The Cheltenham Trust, is a not for profit charity, that manages Cheltenham’s historic Pump Room and Town Hall, as well as the Wilson Art Gallery and Museum and Leisure at Cheltenham and the Prince of Wales stadium. It also manages the Garden Bar orangery and the Heritage Café at Pittville Pump Room. It has recently submitted applications for temporary planning permission for two years for the temporary orangery structures at the Garden Bar and the Heritage Deco café.
The trust opened these two outdoor cafes in June 2020 when its venues were closed due to the pandemic and when social interaction was severely restricted by the Covid19 regulations. Both cafes swiftly became lifelines for the community, visited by more than 1.53 million during their first two years of operation.
The café income enabled the trust to provide a wide range of free events for the community in safe environments supporting not just the wider community and visitors to the town, but also local artists and performers at a time when venues remained closed. Those free community events included live music, dance, sport, Christmas choirs and lights, art exhibitions and children’s activities and the programme has continued to grow as the venues reopened. This year the cafes have enabled investment to support free live music every weekend; dance; artisan markets; a two-day jubilee celebration including the lighting of Cheltenham’s official beacon attended by c10,000 people; a two-day Americana Retro festival; and the official event to mark the arrival in Cheltenham of the Commonwealth Games baton.
Plans are in place to host a range of free and inclusive Christmas celebrations this year that will showcase community choirs, artists and Santa with what is now becoming the traditional Christmas light switch on at the pump room. It also includes the transformation of the Garden Bar into an après ski lodge to complement and enhance the ice rink and Christmas Market at Imperial Gardens.
The cafes are vital to supporting the town’s local and visitor economy and they bring people into the town centre and Pittville Park. They are community social assets and have become a sanctuary and place to interact and belong. While the cafes are now visitor destinations and the anchor for free community events, they are way more than this. They are places that welcome the community and offer friendly conversation and a safe and pleasant environment to just be with other people.
Both cafes have loyal customers who have visited every day since opening. Those customers tell us the difference the cafes make to their lives, one example of many is from Rodger: “The café has helped me to recover from depression, it’s a reason every day to leave the house. I’ve met people here who have become lifelong friends. It is vital and I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t come here.”
The trust is focused on financial sustainability and continued investment in the town’s heritage and visitor attractions to support the local and visitor economy of Cheltenham. The cafes are not for profit and both support the community as vibrant social hubs and now significant visitor destinations, offering free year round community events enabled by the café income. This re-investment is vital in supporting the important heritage buildings they adjoin and in helping to secure the future sustainability of both the iconic Cheltenham Town Hall and Pittville Pump Room.
The orangeries were installed when the government lifted planning regulations due to the pandemic. The trust is now seeking temporary permission for both temporary structures while plans for appropriate permanent structures are considered and developed to ensure these valuable assets can become permanent and established visitor destinations.
If the temporary applications are refused both cafés would close, with the loss of c40 jobs including chefs, café and bar staff. In addition, many local musicians and artists that perform at the Garden Bar Orangery and Heritage Deco café would also lose a valuable platform for their work. The impact on the loyal base of customers of all ages, who have come to rely on the cafes as a safe and welcoming place for social interaction and support, would be devastating.
The cafes have become the foundation to supporting the historic venues and it would become a huge challenge to attract visitors to events such as the popular, and now established, monthly artisan markets at the pump room which enables local creatives an outlet to showcase their work and sell directly to visitors and to encourage footfall to enjoy the history of the iconic pump room by visiting its Heritage Trail, without the added visitor attraction of the cafes.
If you value the cafes and view them as vital to Cheltenham’s community and economy, we would be extremely appreciative if you would consider signing our on line petition of support at www.cheltenhamtrust.org.uk/outdoor-cafes-and-bar/ or submitting a letter or email to Cheltenham Borough Council at planning@cheltenham.gov.uk to demonstrate the strength of support and the contribution that the cafes make. Alternatively you may wish to send it to the trust at communications@cheltenhamtrust.org.uk to be submitted on your behalf.
The relevant planning application numbers are 22/01439/FUL for the Heritage Deco Café at Pittville Pump Room, and 22/01438/FUL for the Garden Bar Orangery at Cheltenham Town Hall.
We would like to extend our thanks to all our customers and suppliers and we hope that you will help support the cafes to continue to thrive and add value to the town.
