Express services in Coptic Street

Wandering around looking at details on buildings in the streets just south of The British Museum, I intended to share some small observations and details with you today but these I will attend to next week because, when I stopped again to admire the building that houses Pizza Express at the corner of Coptic Street and Little Russell Street, I realised that even though I have been eating in this restaurant since the early 1980s, I still had not properly looked into the history of the building.

A long carved relief around the building tells us that this was built as the Dairy Supply Company Limited. This was a company created in 1864 by George Barham (1836-1913) who had started his first dairy in his twenties at 25 Dean Street in 1858. He then had a novel idea to use the railways to bring milk from Derbyshire to London. He even designed and patented a specific milk churn for transporting these large quantities of liquid – a milk churn features on the building within a terracotta panel:

Churn is an agent noun. To churn – a verb meaning to agitate milk to make butter. By George's day people were already using the word to mean the receptacle rather than the action, specifically for containers of 10 gallons or larger. George's churns were huge things at17 gallons, that's over 70 litres.

The express trains into Euston gave the company its first name, The Express County Milk Supply Company, which was later split into two parts to become Express Dairies, for the sale of milk, and the Dairy Supply Company for the products used to transport the milk, such as the churns that were manufactured here.

This building boasts its build date of 1888* over the door at 30 Coptic Street which, at the time of construction, was Duke Street, the name was changed in 1894 because there were too many roads by that name in an ever-expanding metropolis so a name befitting manuscripts at the nearby British Museum was applied. A panel over the door that lists the directors at that time, Viscount Combermere,  JC Lawrance and George Barham (listed third?!) with RW Shackleton as secretary:

This showcase building, with all its fancy embellishments, was not George Barnum's first property here. He had first taken a shop at 28 Museum Street (at the other side of this block, backing into the same rear courtyard) quickly expanding into No.29 and, later, No.32 as well. By at least the early 1880s the Dairy Supply Co/Express Dairy Co is also at 35-37 Little Russell Street. This is still evident to the right of the green metal gates:

The premises boasts a similar frieze (probably added when the 1888 building was constructed) as well as tiles arranged in diamond patterns.

During the mid-1880s, it's reported that the Express Dairies was supplying half of London's milk so it's not surprising that within only a few years the company could further expand into the large plot at the corner. By the early 1895 the company had 24 large outlets across London – the one at Heath Street, Hampstead also still retains its lettered frieze above the Tesco store, though I am confused as to whether this also includes smaller shops that would later be blue tiled as per here.

In 1967, Pizza Express opened its second outlet here as its first proper restaurant, the first being little more than a serving hatch at 25 Wardour Street, Soho. Nancy Fouts' swirly circular logo created at that time, continues to this day. That woman was a genius, real talent. I met her once. Me me me. Lot's of Pizza Express hitory and info here c/o TimeOut    

Back to the building, despite retaining much of the dairy's tiled interior, and references to the building's original purpose, someone saw fit to chip away at the LDSCo cartouche above the door at the corner. Ah well. –

So we've travelled from Express Dairies to Pizza Express where I assume you can read a Daily Express delivered by Beans Express and pay by American Express. 

This corner building was given Grade II listed status in 1988.

Express Dairies - lots more info about this site etc here and here.  I've written about Express Dairies shops on here before and here's a link to some great archive pics of transportation and churns.

*I would say there are more buildings bearing 1888 than any other year. 

Another tiled shop front has gone – Express Dairies, 300 Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill

There seems to be a tile removal epidemic... as if it's not bad enough painting over tiles as per here and here and here, at least the paint can one day be removed to reveal the fired ceramics beneath. 

But in many places I am seeing lovely old tiles on old butcher shops, bakeries and dairies completely removed and replaced, as here in Notting Hill where a lovely shop front for a branch of Express Dairies that used to look like this....

... now looks like this (1st August 2024):

I discovered this latest bit of blandification yesterday whilst leading my Notting Hill Ghostsigns guided walk, this shop being one of the places I talk about along the route. It has for the past year it so been standing empty, waiting for a new occupant. Its intact exterior was unusual as I have not seen the like elsewhere in London, so I was stunned to see that so much of the shop's century-old façade hade been revamped. 

I say 'revamped' because, if you look closely, you'll see that they (whoever they is/are) have removed all the original features, excluding the tiles on the wall to the right, and replaced them with modern versions of the same proportion. I cannot believe that these alterations have been achieved by anyone who lives locally or has a link to the area, especially as there are other restored shops and businesses in this are such as the green tiles at Mary’s Living and Giving and the Electric Cinema. 

The bizarre fakery installed here echoes the shape and size of the window frames and the door, and includes panels of blue tiles which I assume have been affixed directly on top of the old ones. Compare and contrast 2022 with 2024 here:

I mean, what's the point?! It's not even a decent pastiche! Perhaps this is all down to Health and Safety – I have been told in the past, when other shops of a similar style have been gutted or over-panelled, that cracked tiles are unhygienic. If so, this tells us that this will be a food outlet of some kind. But this is the exterior, not the interior.  

These next pics contrast the depth, colour and variation within the old artisan/hand-made deep blue tiles on the left, with the flat blue panels installed in 2024, right:

These pics better highlight how the shape and style of the original front door has been echoed in its modern replacement. It's a wonder that they didn't also include a little plastic 'beware of the dog' badge as per the old one. I am hoping that the terrazzo threshold still remains under that sheet of cardboard. 

But, if like-for-like was the brief or intention here, why not use modern products that better resemble the 1920's originals? There are many companies today making very good brushed aluminium frames, and joiners who can produce good quality bespoke wooden doors. Why use such bland products that will not last ten years, let alone a century? Because it's cheaper, but only in the short term.

This next group of pics shows how good the shop looked a few years ago. Note the mechanism for the retractable sun blind/awning which ran across the whole front of the shop (also removed as part of the revamp), the ED logo in white and gold within glass panels and the Jazz Age geometrics of the ventilation grille at low level.

This, to me, is such a great loss as I am unaware of any other Express Dairy shops that still retain their original logos and tiles – please do let me know if you have any further information.