Cave Austin and Co., Ltd was a chain of grocery stores and cafés in the southeast of England.[1] During its seventy-year history it grew to some fifty branches in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and much of South East London. Cafés were in several seaside towns such as Deal in Kent and Hastings in Sussex.
History
Cave Austin and Co., Ltd was officially incorporated as a public company in 1896, when several separate concerns (including tea importers, wine and spirit merchants, and grocery shops) agreed to unite for mutual benefit under combined management. The inaugural board of directors were C.H. Cave, A.J. Cave, Alfred Austin, Charles Stamp[2] (who had his own provision business), E Underwood, James McCabe, and E.J. Mansfield. There were two sides to the business: Grocery Stores and Cafés.[3] The wholesale tea business (represented by the former Lindoo Valley Tea Company[4]) was abandoned in 1903, and an intensive campaign was started to popularize roasted coffee with all coffee roasted, blended, and ground on the company premises by their own staff. By the 1930s, the focus was on developing the company as a 'high-class' grocery chain[5]
Cave's Cafés
Early in its history the company established a chain of cafés known as Cave's Oriental Cafés with a distinctive oriental decor. They had premises in Brighton (1896) Eastbourne (1899), Folkestone (1900), Dover (1903), Ramsgate (1904), Hastings (1905),[6] Canterbury (1905), Cliftonville (1907), Hythe (1909), Broadstairs (1911), and Deal (1912). The chain was controlled and developed by Mr C.H. Cave. After World War I Cave's Cafés were further developed and modernised by his nephew, Frank Cave.
Grocery stores and war damage
From 1932, after Mr C. H. Cave's retirement, the Grocery branches were developed in London, Kent, and Surrey under the Chairmanship of Charles Stamp (founder Secretary and Director). Soon after the death of Charles Stamp in 1935, Frank Cave was elected chairman.
During World War II the company suffered greatly with bomb damage: the warehouse in Lewisham, South London was bombed twice, and in 1943 the Eastbourne café was destroyed. The following year Hastings and St.Leonards
External links
- AIM25 text-only browsing: London Metropolitan Archives: CAVE AUSTIN AND COMPANY LIMITED London Metropolitan Archives
- Sixty years of trading: a history of Cave Austin and Co., Ltd. Cave's Cafes. 1896-1956 Sixty Years of Trading
- DEW167 Shop Front Cave, Austin & Co, Ltd, Grocers, Sidcup 1900 Photo from the London Borough of Bexley website of Cave Austin Sidcup shopfront.
- Shops in Eltham High Street Photo from London Picture Archive of Cave Austin Eltham.
- f6658 - Old photo of Fire - Photo of fire at Cave Austin Bexhill, 1909, from 'Gravelroots' Fire Service archive.
- Castle Street - Hastings UK Photo Archive
References
- AIM25 text-only browsing: London Metropolitan Archives: CAVE AUSTIN AND COMPANY LIMITED aim25.com, retrieved 2021-05-23^
- LMA/4758/C/02/002: Charles Stamp (Director & Secretary since 1896) outside Cave Austin branch, 114 South Street, Eastbourne, Sussex (Photographer: R J McKenzie c.1920).^
- LMA/4758/B/01/001: 'A HAPPY COMBINATION: HIGH-CLASS GROCERS. THE CAVE'S CAFES' (article from 'Town and Country Life', London by Harry Barnett c.1925).^