The first is a lovely article from 1957. Only a dozen Indian restaurants in Manchester and at least 100 in London. Oh how times have changed.
2nd piece is long but is contemporary and a nice companion piece. Not sure if the death of the British Curry House might not be overstated somewhat.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jan/12/who-killed-the-british-curry-house
Chris
I’m having difficulty opening the first article. The link does go to the article but then, immediately diverts to a series of photos. I’m guessing that this is because the article is in the “archive” which is a subscription service.
I was curious to read it as I was surprised Manchester had even a dozen places back in 1957. My late cousin, some 20 years older than me, was the first person I knew who had ever eaten Indian food. And that was in London. He used to tell stories of going to business meetings in the capital and having dinner at Veeraswarmy.
The second article was interesting. I agree that the death of the high street curry house is not yet upon us. But, certainly in this part of the world, it’s a bit poorly. Manchester’s “Curry Mile” in Rusholme is fast becoming the “Kebab Kilometre” - every time a restaurant seems to chnage hands its reopening as either a Middle Eastern restaurant or shisha bar. This is not necessarily a criticism in my view. And, out in the other suburbs, there’s the development of a “new wave” - Mumbai street food, Gujarati vegetarian, other regional specialities. You’re not seeing new openings of the “any protein with any sauce” curry house.
Sorry H bad link. This one should take you to the actual article. It should interest you especially as it focuses on Manchester.
Cheers, mate. Also an interesting read.
I mentioned the Curry Mile in the earlier post. It used to be the main centre for Indian restaurants before they found their way to the leafy suburbs. Although, oddly, the first one there (the late lamented Tandoori Kitchen) was actually Persian owned.
