Cafe. 

The Latch Cafe @thelatchcafe has opened!

After a competitive tendering process, FoLaR has appointed Filippo Selini to operate and manage the cafe. Filippo is well known locally for having set up and made a great success of #Canbury Secret in Canbury Gardens and his team are very excited to be bringing their expertise to the new cafe. The cafe team work with FoLaR to benefit the community by supporting it's events and activities and contributing to the cost of FoLaR's work on the Rec. 

The cafe will generally open 8.30am- 5.30pm, provide a tasty healthy menu including options for vegans, those with allergies, gluten free etc. It has good recycling policies avoiding single use plastics as much as possible, and, moreover they have taken on responsibility for managing the toilets.

Peter Taunton, Chair of FoLaR, said "we are delighted to offer Filippo the opportunity to run the Rec cafe . He has embraced FoLaR's ambitious aims for a unique and community-oriented cafe, while giving us the benefit of his proven expertise in running #Canbury Secret. We are grateful to KIngston Council and our local Councillors for their support in this initiative.  

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Toilets

The toilets were always awful as there were no funds to maintain them well and so we worked with the Council to find a solution. The mens toilets were closed, the women’s toilets were made unisex and were refurbished. In the future the cleaning and maintenance will be undertaken by the cafe operator. 

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Picnic Tables

The three picnic tables arrived in 2019, now so well used it's difficult to remember life without them. We have identified positions for a few more and will seek donations or funding for these.

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Benches

More benches are very important to you. Idverde runs a memorial bench scheme and several have already been placed as part of this scheme. If you would like to buy a memorial bench, please contact  kingston.admin@idverde.co.uk 

 

Three old picnic tables were donated, renovated by us and placed in the sensory garden where they have proved to be very popular.

Playgrounds

We have very popular playgrounds which cater chiefly for the younger age group/Under 9s. We hope to develop an Adventure Playground for older children and a table tennis table. (see Masterplan).