Freddies' oasis of coll

12:07pm Thursday 3rd April 2008

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Entrepreneur Freddie Giles' autobiography Must I Grow Up will bring back many memories for people in Devizes who remember his hugely popular coffee bar, The Oasis.

It was the first of its kind in the town and Devizes folk were suddenly able to sample the joys of "froffy coffy" that was all the rage in London and large cities across the world.

Bromham-born Mr Giles remembers returning from National Service full of ideas for the family dairy, run with a rod of iron by his father Ted.

Sadly, Giles Junior's ideas did not go down well with the paterfamilias and Freddie found himself packing his bags and leaving home.

His first venture was as a chimney sweep cum window cleaner, which proved very successful, but it was while visiting a coffee bar in Chippenham that his next big idea came.

He remembers: "There was quite a crowd and, as we emptied our cups, the waitress had to come and take them away.

"Instead of stacking them neatly, she popped them into a plastic bucket - very handy for her, but I found it rather amateurish. I thought the bucket was poor form and said so, probably loudly."

"If you're so bloody clever, Freddie Giles, why don't you open a coffee bar yourself?" asked one of his friends.

Mr Giles found premises behind the Olde Pie Shoppe in the Market Place and the irrepressible 21-year-old set about realising his vision.

A first view of his new premises gave Mr Giles reason to pause. He writes: "An empty shell, dark, dank, dismal. The covered passageway was just as shabby as I remembered.

"I didn't really know anything about building and decorating and that was probably just as well as I may never have taken it on."

But Mr Giles had a wide circle of skilled friends and with their help the Oasis coffee bar - complete with parquet flooring, bamboo curtains and a Gaggia coffee machine - opened its doors on January 13 1958, exactly a year to the day since his father threw him out.

The coffee bar was a huge success and queues were soon forming along the narrow passageway from the Market Place.

He says: "We served all and sundry, a cross section of the community. Not even mainly young people. Lots of middle-aged people liked it too.

"Before long we had people queuing in the passage to be allowed in.

"Titch, a Pay Corps chap from the barracks, came and played the red piano every evening.

"We hadn't yet gone down the road of the juke box, which was associated with rowdy youths and loud music, so it was always lively."

It didn't take long for Mr Giles's young feet to itch and he soon took off in other directions, opening other restaurants, hotels and bars.

But his brothers Frank and John took over the Oasis and John bought the popular Olde Pie Shoppe and ran it for many years.

There will be many in Devizes who remember the halcyon days of the town's first - and perhaps best - coffee bar.