Bonnington Café on Thessaly was a café and community space, located within the Yvonne Carr Centre, that encouraged the community to spend time outside the home with friends, family and neighbours.
The Bonnington Café was a socially-minded undertaking, organic in nature and with a passion for the natural world. The pop up, funded by VSM, was created as an extension of the renowned Bonnington Square cafe with a New Covent Garden Market twist; with most of the ingredients supplied by the market itself. The Yvonne Carr Centre hosted Bonnington Café on Thessaly every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 11am-4pm over the summer 2019, serving delicious, inexpensive home-style cooked meals made by local cooks from South London as well as hosting activities such as cooking classes, wellness sessions and flower arranging. The cafe not only kept its visitors well fed, it also helped build skills and relationships for those living around New Covent Garden Market.
Volunteers from VINCI, Eurocity Group and Powerday gave their valuable their time in the days leading up to the opening of the Bonnington Café on Thessaly to help repaint the interiors, provide materials, plant flowers and construct garden play areas for all visitors to enjoy. It really was a community effort to create this community space.
During the months the café was open, community workshops and activities were run to here were craft and flower arranging classes, cooking workshops and supper clubs, which received high praise from members of the community who attended.
This initiative follows in the footsteps of VSM’s ongoing work bringing the market to its neighbouring communities, including the creation of the Edible Avenue on Thessaly and the community gardens’ Potting Shed initiatives. Edible Avenue transformed the boundary between the market and Thessaly Road into a playful space by adding colour, seating and planting elements as part of an interactive streetscape along the market’s brick wall. The Bonnington Café continued this approach to bring the market to the community and utilised the freshest ingredients from New Covent Garden Market just round the corner.
What pops up must pop down. After a remarkable few months at the Yvonne Carr Centre, the team turned off the ovens, swept the floors and closed the doors on VINCI St. Modwen’s summer pop-up.
Thank you to the Yvonne Carr Centre, and its wonderful staff, for hosting us and for being so helpful. Thank you to Wandsworth Council for their enthusiastic support. Thank you to Meal Maker at New Covent Garden Market for providing us with amazing, fresh, seasonal produce for our dishes.
The Bonnington Café on Thessaly team
The Bonnington Cafe on Thessaly was a community project funded by VINCI St. Modwen and New Covent Garden Market, working with Bonnington Café. In partnership with Thrive Wandsworth.