In 1949, two pairs of carriages were put into service on BR Southern Region to provide catering facilities with a difference. The idea came from Oliver Bulleid, the former Southern Railway’s Chief Mechanical Engineer, who had a track record of thinking ‘outside the box’ with his unusual air-smoothed ‘Pacifics’, double-deck carriages and cabbed ‘Leader’ locomotives.

Each pair consisted of a Composite Dining Car and a ‘Tavern Coach’. These were allocated to the ‘Atlantic Coast Express’ and provided thirsty commuters with a pub-on-wheels for their homeward journey. Internally, each ‘tavern’ was decorated to mimic an olde English pub, with tiled floor, whitewashed walls, ‘oak’ beams and high-backed settles, all illuminated by ‘lanterns’. Externally, the paintwork was divided horizontally, in carmine and cream, but the lower section lined out to represent brickwork. The upper section had ‘half-timber’ relief and a painted pub sign, while the small windows had old-style leaded panes.

The dining cars were unpopular and were quickly re-fitted in 1950, at which point the mock brickwork on the ‘taverns’ was repainted in plain carmine. They lasted in service in their pairs until late 1959 but were repainted in unlined BR(SR) green in 1957. Similar pairs of ‘Tavern Cars’ operated on other BR regions.