Have you ever visited Café 1759 in Whitehill and Bordon? It’s one of our not-for-profit community cafés supported by volunteers. As well as delicious food and drink, we work with the local community and organisations to provide activities and events.
Although we already run lots of activities from the café, we wanted to have somewhere with more space for groups to deliver their support, and for some, in a more appropriate way – we couldn’t really host Pilates in the middle of the café!
So, in October 2022, we officially launched The Room, our new community space in Chieftain House next to Café 1759.
We know the rising cost of living is having a big impact, so The Room supports those living in Whitehill and Bordon to access affordable services they need on their doorstep. It’s available for local organisations and the community to hire, so as well as supporting our community it also increases footfall into the café.
As well as our weekly Employment Hub taking place in The Room, we’ve held family and teens cooking sessions, clothes swap shops, trial yoga and Qigong sessions, a regular boxing class for girls aged 11-16 years and weekly activity sessions for adults with learning disabilities as well as supporting the Sunflower Dementia Club, one of the first clubs to join us at Café 1759. Plus there’s been a few kids birthday parties along the way too. We refurbished the room using Section 106 funding from East Hampshire District Council. We were also heavily supported by Travis Perkins under the social value agreement. They provided the materials for the re-fit, supplying wood for bench seating, all the materials for some stud walls, along with MDF for wall panelling.