Picture of M Manze, SE1 4TW

Historical version 8 of M Manze, SE1 4TW (view current version)

  • 020 7407 2985
  • 87 Tower Bridge Road, SE1 4TW (streetmap) (osm) (gmap) (bingmap) (streetview)
  • 11am-2pm Mon; 10:30am-2pm Tue-Thu; 10am-2:15pm Fri; 10am-2:45pm Sat; closed Sun (takeaway available up to 15 minutes after closing)

Traditional pie and mash shop on Tower Bridge Road in Bermondsey. It claims to be (and probably is) the oldest pie and mash shop still in continuous business; in fact it's almost exactly the same age as [Tower Bridge]? itself.

Order at the counter as you go in, and your food will be dished out in front of you; you then take it to a table yourself, collecting cutlery from the end of the counter on the way. Bottles of vinegar and chilli vinegar are available on the tables.

The menu is simple: pie, mash, stewed eels, jellied eels, and liquor or gravy. Vegetarian pies are available, but there's a 10-minute wait while they heat one up. According to the Manze's website, the vegetarian pies, the mash, and the liquor are all suitable for vegans.

It's not particularly exciting food, but it's plentiful (intended to stoke one for a hard afternoon unloading ships) and cheap; this photo shows "one pie one mash", which was only £2.70, and more than Kake could finish. The mash was a bit disappointing; Bob claims this was probably due to lack of butter, but Kake suspects over-processing (they mash it by machine). It was certainly very smooth; Firedrake was surprised to learn it was made from real potatoes rather than a packet.

When Kake and friends visited on a Friday afternoon in April 2008, we got served almost immediately at 12:30pm but when we left around 1pm the queue had become fairly enormous (though reasonably fast-moving).

There are other branches in Peckham and [Sutton]?.

See also:

Last visited by Kake, Leon, Firedrake etc, 25 April 2008. Opening hours taken from sign on door, April 2008.
OS X co-ord: 533176 OS Y co-ord: 179228 (Latitude: 51.495802 Longitude: -0.081301)
This is version 8 (as of 2008-09-04 13:46:02). View current version. List all versions.