Tees Valley restaurant joins 200th S&D Railway Celebrations
Babul's is getting involved in 200th anniversary celebrations of the Stockton and Darlington Railway
Last updated 1st May 2025
A family-run restaurant in Darlington and Bishop Auckland is getting involved in the two-hundredth anniversary celebrations of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
Babul's is launching their own “Railway Lamb” curry to mark the dish cooked by past family members who worked on the railways in Bangladesh.
Co-owner brothers Zak and Shuhel Ahmed are passionate about sharing their family’s connection with the railway:
“In the train carriages, there would be the British officers at the front and the passengers and workers behind them at the back. In the front, they’d have their pastries, teacakes and sandwiches, while Bengali people had curry”, said Shuhel.
“They’d cook in a big pot – usually mutton, given Hindus don’t eat beef and Muslim people don’t eat pork.
“That was the food that the staff would eat. The idea is the smell would eventually get through to the front of the train – and they’d not be as keen on their tuna sandwich anymore and want to know what this was.
"Originally, the army officers, who went from carriage to carriage, would head back and eat the curry with the staff.”
Shuhel said it’s a great honour to pay respects to the dish made by their great grandfather, Riyasad Ali Khondokar:
“Our Railway Lamb, in Babul’s, is a homage to that journey – and where that food came from.
“My great-grandfather was one of that brotherhood who cooked it and ate it. He was part of that necessity to have a nice earthy and meaty food to give them the energy they needed to get through 12, 15 or 16 hours of work.
“It’s authentic, the favour is intense and the combination of lamb in a thick sauce with potato is so simple yet extraordinary.
“After 200 years, we’re now in the home of the railway – we put the railway lamb on the menu in Darlington when we got it right.”
Shuhel and Zak’s father, Babul, was one of five brothers, and Babul’s father ensured his passage to Britain in the wake of the 1971 civil war in Bangladesh.
“My family was in the war, but my grandfather wanted my father to go to the UK and make a new life for the whole family,” said Shuhel.
“It’s why we have a strong connection with both the UK and my family in Bangladesh.
“My father worked really hard for his family here and his family there. Our family in Bangladesh have a good living standard now, and that’s down to my father’s hard work – and we’re doing well from his hard work.
“When he came to the country, he worked down south and then came up north to North Yorkshire.
“He worked all over and stayed where he worked – we lived in Harrogate, on a council estate, Jennyfields. He worked in Manchester, York and across the North and came to see us once a week on his night off.
“He got sick and tired of that and then worked in Darlington, as it was closer to us.
“He met a handful of people who started the Spice Island chain of restaurants in the 1990s.”
The restaurants have now passed on to the next generation – but the rail link between India and Darlington is a story maintained.
Shuhel added: “One of my father’s business partners, Yogendra from North India, said they did a whole semester on the railways, and did loads of research about Darlington.
“He never thought in his life he’d come and settle and do business in the town he studied about as a young kid.
“At the time, the £5 note had Darlington on it – and whenever he went to India, he’d show the £5 note to everyone to explain where he was from.
“People in India know about the birthplace of the railway in Darlington – while quite a lot of people in England don’t.”
Leona White-Hannant, Development Director at Hopetown Darlington, said: “It’s fantastic to have the team at Babuls contribute to the 200th anniversary celebrations with their brilliant Railway Lamb story which will be on display in the Goods Yard for all to see.
“The partnership with Babuls and Hopetown Darlington helps to profile how Darlington’s pioneering railway engineering connected the world throughout the 19thand 20th centuries, and how that railway link between communities around the world still holds firm right here in Darlington.
“We can’t wait to share in Babul’s expertise and ideas as the partnership progresses.”
September 1825 marked the first passenger train journey in the world right here on Teesside.