The Big Comfy Book Shop

Fargo Village
Unit 2F
Far Gosford Street
Coventry
CV1 5ED

07710 400428

The Big Comfy Bookshop 

Creative Cafe Activities:

• book clubs
• book events
• live music 
• signed readings  
• story time 

Review

A new way of looking for a Creative Café

I’ve made a decision about a new way of looking for a Creative Café. On the Find a Café page I had tried to list all of the cafés I’d ever come across by town, county, country and post code. The list was becoming unwieldy and didn’t look all that attractive.

Now I’m going simply describe how to search the site for a café. Each café info page and any review of it is tagged with the post code, town, county, country and the activities it offers.

I shall keep a list of Create Café Project activities on the Find a Café page. These will link to posts about cafés that offer these activities.         

Nucleus Arts

Multiple locations in Kent. 

Nucleus Arts 

Creative Cafe Project activities:

• photography exhibitions 
• art exhibitions 
• music festivals 
• craft
• book events  

Writers in cafés: Gill James at The Art of Tea, working on Girl in a Smart Uniform

The Art of Tea in Didsbury village is my sort of place. I spent a pleasant afternoon there recently as I took a day’s leave. What does a writer do on a day’s leave? Sit and write of course. Busman’s holiday or what?

The holiday bit, I guess is the sitting in a café and enjoying some expertly brewed camomile tea and a rum slice and people-watching at the same time as writing. Certainly, being out and about and amongst other people helps to combat the feeling of isolation. Is that why we writers enjoy working in cafés so much?

White Rose Books Thirsk YO7 1ET

White Rose Books
79-81 Market Place
Thirsk
North Yorkshire
YO7 1ET
01845 524353

Creative Cafe Project activities:

• author events
• book events
• Bloomin' Words Cabaret (live poetry and readings)  
• live music   

 White Rose Books

Widlfour Bakery and Cafe Decatur, Illinois 62523

Wildfour Bakery and Cafe
Decatur
Illinois 62523

Creative Cafe Projective Activities

• antiques 
• book group 

Wildflour Bakery and Cafe 

Ebb and Flo Bookshop Chorley

12 Gillibrand Street
Chorley
Lancashire
PR7 2EJ
01257 262773

Web site


Creative Cafe Project Activities

• story yoga
• reading groups 
• live music 
• exhibitions 
• craft workshops

The Ginger Pig Hoxton London N1 5LG

231 Hoxton Street
London N1 5LG
Area: Hoxton

020 7749 00705

The Ginger Pig offers the following Creative Cafe Project activities:

•  Meeting place for creative practitioners
• Free WiFi
• Newspapers
• Space to read and write

The Ginger Pig 


Reviews of the Ginger Pig

The Ginger Pig


The Ginger Pig Revisited

The Bridge Cafe, Bray

1 Castle Street
Bray
Co Wicklow
Email: info@thebridgecafe.ie
Phone: 01 2764833
www.facebook.com/TheBridgeCafeBar

The Bridge Cafe


Creative cafe project activities:

• Traditional Irish music
• International Student Cafe 
• Writers' groups   

Reviews

Run with the local community in mind 

 

The Book Stop Cafe

BookStop Cafe
47b Steep Hill
Lincoln
LN2 1LU

Creative Cafe Project Activities

• Book events
• Retails local and independent author books
• Festival events
• Promotes artists   

Aardvark Books, Bucknall,

Aardvark Books
The Bookery
Manor Farm
Brampton Bryan
Bucknell
Shropshire
SY7 0DH

Tel: + 44 (0) 1547 530744

 

Aardvark Books 

Creative Cafe Project activities: 

• Crafts
• Play space for children 
• Author readings 
• Live music
• Exhibitions

Café reviewers and scouts needed

Would you like to review for the Creative Café Project? Is there a creative café near you that should be on the list? If so send us the details and we’ll include it. Would you like to write a short article about it? It should be about 350 words and can be as personal or as objective as you like – as long as it tells us something more about the café than what’s on the blurb.

Definition reminder

How do you recognise a creative café? Have a look at a few on the site and you’ll probably get a sense of it. There are two main criteria:

1.      It must be first and foremost a great café

2.      It must have some sort of creative activity going on such as:

a.       Provide gallery space

b.      Have literature available for customers to read – newspapers, magazines, books

c.       Host a writing group

d.      Host live music

e.       Host a reading group

f.       Provide informal meeting space

Sample reviews

Take a look at these. 

Blue Sky

The Ginger Pig

Time for Tea

Contact

Send your café suggestion or review here. Pictures also welcome.

The Reader Cafe L18 3 JB

Calderstones
Mansion House
Calderstones Park,
Liverpool, L18 3JB

0151 724 5000

The Reader Cafe 

The Reader Cafe offers the following Creative Cafe Project activites

• book groups
• story reading
• books to read whilst eating and drinking
• short courses for serious readers 
• craft afternoons
• shared reading groups 
• live theatre (with own  Globe-type theatre in the grounds

Writers in Cafes: Sara Sheridan

A few years ago when my daughter was about to leave school, I moved into town. I had a plan. Molly was going to go to college and I was going to travel more and write as I went. I was in my late 30s, divorced and had just moved into a small two-bedroom flat in the city centre – the kind of flat upon which you can safely slam the door and head off into the sunset. New York, Paris, Istanbul. It was all ahead of me - a well laid plan.

Within a couple of months however I inadvertently met my second husband, my daughter, who had rented a place in Glasgow, where she went to study came home again and that footloose, fancy free novelist who was going to go wherever her heart dictated was back in the box. The box was too small – we later built an extension.

More news about the Creative Café Project

More cafés needed

We’re always on the look-out for new cafés, so if you know of one, please do tell us about it.

How do you recognise a creative café? Have a look at a few on the site and you’ll probably get a sense of it. There are two main criteria:

1.      It must be first and foremost a great café

2.      It must have some sort of creative activity going on such as:

a.       Provide gallery space

b.      Have literature available for customers to read – newspapers, magazines, books

c.       Host a writing group

d.      Host  live music

e.       Host a reading group

f.       Provide informal meeting space

Each café is completely different in the way it operates and each one has a unique atmosphere. Do you know of a café that should join the scheme? If so, contact me here.