A new café bar opened two days ago at 15 Market Place, Abingdon, offering a daytime café and a wine bar in the evening.
On my first view on this chilly April morning, people were enjoying the warm seats indoors, but not too many were using the seats outside yet. Someone joked that the additional seating adds to the ongoing “Chair Wars” on the Market Place.
Martin, originally from Belgium, says the chairs on the Market Place remind him of the wonderful café culture on the continent.
The premises were previously a nursery shop and, before that, another café with a French name. The name lives on in Bath Street.
Thirty three years ago, when we first came to Abingdon, it was well nigh impossible to find somewhere to have a coffee or afternoon tea. Good luck to Ma Cherie and I look forward to trying it out.
If my memory serves me correctly, long ago it was a chemist called Savory and Moore which then became Scaddans
What a fantastic idea…. Fancy having something on the square open at 5pm! I k forward to trying it to.
After a day on the Abbey Meadow, a nice place for a drink.
Speaking of the Abbey Meadow; just a heads up to the council….that it’s May soon so it may get hot….in case it’s worth turning on the water sprinklers or paying GLL (or whoever) to have the outdoor pool open.
Summer happens every year, but don’t take my word for it, pay a consultant to tell you instead….
R&R tried opening after hours as a cocktail bar sometime ago. I believe he found it didn’t pay with a alcohol licence and the usual running costs and stopped doing it after a few months and resumed as a normal coffee shop. Trouble is, well look at the picture. All there is on the market place now is coffee shops 5 Apart from one small jewellers shops 5 in that one photo alone. Good luck to the new one, but with an over saturated market we don’t need any more coffee shops. Or barbers or nails booths. and with 2 Clarkes and vodafone both closing. just one more nail in Abingdon’s coffin.
Maybe a shop selling coffin nails would be good?
OK my reply needed work. No way of editing or removing comments once made. .
But I meant what I said. Abingdon’s going down the pan if all we have to look forward to is another shop selling coffee or a barbers or a NAIL bar. Take the piss if you like. but its still true
On the continent it’s quite normal for the town/village square to be surrounded by cafes and bars – I wonder if people there complain too? I quite often find our Market Place has a lovely buzz about it, even on a dull day.
It does! Always lovely to see a market.
But….£4 for a sausage. £7 for a bacon bap. Nearly 4 quid for a slice of cake!
Got to be a higher rate tax payer to shop there….nice to look at though.
Well said Hester. Despite those who are glass half empty types Abingdon has a lot going for it and the town centre has stood up well to the many economic pressures placed on it.
Also amused by how many people think we should still have the retail mix of the 1970s – the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker- when the 2020s has such a much more diverse retail base including out of town stores and internet shopping; the situation for town centre independents compounded by high rents, high business rates (set by central government) and increased employment costs.
Good idea Daniel, an undertaker/nail bar business all under one roof called ‘Coffin Nails’.
Or a dentist and pillows shop – “Spitting feathers”?
Or a charity shop and barbers combined… “Oxfordshire Hair Ambulance”.
Of course Coffin Nails could be three shops in one if called Coffee’n’Nails say it quickly enough and it’s the original name.
Long term it would be great to see the car park/charter area completely redeveloped so that Bury street can come alive again, its dying on its arse at the moment with most shops boarded up or mostly empty of customers.
Needs some fresh ideas and much bigger brand names than are there at the moment.