The classic park cafe, once synonymous with ice-cream, sad sandwiches and instant coffees in polystyrene cups, is being rewritten – in East London anyway. Across Hackney and beyond, a new wave of specialty cafes is transforming these small park spaces into hubs of community, connection and excellent coffee.
The shift has been brewing for a while. Pavilion cafe in Victoria Park, which opened in 2004, was the original, drawing snaking queues with its beloved Sri Lankan breakfasts. For years it was the only one breaking the mould, until Lizzy’s on the Green in Newington Green opened in 2013. But in the past two years, there’s been a boom: Blas in Victoria Park, Sons in Hackney Central, Fink’s Pump House in Clissold Park and most recently the new Shoreditch spot from Bad Manners.
Why now? It’s partly generational. The pandemic recalibrated our relationship with the outdoors, and the data backs it up: 18 to 34-year-olds are 63 per cent more likely to go hiking than before 2021, and this growing love of green space has extended to parks. Cafes are meeting this newfound appreciation head on.
“There was a gap in Hackney Central for specialty coffee, 7am openings and a beautiful place to enjoy a flat white,” say Barney Perrett and Ben Coombs, co-founders of Sons which opened earlier this year. “In a transient city like London, we want Sons to feel like family to the local community.”
The kiosk, tucked in St John’s Churchyard, has become a base for parents, commuters and dog walkers alike. Alongside almond croissants and flat whites, it serves 14-hour slow-roasted brisket and cheese toasties at lunch and a reasonably priced soup of the day. Over summer Sons has hosted free Pilates classes and a second-hand clothing pop-up, and it has a weekly run club. And Sons isn’t the only park cafe offering more than a caffeine hit. Blas has a baby club where parents can come and mingle on blankets on the grass.
The lure of nature is a strong pull for cafe- and park-goers. “We forget how amazing East London’s green spaces are,” Coombs tells Broadsheet. “Now they’re being used to their full potential. I think more East Londoners are desperate to find peace and stillness in these parks while enjoying a flat white.”
And like the parks themselves, these cafes are open to a vast spectrum of visitors. “There’s something quite egalitarian about their nature,” says Max Fishman of Bad Manners, which now serves LA-style burritos – including a sausage burrito with house-made pork sausage patty, a soft-set omelette, tater tots and cheese – from an Airstream in a Shoreditch churchyard (it was previously based in the Hackney Central space where Sons is now). “We don’t have walls inhibiting anyone from coming in – it helps foster a sense of community and a sense that the space is for everyone.”
At Fink’s new Pump House cafe in Clissold Park, that sense of community is palpable. “People engage with us in a really different way than they do in our other cafes because we’re in their park, we’re on their turf and there’s a mutual respect there,” co-owner Jess Blackstone tells Broadsheet. Fink’s fought for eight years to open in the derelict hut by the Green Lanes gate, finally transforming it into a bijou space stacked with sourdough sandwiches, soft serve ice-cream, cakes made with Natoora produce and Scenery coffee.
“The location forces us to build an offering that’s completely tailored to our very specific park community, rather than simply attracting our usual types,” sats Blackstone. “Plus, we get to spend the day in the park among trees and flowers – a rare treat for a Londoner.”
