‘Dad’s Army’ dinner to raise funds for cinema hit in Blitz

Wartime delicacies like turnip top salad and Pathfinder pudding could feature on the menu on June 27 at Hitchcock’s vegetarian restaurant in Hull, to raise funds for the National Picture Theatre, on Beverley Road.

Campaigners are battling to preserve the ruined Grade II listed cinema which is the only blitzed civilian building ruin left standing in England.

Hilary Byers, a member of the National Civilian WW2 Memorial Trust who is organising the dinner, said bookings were flooding in, and added: “People want to see the cinema preserved and think it sounds fun.

“Dried egg powder doesn’t sound very appetising so I’ve got some recipes which I am going to take in, like Lord Woolton Pie – Lord Woolton became Minister of Food in 1940 – and is made of potatoes, cauliflower, swede, carrots.

“People were trying to grow their own vegetables and cope with the effects of bombing - it must have been pretty grim.

“But because food was shared out fairly the poorer people got a better diet during the war than they had done before and probably since because they got a fair share of what was going. People weren’t worried about getting obese then, they were worrying about getting enough calories to work the long hours they had to work.”

Chef patron Bruce Hitchcock said he had been enamoured with the building ever since coming to Hull and the fact it was “still there and untouched”.

He said “potatoes would feature fairly heavily” in the menu, and added: “It would be great if the cinema could be saved.

“We want people to feel it’s worth the money so there won’t be strict rationing - we are going to assume I have a contact on the black market for real eggs.”

Since the owner dropped plans to erect a new three-storey building behind the old frontage, Hull Council has been negotiating to acquire it. The trust is planning to use the site to stage a film show in the autumn.

Tickets cost £18 for adults and £12 for 12 and under. Information is available by emailiing [email protected], or call Hitchcock’s on 01482 320233.