Lancaster Community Bar Scoops Three Awards
Lancaster’s only community run café bar has won three prestigious awards and is now in the running for a national prize too.
The café bar at The Gregson Community and Arts Centre has received the trio of accolades from CAMRA – the Campaign for Real Ale – which has crowned it Club of the Year for Lunesdale, Lancashire and the North West. The Gregson will compete against 15 other clubs for the national title in November. The regional success is a feather in the cap for the team who run the café bar managed by Bex Carradus who took on the role three years ago after working in pubs across Lancaster for almost 25 years.
“The awards we’ve won are for the overall experience which people receive when they come into our café bar including a friendly welcome and community focus, as well as a cracking good pint,” said Bex.
“What we’ve tried to create is a space where everyone feels very welcome and safe.”
And the mystery customers who judged The Gregson café bar – CAMRA’s Lancashire area organiser and its North West regional director among them - obviously felt it had achieved that aim. The café bar, like the city’s oldest community and arts centre it serves, has been transformed in recent years and is particularly proud of its locally sourced offer whether that be food produced just next door at Toast; coffee from Atkinson’s or cakes from Lancaster-based maker, Talk About Tasty. Its beer is also supplied locally from Lancaster Brewery, Lune Brew in Galgate, Snowhill in Scorton and Kendal’s Gamyam Brewery. It boasts three rotating cask ales to keep drinkers interested too. To ensure the beer served is top quality, an entirely new cooling system was recently installed in the cellar and the installation of a new line cleaning system will mean that the café bar has to close from October 13-16.
These significant investments have been possible thanks to the commercial success of the café bar in recent years. Since Bex became manager there turnover has increased by almost 500%. All the café bar’s proceeds are pumped back into The Gregson, an independent charity owned by the community, so at the recent AGM £33,000 was donated into the charity’s coffers.
The Gregson has three bars run by seven staff, all on the living wage or above, and about a dozen volunteers who welcome customers from more than 20 social groups that meet in the café bar to those participating in activities across the centre which has event spaces for social and creative activities, performances, private parties and even a secret cinema. It also offers a ‘Work from The Gregson’ deal where for £5 anyone can enjoy unlimited tea or coffee for four hours while they work. The café bar’s role as a centre for the Bulk community has become even more important in recent years as the area has lost two of its pubs – The Britannia and Rose Tavern – and The Freeholders Arms is currently up for sale.
Said Bex: “Our success is a testament to what we’re doing here, our team and the loyalty of our customers, especially when times are so hard.”
The Gregson café bar is open Monday-Friday, 10am-11pm and from 11am-11pm at weekends. For more information, visit gregson.co.uk
