OK so the new improved, renovated, revolutionised cafe has now been open for just over a week – time to start showing off some of the new features!

The first one I’d like to tell you about is the first one you encounter coming in through the door – there’s now a strange construction that looks like a garden shed tripped over an Ikea wardrobe. What can it be?

It’s the Dock’s new pop-up market stall and I’d love to see it being used to the max by anyone who has something to sell that they make themselves: cupcakes, traybakes, bobble hats, knitted cats, calligraphy, photography, jam, jewellery… you name it!  (and – you made it, that’s the one condition.)

To encourage any budding Alan Sugars, the deal goes like this: you book the Dock pop-up market for a day.  We give you £10 as an investment in your business – to help buy your flour, or wool, or wood, or whatever you need to get started.  The market stall is all yours to sell your products on the day you’ve booked – and if the profits come rolling in, it would be great if you could make a return investment in the Honesty Box – but (as always) it’s completely up to you!

The great news is that even though it’s still a bit of a work in progress, the Dock Market Stall has its first booking – tomorrow (Sat 9th), Ruairi, one of our regulars from the college across the road, will be selling home-made wood-turned products.

If you’re free to call in between 11 and 5 to support our first-ever entrepreneur, it would be great to see you – and you might even pick up something nice for the kitchen or a cool, unique pressie into the bargain!

And get your thinking caps on if you think you’d like to use the stall for your own handiwork – it would be great to see the Dock Market used day-by-day, and the word spreading that there’s always going to be something unique and hand-crafted available along with your coffee in our beautiful wee cafe.

Nine days… A ticking clock… Some amazing volunteers… The task: a top-to-toe upgrade of our beloved Dock Cafe.  It’s like a Challenge Anneka for our times!

We’re back baby!  Yesterday saw the grand re-opening of Dock Cafe after a stupendous week of DIY TLC from a fantastic team of volunteers.

The makeover looks phenomenal – more pics of the new cafe setup will follow soon so you can all wallow in its goodness (and repent of every single second that you don’t spend here).

For now, just a few shots from Jeremy at thebigwoodenbox (full set can be found here) of the opening itself – including a glimpse of the goodies that Stan the Baker prepared for the big day:

And the moment that a ravenous public were unleashed on said goodies:

And a few shots of the grand tour, when we walked everyone around to show off all Dock Cafe’s new features and funky bits:

And a picture of a very special moment – the official opening of The Dock’s new prayer garden.  It’s our favourite feature of the new Dock Cafe and one which we hope will make a massive difference in our TQ world – the first time in the area that a space has been set specifically aside for prayer, reflection and the work of God.  And in line with the Dock ethos, the hands that you can see holding the scissors to cut the ribbon belong to a Methodist, a Catholic, a Presbyterian and an Anglican – the shared medley of Dock life at work:

Time for an update on the update to Dock Cafe – with MASSIVE thanks to everyone who has put superhuman effort into our major makeover during this past week!

The first morning was spent clearing away all the furniture so we could start cleaning and painting.  We started out with the lovely, cosy cafe we all know and love – by lunchtime we were left with an empty shell (pic right) – gulp!

Then the crew really got to work…

And when the cleaning was done – it was time to start on some long-dreamt new features for the cafe.  I’ll be honest – there were times when I wondered if we’d bitten off more than we could chew.  The deadlines were tight (and there’s still plenty to be done tomorrow – Monday – if you’re free to call in and lend a hand!)  But the volunteers were AMAZING – cafe volunteers, students from the Met, residents from the apartments above us, locals keen to lend a hand.  An incredible team.

So we’re now at the stage that I can issue this invitation with the confidence that it will be something special:

And what will you find, you may be wondering?  What are all these whispered improvements?  Just what have we been hatching?

Well you’ll have to turn up on Tuesday to find out – but just to give you a few hints: