Mr Thomas's ... a little bit of Victorian life on Cross Street in 2014

© 2013 Peter Topping

Mr Thomas’s is one of those places that seem to wreak history.

It was opened in 1867 and you do get a sense that it has been on this bit of Cross Street forever.

I have only been going there since the early 1970s, but it is easy as you sit in the restaurant to conjure up images of sleek Edwardian businessmen eating oysters and drinking fine wines while discussing the day’s work at the Exchange close by, or the odd carter calling in to celebrate the jubilee of the old Queen.

And part of that is because of its appearance.

It starts with those brown terracotta tiles on the outside of the building and continues inside with that mix of cream and green wall tiles.

Added to which is the distinctive chequered floor tiles and the arched recess which acts as a gigantic wine rack.

But most of this I think dates from its makeover in 1901 when the place was extended.  Since then the interior has been restored and is now a Grade II listed building.

The tiles and the all important wine rack

I am told that the names of all the landlords are listed on a board in the back starting with the first who of course was a Thomas Studd but I have shamefacedly never looked for it which has a lot to do with the counter attractions of the superb food and wonderful wine.

Now at this point there is a very real danger that I am slipping into some unpaid promotion of Mr Thomas’s which sadly is not the case.

So I shall return to its history, commenting that one source asserts that the terracotta tiles were hand cast and delivered to the site hollow and then filled with concrete for extra strength and fabricated over the cast iron frame on site.

And that is enough.

Painting; Mr Thomas’s,  © 2013 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,
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