Drayton, The Broadway, Havant Road c.1955

Photo ref: D224006

Cafe Monica was the best place in the world for Heather and Trevor Eastes of Solent Road School. We went there every day for our lunch carrying our big boxes of veg waste to take home to our many guinea-pigs. We'd buy lardie cake, cottage loaves and meat pie - and sometimes I'd have a Viennese Whirl - all home -made and freshly baked by Monica Baker - then we'd deliver the meat pie to our ...see more

The year that this photo was taken was 1951, when we opened the cafe. It was run by my father, Wally, and my mother Monica. My sister Marilyn served in the cafe later. Previously it was a china and glass shop and before that, during the war, an antique shop run by my mother.

The farthest shop on the left was owned by my grandparents and I lived there until I was 3 with my parents, Ivan and Betty Robinson. They sold prams and baby goods. My mother Evelyn Betty McTurk did her hairdressing apprenticeship in the hairdressers next door, Maison Drayton, and continued working there for some years. I remember the parade of shops as being a very busy lively place.