The recent illustrated post
about the sample C1930s plate
for customised crockery resulted in
another interesting serving – a
famous Kiwi restaurant renowned for its fish dishes .
One of the businesses shown on the plate was the above Rio Grande Cafe with the name Fail’s Ch.
Ch.(Christchurch ) in the centre .
George Robert Fail (1866-1937), at the age of 15 was a cook on the steam
tug Suffolk which towed sailing boats from Dungess at the mouth of the Thames to the east London
docks. He arrived in Christchurch in
1884 and was registered as being the keeper of a fish shop.
Five years later he opened a
fish, game and poultry restaurant . The Canterbury Heritage website says that in 1907
he and his wife, who had four sons and five daughters , moved into the
Rio Grande which was enlarged and sported “ bespoke dinner ware ” made by W.H.
Grindley and Co, Tunstall, Stoke On Trent , England . The sample
plate shown in our blog is
hotel ware by Johnson Brothers , England.
Fail and his wife lived in an apartment above the cafe . When “Pop” Fail,
who had an astronomical observatory, died
in 1937, his eldest surviving son took over the business and renamed it Fail’s
Cafe , the ground floor and facade of the 1870s building remodelled in the
art deco style . Pop Fail’s telescope was commandeered by the Army in WWll.
Famous for its fish and unique chairs, it was a Christchurch
institution. New Zealand’s oldest seafood
cafe was closed in 1980, its distinctive furniture and fittings auctioned.
