100 years of beloved Brown's Café
The 100th anniversary of a market café is being celebrated alongside memories of its ‘eccentric’ founder.
Brown’s café in the Covered Market is celebrating its centenary year as the café was thought to have opened in 1924. However, Catherine Brown originally opened the café in 1920 and in a time when women were just starting to gain rights and independence, this was somewhat unheard of. Miss Brown ran the café up until the early 1960s and since then the café has been leased by only four people, including Humberto Freitas, the current owner, whose parents took over the café in the early 1990s.
Miss Brown’s niece, Sarah Allen told BBC Radio Oxford that “It’s just been a delight to rediscover and remember lots of these things about Catherine Brown - Auntie Katie to us.”
Ms Allen also remembered her aunt as “very eccentric but fun.”
The 100th anniversary of Brown’s coincides with the Covered Markets 250th anniversary back in September.
