Stories Above the Street • Big Bell

Bowler's Belvedere Tea Rooms

Tea rooms, meals, cold drinks, crayfish suppers, boarders and later a modern milk bar — the Belvedere became part of everyday life in the new mining town of Big Bell.

A social hub in a new mining town

Somewhere to eat, drink, stay and catch up.

Historic photographs clearly place Bowler's Belvedere Tea Rooms at Big Bell. The business stood in the early commercial strip beside Kirk & O'Brien, Commission Agents, with the Big Bell Newsagency nearby.

Contemporary newspaper reports then allow the Belvedere's story to be followed through changes of management from the Bowler period to Mr and Mrs Major and, by 1939, the Belvedere Cafe.

At a glance

Business: Bowler's Belvedere Tea Rooms
Location: Big Bell
Documented: by 1937
New management: Mr & Mrs Major, 1937
1938 name: Major's Belvedere Tea Rooms
1939 name: Belvedere Cafe
1939 proprietor: Nick Shain

Big Bell • late 1930s

Two photographs put the Belvedere firmly in Big Bell.

One photograph records bicycle race preparations outside the tea rooms. Another, captioned “First three shops in town”, shows the Belvedere in Big Bell's early commercial strip.

Bowler's Belvedere Tea Rooms during bicycle race preparations at Big Bell

Bicycle race preparations outside Bowler's Belvedere Tea Rooms at Big Bell.

Look closely

The street signs settle the location.

The frontage reads “Bowler's Belvedere Tea Rooms”.

Beside it is Kirk & O'Brien, Commission Agents, while a neighbouring shop carries the words Big Bell Newsagency.

Together these details provide direct photographic evidence that the Belvedere was a Big Bell business.

More than somewhere to eat

The Belvedere served a town finding its feet.

Big Bell expanded rapidly during the revival of the mine in the mid-1930s. New businesses followed workers and families into the town.

Tea rooms occupied a place somewhere between a cafe, restaurant, refreshment shop and social meeting place.

The Belvedere also accommodated permanent boarders, giving it an even broader role in everyday Big Bell life.

At the Belvedere

Meals, cold drinks — and somewhere to stay.

A December 1937 newspaper report gives an unusually detailed picture of what the Belvedere offered under its new management.

REFRESHMENTS

Cool drinks & ice cream

The Belvedere sold cool drinks, ice cream and tobacco alongside its meal trade.

SUPPERS

Fish & crayfish

The Majors planned fish suppers and crayfish, and within a week the newspaper reported a shipment of Dongara crayfish arriving at the tea rooms.

BOARDING

Permanent boarders

The business also accommodated permanent boarders, making it part eating house and part accommodation business.

17 December 1937

Mr and Mrs Major take over.

The Cue-Big Bell Chronicle and Reedy Recorder announced that Mr and Mrs Major had taken over the Belvedere Tea Rooms.

The article makes clear that the Belvedere was already an established and popular business before their arrival.

It also gives the strongest surviving description of the operation: meals, cool drinks, ice cream, tobacco, planned fish suppers, crayfish, fruit salads, lemon drinks and boarding accommodation.

24 December 1937

Dongara crayfish arrive in Big Bell.

Only a week after the new-management announcement, the local newspaper reported that the Belvedere had received a shipment of Dongara crayfish.

It is a wonderful small detail: fresh seafood travelling from the coast into a remote goldfields town for Christmas 1937.

Christmas 1937

The menu was already expanding.

The crayfish report confirms that the Majors quickly followed through on their promise to broaden the Belvedere's supper trade.

23 December 1938

Major's Belvedere Tea Rooms.

By Christmas 1938 the business was being advertised as Major's Belvedere Tea Rooms.

The advertisement promoted ice-cold orange and lemon squashes for the summer heat.

It also offered a selection of Christmas novelties, showing the Belvedere had a small retail role alongside food and refreshments.

9 September 1939

The Belvedere becomes a cafe and milk bar.

By September 1939 the business was advertised as the Belvedere Cafe, Big Bell.

The advertisement names Nick Shain as proprietor, formerly of the Monte Carlo Cafe in Kalgoorlie, and promotes an up-to-date milk bar, confectionery and suppers.

A changing business

Tea rooms to modern milk bar.

In only a few years the Belvedere evolved with the town — while keeping the same familiar name.

The Belvedere story

A business that changed with Big Bell.

EARLY YEARS

Bowler's

Historic photographs show the business trading as Bowler's Belvedere Tea Rooms.

17 DEC 1937

The Majors

Mr and Mrs Major are announced as the new management.

23 DEC 1938

Major's Belvedere

The business is advertised as Major's Belvedere Tea Rooms.

9 SEP 1939

Belvedere Cafe

Nick Shain operates the Belvedere Cafe and its up-to-date milk bar.

Modern Bowler's Belvedere Tea Rooms heritage sign

Stories Above the Street

A lost Big Bell business remembered in Cue.

The restored heritage sign recreates the distinctive Bowler's Belvedere Tea Rooms lettering visible in the historic Big Bell photographs.

The recreated sign also carries the date 1935. That date is retained as part of the sign, but has not yet been independently verified as the year the Belvedere opened.

What is firmly documented is a business already established before the Majors took over in December 1937.

Historical note

Surviving photographs establish the early trading name Bowler's Belvedere Tea Rooms and place the business at Big Bell. Contemporary newspaper reports confirm the takeover by Mr and Mrs Major in December 1937, the later use of the name Major's Belvedere Tea Rooms in December 1938, and the Belvedere Cafe under Nick Shain in September 1939. The full identity of the original Bowler proprietor and the recreated sign's 1935 date remain unverified.