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The New Street Milk Bar, next to Kenneth Reed's chemist, in the early 1960s

WHEN God created the world and all its creatures, he made sure that they had food and drink by producing vegetation and water.

But when Man came along, those two sources were not enough and, over the years, each country has created its own brand of nourishment.

A fine example of this can be found in Basingstoke's Festival Place, with its many restaurants, cafes and bars. These serve refreshments in the form of cuisines from a variety of countries, including America, China, France, Italy, Japan, Spain and Thai-land, as well as the United Kingdom.

Just recently, several more restaurants have opened in the shopping centre, including Shake-Away, Subway, and Star-bucks, among others.

The ShakeAway restaurant concentrates on milk shakes containing 100 different types of food, from melon, Weetabix and coffee to rhubarb and custard, chocolate and cherry and caramel snack-a-jacks.

To the local folk, the opening of ShakeAway has brought back memories of the New Street Milk Bar, which David Smith opened up in Queen's Parade in 1950.

He used to provide morning coffee, afternoon teas, snacks, ice-creams and sundaes, but milk shakes were his biggest seller.

Six years later, another place opened further up the road, called Cafe Continental. This establishment sold Prima Expresso coffee, with English and Italian lunches and snacks.

The Opera Restaurant in Market Place, Basingstoke, in the late 1950s

Both refreshment units attracted the postmen who worked at the General Post Office, which was also in New Street, and if the sorting office inspector ever wanted to know where his men were, he didn't have far to go.

One of the first refreshment places to open up in Basingstoke was the British Workman Coffee Tavern, in Potters Lane, which opened in the 1880s. (Potters Lane is now the site of Potters Walk in the shopping centre.) At the same time, the derelict Angel Inn, in Market Place, was converted into a cafe.

Over the following years, more cafes and restaurants opened in the town. One of them, near the Town Hall, was called The Popular Cafe.

It opened in 1913 on the east side of the Market Place.

The Angel Cafe closed down in 1920 and was demolished two years later for the construction of Bar-clays Bank, which, in those days, was only half the size it is now.

In 1925, the International Stores opened in the other section of the building.

Then, in 1947, Ada Wilson established her Opera Restaurant above the stores (up a long flight of stairs), which closed down in 1969.

Meanwhile, over the years, various towns and villages around Basing-stoke have opened cafes and restaurants. These have benefited from the more peaceful atmosphere of the countryside and the better chance of car parking, while the food that is served has come from local farmers or even produced by the owners of the property.

To run a cafe or restaurant, the owner has to adhere to many laws, rules and regulations. One of the latest is the Food Safety Act of 1990, which states that it is a criminal offence to sell food which is injurious to health.

Food that is served and causes illness has to be reported to the local environmental health officer, who will investigate the matter. Under the act, the restaurant could be made to pay damages to anyone who is ill. Even if the patient does not report the incident, their doctor has a duty to inform the authorities about the matter.

As far back as 1875, laws were made about the sale of food in Brit-ain, while in 1939, food control committees were formed by local auth-orities under orders from the government.

In 1941, during the Second World War, local councils were authorised to establish British Restaurants, emergency meal centres and cooking depots.

Basingstoke had its own British Restaurant in tin huts at the bottom of Wote Street between 1942 and 1947, which supplied thousands of meals, at reduced prices, to people needing refreshments.

To conclude this feature on food, it was recorded, in 1902, how long it took to digest certain foods, with boiled rice taking only one hour, baked potatoes two-and-a-half hours, roast beef three hours, roast chicken four hours, and (incredibly) boiled cabbage four-and-a-half hours.

In 1935, another report was issued by nutrition experts with exactly the same figures, but at the end of the list they mentioned that the state of mind has the effect of interfering with the digestion of food and can cause trouble. So relax, don't worry and enjoy your meals.

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