Baking at Baker Street: London Transport’s Canteen Training Centre
Introduction
The London Transport (LT) Baker Street Canteen Training Centre was a purpose-built building that opened in 1949. Prior to the opening, catering staff were trained within their specific canteens to varying standards. The move to centralise training was part of a wider post-war focus on improving health and hygiene practices and standards. It also reflected LT’s huge size as an employer.
Believed to be the first of its kind run by an industrial organisation, the Canteen Training Centre was housed in a brand-new building. It was designed by LT’s Architect department, who worked closely to the requirements of LT’s Welfare Office.
Training
On average 1,200 staff were trained at the Centre each year. Engaging in theory lessons and practical sessions, attendees were taught a variety of skills including food preparation, cookery skills, customer service and hygienic cleaning practices. There were even masterclasses in pastry and cake making and decorating.
Training courses ranged in length from one week for Canteen Assistants to eight weeks for Cooks. Canteen Supervisors underwent a two-week course that included menu planning, ordering and handling goods, canteen organisation and refresher cookery classes.
The new training centre, the food production centre, the programme for new or improved canteens - these developments reflect London Transport’s desire that the canteen service, already the largest of its kind in the country, shall provide the best possible food and service for its customers and working conditions for its staff.
LT Magazine, April 1949, vol.3 No.1
Facilities
Facilities at the Centre were modern and spacious. There was also a staff canteen where staff no doubt sampled some of the food cooked by attendees. Situated on the ground floor, staff entered at basement level from a footbridge over the Metropolitan line tracks or via a main entrance in Allsop Place.
A ‘pay-as-you-pass’ cash desk was introduced, an innovation which sped up service by removing the delay formerly caused by Counter Assistants having to serve food and take money.
The main kitchen, on the ground floor, was fitted with the latest catering equipment and machinery. Staff learnt how to use the new equipment that was being fitted across canteens as part of a modernisation programme during this time.
Our canteens
‘Our canteens’, a London Transport film produced by Trident Films in 1951, was used as a training aid for London Transport trainee catering staff. It was shown to all new recruits to LT’s canteen service in the 1950s and 60s. All aspects of the service are shown, from the LT Food Production Centre at Croydon to the Baker Street Canteen Training Centre. The film follows a new member of staff on her first day and promoted the canteen modernisation programme.
Women Canteen Attendants required
Women provided most of the labour for staff canteens during and after the Second World War. Recruitment posters from the time specifically targeted women and advertised a range of perks, from free meals to promotion opportunities.
I worked for eight years in the London Transport Canteens. I progressed to ‘Supervisor’ in charge of a busy canteen on the Underground. Best job I ever had!
Ruth Chandler, 2008 (UGC record 2008/3891)
This photograph shows instructor Mrs Bradford (kneeling) giving a lesson in oven-cleaning to four trainees. When the photo was taken in 1968, LT employed thousands of staff from the Caribbean, following a policy of direct recruitment which began in 1956. Some of the recruits stayed in jobs only a short time before moving to other roles, within LT or outside. Others spent most of their working lives in catering and went on to supervise the privatised canteens that replaced LT catering in the 1980s.
Margaret Okwanga was a Catering Supervisor at Catford bus garage in 1970. She won the ‘Top Transport Cook’ competition held at Baker Street that year, beating entrants from across London. Competitors had to prepare nine dishes for the judges including fillet of fried cod, roast lamb and braised steak. One judge said that Margaret’s sauté potatoes would be ‘a credit to the Dorchester’, the London hotel known for its excellent food. In the photo Margaret holds the silver trophy she was awarded.
A varied menu
As London and its population changed, so did the food it ate. Influences from the staff that worked in the canteens began to emerge in the food they cooked for the LT workforce.
The canteen ladies made rissoles from leftovers, and they were so delicious, everyone would go for them. Some of the guys would even buy them to take them home. They brought over the use of spices and different flavours and this was a definite change for us. And I remember they used to make up the most delicious puddings.
Desmond Davies, bus driver, 1962
Collected for Generations: celebrating 50 years of Caribbean recruitment / Transport for London, 2006
It was well known that London Transport’s catering department was quite secretive about its recipes. Recipe books could not be taken away from the Training Centre.
My favourite recipe when I was working for London Transport was braised livers. The canteens were given some of the recipes from the catering department at London Transport, but we often broke them down to make them a simple as possible so that all the catering staff could cook the recipe at any time.
Memory of Marva Braham of London Transport canteen recipes (UGC record 2008/632)
Rising costs
In 1976 the cost of operating the catering service had reached around £9.25 million. Ongoing costs for staff wages, goods and overheads meant that a catering service consultative committee had to look for ways to make reductions. The canteen modernisation programme continued, but at a slower pace. Following a reorganisation of LT into separate bus and rail businesses, each business area had to decide what level of catering provision was required and how it would be paid for. Baker Street Canteen Training Centre closed later in 1976, though the staff canteen remained.
A major restructuring of the catering department followed. In the early 1980s, LT released plans to cease food manufacture and production at its Croydon Food Production Centre. A new system for the supply and delivery of goods was trialled.
Baker Street after privatisation
In November 1992, LT announced its decision to withdraw in-house catering and to put catering contracts out to tender. LT catering ceased operation in March 1993. Some existing canteen staff were approached by the new contractors to continue working for the catering service. Catering provision for the Underground at that time went to catering company Gardner Merchant.
Staff at Baker Street were among the first to benefit from post-privatisation investments in new catering facilities. The existing ‘7 day a week’ restaurant was converted into a self-service restaurant with two hot counters, salad bar, ‘health bar’ and beverage area. LT News reported that the new set-up was like a motorway service station with the emphasis on speed, efficiency and cleanliness.
Four main courses were on offer daily: two meat, one fish or pasta and one vegetarian. Breakfast, one of the most popular meals of the day, was on offer throughout the day. District Manager Nick Hardy, who oversaw the catering at 28 London Underground canteens, reported that the emphasis was very much on healthy eating. However, Baker Street restaurant still sold 100 cream cakes a day!
Today, a TfL staff canteen still exists at Allsop Place, run by a catering contractor. It is a far cry from the huge centrally organised London Transport catering of past decades.
