City Heritage: ​The Story of Peterborough’s soldiers’ tearoom

Within the Peterborough Archives collection are visitors’ books that were signed at the tearoom. They give a great insight into the people who used the tearoom and have a powerful resonance, as some of the people who wrote in the book would not have survived the war.

The visitors books are part of the WUTAC collection (Women’s United Total Abstinence Council) and they have the reference numbers of PAS/WUTAC/2/2/1 and PAS/WUTAC/2/2/2.

The Women’s Total Abstinence Union was formed when the British Women’s Temperance Association (founded in 1876) split in 1893. Their goal was to focus solely on issues related to alcohol and abstinence. WUTAC was the Peterborough branch of this organisation. Alcohol abuse was considered to be a ‘great national evil’ at this time and, it was feared, would impact the outcome of the First World War if not tackled.

The Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Rest Room at the Great Eastern Station was opened by the Mayor of Peterborough on Christmas Eve 1915 for the use of servicemen passing through that side of the city. The Rest Room at the Eastern Station was managed by several organisations including WUTAC.

The G.E Rest Room was extremely useful and appeared to have achieved its aim of encouraging servicemen to stay at the station rather than venture into town. The attached image is an entry written by a tearoom helper called C. Layton and she says, “A very tired boy from Whittlesea came to our rest. We tried to entice him to write in our book. But at the pages he wouldn’t even look. But he fell fast asleep in the chair”

To plan a visit to Peterborough Archives (located in Central Library) you can call 01733 864160 or email [email protected]

You can view original documents during staffed opening hours on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, from 10am to 1pm.

Original archive material must be requested at least two working days before your visit.

Reference numbers can be found on their online database. For more information visit peterboroughlibraries.org.uk/archives