Express Dairy Tea Rooms, Borough High Street

Above: The mosaic on the east side of Borough High Street, under the railway girder bridge.

Do you remember the time when your milk was delivered to your doorstep? It was a long time ago. Only a very few milk deliveries are made these days and most of them are not done by milkmen working for large milk distributors. After the Second World War, in particular, nearly every household had milk delivered on a daily basis and that continued to be the norm up to the 1970s and into the 1980s. The service gradually declined in London until it was just not viable to deliver to so few people and the whole concept collapsed.

There were several factors that caused the collapse. One was the simple fact that wives were going out to work and when the milkman called to collect the money, usually once each week, there was nobody at home to answer the door and so paying the milkman became a problem. Secondly, households began to realise that supermarket milk was much cheaper than the price the milkman was charging and they started to switch to buying milk in large plastic cartons, in the hope that it lasted for a whole week.

The distribution process was very efficient with milk being driven to the customer’s door by electric milk floats from a central depot. In London, there were two main companies operating – United dairies and Express Dairies. They each had electric milk floats as well as their own shops in many high streets that also sold milk in glass bottles along with associated products, like cream and other dairy products. In general, the shops all closed down around the time of the end of home delivery of milk and the companies became a thing of the past.

In 2022, several railway arches were acquired by a new property company and renovated. They stood at the untidy corner beside Borough High Street where the old Victorian railway girder bridge crosses the roadway. It is part of a group of shops built into the brick railway arches that include the famous shop once known as Findlater’s Corner. The brickwork supporting the eastern end of the girder bridge was structurally sound but it certainly needed cleaning up after years, if not decades, of soot and grime building up, making the walls beside the footways very unsightly. All this work proceeded slowly and carefully for several months in 2022. The process was necessary to establish how much restoration of the brickwork needed to be carried out as well as to provide a better experience for the many people – everyday Londoners and also visitors to the capital – who pass by every day. There is a blog about the old shop called Findlater’s Corner being renovated.

See also – Findlater’s Corner Renovated
https://knowyourlondon.wordpress.com/2022/12/05/findlaters-corner-renovated/

The Express Dairy was founded by George Barham in 1864 as the ‘Express County Milk Supply Company’. It was so named because they only used express trains to get their milk to London where a large bottling plant took the milk in bulk and bottled it before being sent out on milk floats. The company had a profitable existence until well after the Second World War. It was taken over on more than one occasion and the company continued under various names until just after the year 2000. House-to-house milk delivery, however, was not a common sight in London after about 1990.

As well as milk delivery and also a chain of shops selling milk and mainly dairy products, Express Dairy had a few tea shops operating in London. When renovation took place in 2022 on a dirty wall under the eastern end of the girder bridge, beside the pavement in Borough High Street, a surprise for the workmen was awaiting them. In this wall was discovered a large doorway that had once led into an Express Dairy shop that also had tea rooms. The premises acted as a shop for anyone passing by to purchase milk. Additionally, there was a parlour where milkshakes were served along with meals and cups of tea. Around the outside of the doorway, workmen found the wall was still decorated by a large mosaic which was the work of the celebrated mosaicist Jesse Rust. The architect for the restoration site, O’Looney, believed that the mosaic pieces, known as tesserae, may have come from Venice. He said: “The mosaic might be the last surviving Express Dairy signage in the UK”. The unusual Art Deco lettering has now been cleaned and it can be seen by anyone passing by.

Inside the shop, when it was operating, there was also a Ladies’ Room, a rare haven for Victorian women conducting their business away from the prying eyes of husbands and fathers. Such places were vital headquarters for the early suffragettes. This shop certainly has had an interesting history. One point that should be mentioned is that the premises would have been quite noisy from the rumble of overhead trains which passed over the large iron girder bridge. Although no doubt, the restaurant was pleasant enough, it would hardly have been a relaxing place in which to enjoy a meal or a cup of tea.

Another part of the mosaic sign mentions a “Smoking Room” – an activity that today is not permitted in any public enclosed premises. The external wall of the shop advertised “Luncheons” and “Afternoon Teas”. This was a restaurant catering for workers around London Bridge. So far, nobody has been able to provide a date for when Express Dairy Co Ltd ran the shop. The firm of Jesse Rust filled buildings across Britain with their mosaic work, especially floors as well as some walls. Examples are now to be seen at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Their mosaic firm was moved from Lambeth to settle at 353 Battersea Park Road in 1892. Jesse Rust was succeeded by his son Henry Jesse. Jesse Rust owned the firm known as the Vitreous Mosaic Company.

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