In the 1970s my Father commuted into London Bridge station in order to get to his office at Lloyds Bank in Lombard Street. Shortly after starting work there he discovered a cafe on Lower Thames Street which was on the way to work. A proper working class establishment run by husband and wife. He was front of house while she did the cooking.
Dad’s first visit caused a bit of a palaver when he asked for a cup of with no sugar (and a bacon sandwich). Most of the clientele, many of whom would have worked at Billingsgate Fish Market [closed in 1982], took their tea sweet. As a result it was brewed up in the pot with sugar already in it. Dad didn’t take sugar so his had to be specially made.
He visited the cafe two or three mornings each week and by the time has was halfway through the door the husband would call out “Cuppa tea no sugar bacon sandwich”.
Dad left Lombard Street in 1979 but was in the City one day a decade later and decided to visit the cafe. He’d barely put his foot across the threshold when he heard the familiar shout of, of course, “Cuppa tea no sugar bacon sandwich”.
He did visit again five years later but sadly reported that it had become a car park.
The cry became part of family lore and children learnt the phrase at an early age.
I did a bit of research and managed to locate the cafe which was on the corner of Lower Thames Street and Fish Street Hill, the site now occupied by a golf shop.
Dad died in July 7th 2016 and it is my custom, each year on that day, to go to a cafe, ideally in the City, and ask for “Cup of tea no sugar bacon sandwich”.