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Summary

Former location of early 20th century roadside café on the A4 Bath Road

Other Statuses and Cross-References

• Berkshire SMR No. (pre 2000): 05037.00.000
  

Monument Type(s):

• CAFE (Mid 20th century to Early 21st century - 1936 AD to 2008 AD?)

Full Description

Mac's Café (later named Max Café) was a roadside café on the Bath Road, with a distinctive giant tea kettle over its door. It was noted in the Berkshire Industrial Archaeology Group survey in 1987 <1>, as were the old railway carriages in its back yard. Its location was described as Ufton, although the ribbon settlement along the A4 is also known as Lower Padworth.

The café is first shown on the 4th epoch of Ordnance Survey mapping <2>, dating from 1936. It was a well-known stopping point for travellers along the A4 Bath Road in the mid and later 20th century.

A building recording exercise was carried out in 2008 <3> prior to the redevelopment of the site. The report included many modern and historic photographs of the building and its environs, as well as transcriptions of texts from the walls of the café, written by various users of the café. The building dated from about 1935, and its development refected the changes in demand from the motorist since the 1930s, particularly the massive growth in road haulage following the Second World War. Although the M4 motorway opened in the 1970s, this did not lead to the café's demise, and it continued to attract commercial and residential motorists as well as locals, supplying them with traditional roadside fare. Two small extensions had been added to the L shaped original café, which was built of brick with mock Tudor timbers and a tiled roof.

At one time overnight accommodation was also provided for long distance drivers in converted railway carriages around the perimeter of the car park. One of these carriages was believed to have been Queen Victoria's dining car, with high quality fittings; some railway preservation societies tried unsuccessfully to obtain this carriage for renovation. The carriages were removed (probably scrapped) in the later 20th century.

John Piper's early to mid 20th century photograph of the teapot indicates it was once on a separate stand by the road <4>.

Mac's Café was demolished by 2017 <5>, with the housing development being named as Macs Close.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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