Smugglers Cafe & Art

15/06/2026

New, very expensive door on its way.
In case you were thinking of having a couple of extra iced lattes this week.. 🫶

05/06/2026

Coffee First 🥇

12/05/2026

With holidays coming up, we need an extra person to help at weekends.
DM or email:
[email protected]
If you're interested 🙂

19/04/2026

Some of you ask for some crazy combinations.

Personally I would not have a side of scrambled eggs with my banana pancakes.

Or a soya hazelnut iced latte 🥺

But you do you.

It's your Brunch 🥚

13/04/2026

Funny how the cafe is now 12, but I'm still 32 😊

Grateful for what these 12 years have given me, other than the wrinkles.

A pretty special community of people, who've become friends and allies.

The support of the most positive of people, who've cheered us on when I've not been sure myself. Literally to the point of turning up for takeaway coffee when it snowed in lockdown. My heroes.

A crazy gang of colleagues, who've come and gone and added their personality to the spirit of the place. Many have gone on to do some really interesting things, but they will always be Smugglers to me 🙂

The freedom to work for myself all this time. The chance to keep something of my own going whilst also being a mum. To do work I love, and still be back for school pickup. It's sometimes stretched me to my limit, and pitched me against a system built by men. But the adjective people most tag me with these days (to my face) is 'strong', and I'm proud of that.

The passion and drive is still there to keep building. But the current climate is challenging for hospitality, for most people really. So I'm not going to be unrealistic, but when an opportunity comes that suits us and the times, we will grab it! There is something this summer which would be a great fit for us, so I will let you know 💫

Thank you for your 5 minutes. You won't get them back.
But you have won a Free Coffee,
redeemable tomorrow only (14th).

See you then x

04/04/2026

08/03/2026

I'm joining this campaign to reduce VAT for hospitality (and I believe other labour-intensive services such as beauty salons are similar), for many reasons.

First and foremost, I doubt we will slog through another wet winter if this doesn't change.

Lockdowns excepted, we've kept the cafe open 360 days a year for the last 12 years.

But on many of the quiet, rainy days, losing 20% of the money people spend switches us from making a tiny profit to making a loss.

I love our little business. I love our local community. But with a family at home, I can't keep doing it to pay the taxman instead of myself.

Imagine what we could do with 10% more of the revenue. I could hire 2 more people. I could fix the front door! There would be an incentive once more to expand and improve.

As a former government economist I don't know what those working on high street business policy are doing, but they're lagging behind every other advanced economy.

Germany and Ireland have both reduced hospitality VAT this year to 7% and 9%.
Portugal is at 6%, France, Spain and Italy 10%. Australia is 10%, California 7.25%.

Successful UK hospitality businesses make around 10% profit. But are taxed twice this.

To say it discourages investment and employment is an understatement.

Plenty are giving up and paying 0% tax.
Companies like Greggs make sure their products are 0-rated, and pay 0% vat.

But the independent cafe where you can sit and keep warm, meet others, use the facilities, get out of your house for a while with your baby - they lose 20% of what you're spending.

The economists in Germany have worked this out.

Maybe the ones in our government being paid from our hard work should do the maths.

13/02/2026

Really hate red roses, please don't all bring us loads..

15/01/2026

Mini Brunch available every weekday -
mini granola, mini toastie, piccolo coffee 🐦