Reimagining the role of a café
by Founder of The Canvas, Ruth Rogers
The Canvas: Shoreditch 2014–2022
10 years ago, with the help of friends and family, I transformed a dilapidated and abandoned restaurant just off Brick Lane in East London to create The Canvas.
The vision was a café and creative space that connected a community, that welcomed change makers, and promoted positivity, kindness and compassion. We were so much more than a café; we hosted free community events (on average 60 per month), a Pay-it-Forward board serving our homeless community, and a weekly food bank for our neighbours in need.
“A safe space and always welcoming. These are the spaces that are most needed for the community; rare precious spaces that are not only lovely to visit but have incredible values of such kindness and humanity.” — Canvas customer
We created an environment where our visitors were invited to give — their time, skills, energy, the price of a meal or a cup of coffee — and they responded just as I expected them to; I’m a firm believer that humans are amazing, they just need space to be so. The Canvas was that space.
“The place to act with purpose, eat with purpose, connect with purpose.” — Canvas customer
A collaboration with global art icons, and the cafe’s neighbours, Gilbert and George created a project, Double Helpings, that enabled us to serve free meals to vulnerable families in Tower Hamlets, funded by the sale of exquisite art plates. This meant that, when the pandemic hit, we were able to continue offering our food bank and free meals to those in need.
Over 8 years, The Canvas became a beacon of hope, a proud example of a better way to do business, and a vital safe space for its community.
Post-pandemic, we found our local area much changed, and trade was hard. We’d been making payments to our landlord throughout the pandemic and as the world reopened again, but had inevitably built up some arrears over lockdowns.
We’d tried many times, but had been unsuccessful in engaging our landlord in a payment plan — they’d ignored all our attempts at communication between 2020–22.
Then, in July ’22, with no advance warning, we found the locks had been changed and our lease had been forfeited.
“I am SO sad we have lost this treasure! A beautiful space, I’ll remember it forever.” — Canvas customer
We were all devastated. The Canvas in Shoreditch was a magnificent and unique space. The outpouring of grief on our socials is testament to that.
The Canvas: Sydenham 2022
With post-pandemic trade so affected in Shoreditch, we’d taken an opportunity to open a second space in Sydenham, South London, in the cafe area of a yoga studio.
Our Sydenham space traded from March-Sept 2022, and passionately connected our community through free events and a welcoming space, open to all.
When we lost access to our Shoreditch space, we lost vital infrastructure for the Sydenham cafe’s business model, and I had to make the painful decision to close it down. But in just 6 months, we’d seen the power of The Canvas’ ethos:
“Thank you for creating The Canvas — it really has had a huge impact on my life. I was signed off work with stress and came to The Canvas to try and heal myself without medication.
I just wanted to thank you; The Canvas has really helped me to feel better connected with my local community which is a huge antidote for the loneliness I was feeling.” — Canvas Sydenham customer
Full story of The Canvas closure here.
It was exceptionally hard, as a founder, to see my vision forcibly closed down. Especially as both spaces were tangible forces for good in their neighbourhoods, each with substantial support from their communities.
I took the winter of ’22 off, to ‘winter’ in the Katherine May way, and gathered myself to take stock and plan my next steps. I didn’t know what would develop, but I knew I had to give The Canvas the opportunity to return.
I started by talking to people who’d been on The Canvas journey; staff members, customers, flag wavers and supporters. I started meeting new people who were in the same world. I formed an advisory team of supportive experts. And the message was clear; The Canvas should return. But in what form?
“There should be a Canvas in every city!” — Canvas customer
I kept hearing the same message again and again: There should be a Canvas in every city, and even every neighbourhood. If we could achieve that, I was told, The Canvas could be a key factor in the ‘citizen shift’; moving us away from seeing ourselves as consumers, and instead as proactive citizens of the world. To quote Jon Alexander, author of ‘Citizens’:
“People who actively shape the world around us, who cultivate meaningful connections to their community, who can imagine a different and better life, who care and take responsibility, and who create opportunities for others to do the same.”
“The Canvas could be a vital catalyst for the citizen shift” — Jon Alexander, author of Citizens
And similarly, I heard repeated calls for the timing to be soon; Disempowered and disillusioned by a failing political system and widening economic injustice, people are crying out for something restorative that they can cling to in these troubled times.
“This is the antidote to the great acceleration of artificial life.” — Stan Rosenthal, founder of the Happy Cafe Network
But how could I achieve this scale and impact?
“When a business is desirable, culturally magnetic and a powerful force for good … not only will they be the ones winning in the future, they’ll be bettering it too.” — Mary Portas, April 2023
The idea struck me in the summer of 2023 that there are existing physical cafes already in every neighbourhood. Cafes that may already commit to community impact in some form; others that may not.
And for this rebirth of The Canvas to maintain its original heart, the path to forge is not one that immediately looks to create identikit replicas across the country, adding competition to what’s already a viciously tough trading environment for independents.
No; the opportunity is there to unite and amplify existing local cafes; to reimagine and breathe life into the role of a cafe and therefore help to regenerate high streets and communities across the UK.
The Canvas: Network
So, I’m delighted to announce that The Canvas is being reimagined; as a nationwide network, connecting and uniting community café spaces across the UK, supporting them to adopt community services in order to empower their customers to make a positive impact and, to quote Jon Alexander again, be the key to fixing everything.
“The key to fixing everything is all of us.” — Jon Alexander, author of Citizens
Imagine if your local café
- opened in the evenings for you and your neighbours to host free community gatherings;
- ran a pay-it-forward board for people struggling financially;
- offered a weekly food bank to save surplus food from landfill, and support families in need.
And for independent café owners, imagine
- being supported to adopt activities that transform your business into a vital community asset;
- customers actively seeking out your businesses, because you’re a neighbourhood force for good;
- your café mapped on The Canvas app, so coffee-lovers need only open their phones to find their nearest café in the network, where they can spend their money at a place that resonates with their values, and where they can have a direct impact.
I believe that cafés that join the Network will come to represent physical beacons of hope, pointing to a better way. With the world on the brink of an ecological crisis, who knows what’s coming our way; we will need spaces where we can connect with others; where we can give support, and receive it too.
For those interested in the numbers, taking as a guide the social impact of The Canvas in Shoreditch over 8 years, the potential of a thriving network of citizen-powered café spaces, creating positive action in their neighbourhoods, is:
- Direct donations of home cooked food and hot drinks to those experiencing homelessness and poverty of £1.6m each year;
- Over 5k local families supported through cafe food banks per year;
- And around 195k free community events held across the UK every year, annually benefitting approximately 6 million local community members.
This is what I’m committed to building. But I can’t do it alone.
So; if you’ve read this and want to help me on this journey, let’s chat. Book a slot via my Calendly, and I look forward to meeting you.
Or, if you run a café, or know one that would be interested in coming on board in these first stages as we build this, please leave a comment below or email me: ruth@thecanvascafe.org
You can also follow this journey on my new podcast, launching in September 2024. Called ‘The Canvas for Change’, the podcast will celebrate the positive projects that exist in the world because they developed in some way at The Canvas, and also explore how we can make The Canvas Network a reality.
Follow the podcast to get updates on new episodes, and listen to our first episode ‘Two Years On’.
