Found in a ‘junk shop’, tucked into an old book – ……- a little scrap of paper from Glasgow, Scotland – slightly stained, slightly crumpled.
It has ‘bloodless’ stories to tell.
‘The Eden’ was Cathie & Dugald Semple‘s ‘local’ restaurant.
Tissue-paper ‘Ad’ for a Glasgow, Scotland restaurant – circa 1905 – 11.5 x 11.5 cm.
It is now in the Ernest Bell Library – donated by a friend from the UK.
Directory listings of the period read –
Eden Vegetarian Restaurant, 6 Jamaica street.
Best 6d. tea in the city.
L. McCaughey.
An 1897 directory
A 1905 directory
Leonard McCaughey, his eldest children from his first marriage, Elizabeth his second wife & their children (detailed bio below) , together managed one of the first ever ‘chains’ of vegetarian restaurants. They had branches in Ireland, Scotland & England.
IT IS UNIVERSALLY ADMITTED
that to see
VEGETARIANISM +++
PROPERLY PRESENTED
You must visit
one of the following restaurants:
Belfast: The X.L., 27 Corn Market
Dublin: The College, 3 & 4 College Street
(with HOTEL attached)
Glasgow: The Eden, 6 Jamaica Street
Leeds: The Old Bank, 28 Commercial St.
-<+>-
All under one Proprietorship
and Management.
Everything High Class, except Prices.
The Ad (above) & the mention (below) both appeared in ‘Good Health’ – April 1903.
Entire issue here as a .pdf file.
-<+>-
It gives us pleasure to be able to recommend
the four vegetarian restaurants whose announce-
ment has appeared in GOOD HEALTH for some
time. The proprietor, Mr McCaughey, is doing a
much-needed work in demonstrating the practic-
ability of a bloodless diet. Care and cleanliness
in the preparation and handling of the food are
marked features in these restaurants, the kitchens
of which will bear inspection any time.
-<+>-
From –
‘Of Victorians and Vegetarians: The Vegetarian Movement in Nineteenth-century …’ – By James Gregory – page 139.
The McCaugheys played an important part in vegetarian activity in
Ireland and Scotland through their restaurants. Leonard McCaughey
opened the well- situated ‘Eden’ restaurant in Jamaica Street in Glasgow.
On two floors, there were tea and coffee rooms, lavatories, and a dining
room for 200 on the first floor. Steam heaters kept the restaurant’s food
piping hot. The McCaughey’s first restaurant, in Belfast was managed by
Leonard’s wife. McCaughey and Smallman of Manchester were successful
businessmen committed to the movement and not simply commercial
speculators.
The McCaugheys knew how to run restaurants – plus they ran vegetarian hotels in Dublin, Ireland (Ireland was then a part of the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland’ – it is now Éire ).
Irish freedom fighters, writers, poets etc. met in the McCaughey’s Dublin restaurants.
When you visited, you might have seen –
‘the bearded and spectacled features of Æ (George William Russell) and with him, Harry Norman, Paul Gregan … and others of that small, but distinguished, group of workers and writers connected with the Irish Agricultural Organisation’.
More about old Dublin restaurants here – some notes on the history of Vegetarianism in Dublin Pt. I (1866 – 1922)
In July 1899, the McCaughey family established ‘The College Vegetarian Restaurant‘ at 3-4 College Street, Dublin.
The Irish Times, 11 September 1900
……
‘The College Vegetarian Restaurant‘ probably got a mention in James Joyce’s book Ulysses –
Read Leopold Bloom’s description of Æ aka George William Russell, coming from ‘the vegetarian’ (believed to be ‘The College Vegetarian Restaurant’), ‘a listening woman’ (possibly Lizzie Twigg aka Elis ni Chraoibhin) and a vegetarian diet.
~ His eyes followed the high figure in homespun, beard and bicycle, a listening woman at his side. Coming from the vegetarian. Only weggebobbles and fruit. Don’t eat a beefsteak. If you do the eyes of that cow will pursue you through all eternity. They say it’s healthier. Windandwatery though. Tried it. Keep you on the run all day. Bad as a bloater. Dreams all night. Why do they call that thing they gave me nutsteak? Nutarians. Fruitarians. To give you the idea you are eating rumpsteak. Absurd. Salty too. They cook in soda. Keep you sitting by the tap all night. ~
– Ulysses (Chap. 8 – Lestrygonians) – James Joyce.
……
An advertisement in The Irish Times on 2 February 1900 –
‘Vegetarian food is the coming diet’ and suggested that ‘every man and woman that has suffered from influenza should dine at the College Restaurant as the use of a pure diet is the simplest and surest cure for this woeful disease’
Another on 27 April of the same year –
‘The College Vegetarian Restaurant is the seat of learning in the science of food. In it all can learn how to get the best food in the easiest digestible form, at the lowest cost’. ~
– much more about the ‘Vegetarian Dublin’ – here.
The Freemans Journal, 07 March 1913
The McCaughey Restaurants Ltd. announced the opening of a ‘High-Class Vegetarian Restaurant’ at 3 and 4 College Street in an advertisement in The Irish Times of 24 May 1899. McCaughey was from Northern Ireland………. – source
.
1 Comment
VeganBeader (8 comments)
March 3, 2015 at 8:29 pmI love visiting my friends in Dublin & Glasgow. This historical piece gives me a deeper appreciation for both places. I would have loved to have sat chatting with A.E. / George Russell 100+ years ago in Dublin, while eating vegan snacks!
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# Despite the fact that Russell had given Joyce his first step into publishing fiction, Joyce was always rather disparaging about him. In Ulysses, Bloom sees Russell with his bicycle coming from the vegetarian restaurant on Dame Street. Russell is on his way to the National Library where he joins in the discussion about Shakespeare in the ‘Scylla & Charybdis’ episode. # – http://jamesjoyce.ie/day-10-april/