Square 1 Cafes

If you have reached this page, it is possible you are contemplating setting up a Square 1 Café in your neighbourhood. Congratulations. This page is for you.

What is a Square 1 Café?

A Square 1 Café is a café with no till. Whereas the premise of a high street coffee shop is to sell tea and coffee, sandwiches, cakes and pastries to customers for profit, Square 1 Cafes are intended to deliver a social benefit. They are a not-for-profit enterprise.

Exuding an atmosphere kindness and inclusion, and an absence of judgement or expectation, they provide a social context for customers to make new friendships, and to maintain existing ones. By doing this they cultivate better wellbeing in all involved.

In doing this they also provide downstream benefits – in social cohesion, through inter-generational and inter-cultural dialogue amongst customers, and an opportunity to develop volunteering skills and social activism amongst the people who help to run them.  They defer cost to statutory authorities through reduction in chronic and acute services made otherwise necessary from the prevalence of loneliness and social isolation.

They also provide benefits to hosting organisations through engagement of local people with their mission and values.

They provide a “bumping space” (a term from Asset Based Community Development) for the generation of new ideas for social activities and projects.

They can also provide a platform for the offering of services and for engagement from local statutory bodies and the community and voluntary sector.

The vibe at the cafes is described simply below:

Things we do at Square 1 Cafe

• Talk to each other
• Play board games
• Listen to music
• Drink tea and coffee
• Eat sandwiches and fruit
• Not pay for anything

Things you should bring to Square 1 Cafe

• Humour
• Fellowship
• Yourself
• Friends*

* If you haven’t got any friends that’s OK. We can supply some.

Things you can’t bring to Square 1 Cafe

• Prejudice
• Hierarchy
• Illegal Drugs
• Alcohol

(You’re not allowed in if you’ve got any of these inside you on the day)

Finding out more

• Follow this link to find a document which tells you how you can set up a Square 1 Cafe
• Follow this link to find current signposting to Square 1 Cafes in the Royal Borough of Kingston
• Follow this link to see a review of the Pilot café in New Malden, by the New Malden Town Centre Partnership, in late 2022.
• Hear a brief description of how the pilot café was established, in an interview on Radio Jackie (December 2021)

Connect to existing Square 1 Café partners in the Royal Borough of Kingston

• Kingston Environment Centre
• New Era Community Projects CIC
• Royal Borough of Kingston
• Save the World Club
• Wheels for All
• YMCA St Paul’s Group

Read relevant studies by

• The World Health Organisation “From loneliness to social connection - charting a path to healthier societies: report of the WHO Commission on Social Connection”
• London Resilience “Building resilient communities:  The case for social cohesion”
• The Centre for Mental Health / Age UK “Mental Health in Later Life: Understanding needs, policies, and services in England”
• Mayor of London “Reconceptualising Loneliness in London”

Talk to the originator of the cafes

Tony Wiliams

tony.williams@bcs.org