The cocoa revolution swept into Darlington with the opening of its first ‘cocoa palace’ in Melville House, Northgate. Cocoa palaces were the Temperance movement’s bid to tempt people away from pubs. ‘Since the first Cocoa Palace was opened four or five years ago,’ said The Northern Echo, ‘they have come to be regarded as an important and even necessary institution in most towns.’
The Northgate palace was run by Mr Lockhart, the North East cocoa king, who had twelve palaces on Tyneside. ‘The principle on which they are established is even more public than that of the public house, for not only can persons obtain their tea, coffee, cocoa etc upon most reasonable terms, but even those who don’t require refreshment are at liberty to go into the rooms and read the papers,’ explained the Echo.
Unfortunately, Mr Lockhart was too ill to attend the Northgate opening, which was performed by Sir Edmund Backhouse MP. A large cup of cocoa, coffee or tea cost 1d; a large spice cake was also 1d and a family could buy a 6d token for a slap-up refreshment session.
As the cocoa craze caught on, other palaces opened in Prebend Row, Houndgate and Parkgate and Albert Hill – the Nestfield Club and Cocoa Tavern which opened for working men at 5 a.m. The craze, though, lasted barely into the twentieth century.
(‘Memories’, The Northern Echo, 1994)