29 June 2012 Last updated at 01:22 ET

WBA and England winger Joe Johnson's snack bar honour

By Andrew Dawkins BBC News

Joe Johnson ran the cafe in Dartmouth Park for over 30 years

Away from the matchday noise of The Hawthorns, home of West Bromwich Albion FC, a former England footballer can be remembered in the tranquillity of a nearby park.

A snack bar in honour of pre-World War II player Joe Johnson has officially opened on the spot where he ran a cafe for three decades.

It was a real family affair in Dartmouth Park for the man who had the pleasure of playing alongside football legend Sir Stanley Matthews for five years in the 1930s at Stoke City.

Johnson's daughter, Shirley Flood, now 76, worked in the Victorian cafe from the age of 10 - and was helped by her two brothers, sister and mother Flo, who died in 1960.

'Very popular'

Now a grandmother-of-nine, Mrs Flood helped to cut the ribbon at the "Joe Johnson Snack Bar" - part of a new £900,000 pavilion - nearly 30 years after the previous cafe site was destroyed by fire.

Mrs Flood said: "Kids used to come knocking on the door for [my father's] autograph. I used to sell his autographs at school.

"Anybody who plays for England are proud aren't they?... [But] he was modest. He definitely wasn't the type to go around saying 'I played for England'."

Shirley Flood said she was "proud" that the new snack bar was named after her father

In his football career as an outside left, he scored 22 goals in 55 league games for Albion - and players used to come into his cafe.

Mrs Flood said: "Stoke City beat West Bromwich Albion 10-3 [in February 1937] and dad scored four of the goals [for Stoke].

"So West Bromwich Albion were very interested in him and that's when they said 'would you like to come and play for us?'

"He loved birds and dad taught [one] to say 'up the Baggies'.

"People used to come in from all over [to the cafe] to hear this black Hill Mynah say 'up the Baggies'... It was a very popular place that cafe was."

She recalled selling candy floss, ice cream and milkshakes, adding that her father "made the most marvellous cup of tea".

'Fond memories'

Johnson rented the refreshment room from 1945 until he retired in 1976, aged 65.

Johnson ran the refreshment room from 1945

He died in 1983 - in the year that fire destroyed the cafe - and Mrs Flood said the family were "honoured and proud" that the new facility was named after her father.

She described the official opening as a "wonderful" day, with 200 people celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in the park.

The new pavilion has been paid for by lottery money and Sandwell Council and the snack bar, which opens during weekends and school holidays, was named in his honour thanks to the Friends of Dartmouth Park.

Asked why his name was suggested, the voluntary group's secretary, Carol Hartill, said: "We've all got such fond memories of us using that refreshment room when the Johnson family were running it.

"He was a bit of a character."

Images and words on the pavilion walls reflect the heritage of the area - and a board charting Johnson's life is next to one about another notable former West Bromwich resident, Madeleine Carroll, who made 43 films.