Kitty Banks, Wells, Somerset UK

15 Market Place
Wells
BA5 2RF

01749 670220

Kitty Banks 

From a writer: Jenny Kane at Kitty Banks  

Creative Cafe Project Activities 

Free WiFi
Gift shop 
Writers in cafes

New idea: The Writers’ Café

We got talking about this at our SCBWI North West meeting yesterday. We’d spent the morning critiquing and the afternoon enjoying a free-writing exercise. I personally now have fodder for three new short stories.

We have an interesting arrangement with Waterstone’s anyway, s o I guess their café should be in the Project. We have their events room for four hours. We all order coffee on arrival and lunch, which is delivered to the meeting room at 12.30. 

Wouldn’t it be nice though, if there were a café that provided prompts like the ones we were given? One where the whole atmosphere was conducive to writing. Maybe it could be “rent a table”, a little in the spirit of the Viennese cafes that inspired the Project in the first place. There is café already in Manchester that charges for the amount of time you stay there rather than for what you eat and drink. Would this be a model? Or a bit of both?

What else?

·         Perhaps Shaun Levin’s writing maps could be available. 

·         Notebooks, pens and other stationery on sale

·         A book exchange of craft books

·         Plenty of power sockets and nooks where you can work on your laptop or tablet

·         Events for writers

·         Reading groups

·         Writing groups

·         Book events

·         Networking opportunities for writers

·         Writing classes if there is an events room

·         Critique groups 

Do you have any more ideas? Do you know of a café that might like to become a Writers’ Café?

We talked as well of that way writers often like to work on cafes and indeed on trains. It’s a way of remaining anonymous but still being surrounded by people.  You feel as if you are still a part of things. Of course you still have real life on tap as well.   

Shall we give it a go?  

The Creative Café Space

At the moment we seem to lack cafés, so any help in finding more will be greatly appreciated. I’ve also been a rather a little too busy recently to visit cafés. So maybe this gives me a little time to reflect on why these spaces are important to creative practitioners. Interestingly, I’m currently sitting in the Escape lounge at Manchester airport waiting for a flight to Malaga. I’m writing, so it becomes a Creative Café.  There are free newspapers. A bonus.

Interestingly, at home and in my study at the university I write facing a blank wall and any noise, even the birds twittering, can put me off. Yet I write happily here, on a Virgin Train to London from Manchester and in any sort of café. I still haven’t worked out quite why that is.

There’s piped music here and because of the time of year a lot of it is jolly and Christmassy. It’s not disturbing me. It would at home or in the office. 

Two very useful things happen here. The writing takes my mind off the wait for the plane. Writing here makes me feel part of the world.  I guess some full time writers may welcome the change of space.          

Writers in cafés: Gill James at The Art of Tea, working on Girl in a Smart Uniform

The Art of Tea in Didsbury village is my sort of place. I spent a pleasant afternoon there recently as I took a day’s leave. What does a writer do on a day’s leave? Sit and write of course. Busman’s holiday or what?

The holiday bit, I guess is the sitting in a café and enjoying some expertly brewed camomile tea and a rum slice and people-watching at the same time as writing. Certainly, being out and about and amongst other people helps to combat the feeling of isolation. Is that why we writers enjoy working in cafés so much?

Writers in Cafes: Sara Sheridan

A few years ago when my daughter was about to leave school, I moved into town. I had a plan. Molly was going to go to college and I was going to travel more and write as I went. I was in my late 30s, divorced and had just moved into a small two-bedroom flat in the city centre – the kind of flat upon which you can safely slam the door and head off into the sunset. New York, Paris, Istanbul. It was all ahead of me - a well laid plan.

Within a couple of months however I inadvertently met my second husband, my daughter, who had rented a place in Glasgow, where she went to study came home again and that footloose, fancy free novelist who was going to go wherever her heart dictated was back in the box. The box was too small – we later built an extension.

More news about the Creative Café Project

More cafés needed

We’re always on the look-out for new cafés, so if you know of one, please do tell us about it.

How do you recognise a creative café? Have a look at a few on the site and you’ll probably get a sense of it. There are two main criteria:

1.      It must be first and foremost a great café

2.      It must have some sort of creative activity going on such as:

a.       Provide gallery space

b.      Have literature available for customers to read – newspapers, magazines, books

c.       Host a writing group

d.      Host  live music

e.       Host a reading group

f.       Provide informal meeting space

Each café is completely different in the way it operates and each one has a unique atmosphere. Do you know of a café that should join the scheme? If so, contact me here.