A lost Manchester tea room known for "amazing cakes" was loved in the city centre for generations.
Situated in St Ann's Passage, the arcade between King Street and St Ann's Square, for decades Meng and Ecker was the go-to place for hot drinks and cake, long before the days when a Starbucks or a Costa dotted every high street. The business was first established over a century ago by two Swiss confectioners, Fleury Meng and Joseph Buchegger - who later changed his name to Joseph Ecker - who came to England in the 1890s.
The confectioners had a catering businesses in Newcastle and Sunderland, before expanding their business and opening their Manchester tearoom. And it wasn't long before Meng and Ecker began attracting generations of loyal customers.
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Downstairs, pedestrians could look in the shop front and see a number of delicious treats and wedding cakes on display. And upstairs, customers will remember enjoying everything from Welsh rarebit to teas, coffees and cakes.
The business is said to have been taken over in 1950. Its latter owner was, Lilian Deakin, who passed away in 2004 at the age of 90.
Ross Harris, 78, is the great-nephew of former owner Joseph Ecker and now lives in Central British Columbia in Canada. He said Mr Meng and Mr Ecker were both trained in Switzerland as confectioners and that he believes the business opened in Manchester around the time Joseph Ecker married his great-aunt in 1910.
He told the Manchester Evening News: "The business started in Sunderland before 1900. It was set up by a man called Fleury Meng and I think his brother might have been involved with it and then they set up a partnership in 1900 and that tied into my family. Joseph Ecker married my grandfather’s sister, which would have been my great-aunt.
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"I knew him quite well because he kept very close to the family and I even spent time in Switzerland with him when I was 13-years-old. He had a bit of a sad life because his wife died in her early thirties of cancer and then his son was killed in the battle of Britain.
"He was single and never remarried, but he kind of adopted our family in that essence." When Fleury Meng died in 1915, Joseph took over all assets and liabilities of Meng and Ecker.
Ross said his main memories of Meng and Ecker are from just after the war and that the family would visit the restaurant quite often in the early 1950s. Ross said: "We used to go to Meng and Ecker in Manchester when I was very young.
"My mother's sister also worked at Meng and Ecker during the war because there weren't many people to work - most people were away fighting. There was a passage and, as you went along the passage, that’s where the front of the shop was where people would go and buy their cakes and all the specialities there.
"People would order wedding cakes and all kinds of things there. But, for the restaurant itself, there was a door sort of to the side that came off St Ann's Square and you went up a narrow staircase up to the second floor.
"You got to the top of the stairs, there was a slight hallway then you got to the restaurant. We always seemed to go to the same table as they always put it down as the 'Eckers table.'
"It was at the right of the door and my mother and sometimes my aunt and my cousin would all go there. It would be ‘let’s go to Meng and Ecker' because we were all going into town shopping and so on."
"I do remember the specialty was Welsh rarebit and I always enjoyed that Welsh rarebit when we went there. There was a lady there working who did the cooking called Kitty, she was a Mancunian who used to come and chat to my mother and myself about the days with, as she always said, Mr Ecker."
Ross said, during the war, Joseph also managed to get together a group of people who had "sugar points" to be able to make his parents a genuine wedding cake with real sugar. Ross said: "It wasn't a very big one because there was only five people at the wedding because, that's the way it was during the war."
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Ross said he also has fond memories of the first time he left England at aged 13 to stay with Joseph in Switzerland. He said his great-uncle had "a great sense of humour" and the trip was the last time he saw Joseph before he died in the early 1960s.
Ross said: "He would never ever produce cakes or anything that didn't have genuine natural ingredients in there. He did a magnificent black forest cake but he would not use artificial cream, he used proper cherries and he said its not good unless you put some kirsch in the mix."
A few years ago, Ross also came across Facebook group dedicated to Meng and Ecker. Customers have since shared their fond memories of the business and how loved it was in Manchester.
David Heaton, from Sale, told the MEN: " My maternal grandmother, known to her three grandsons as nana, used to take us into Manchester when our primary and later early secondary school holidays did not coincide with those of our parents. Nana used to spoil us and one of our favourites was a visit to Meng and Ecker.
"I don’t recall what I drank - most probably hot chocolate, which was then a luxury for us - but I do recall their sumptuous Bakewell slices. My last visit there was in the mid-1980s, as I recall, when I went in on a whim and went straight down memory lane with the Bakewell, albeit with coffee.
"The shop was a traditional tea shop, resistant, thank goodness, to the blandishments of the plastic, mirror and steel age. The staff were always courteous and had time for their customers.
"If I could wish it back I would do so in a flash. Happy memories, particularly of a Nana who loved to indulge us when her pension permitted."
Ian Mason said: "I used to go there a lot. It was a wonderful café just in the arcade between King St and St Ann's church.
"The coffee and scones were to just go into Manchester for. I was so disappointed when it closed."
And Sandra Elizabeth Collins said: "I would go on Saturdays with mum and dad and we would have their amazing cakes and coffee. I first went at age 14 and it was popular because it felt homely and upper-class at the same time. It was a lovely place with friendly staff - I felt in my element in Meng and Ecker."
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Ross said: "My cousin john lives in Perth, Australia. We grew up together and we both enjoy the fact that people seem to enjoy it and can remember it.
" Seeing all those people who have spoken about Meng and Ecker, it does sort of do your heart good to know that there is a tie in there that goes back to a small bit of Manchester history that we were involved in."
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