News / Drink
Spare a thought for these two businesses
Two of Bristol’s smallest cafes have found themselves in the middle of building sites – putting their futures at serious risk.
If you didn’t already know where Just Ground and the Coffee & Crepe Cabin are you would currently have trouble finding them.
The two businesses are now heavily reliant on regular customers with both overlooked by major roadworks.
is needed now More than ever
Just Ground on the centre is metres away from the first phase of the redevelopment of the area, which is only due to end in March 2017.
Fences now shield it from view from the fountains, with the only footfall now from the direction of the Colston Hall. Once phase one is finished in six months, work will start on the area of the centre which Just Ground currently occupies.
Owner Arrow Jie is putting on a brave face. But he estimates that business is down by up to two-thirds and he now closes at 2pm rather than staying open until later in the afternoon as the bus stops which would provide customers have also been removed.
“Our customer base is now all the regulars,” Arrow says. “We are struggling. But our regulars are supporting us so we’re okay at the moment.
“I’m feeling quite optimistic about the future. I like where we are, but the next six months are going to be very difficult.”
If it’s bad at Just Ground, half a mile away at the Coffee & Crepe Cabin things are even worse.
A couple of signs around the side of the Arnolfini inform passers-by that the business is still open, but the work on Prince Street Bridge means that the cafe is now at the end of a dead-end and almost hidden underneath scaffolding.
When work on a new temporary overhead pedestrian walkway is finished, potential customers who once walked by the cafe’s front door will be looking down on its roof. Work on the bridge is due to be completed by April next year.
“We have been caged, entombed, stuck in a cage of doom,” says former co-owner and still employee Nigel Hammond (pictured top).
Like at Just Ground, the cafe is almost exclusively dependent on their regulars – most of whom Nigel knows by name – and will soon also be shutting in the afternoon due to a lack of customers.
“I’m peeved,” he adds, with much stronger words no doubt on the tip of his tongue. “This might in all seriousness shut us down. There will some grinning and bearing but there’s no point losing money.”
