Railway Cafe Wilmington

‘a good place for a cup of tea and a think’ is a blog I enjoy reading because the author has taken the idea of writing about favourite cafés he visits and stuck to that theme with lovely detailed and illustrated posts over an extended period of time. By way of homage to ‘a good place for a cup of tea and a think’ I thought I would try my hand at a café post today, but I decided to choose a slightly unpromising venue – the Railway Café in Wilmington.

‘Unpromising’ because on first view the café is situated in an area that would attract few willing visitors, surrounded by an industrial landscape of lorry and skip depots and grey steel sheds that are protected by seven foot high palisade fencing. But this is exactly the environment that the Railway Café can survive and thrive in because it is a ‘working man’s café’. For all the talk of developing a ‘café culture’ in the city, this is the local café culture that is rapidly vanishing as the jobs that provided the clientèle for this style of café’s existence have all but disappeared.

No hint of shyness in advertising their services. Big white boards with red lettering tell you it is under new management and serving from 6.30 in the morning until 2pm. That other important feature of the working day is also given due prominence as you enter – the ‘full English breakfast’ at £2.60 for the slighter appetite, £3.00 for the large and a modest £3.80 for the ‘jumbo’ breakfast.

This is a café designed for busy people, many of whom want to take their food away. Lingering costs money and the cups reflect this. Tea served in large polystyrene cups, with lids to take out. Most of the people who came in while I was there were ‘taking out’, along with a sandwich from the handwritten whiteboard menu that dominates the main wall of the café. Sandwiches of every kind, with a vast range of permutations, including upgrades to ‘belly buster’. No sun-dried tomatoes or ciabatta bread and also not much chance of taking in your daily requirements of fruit and vegetables from this menu, but filling, tasty and popular fare, if the ones I saw being served were anything to go by.

Décor is clean and functional, with some remnants of the building’s railway past still visible behind the panels on the walls. In addition you can have a sit down and take in the morning news on the TV set in the corner whilst wolfing your full English. While I was there I was able to chat with the two staff. I was given a mini history of the building, once the ticket office for the defunct railway. They also told me of their plans to drive down to Lloret de Mar in the next few weeks. Unfortunately an attempt earlier in the year had to be abandoned after they set off across the Channel only to finish up in Slovakia after a map reading error. I was asked if I had a car roof box they could borrow to store their provisions in for the trip. I haven’t, but I said I would ask around.

So there you are, the Railway Café Wilmington. Not the likeliest place to stop for a cup of tea but well worth it, particularly on a Thursday when the special is corned beef hash with beans and two slices of buttered bread for only £2.10.