Friends Cafe, Inkerman Street, Luton 1996 – 2006
click on the link below for the Document with photos – or continue to read the text.
Friends Cafe Project – Document with images
This is the text only version –
It was thirty years ago today (April 1st) that the doors of a community mental health project were opened to the public and service users in Luton town centre.
The project had been the brainchild of Ann Hyde; who together with able assistance of Marie, Angela, Celia and the Trustee Team of the Befrienders put together a bid for funds from the recent closure of The former Three Counties Asylum at Fairfield. The Befrienders were then located in some tiny premises down an alleyway (with dubious heritage) in Princess Street, Luton. The Cafe Project was an integral part of the Luton Foyer a joint venture with Luton Churches Housing Association Signposts Luton and the Mary Seacole organisation.
The writer, Roger Huxley, was recruited to set up and run the project. He was the successful applicant; at that time employed as Caterer and Domestic Bursar for the University of Bristol. He had a successful career to date of large-scale institutional catering management; including setting up new ventures. Roger had been attached to a Church of England parish, in Henleaze, Bristol, as a Candidate in Ministry training as a “Befriender”. He had a young family in Northamptonshire; so a move seemed to meet his core values and family logistical issues.
Roger began his employment in September 1995 and was immediately faced with the inadequate plans for an appropriate catering premises in the Luton Foyer which was still in the construction phase. The challenge was to present the building owners with a revised catering area plan and detailed costings. This was the first of many similar challenges.
The months passed and staff were recruited, menus planned, schemes of work set out for workplace experience for the individuals (members) referred to the service, business plans redrawn and generally becoming familiar with the ethos of the organisation and the diverse nature of mental health clients. Additionally at that time the project was open to clients (members) with Learning Disabilities (now Difficulties).
Early in 1996, it was obvious to all concerned that the project was not going to be operational until the second Quarter of that year. Roger was finding it difficult to make ends meet in his personal life; so a second job and a move to more affordable accommodation became essential. A role as “Commissionaire” at Sainsburys solved one aspect and the purchase of a small terraced house solved the other. Yes in those days a mortgage was the cheaper option. I’ll spare you all the details; not for the last time!
Eventually the Project had the go ahead and Jenny Spouge, the Foyer Manager advised us to open. Despite having had six months lead time and plenty of time fro dry-runs there was, in the write’s heart, a sense of panic and uncertainty. “What if no one came?” “What if we were overwhelmed?” “What if I couldn’t motivate, train and guide these good people?” Sleepless nights indeed!
The recollection of the first paying customers has evaporated now. Memories of the workers; in no particular order is still fresh: Brian, Jeanette, John, Marge, Ben, Helen Walsh (more of Helen later), Renee, Dave, Margaret, Marion, Tanya, Chris, Bill and Dave (Karl). There may have been others – it proves even clear memories fade. The project was later joined by a whole raft of personalities: more of that later.
Brian had been a reluctant participant; due to some concerns about his ability to contribute. This has been one of the most underestimations of an individual’s attitude and ability experienced in the writer’s career. Brian was an anchor, an inspiration of dedication and application and a “try-anything” approach to life. He wasn’t a caterer by any means but everything else, driver, computer whiz, handyman, graphic designer, artist, confidant, redeemer when all seemed lost, anything he was asked to do (aprt from cooking) Brian handled in his characteristic, diligent manner. This essay would not be what it is without his archive of photos and seeking the writer out to hand over the archive. He also took most of the photos; back in the day when we had 1-2Meg pixels!
The team was joined by many further Volunteers and Members and paying customers. Personalities such as Peter, Tony, Errol, Debbie(Admin), Martha, Eilleen, Beverley, Agnes, Josie, Gaynor, Rosemary, SteveC, SimonB and SimonY. Staff changes were initially Ben dropped out, Cleo was replaced by Lorraine (who remained in employment until the mid 2020’s).
Marge who had been the main cooking talent decided to move to Suffolk in 1997; therefore leaving a vacancy. This was filled temporarily: but more of that later.
The Cafe was able to provide catering for most of the Befrienders’ social functions at various locations including Barn Dances, Picnics, the (in)famous Woodland Walk in Stockgrove Park, Stage Shows at Luton Art Centres, Discos, The Befrienders’ Christmas Day Support for Members and other isolated folks and official occasions like Reception for the Council or Health Authority or AGMs and Traing sessions.
It soon became obvious that the cash paying customers into the Cafe; which had no direct access from Inkerman Street was going to be sustainable to meet the commercial targets. Outside catering was to be the strategy. Fortunately Ann Hyde, through the Rotarry Club in late 1996 had managed to obtain a small Bedford Rascal van. It was repainted and Logod at their expense. It was made roady-worthy by the husband of one of the Members at our expense. In early 1997 the campaign to market this service began in earnest. Thanks to Brian and Patrick, Martha and “other” Steve leaflets were produced and distributed locally. The van was very helpful to establishing a good reputation for outside catering. The Cafe was able to sub-contract for ACE Enterprises Catering Operation at the Disability Resource Centre in Poynters Road. Many thanks to Steve and Jeremy there. One embarrassing memory from that time is on a day when two large outside buffets were being serviced by Friends Cafe the writer inadvertently sent two trays of Ham Sandwiches to the Asian Ladies Open Day in Bury Park Community Centre. It is likely that we thank Brian for his diplomatic skills and averting a racial slur on Friends Cafe. It survived!
Around that time the Befrienders was being subsumed into MIND. There were considerable upheavals and the leadership changed. The Cafe Project was taken over by Beds and Luton MIND and Alison from HQ took overall strategic lead. For a year or two this was advantageous. This continued until the opening of MIND Dumfries Street Centre; when Theresa the Local Service Manager took over.
That is jumping ahead slightly. Friends Cafe was able to provide workplace experience for a large number of adults with mental health difficulties: the funding for people with learning difficulties was withdrawn in 1997. Beyond the basic catering and customer service skills sessions for Food Hygiene and Personal Hygiene were run. Support groups for various issues, such as financial budgeting, sexual health, relationship matters among serveral were run; with the input from outside organisations such as The Luton Foyer, The Lodge, Luton Voluntary Bureau and MIND in general. Within the Cafe team basic courses on computer skills and conversation skills : thanks to Brian and Martha and the staff team in general. Friends Cafe became a very useful resource for The Befrienders/MIND as the van could be used for transporting goods, equipment and documents; remember this was before all our emails, online databases and internet shopping. The Princes Street office was closed and a temporary facility in King Street was occupied. This coincided with all the Leadership changes and re-organisations in Luton Borough Council Adult Social Care services. Upheaval on a seismic scale indeed.
Around the same time, as was mentioned earlier, Head Cook Marge had left for cooler East Coast climes. The role was advertised and only two applicants were interviewed. The “successful” candidate who’s name was auto-corrected as “Damn Vermin” on the Microsoft Word Spell checker started promptly. It was obvious during the Induction period that he had some issues – mainly that he could not stop talking about himself and he possessed that syndrome where whatever experience you had – he had it in double quantities. One example being that the writer had a relationship with a person “A” – DV shared that he had been engaged to a woman with the same name – and she left him waiting at the Altar! “Why, you only broke one ankle – I broke both of mine and my hip at the same time”. After a couple of days it was pretty obvious that neither could he cook or managed a small team. As regards the point of the relationship anecdote it was very obvious that he was gay.
For only six weeks (which seemed like six months) the future of Friends Cafe could have been held by a thread. Members were being compromised and things were going missing; including money. The final scenes in the denouement of this chapter wer pretty intense. A ploy to retrieve the keys from DV had to be set in motion; with the guidance of the Chief Exec. Alison. It was planned to confront DV with the writer’s witness to Cafe used at an external private party. This in addition to requesting explanation to missing items and lack of respect towards certain Members. A “trap” was set. The confrontation took place and DV made counter claims that the writer had been caught on CCTV using DV’s “missing” credit card. The Police were on their way for interview.
To conclude the tale of woe; when DV was also accused of trying to remove further Friends Cafe property he stormed out, throwing a large pan at the writer! He was never seen again by any of the team in Luton. As regards his fitness to work for MIND, one of his References provided was complete and fine and the other could not be verified as no response was received and further information was not forthcoming despite DV being pressured. A lot of space has been taken by this event but it’s a warning to be heeded that unsuitable people can worm themselves into an organisation that is desperate for staff; letting their guard down.
The next chapter was much less fraught although not without its challenges. Debbie joined us a Head Cook and common sense prevailed. Some of the issues with pilferage continued but the reason was identified and the matter settled. Brian set up a small basic computer group. Chris had found some employment. New regular helpers continued to join the team. Members found tangible benefits to their lives by working in the Cafe in a variety of roles. Brian and Simon collected items to sell at Car Boot sales around the town. Videos were made of the various social activities held by MIND both in Luton and Bedfordshire as a whole. The Basic Food Hygiene training developed further and a large number of Members and clients of Luton Foyer were able to study and gain the Certificates; further enhancing their employability. At one point an application was made for European Social Fund for funding to expand the Cafe into a proper employment and training project. It is believed that our project missed out by just one point. The amount of work this required to complete the application, in hindsight, had a negative effect on both the internal workings of the Cafe and it’s standing within The Befrienders/MIND set up in Luton.
The outside catering aspect of Friends Cafe was developing all the time and revenue for this was becoming greater than cash paying customers. The Cafe worked hard to supply catering for organisations such as Probation Service, Signposts, Luton Borough Council, ACE Enterprises and additionally Weddings were catered for, Stopsley Baptist large evangelical conferences. This provided a more diverse range of employment activities for Members; who always rose to the occasion and thrived. Headway Luton for a number of years were pleased to order hot lunches, despatched in insulated containers to their Centre in High Town. The big Stage Shows put on by The Befrienders’ Art and Social Groups were serviced by the team. This outside catering service was largely made possible by Brian’s diligence in sorting out the van, doing most of the driving and acting as an ambassador; smoothing out little hiccups in service delivery.
From the business admin of the project Debbie(1) had set up some systems when she moved into employment elsewhere Martha admirably stepped into further develop databases, spreadsheets and letter templates. Arguably where Brian had developed the transport aspects enhancing growth then Martha had allowed up to date relevant data to keep the project steady. There’s a lot of record-keeping that must be up to date and accurate to keep the founders happy.
In 2000 Luton Borough Council funded a Resource Centre for MIND, located in Dumfries Street. They also provided funds to furnish and equip it for the relevant services envisioned. A House Manager was proposed and through due process the writer was recruited and moved over to develop that role. At the end of August that year the Day Centre was officially opened by Kelvin Hopkins MP. The writer’s contribution to Friends Cafe was completed there and then. The Project, now part of MIND’s core services was now managed by Theresa, the Luton MIND Service Manager. Debbie(2) assumed day to day running of Friends Cafe.
Gradually the operations at Friends Cafe wound down. The van became uneconomic to run; needing serving and repairs. This effectively finished the outside Catering service. Internal changes within the function of Luton Foyer made the Cafe less accessible to customers from the street. There may have been some thoughts of its inappropriateness with MIND’s Luton services: a full seven day a week service was planned and thus funds were diverted away from Friends Cafe.
To finish – Brian’s little piece written at the time of closure of Friends Cafe provides a little gem of memory.
The Befrienders Friends Café was based inside the Luton Foyer. It closed in Oct 2006. It was a great little place to meet up and have a cup of tea or a wonderful meal. Café Hours were from 9.30 to 3.00 with hot meals being served from 12.00 to 2.00 ever weekday. They also did a great breakfast and all of this for a mere £2.00. We opened on 1st April 1996 – April Fools Day – a project with little money, one-and-a-half members of staff and big dreams. In five years we have grown to four full-time and two part-time staff, have assisted over 28,000 visitors who had need of the services we mark. Initially aimed at giving training and employment advice, we rapidly found a need to assist people find accommodation before they were in a position to consider anything else. Since then we have added to our ‘portfolio’: Churches Housing), additional work can provide and became the 7th foyer to receive the Foyer Federation’s accreditation with the Probation Service, specialist support under contract to the Employment Services’ New Deal Scheme, a range of independent living and social skills. To mark the closure of Friends Cafe and demonstrate its impact on the lives of so many; Members, Volunteers, Staff and paying customers a small part was held. It was bitter sweet wit joy at its achievements but sadness at its end.
For the writer this was a five years adventure, which was actually set in a rather turbulent time in his personal life. It’s not definitive!
Failing memory makes it difficult to thank everyone appropriately. Firstly I thank Brian – he is woven into these pages. I thank from the bottom of my heart Helen and Lorraine – their lips are sealed although they know where all the bodies are buried! Eveyone who helped Friends Cafe along the way from Ann right at the conception and birth, Jenny Spouge and The Bedfordshire John Howard Society, Kevin from Signposts, Theresa and Alison from MIND, regular Volunteers like Martha, Patrick, Renee, and mostly to Volunteer Members who did the donkey work: Steve C, Errol, Chris, Peter M, Simon B and Simon Y, Rosemary and so amny more whom I hope felt the benefit and not the stress!
Here’s a couple of stand-out memories. Thank you all. RMH 1st April 2026
