This tearoom, situated on the corner of Billingham Road and South Road, was known locally as Norton Oriental Refreshment Bungalow.
Built sometime in the late 1890s, tearooms like this existed up until the Second World War and were very popular meeting places for the growing middle classes – genteel ladies could socialise on the veranda while being served light refreshments and it offered a more socially acceptable alternative to the working class and male dominated public houses of the time.
In 1907, Norton Oriental Bungalow was burnt to the ground – a discarded cigarette was thought to have been the cause of the fire. A telephone exchange was built on the site after the derelict bungalow was demolished many years later.
Five years later in 1912 another tearoom style bungalow was built at the end of Beaconsfield Road in Norton with a new innovation – a dance floor. This tearoom served as a dance hall for Norton until 1934 and closed as a tearoom in 1935. The end came in 1948, like its predecessor the bungalow burnt to the ground and again a cigarette was suspected.