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 Beach Tea Gardens - West Mersea. The sign on the fence says The Garden Cafe. This later became the Spinney Cafe.

The Garden Cafe, along with 10 beach huts, was originally built in 1896 by the owner of Five Gables, the large house at the bottom of Willoughby Avenue.


Comment from Gail Roger 7 January 2012:

I am delighted to find this postcard! My great-grandfather Alexander ...
Cat1 Mersea-->Shops & Businesses Cat2 Mersea-->Beach

Beach Tea Gardens - West Mersea. The sign on the fence says The Garden Cafe. This later became the Spinney Cafe.
The Garden Cafe, along with 10 beach huts, was originally built in 1896 by the owner of Five Gables, the large house at the bottom of Willoughby Avenue.

Comment from Gail Roger 7 January 2012:
I am delighted to find this postcard! My great-grandfather Alexander Hales, a builders' merchant contractor, built Five Gables when he came into his inheritance. He had a number of businesses, mostly based in North London, but retired permanently to Mersea in 1914 with his wife Elizabeth, dying at Essex County Hospital in 1928. According to other family sources, one of his five daughters, Lizzie, managed the tea house for a time with her husband Fred Brayley.
Peter Tucker born 1924 wrote:
I have memories of this cafe from my childhood days. In those times it was known only as The Beach Tea Gardens and the sign on the fence of the early photo shows Tea Garden Cafe. I do not recall the name Spinney being in general use before the war. That it was sited in a copse or spinney is without doubt, and perhaps other folk know better. The building on the left in early days was more or less an over-flow servery, with ice-creams, sweets, cigarettes and beach tea-trays when it became busy on Sundays and holidays.
My early recollection at around the age of five to six years, was of the Pierrot show on the beach in front of the cafe. An elevated stage of timber was erected and candy striped hangings at the sides and changing room tents attached to the rear. The troupe dressed in loose clown-like garments with conical hats and bobbles, had their faces suitably whitened, did a series of acts from slapstick to singing accompanied by a battered piano and a concertina which provided the music. This would be in the late 20s early 30s and we kids saw the Saturday morning show which was more or less a dress rehearsal I would assume. Run by a Mr Franklin, who took local 'digs' for the duration of the tour and on wet days used the Legion Hall I understand.
The building became part of the gun emplacement restricted area during the war and housed among other armaments, the dummy loader, which was used to train gun crews on the loading and unloading of the shell and the separate cartridge as used on the battery guns.

In June 1947 WMUDC started the Compulsary Purchase process for this area, and the document says of it "part of which is now called "Spinney Cafe" and part comprising site of old "Beach Tea Gardens" now derelict ..." [ WMC_007_101 ]. The Compulsory Purchase did not take place.
Another Compulsory Purchase procedure was started in 1973, but did not come to fruition as WMUDC ended April 1975 under Local Government Reorganisation.

The Spinney Cafe was demolished in the late 1970s and replaced with beach huts. All the beach huts in this area formerly paid rent to the Spinney Cafe, but were sold of to become individual freehold plots.
Date: c1952      


Photo: R.L. Burrows Collection
Image ID MMC_P870_J
Category 1 Mersea-->Shops & Businesses
Category 2 Mersea-->Beach


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This image is part of the Mersea Museum Collection.