British restaurants , opened by the Londoners' Meals Service to provide good food at minimum prices , have appeared almost everywhere in London . The strangest is at the Bethnal Green Museum , in the East End , where 1,000 hot lunches can be served every day .. Customers pay tenpence or a shilling in the hall , at a booth beside a bust of Garibaldi and get their meal at a service counter , carrying it past a bus of Oliver Cromwell to the central hall , where Venus , Goddess of Love , look down on the communal scene of Londoners lunching in classic surroundings. 16th June 1945