The Appleby Hub cafe has reopened in the heart of the town, welcoming back customers after a three-month refurbishment.
The first diners returned on Wednesday to the community hub in Chapel Street, which has undergone a redesign to create a commercial kitchen double the size of the original, more toilet facilities and structural work to the building.
Hub manager Sarah Jones said: “We are so delighted to welcome everyone back and to show our loyal customers the improvements we have made to the building.
“The work was essential, as the popularity of the cafe has grown, we needed a bigger kitchen to meet the demand. We never planned for this to happen, but we moved the cafe from a smaller room to the main hall to provide social distancing during the pandemic. We didn’t realise that we would increase the number of people coming and reach a point where we couldn’t manage with the small kitchen we had.
“We have also been able to carry out some essential building repairs, as well as improvements and refurbishment. We would like to thank the Right2work (R2W) and Oaklea Trust boards for their investment in the future-proofing of the building and the business.
“We would also like to say a big thank you to the Hadfield Trust and Cumbria Community Foundation for two grants which went towards the painting of the ceiling by professional decorators and the new flooring in the shop area.
“We are very grateful to our architect and project manager, Christopher Reed and our builder, Graeme Baldock, from Knock, who went beyond the call for us. He even used scraps of leftover wood to make planters for our community garden.”
The star ceiling has been recreated in the cafe area, with a representation of the constellations. New bookshelves have been installed to bring the Rotary Book Shop back into the cafe area as well as additional toilets to meet the needs of the growing clientele.
All areas of the cafe and community hub are fully accessible and regular classes and workshops are restarting this month.
Throughout the three-month closure, The Appleby Hub team have continued to carry on with community support for young people, providing a Marcus Rashford Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF 2023). The children’s holiday club was held in the upstairs Bennet Room, for young people receiving free school meals or with additional needs and their siblings.
The Appleby Hub team have also been busy helping with the redecoration and renovations.
Sarah added: “The team have been so busy over the past three months, re-upholstering all the chairs, painting the furniture and decorating the walls as well as running the HAF club sessions.
“The HAF club is so important and we were determined to continue providing the sessions throughout the summer and it was a great success. We are now looking forward to running the Christmas holiday HAF club and welcoming everyone back to The Appleby Hub for our workshops, classes and our cafe which will continue to be open Wednesday to Saturday.”
