Cadena Cafes Limited

[8] In 1902, Lloyds Oriental Café had branches in Bristol, Oxford, Hastings, Southsea, Tunbridge Wells and Richmond[9][10][11] which served a coffee blend they called "Cadena".

[14] The growth of the company from 1927 can be tracked through the Western Daily Press AGM reports[8] though sometimes similar announcements are made two years running.

In 1942 they bought land at Brislington for a new bakery planned to be built after the war, and when that eventually opened in 1949 (albeit across the road in an existing building, not new build), they opened a new café at the former bakery site it replaced and launched a new "Cadenita" brand upstairs in the Ritz Cinema, Bristol.

[33] There were plans in Cheltenham in 1919 to add an upstairs "dining salon" and a roof garden[12] and by 1924 Wine Street had a "Grill Room" with a "quick lunch counter".

Cadena was taken to court in 1914 for employing a fourteen-year-old in the Bristol bakery for longer than the permitted hours for an underage child.

[57] World War II features far more significantly in the press stories and annual general meeting reports.

[57] In 1939, part of the reason for extending the Southampton branch was to comply with the Factory Act, implying that their staff facilities were not state-of-the-art at the time.

[60] A "Staff Assistance Reserve" fund was established in the 1930s depression and, announced at the 1947 AGM, it was extended to provide pensions.

[6] In March, The Times reported that "offers to acquire the preference and ordinary shares of Cadena Cafés not already owned by Tesco have been received in respect of over 90 per cent of each class".

Slightly longer articles recall the cafés in more detail, for example Southampton,[71] Tunbridge Wells,[72] Oxford,[73] and Reading.

[39] The Southampton article recalls the menu, their wartime experience, and murals of local shipping scenes including the RMS Queen Elizabeth sailing from the Ocean Terminal.

[25] The Tunbridge Wells article recalls the protocol, the menu and the skills of the waitresses, and points out that the last manager's grandchildren are still in the trade.

The Reading article is actually a letter from a reader about the cinema building the Cadena occupied but it digresses to mention that the "freshly roasted coffee beans’ aroma wafted across Broad Street" and explain the sloping floor.