56-60

This is the page for 60 Cowley Road.

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February 2017

2024

Dosa Darlings

2017-2023

Cafe Tarifa is a bar & restaurant occupying 56-60 Cowley Road. It is part of a chain including Cafe CoCo at 23 Cowley Road and Kazbar at 25-27 Cowley Road.

2009?-2011?

The Cafe CoCo empire originally opened this the Organic Burger Company on this site.  The business failed due to the recession, a sign spotted in the window after closure said something along the lines that the economic times weren't suitable for this type of business.  The same proprietors reinvented it as Cafe Tarifa, which has been a roaring success.

1970s - about 2009

Before Cafe Tarifa moved in, 56-60 was occupied by the old-fashioned 'Moonlight Tandoori' restaurant. The front door was on the corner of the building (now a window), where the original doorstep is still visible. In Marilyn Yurdan's The Changing Faces of the Cowley Road there is a photo of the Moonlight's owner, Wasid Ali, dated February 1988.

No 56

Kelly's Directory 1943 to 1976 No 56 Meteor Cleaners.

On Youtube is a Cine Film of 56 Cowley Road Circa 1973.

There is also a brief glimpse of 58 Cowley Road which at the time was Kumling Chinese restaurant

Outside 56 Cowley Road, Meteor Cleaners, in about 1972. The lady on the left is Lilian Cadle who was manageress of the dry cleaners from 1962 to1975(?) She lived above the shop with her husband Richard (Dick) Cadle who was a tool maker at Pressed Steel Fisher . The other people are their son and his children, plus a few passers by and a costumer.
The shop behind, on the opposite corner of Circus Street with the awning is 54 Cowley Road which at the time was a gentleman's outfitter.

No 58

Kelly's Directory 1975 to 1976 No 58 Moonlight Cafe
Kelly's Directory 1960 to 1972 No 58 Kumling Chinese restaurant
Kelly's Directory 1956 to 1958 No 58 Sid's café
Kelly's Directory 1954 No 58 Namar Fabrics drapers
Kelly's Directory 1943 to 1952 No 58 F J Selwood corn merchants  (moved to Nos 47 and 49)

No 60

Yellow Pages 1979 and Thomsons Directory 1984 No 60 Terence Wines. This is visible in a photo of March 1982 in Marilyn Yurdan's "The Changing Faces of the Cowley Road". Terence Wines was previously at No 103
Kelly's Directory 1952 to 1975 No 60 East Oxford Stationery Stores (V H & M C Veal) also toyshop and doll's hospital

Before then?

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