Fried Fish and Potato Wedges: Fish and Chips at 57 Regent’s Park Road

2013 Italian Restaurant

History:

  • STATIONER Miss Sarah Sleet 1855-60
  • ” Miss Elizabeth Edmonds 1860-99
59-61garage cr'd

1972
A.& S. Fish Bar
(on left)

A clean and respectable job for spinsters?
Why was a stationer one of the first shops to open in the street? Perhaps the new residents of the developing suburb created a high demand for change of address cards and headed paper.

  • BICYCLE MAKERS Arthur Wilford & Co. 1901-05
  • BUTCHER George Clark 1910
  • FRIED FISH SHOP Mrs Amelia Loud 1915

By 1851 there were about 300 street-sellers of fried fish in London. It was in the 1860s that the development of the steam trawler and the use of ice for preservation enabled the North Sea to be heavily fished. Fish was dispatched by rail to inland towns the day it was caught.

The rise of the fried fish shop seems to have coincided with the resulting supplies of cheap cod.

It is thought that fried fish was first added as a side-line to the already popular hot-pie shops, and that accompanying fried potato wedges became popular after 1860, with the availability of cheap imported oil.

57Regent

Regent Fish Bar, 1986

  • FISHMONGER George Currie 1920
  • FRIED FISH SHOP 1925-35

at least five different managers

  • FRIED FISH SHOP Harry Jacobs 1940-c.60
  • ” Josife Costas 1965
  • ” A & S. Fish Bar 1970

Locals remember when fresh fish was sold during the day, with the window display being closed in the evenings while fish & chips were sold from the back of the shop.
Fish remained un-rationed during World War II, but was hard to obtain.

  • FISH & CHIP SHOP Regent Fish Bar 1975- 2004
  • TURKISH RESTAURANT

Modern Turkish Cuisine 2004-06

  • FISHSHOP & RESTAURANT 2006IMGP3439

FishWorks Seafood Café

  • ITALIAN RESTAURANT

Pesantissimo 2013