10/09/2026
Last weekend I was lucky enough to have a chat with a lovely customer who remembers coming to our building when it was a workshop making surgical instruments, back in the 1970s. He would come to meet a relative when he finished work, and remembers seeing the buffer girls who polish the finished products lined up at benches inside the front windows.
He talked about how much the area had changed since then, which was fascinating, and I explained that we’d seen some of that ourselves in the nine years since we’ve been here.
This is a picture of the cafe as it is now, alongside one from the spring of 2018 when the second phase of was under construction. Phase one (the big tower) was being finished off just as we opened, resulting in a queue of white vans right down the road as tradesmen came to sort the finishing touches on all the new apartments.
We’ve seen phase two go from a massive hole in the ground (there’s an underground carpark underneath so it really was big!) to a well-established neighbourhood, complete with mature trees 🌳
We love our corner of the city, which feels more bustling and diverse than ever 💚 We’re always interested in hearing more about its history too, if anyone else has memories to share!
