Manzes Eel, Pie And Mash Shop

SOUTHWARK

TQ3379 TOWER BRIDGE ROAD 636-1/5/790 (West side) No.87 Manze's Eel, Pie and Mash Shop

II

House with shop. Late C19. Red brick; roof parapeted. 3 storeys and 2 window range. Authentic glazing. Shop-front flanked by fluted Corinthian pilasters; blind box and awning in working order. External woodwork stained brown, and, to either side of central door, are windows with plate-glass sashes and wide marble sills for serving customers from the pavement. INTERIOR: the eel and pie shop was fitted up as such in 1895, and its interior remains largely unaltered, though extended to rear at a later date. Walls lined with an assortment of white, cream, brown, green and black tiles, occasionally relieved by vertical panels decorated with pink flowers. All woodwork including the dumb-waiter from kitchen in cellar is stained brown, as are the bolection moulded frames of the mirrors which are an integral part of the decor. Customers sit at wooden benches at marble-topped tables, the metal supports of which are screwed to a terrazzo floor. HISTORICAL NOTE: eel and pie shops are unique to London and nearby seaside towns like Southend. They were started by a group of families, the Cookes, Manzes and Burroughs, now all intermarried. No.87 Tower Bridge Road was the first of a chain of shops opened by Michael Manze, formerly a greengrocer, who came from Italy c1880-1890. It has one of the best interiors of the small number of such shops still in existence.

Listing NGR: TQ3317679228