A Monthly Publication

By John Smith

Saturday 7^th August 1937 saw the demise of one of Hunstanton’s iconic  buildings, when the St. Edmund’s Café on the North Promenade was totally destroyed in a huge blaze. The building which was owned by the Urban District Council was leased to Mr. W. H. Brooke. Built around 1870, it had been extensively used as a restaurant from around 1927, in the days when a meat and two veg was considered an absolute necessity for a Sunday - and a weekday - lunch for the holiday makers. The café which was on the upper floor could be entered from the promenade, or from the cliff gardens. Amazingly it could seat 600 diners and underneath the café was an enormous shelter which could hold over 1000 people, and was an essential rendezvous when inclement weather drove the holiday makers from the beach.  Many thousands of visitors had used the café over the years and it was a favourite venue, which was frequently booked by large parties on annual outings.

The café had been closed up in the early evening, and the staff had left,  when smoke was spotted coming from the building by two holiday-makers who having forced a door, and seeing a fire in the kitchen which had taken hold, raised the alarm. Members of the Sandringham hotel staff, with their manager (Mr. J. Wheeler) were first on the scene with extinguishers and hoses; unfortunately the hoses proved to be too short. By this time, the 8 p.m. performance at the Lounge concert hall was due to begin, but had to be cancelled and the large audience filed out and joined the huge crowd who had gathered to watch the spectacle. Then the town’s fire-engine arrived under the command of Captain Pierce, Lieut. Fleming and Mr. R. S. Mudie, the chairman of the fire brigade sub-committee. It was obvious by then that the main effort had to be to save the Lounge, and the crowds controlled by Inspector Chaplin and seven constables, aided by a large number of scouts and rovers, camping in the town were entertained to an almost Chaplinesque comedy as the water for the hoses had to be drawn from a distance, the nearest hydrant being in Lincoln Square. With a reduced water supply, as the top tanks in the water tower at the top of Lincoln Street were cut off during the evening, the water supply was reduced almost to almost a trickle.  Fortunately the fire engine having been moved on to the promenade could pump sea water, and soon heavy jets of sea water were obtained.

In the meantime, the Lounge concert party, still in their make-up and costumes, were helped by a chain of 100 volunteers of scouts and holiday-makers who formed a human chain to move the entire effects of the hall to the safety of the gardens above.  Fortunately the wind was blowing from the N.-N.E., away from the Lounge, even so, the fire brigade was hindered by the great pall of flames and smoke being fed by a 4-inch gas pipe in the café. The fire continued unabated and at last the gas main was turned off, but not before the roof had collapsed in a spectacular display of flames and sparks. By 11 p.m. the fire had totally destroyed the building and had been finally brought under control.

Large crowds visited the scene on the following morning to view the burnt out shell, the only remains being the arches of the shelter. Propped against one of the arches was a notice board salvaged from the fire bearing the message “Hot Luncheons.”

The St. Edmund Café had been built sometime around 1870 by the old Esplanade Company, who used it as a concert and dance hall. Before the Town Hall was built, it was the prime meeting place in the town for public meetings, political gatherings, choral and school concerts etc. It was purchased by the Town around 1897 and then became the St. Edmund Social Club, a feature of which was an orchestra made up from town personalities - Messrs. J. W. Beeton, S. Jones and W. and F. Leach. The club lasted until around 1927 when the building was leased by the council to another of the town’s prominent businessmen, Mr. W. H. Brooke. Unfortunately it was never rebuilt.