‘The Pathway to Health’: Shearn’s Fruitarian Saloon, 231 Tottenham Court Road (1905-1961)

In the early 20th century one of the best and biggest vegetarian restaurants in London was to be found at 231 Tottenham Court Road. It opened in 1905 in brand-new premises, one of a number of shop units in the handsome brick and terracotta building, designed by Lewis Solomon, which extends southwards from the corner of Store Street to the Jack Horner pub. The “saloon” occupied two floors above a large fruit shop, both of them owned by Benjamin Shearn, and managed by his enterprising son William. Today, number 231 is the showroom of the furniture retailer King’s Living.

William Shearn was born in 1872 in the nearby parish of St Giles in the Fields, and was Christened at St John The Evangelist, Charlotte Street (since demolished), states an article on Wikipedia. The whole family, with William at the forefront, were proselytisers for the vegetarian movement, although they preferred the term “fruitarian”. William is said to have introduced the British public to the grapefruit, and just before Christmas 1909, true to his principles, he donated 2000 oranges to poor children in London to enjoy over the festive season. He was such an enthusiast, and such a showman to boot, that when he married Ella Masterson at St Giles in 1914 the bride wore cherries in her hair and the bridesmaids carried baskets of fruit. The vegetarian meal served to over a hundred guests after the ceremony offered for their delectation Brazil nut cutlets, mock chicken made from almonds and pine kernels, savoury nuts with cucumber, and an egg gateau.

In 1913 Benjamin Shearn died at the age of 85 while living at 42 Store Street, but William went from strength to strength. Shearn’s restaurant became a popular meeting-place for the London Vegetarian Society, and as a purveyor of flowers as well as fruit William was elected as the first president of the British division of the Florists Telegraph Delivery Association in 1923.

Many years later one former customer reminisced on a discussion forum about visiting the Shearn establishment in the 1950s:

“It was very big … The ground floor was a huge greengrocer shop, packed with exotic varieties you never saw anywhere else at that time, as well as a dazzling display of flowers. The second and third floors were restaurants. The food was exceptionally delicious. The prices were amazingly reasonable, bearing in mind I was earning a pittance at the time.  The place was always packed.  I wish such a restaurant existed today,” they wrote.

An archive photo from the Bedford Lemare collection held by Historic England shows the health food department as it was in 1921.

William had done very well for himself, and at some point was able to move to 4 Cambridge Gate, on the Outer Circle of Regent’s Park. By 1922 he was employing a manager for the restaurant:

“My great-aunt Margaret Blatch took over the management of the restaurant in 1922. I have her book — Household Fleshless Cookery. The foreword to the book mentions the generous help and sympathy given to her by Mr and Mrs Shearn,” another contributor to the online forum reported.

In 1938, William died aged 66, but Shearn’s remained open, now owned by William’s son John, who appropriately enough had studied horticulture at Reading University in the 1930s. Another nostalgic customer commented: “In the 1940s until 1951, my mother and I had a fantastic mock turkey from Shearns every Christmas. They made a wide range of roasts in several sizes which have never been surpassed since.”

Following in his father’s footsteps, John Shearn became president of Interflora, the new name for the Florists Telegraph Delivery Association. But the vegetarian heyday was apparently over, and the Tottenham Court Road business closed in 1961 when Shearn moved to the South of France.

“Several years later in the 70s I found what was apparently left of the firm, a very small florist named Shearns in a small neighbouring side street. It was quite sad,” one of the former customers wrote.  And according to another, “There remained a small florist’s trading as Shearns in one of the side streets between Tottenham Court Road and Gower Street, possibly Store Street.”

That florist’s business must surely have been the ancestor of Orchydia, the flower shop on Store Street which I walk past regularly, and occasionally frequent. The last time I was coming back home on that route I remembered to check the number — and yes! it was 42, the address where Benjamin Shearn died back in 1913. It seems to have been selling flowers from that address, but under different names, since 2011. Does any reader remember what was there in the 1970s? Or remember Shearn’s, for that matter?

I stumbled across all this information on the Internet, and was surprised to find that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries vegetarianism was not, as I’d assumed, an obscure and eccentric lifestyle choice. It was growing in popularity, propelled by the “healthy living” movement and other progressive campaigns, and also, for many people, by the more basic need to save money on food. By 1890 there were 33 vegetarian restaurants in London, including the Alpha, which may have been the first to open, at what was then 23 Oxford Street on the site of the new Tottenham Court Station.

“One writer describes the Alpha and similar restaurants as the haunt of clerks and ‘others on small incomes with big appetites’. The place was particularly popular with workers at the Crosse and Blackwell factory in adjacent Soho Square,” says Matt Brown in Londonist.

Shearn’s, too, clearly catered for a wide range of customers.

Nowadays the rise of Indian and Chinese restaurants in particular has probably meant that the need for dedicated vegetarian establishments has diminished. But like the former customers who posted such a wealth of information on the Internet, I for one wish that Shearn’s was still there today. It sounds wonderful.

Sue Blundell is a playwright and lecturer in Classical Studies. sueblundell.com

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