There is no missing the bright pink shop front of The Eggfree Cake Box on Wilbraham Road.
It is part of a collection of shops operating under the same name and offering “delicious fresh cream Celebration Cakes made without using eggs and an ‘on demand’ service.
By eliminating the egg, without compromising on taste and texture, ECB cakes were an instant success; and a favourite amongst many who have certain religious, dietary and/or lifestyle choices”.*
They first opened in London in 2008, and since then they have opened new shops across the country with, “the company envisaging opening 2 to 3 new stores per month nationally in 2018”.
And in the ongoing, and at times, tired Chorlton debate about local versus national, the Cake Box company falls somewhere in the middle, because it’s business model is based on the franchise concept which is a “business in which the owners, or "franchisors", sell the rights to their business logo, name, and model to third party retail outlets, owned by independent, third party operators, called "franchisees".
For many in Chorlton its appeal might also be that all “the products are 100% egg free. Many of the founders' family members follow a strict lacto-vegetarian diet and that is how they came up with the idea for the company”.*
All of which may well give rise to childish and petty comments, from those who think vegetarianism is a legitimate target for poor jokes which lack humour and subtly, and are best left where they were found in the 1895 Book of Unfunny Comments and other Dumb Observations”.
But, the Cake Box is only the next instalment in a Chorlton story, because as most people will know, the shop was once Conrad’s, which sold everything from art material to printer ink, postcards and calendars.
And before its move down Wilbraham Road, it was Quarmby’s, that magical emporium of all things, toys, puzzles and fun.
My kids spent hours on the first floor amongst boxes of Lego, bouncy balls, models of knights in armour and figures of Superwoman, Bat Man, and of course the Turtles.
At which point, there is a real danger of a slide in to nostalgia, and because that would never do, I shall once again return to the site of the Eggfree Cake Box, but only to explore the building’s history.
It, along with the whole row of semi detached properties from Brundrett’s Road to the corner of Wilbraham Road, were not always shops.
Early pictures show them as fine houses with front gardens, and as later as 1903 some were still private homes. **
Our shop, had been the home of the Reverand George Jones Lovatt rector of St Werburghs, while his immediate neighbour was a Mrs Anna Risque, whose house was later demolished for the Woolworths store.
But even by 1903 the trend had set in, and the house next to Mrs Risque was a private school run by Miss Ellen Risque.
And within just a few years Mrs Risque’s home was the butcher shop of Lavendar & Scott, which by 1911 had been joined by a gentleman’s outfitters on the corner of Wilbraham and Brundrett’s roads.
As for our own shop, that had become the business of William Hale Bayliss, who was a photographer, leaving me just to add that in happier times it had been called Derwent Villa, while its neighbour, now Rodgers The Florist, had the equally grand name of Cambridge Villa.
But that is another story for another time.
Pictures; Wilbraham Road with houses and gardens, close to the present HSBC, circa 1900
Paintings: Conrad's Art Shop © 2017 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures.
Eggfree Cake Box © 2018 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures
* The Eggfree Cake Box, https://www.eggfreecake.co.uk/history
** Slater’s Directories, 1903, 1909, 1911
 |
| The Cake Box,2018 |
By eliminating the egg, without compromising on taste and texture, ECB cakes were an instant success; and a favourite amongst many who have certain religious, dietary and/or lifestyle choices”.*
They first opened in London in 2008, and since then they have opened new shops across the country with, “the company envisaging opening 2 to 3 new stores per month nationally in 2018”.
And in the ongoing, and at times, tired Chorlton debate about local versus national, the Cake Box company falls somewhere in the middle, because it’s business model is based on the franchise concept which is a “business in which the owners, or "franchisors", sell the rights to their business logo, name, and model to third party retail outlets, owned by independent, third party operators, called "franchisees".
For many in Chorlton its appeal might also be that all “the products are 100% egg free. Many of the founders' family members follow a strict lacto-vegetarian diet and that is how they came up with the idea for the company”.*
All of which may well give rise to childish and petty comments, from those who think vegetarianism is a legitimate target for poor jokes which lack humour and subtly, and are best left where they were found in the 1895 Book of Unfunny Comments and other Dumb Observations”.
But, the Cake Box is only the next instalment in a Chorlton story, because as most people will know, the shop was once Conrad’s, which sold everything from art material to printer ink, postcards and calendars.
 |
| Conrad, 2017 |
My kids spent hours on the first floor amongst boxes of Lego, bouncy balls, models of knights in armour and figures of Superwoman, Bat Man, and of course the Turtles.
At which point, there is a real danger of a slide in to nostalgia, and because that would never do, I shall once again return to the site of the Eggfree Cake Box, but only to explore the building’s history.
It, along with the whole row of semi detached properties from Brundrett’s Road to the corner of Wilbraham Road, were not always shops.
Early pictures show them as fine houses with front gardens, and as later as 1903 some were still private homes. **
Our shop, had been the home of the Reverand George Jones Lovatt rector of St Werburghs, while his immediate neighbour was a Mrs Anna Risque, whose house was later demolished for the Woolworths store.
 |
| Gardens,not shops, Wilbraham Road, circa 1900 |
And within just a few years Mrs Risque’s home was the butcher shop of Lavendar & Scott, which by 1911 had been joined by a gentleman’s outfitters on the corner of Wilbraham and Brundrett’s roads.
As for our own shop, that had become the business of William Hale Bayliss, who was a photographer, leaving me just to add that in happier times it had been called Derwent Villa, while its neighbour, now Rodgers The Florist, had the equally grand name of Cambridge Villa.
But that is another story for another time.
Pictures; Wilbraham Road with houses and gardens, close to the present HSBC, circa 1900
Paintings: Conrad's Art Shop © 2017 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures.
Eggfree Cake Box © 2018 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures
* The Eggfree Cake Box, https://www.eggfreecake.co.uk/history
** Slater’s Directories, 1903, 1909, 1911
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