New cafe and community space opens in old Stoke-on-Trent pub building
A new cafe and community space has opened in an empty pub building in Stoke-on-Trent.
Rehoboth opened The Well community space inside The Swan pub building in Burslem earlier this month after refurbishing the interior to bring the venue back into use.
It's hoped the cafe will provide an open space for residents and support agencies to meet, have coffee and cake or to relax.
The Rehoboth community project also runs two shops selling second-hand clothes, furniture and household goods in a neighbouring unit on Queen Street.
The wider project started at the beginning of lockdown in 2020, when St John's Church started a clothes bank in addition to its existing food bank for those in need and the new cafe opened earlier this month.
Rev. Lydia Palmer, who has been leading the project, told Stoke Nub News: "The owner of this building asked us to look after it, as people had been getting in and a few negative things were happening in here.
"When we came in here, we thought we could do so much with this and do something for the community and make it a community space.
"It was a bit of a shock to see how much work we had to do as there was a lot that had happened in here like the electric had been stripped out and we had to do a lot of work on the boiler.
"But once we committed ourselves to this, we just had to go with it."
The space is open for anyone to visit or host group sessions in and the books on the shelves in the cafe are free to take and read or to read while sitting in.
The organisation is also working with the King's Trust to support young people with gaining experience volunteering in the community so they have more practical skills on their CV.
Lydia added: "It's going really well so far and we have lots of agencies coming to us asking if they can use it for different groups and meetings.
"I don't want people to just think this is a cafe because it isn't - its a proper community space where you can come in and just have a chat with someone.
"Upstairs there are some rooms that we've made so agencies who need to speak with people or to sort something out they are able to use a private space."
For more information and opening times see Rehoboth's Facebook page here.
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