When nostalgia is nothing more complicated than a sausage sandwich …….. Bert’s café ...... 1971

Now, we all have our own cherished memories which seem with the passage of time to encapsulate a chunk of our growing up.

Whitworth Street, 1969

For me it is nothing more complicated than a sausage sandwich at Bert’s café on Whitworth Street.

We discovered the place sometime in early 1970 and it remained our collective place to go for the next two years.

Usually it meant missing a lecture at the College of Knowledge, which was just round the corner, and more often than not would be where I fell across Mike, John and Lois, who had also put Bert’s sausage sandwich above lectures in British Social History, the poems of John Donne or French grammar.

Bert's Cafe painted white, 1969

Looking back I suspect the sandwiches were not special, but after the bus ride down the Oxford Corridor from Withington having had no breakfast, and with the knowledge that someone would take the notes, we chose Bert’s over Gladstone.

To some this may seem a trivial piece of personal history, but I think not.

Back then places like Bert’s could be found all over the city centre, although usually down a side street, which you found by luck or by word of mouth.

The food was simple, cheap and catered for everyone.  And because this predated the Café Society, most dishes were a variation on egg sausage, bacon and chips. The coffee was more brown milk and everything also came with promise of baked beans.

And it was just perfect.

Bert’s consisted on one room, with perhaps half a dozen tables, and to the rear a serving hatch.

Whitworth Street, from London Road, 1969

On cold wet days in winter, the heat and smell drew you in, not that you could see anything through the windows which seemed permanently steamed up.

We always seemed to be the only ones there, but the presence of the Police Station and Fire Station across the road must have guaranteed a steady stream of customers until both closed down.

The rest of the stretch from Aytoun Street down London Road consisted of a newsagents, a barber, a warehouse and the pub on the corner.

There was of course also the Twisted Wheel, but I can’t now remember when it relocated to the warehouse, or for that matter when it became Placemate.

But I do remember Bert’s.

Location; Whitworth Street, 1969,

Picture; Whitworth Street, 1969, Courtesy of Manchester Archives+ Town Hall Photographers' Collection,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/manchesterarchiveplus/albums/72157684413651581?fbclid=IwAR35NR9v6lzJfkiSsHgHdQyL2CCuQUHuCuVr8xnd403q534MNgY5g1nAZfY,