The Shanghai Emporium and Restaurant, Greek Street, Soho, 1932
Posted: May 28th, 2014 | 2 Comments »I’ve blogged previously about the Shanghai Restaurant, food Emporium and related branded cookbook from 1936 (nothing new in publishing!) that once stood on Soho’s Greek Street. In 1932 The Queenslander newspaper, surveying London’s Chinese restaurant scene wrote, “The “Shanghai†is much frequented by literary types, and has been “mentioned more than once in the public prints.†Only the old archway of the Manette Street hostelry divides the Shanghai restaurant from the large provision shop recently opened under the same management. Taking the very narrow path through the old archway, and turning to the right, we are upon another Canton restaurant, occupying a large first floor in Charing Cross Road. This is the only restaurant in London that reminds us of the hundreds of similar establishments in America, where one has a choice of over 600 Chinese restaurants in New York City alone.”
Here then is Greek Street in 1932 with the Chinese restaurant cluster poking in on the far left…..
The Shanghai was run by my mother during the war – Frances Cheng. She married my father in a Chinese ceremony in the restaurant just after the war – Yu-Chang Chu. They sold the restaurant to start a family. My Grandfather owned the restaurant and emporium but died before the war
Tony – would it be possible to perhaps speak with you regarding your grandfather and mother and the Shanghai? I am writing a longish piece for a magazine on Chinese food at the moment about Chinese restaurants in London in the 1930s and they are obviously a major, major part of it. Paul