Where did Ivy cook?

[tommy]

Usually we see the kitchen through the door which shows there are shelves next to the sink, but the rare glimpse inside the kitchen shows there is nothing else in there but a residential size refrigerator (pics below).

There is the small what we call an "efficiency apartment size" cooking range wedged behind the counter on the wall by the front window. It often has a large kettle on it which I always figured was it's primary purpose but I can't see her baking those large piles of buns or doing her lunch-board menu with it and certainly not a catering job.

 

[wstol]

I think everywhere in your photos was supposed to be where all the cooking was done.

Obviously it's all just a set (scenery) and not real - and space and budget is always an element, so we have use our imagination (or ignore the factors which tell us this is never going to be a real, efficient kitchen).

In Series Six, in The Odd Dog Men, we see some new cooking units of some sort being about to be installed in the kitchen, presumably in readiness for the completely redecorated cafe we see in the next episode A Bicycle Made for Three.

In Series Five we find out that there is a function room directly above the cafe - which seems to have been converted into a bedroom a few years later in Getting Sam Home - so we can assume there could also be room for more cooking facilities upstairs.

In Small Tune on a Penny Wassail, we see where Sid and Ivy live, complete with kitchen. It is not clear whether this accommodation is above (or behind) the cafe itself, or at a completely different address.

 

[Eli’sComing]

It’s true… you need a lot of space to bake
The sheet trays are 2 X 3 feet and to bake buns you need to proof them in a warming oven and then bake them in a 500 degree oven
I don’t see how Ivy could have found room for a whole Sheet tray
Maybe there’s a nice basement set up for baking
Or perhaps she only made half-sheet trays of buns, in which case she’d have to do twice the work
Maybe that’s why she was such a miserable old cow to Sid

 

[captain clutterbuck]

Perhaps like Doctor Who the BBC deployed Tardis tactics and the Kitchen was much larger than shown in the pics . Perhaps Ivy baked a lot upstairs and transported down to the Cafe , perhaps though she preached "old Fashioned" ways she actually had ding food and reheated everything she served hot in a microwave and kept it a secret from the other ladies for many many years .

 

[Graham]

As we know, there's a solid wall behind that kitchen door in the real cafe, so all done with studio sets. We did see Sid & Ivys bedroom above the cafe in Getting Sam home.

 

[theatrically_inclined]

In the UK the '"efficiency apartment size" cooking range' is known as a "Baby Belling" - Belling started making ovens in 1912, and their mini oven and hob, known affectionately as the Baby Belling, is still being made.
In a later episode, Nora is in the doorway to the kitchen chatting to Ivy, and we see a view looking towards the door. Ivy is on the left and is dishing out fried eggs, etc, from a frying pan that has presumably been on a stove just out of sight on our left. However, I didn't fancy the eggs, they are clearly joke shop plastic eggs!

 

[imitation700mb]

I think everywhere in your photos was supposed to be where all the cooking was done.

Obviously it's all just a set (scenery) and not real - and space and budget is always an element, so we have use our imagination (or ignore the factors which tell us this is never going to be a real, efficient kitchen).

In Series Six, in The Odd Dog Men, we see some new cooking units of some sort being about to be installed in the kitchen, presumably in readiness for the completely redecorated cafe we see in the next episode A Bicycle Made for Three.

In Series Five we find out that there is a function room directly above the cafe - which seems to have been converted into a bedroom a few years later in Getting Sam Home - so we can assume there could also be room for more cooking facilities upstairs.

In Small Tune on a Penny Wassail, we see where Sid and Ivy live, complete with kitchen. It is not clear whether this accommodation is above (or behind) the cafe itself, or at a completely different address.

I always imagined Sid and Ivy lived next door, in the adjoining building with the bay window. Wasn't there a small scene in one episode that showed the inside the afore mentioned building, or is that just my imagination?

 

[wstol]

I always imagined Sid and Ivy lived next door, in the adjoining building with the bay window. Wasn't there a small scene in one episode that showed the inside the afore mentioned building, or is that just my imagination?

Actually, when you look at the interior cafe set, in some series there is a door to the extreme left, just left of the cafe customers door, which would lead to adjoining property. I don't think ever see that door open.

The scene I believe you are talking about, an outside scene, where Eli somehow ends up going through it??

 

[Barrychuckle]

As we know, there's a solid wall behind that kitchen door in the real cafe, so all done with studio sets. We did see Sid & Ivys bedroom above the cafe in Getting Sam home.

Good point, on my first visit this year I was surprised to see the actual kitchen used is directly opposite the entrance in the real Sids Cafe. That said they do wonderful food & drinks and manage to squeeze lots of Summer Wine memorabilia in.

 

[tommy]

when you look at the interior cafe set, in some series there is a door to the extreme left, just left of the cafe customers door

For such a small door I always assumed that was the loo.

 

[tommy]

In Series Six, in The Odd Dog Men, we see some new cooking units of some sort being about to be installed in the kitchen, presumably in readiness for the completely redecorated cafe we see in the next episode A Bicycle Made for Three.

Another thing I noticed is even though there isn't a grill where you would think one would be right under the kitchen window there was an exhaust vent for it which they replaced with a smaller one (even having to frame around it to cover the larger hole) when the cafe was remodeled.

 

[Barrychuckle]

You raise a valid point about the loo, I've never thought about that before. But it's a legal requirement to have a toilet in a cafe and I cannot ever recall one or one being used in an episode. That said I'm sure some of my learned friends here may correct me on that....

 

[Eithne]

In the Flags and its snags Compo borrows a knife and goes out to the public bathrooms to get the package cut free of his zip so there must have been one close by, unless it was upstairs - if Sid and Ivy lived up there, they would have had to of had one, that would explain why Compo got upstairs mixing with the Bullocks. There is also a picture of a public washhouse building at the end of an episode where Clegg waxes philosophically about the handwriting on the local urinal walls.

 

[Graham]

The loo is diagonally opposite the main door. Just to the right of Nora.

 

[tommy]

The loo is diagonally opposite the main door. Just to the right of Nora.

That made me remember differently placed cameras in the cafe in a couple earlier seasons (in one season overhead mics regularly slipped into the shot

That door comes with it's own mysteries. It doesn't exist in the first couple of series. Then it's behind a bar gate/flap, making it not welcoming to customers. Later that is usually open but so is the door sometimes which seems weird that Ivy would allow a wide open loo facing her food counter. And then finally in Isometrics and After (S03E07) Ivy chases Sid through it as if they had plenty of room to run.

 

[maltrab]

The Bullocks also used the door to get upstairs

 

[captain clutterbuck]

Perhaps they got Lawrence LLewelyn-Bowen and the Changing Rooms mob in between series to give it a makeover though that said none of the normal dross and frankly tasteless crap LLB and his mates use at infinitum don't appear to be there.

 

[Barrychuckle]

Ah yes now I see it! bet no passers by every got away with using the loo without buying anything!!

 

[RickAns]

Great pictures, thanks. Hate to admit that I overlooked the changes with the other door in the cafe. I did figure it went upstairs in the Bullock episode.

 

[imitation700mb]

That made me remember differently placed cameras in the cafe in a couple earlier seasons (in one season overhead mics regularly slipped into the shot

That door comes with it's own mysteries. It doesn't exist in the first couple of series. Then it's behind a bar gate/flap, making it not welcoming to customers. Later that is usually open but so is the door sometimes which seems weird that Ivy would allow a wide open loo facing her food counter. And then finally in Isometrics and After (S03E07) Ivy chases Sid through it as if they had plenty of room to run.View attachment 5513View attachment 5512View attachment 5515

In later episodes (Bicycle made for Three and beyond, when they have redecorated the cafe) the wall is absent, and the counter continues beyond the flap, suggesting the wall and the back door were removed during redecoration. The afore mentioned wall would be roughly where the telephone is in this picture.