Cambridge City Council – Community Cafes

The existing Meadows Community Centre and coffee shop is due to be demolished at the end November 2022, and the site is being completely rebuilt with 78 new homes and a large, two storey (1800msq) new Community Centre. This new centre will replace two old Community Centres (Buchan Street & The Meadows), and it is currently anticipated to be handed over to the Council on 5th November 2022. On awarding the contract to a coffee shop operator, the council will discuss and induction and mobilisation timetable and agree a date for the coffee shop to open in 2023. The new 2-storey Meadows Community Centre will have a 40 space community centre customer car park; a first floor hall for sports, theatre, music & performance events, a first floor nursery, and four first meeting rooms. The ground floor includes a second large multi-purpose hall; family activity room; staff areas and a ground floor coffee shop with internal and external seating areas. Outside of the centre is the paved coffee shop terrace, children’s play areas, skatepark, multi-use games area and a football pitch on the adjacent St Albans recreation ground.

The Clay Farm Centre was constructed as part of the Cambridge southern fringe development scheme and serves 2,300 new homes in Trumpington. The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway runs through the development and provides links to Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, the City centre, and the railway station. The Centre is based on Hobson Square which provides a focal point in the community with shops, schools and social facilities. The community centre is based over two floors and offers rooms for community and commercial meetings and activities, a library and a ground floor coffee shop. Above the community centre on the second floor there is a medical centre and there are two floors of residential homes on the third and fourth floors. The community centre opened in 2018 and the coffee shop has been operated by a catering company since then.