Internal Cafe Seating Reopens!

The reopening event was attended by hundreds of people who were queuing out of the door by 9:30 for their egg and chips, muffins coffee and cake. People were jubilant and overjoyed to see the café reopened and cleaned up with its new floor and the staff sporting their ‘Dukes on the Rose Garden’ logos. At about 10:30 am we had some speeches from Caroline Dewar the Chair Of Friends of Graves Park retracing how we got here and what the future holds.

Liz Hnat spoke about the impact of the 11,000 signatures as one of the predominant reasons for the victory and getting the café reopened and Councillor Richard Williams, Chair of the Council Charity Trustee Sub Committee who congratulated everybody on their hard work and perseverance. Richard has stood by us from the beginning and was at the early protests and lobbying. At some stage in the future, the café will have to be closed temporarily to undertake the structural work on the front wall and a new roof along with the full refurbishment which people asked for during the public consultation. Our next job is to arrive at a fundraising target based on the estimates for those works, and we’ll be asking everybody to get behind a mammoth fundraising campaign and we will be seeking individual donations, grants and support from the likes of the Heritage Lottery Fund and others.

It was nice, after nearly two years to walk into the reopened café and to really believe that we’ve been instrumental together in saving such an important part of Sheffield‘s Heritage, which people love and want to see preserved for the next 100 years.