Campus creperie fights closure by university

The Coffee Workshop creperie in Richmond building is fighting to remain open after being threatened with closure by the University of Sussex as part of the restructuring and centralisation of catering facilities on campus.

The café’s managers, Judy Bow and Arnold Rose, are challenging the non-renewal of their lease under section 26 of the Landlords and Tenants Act, which gives commercial tenants the right to renew their lease, providing they have not breached the terms of their contract. They are confident that they have a legal claim to stay on the premises, although they have not yet heard back from the university regarding their challenge.

There are currently ten students working at the creperie, who have been trained by Judy and Arnold. They will lose their jobs if the creperie is shut down.
The closure has been strongly opposed by both staff and students alike, with over 600 people befriending the ‘Save the engineering / Richmond Café – The Coffee Workshop’ Facebook profile, many of whom have sent letters to Vice-Chancellor Michael Farthing, Simon Fanshawe, chair of University Council, and to Charles Dudley, Director of Residential, Sport and Trading Services, expressing their sadness and regret regarding the creperie’s proposed closure.

One student, writing to Mr Dudley, commented: “The Coffee Workshop is the most lively and enthusiastic café I have ever seen, providing excellent customer service (using people’s names instead of picturing them as a walking wallet) and serving fresh, exciting food that really brings people back time and time again. In fact, it is the only café I had heard about before I visited Sussex, due to its brilliant reputation.”

In another letter to Michael Farthing, a member of staff wrote: “I am very surprised that the university is proposing to close the best place to eat on campus. The quality of the food and drink is outstanding. I was in Paris recently and was taken to a smart creperie. The Coffee Workshop crepes equal, if not surpass, those I ate in Paris.”
The Coffee Workshop was originally opened  in May 2008, although it had operated on campus at several events such as Dissertation Dash before that. The more permanent situation of the café in the Richmond building was the result of multiple requests for a food outlet from students and staff in the department of engineering.
Despite the café’s peripheral location on campus, it has now built up a large client base that extends far beyond its immediate location, and attracts students and staff from right across the university with varied culinary desires and specialist dietary requirements.

Judy and Arnold explained to the Badger: “One important element of our client base are overseas students. Some, such as Chinese and Japanese, like the fact that the food is freshly cooked to order in an open kitchen. Others, who have dietary or cultural dietary requirements – coeliacs, Muslims – can eat well within those boundaries.”
Arnold and Judy also told the Badger of how they had built up what is now a thriving small business despite the strict terms of their contract, which prohibit them from staying open in the holidays or later than 4.30pm, and deny them the right to advertise on campus. They pointed out the absurdity of these restrictions in light of the university’s pledge to increase opening hours for all cafés across campus.

Justifying the creperie’s closure in a letter to student reps dated January 2010, Mr Dudley, Director of Residential, Sport and Trading Services, said that it was mainly due to the fears that it would take revenue away from university-run outlets: “I can understand that allowing one small café to remain tucked away in engineering might not seem much to ask, but it does put services at risk by taking revenue away from university cafes and preventing us from meeting the wider range of staff and student needs.”

However, in a subsequent email to a member of staff on 20 April 2010, Mr Dudley suggested that some independently run cafes would be allowed to remain open, stating: “…there will still be some independently run cafes, including those services run by the students’ union.”

Therefore, it would appear that the only independent cafés which the university will not shut down following the implementation of its catering review are the ones over which it has no jurisdiction, such as the Students Union facilities and IDS.
Critics of the closure, however, have been quick to point out that it is unlikely that the creperie would take revenue away from new university-run cafés because the produce that it offers is of a much higher standard.

In a damning statement to the Badger, Craig Lind, Senior Lecturer in Law, commented: “I regret – as do the many colleagues and students with whom I enjoy the creperie – the university’s decision to close it. I assume it will be replaced with another faceless McDonald’s clone which, like McDonalds, I’ll use only when desperate. If the university administration thinks we will use their cling film alternative to real food simply because we have no on-campus alternative, it really doesn’t understand us. It’s back to home made sandwiches for me.”

The university claims that its catering review will “provide greater choice, extended opening hours and a better mix of food provision. To help provide this, the plan will provide for fewer, larger cafes spread across the campus, in the optimum locations for different groups of staff and students.”

This process has so far resulted in the closure of the HUMs café in Arts A and the opening of the new Arts Piazza café just off Library square, which has received mixed reviews. Construction is currently underway to finish a new university café on the ground floor of the Library.
Many of those criticising the closure of the Coffee Workshop claim that creating a university monopoly of food outlets on campus will lead to less customer choice and no benchmark on quality.
In a letter to Michael Farthing, one member of university staff wrote: “I feel that many people amongst the predominantly left-wing community at this university will be offended at the shutting down of a thriving independent café, to create a forced monopoly of institutional food with negative impacts on many people’s lives.”

Judy Bow and Arnold Rose are determined to fight tooth and nail to keep the creperie alive, citing massive support from the campus community: “Students and staff have sent an avalanche of emails to Michael Farthing and Simon Fanshawe, some of which are posted on Facebook.
The university appears unwilling to acknowledge the wave of protest about the closure of the creperie, so we are pursuing legal action to try to preserve our creperie which has grown out of a common desire for good food and a congenial place to sit and talk.”
They added: “There will also be a ‘Keep the creperie’ petition to sign in the café from Monday. Please come and show your support.”

Visit the Facebook group “Save the Engineering/Richmond Café – The Coffee Workshop!” here