About Harriet Thomas and this new venture
I arrived in Totnes at the end of the 2010s. Many years before when I was in my mid thirties I had set up a successful vegetarian cafe and bookshop in West London called Tide Tables Cafe & Father Thames Books in a derelict arch next to the Thames which I had rented from the council. Not much had developed in the vegetarian cafe world since Cranks had whic
h I loved, but in those days Starbucks was in its infancy and having been abroad and been introduced to great coffee I could see that wholesome vegetarian food and great coffee together could be a winning combination. Tide Tables was an instant hit and once it was up and running properly I opened a little sister cafe nearby when a park cafe became available and then I opened a tiny juice bar in the town centre. People were waking up to good food and good coffee and I had been interested in organics and biodynamics from an early age after I had worked for someone on the Gerson therapy for cancer and had seen her get well. I have often had the word entrepreneur attached to me but I never saw myself as more than a single parent with a passion for cafes trying to scratch a living making places that I would want to frequent myself. It takes a very long time to actually make any money in cafes as the margins are so low and the overheads and loans are invariably huge. But it’s been a wonderful adventure and a joy especially working with an amazing team of young people many of whom grew up in the cafes and stayed with me. I still own the cafes in London still staffed by people who have been with me from near the beginning. I wanted to study art and I attended The Totnes School of Art and Design and went on to a degree course at Plymouth College of Art. But I surprised myself by beginning to get itchy feet for creating another cafe. Along the way I had bought 50 acres of old growth forest in Vancouver in a region where they were still clear cutting everything. I sold the juice bar and bought the forest with the proceeds because I was desperate to protect it as it was one of the last areas of old growth trees on an island I used to visit. I sold the forest a few years ago because now the trees are prized and it is now in safe hands. So now I had some decent cash behind me. It’s hard to imagine now but in those days when I first came here it was hard to get a good coffee in Totnes. This was before the brilliant Curator had come along. Since then we have the fantastic Hairy Barista especially in its new premises, the wonderful Canteen at Mansion House all doing great coffee and food and of course the Bull, and the Kommune cafe, among others. Totnes is now amazingly well served with great cafes and I couldn’t be happier about it. I had always wanted to try a vegan place as I have never been comfortable with the milk industry which is very hard on cows. I opened Zappas with a little guesthouse upstairs which has turned out to be popular enough but with only 9 indoor seats it’s pretty hard to survive the winters it being so niche, and we will become vegetarian when the place above Greenlife opens but with carefully sourced milk. By the time I took over the lease for the space above Greenlife we were still in national lockdowns. It had been empty for a few years and when I spotted it pre the pandemic it was still full of ceilings and partitions and riddled with asbestos. My original idea was for a coffee shop full of sofas and big plants. The type you can lounge in all day for the price of a cup of coffee unlike Zappa's where we feel obliged to move people on after a couple of hours when they set up office, just so we can free the seats for the next customer!! Anyway over time we came to realise that the premises above Greenlife has the scope for a great Arts Space. The civic hall has had a lot of money spent on it in the last few years and is now a fantastic resource for the town as it’s become quite lovely and the two spaces together have so much potential to work in tandem for all sorts of events. As well social functions I can see a lot of potential to add to the bringing of great artists and speakers and workshops to the town, to add to the great work Hairy Barista is doing with the Adama Events also Drift and their work the Barrel House, Sea Change festivals, our venues at St Mary’s and St John’s, the Barrel House, the Civic Hall and us ( if we can get all the permissions we need) Altogether Totnes has the potential to become an even more extraordinary centre for the Arts in the South West than it is already, attracting big names in music, workshops and talks and adding to the great festivals we already enjoy here. We have put in for an Arts Council Grant with a project to help young people acquire skills. To create this place I have managed to pull together an amazing team of master joiners builders, electricians, plasterers, plumbers and upholsterers, all of whom are local people who have got stuck in and are wanting to create the best venue possible for the town. We don’t yet have an opening date. But it will be soon! Totnes is an independently minded town which is why we love it so, quite apart from its arty, foodie caring nature!! I realise this venture has stirred up a lot of controversy lately which is why the creation of this page is timely. Naturally people get worried when they don’t know what’s going on. People are worried about noise mostly and an inaccurate and quite scaremongering flier is doing the rounds and shopkeepers are telling me that they are having “pressure” put on them to object to us being permitted to open in the evenings. In answer to any concerns we have renewed all the windows and will be taking many other soundproofing measures and will carry out sound checks in line with any guidance or regulations planning puts in front of course as long as it remains viable. I do understand the concerns - the coffee shop idea has morphed into a full blown arts centre with dance floor and catwalk possibilities and state of the art lighting and sound - since I first took the premises on and applied for change of use all those years ago. But it is quite funny really. There is a flat roof above Greenlife with CCTV now and every week we are seeing people peering through the letterbox or sneaking around taking pictures or even coming wearing masks to snoop around, guerilla style! We are trying to support the arts and the town and make it the sort of place you will want to bring your friends to when they come to visit you. Do come and see what we are up to. All anyone has to do is come and visit us when we are working and we will be happy to show you around and hopefully put your minds at rest and excite you about the project. Harriet
