I was delighted to discover the Pomona (*) Cafe during a visit to Orkney in July 2017.

Located at 9 Albert Street Kirkwall, one of the Pomona’s claims to fame is that it was amongst  the first in Scotland to boast  a privately-owned juke box. The juke box was installed in the 1950’s by the cafe’s then owner, Loretto Celli, known locally as “Peedie Charlie”

Today the juke box is in the Orkney Wireless Museum. 

Above the juke box are two photographs. One of Charlie behind the counter of the cafe in the late 1930’s; the other of his daughter, Carole, in the Wireless Museum.

The exact origins of the business have yet to be established though in the ‘Censimento’ of Scotland’s Italian community (1933-40), a Livio Zanre, resident at 16 Albert Street, is listed There is no reference to the Celli family in Kirkwall.

However, a Loretto Celli (Tailor) is listed at 6 Church Street, Inverness.  This Loretto came from Frosinone Province.  On “Charlie’s” marriage certificate (Kirkwall, 1940) his father is given as Loretto Celli (Ladies Tailor). Could he be Peedie Charlie’s father? Did “Charlie” leave Inverness to take over an existing business?

(*) The Latin name “Pomona” can still be seen, sometimes, on the occasional modern map and encyclopaedia article about Orkney. But the name “Pomona”, which is also the name of the Roman goddess of Fruit and Plenty, has never actually been used by Orcadians. Instead, its use stems from a mistranslation of an early Roman passage. (See: http://www.orkneyjar.com/placenames/pomona.htm)