfield as well as more
traditional English fayre.
In May 1972 the ‘new-look’ Little Barrow Hotel on Beacon Street
was officially opened following a refurbishment costing £150,000. This
included a dining room that could accommodate 60 people, providing
French cuisine and silver service trained staff. The Head Chef was the
‘internationally recognised’ Mr Carlos Severgnini who had previously
been a chef at the Prince George Hotel in New York, although he had
arrived at the Little Barrow from a slightly closer location, the Three
Horse Shoes pub at Rugby. The Chairman of the company who owned
the Little Barrow, John Fairclough, was hoping for a four-star rating for
the hotel and the Manager, John Illidge, said that ‘hundreds of enquiries
and bookings had already been made.’
Another traditional hotel and pub, The Bowling Green on the Friary,
also had a refurbishment in April 1972 and in February and March they
were recruiting staff to run their busy steak bar as well as a lunchtime
barmaid, a cleaner, and a ‘lady to babysit on Friday and Saturday
evenings.’ They introduced a traditional Sunday lunch and also a regular
discotheque which included, on 17th April 1972, a live appearance by
1960s rocker Billy Fury with the disco run by Clyde Barrow.
There are now a number of Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants in
Lichfield but in March 1968 the New Moon was the first Indian
restaurant to open at the Five Gables on Bore Street. It catered for
parties small and large and offered a special three-course lunch for just
5 shillings – 25 pence in today’s money! It later became the Star of
Bengal and in 1974 it was promoting a spectacular cabaret evening,
with a top comedian and support band, with an entrance fee of £1.20
– which also included the cost of the evening dinner. It then became
the Royal Bengal before changing to simply The Bengal, a name it still
holds today.
A more traditional café and restaurant in Lichfield was McNulty’s
which ran from the early 1940s to the late 1970s at number 8 Market
Street. John McNulty provided a catering service as well as a café in the
1940s which had cosy dining rooms and a milk bar which could provide
an ‘in-between snack that is so
enjoyably appeasing to the
fagged worker or shopper.’ In
June 1967 builders GE Clarke
of Church Street re-built the
restaurant and it re-opened on
Friday 30th June. By August
1972 the restaurant was the
venue for the Lichfield Chess
Club who met for their Annual
General Meeting followed by
refreshments. The former
restaurant is now CC Wheate
& Sons Jewellers.
Mullarkey's Fish bar and grill
Fish and chips have always
been a popular choice in
Lichfield and Mullarkey’s fish
bar and grill on Tamworth
Street was a regular haunt for
many Lichfeldians over the
decades especially as it was just
across the road from the
former Regal Cinema. In 1941
Blanche Mullarkey was in the
fish shop when she was
attacked by a drunken Polish
airman over a dispute about
the change he was given for his Bowling Green refurbishment 1972
chips. He became so violent
that Blanche had to strike him
over the knuckles with a rolling
pin before they managed to get him out of the shop!
A shorter-lived chip shop was the Golden Griddle at number 3 Bird
Street and in November 1971 they were advertising the fact that they
provided the best Scottish scampi in breadcrumbs – and not batter –
as well as chicken and chips, pasties and pies. In the 1980s the shop was
the Big Fisherman fish and chip shop and is now Maali, a Thai
restaurant.
Today, Lichfield’s streets are filled with a range of cafes, bars,
restaurants and hotels providing a wide range of cuisine from all over
the world, to suit every taste and budget, and continues Lichfield’s fine
tradition of providing the best food and drink to locals and visitors
alike.
Sources: The British Newspaper Archive
*Vintage photographs courtesy of the St Mary’s Photographic Collection.
Dining Out - A City of Flavours