Plans

Planning permission was essential for our building apparently, as launderette to launderette/cafe counts as change of use. As slow and irritating as this process is (we won't know until November) it has forced us to get on with some of the decision making, what kind of outside lighting do we want etc.

Excuse the rather primitive drawing, but this shows some of the ideas we're hoping to implement, for example using large spools as outside seating (2x £15 from a reclamation yard) and graffiti up the wall to the left. Were hoping one or more really talent street or graffiti artist will come and provide this, we want to ingratiate ourselves into the stokes croft community and it has some exceptional graffiti talents.

We also created a very basic 3D image, on google sketch up, (note not to scale) as a representation of our building, we don't have access to the flats above. 

Take note that we have a bus stop right in front of our window, we have not yet figured out whether this feature's advantages out weigh its disadvantages.  

145

Our discovery of 145 is a pretty amazing story, Cassie and Ellen, found the building and worked hard to find out who it belonged to, it had just been sold at auction, and so proved difficult, meanwhile Cassie was volunteering with Unseen UK, a charity to prevent human trafficking. She discussed her business plan with one of the other volunteer, who mentioned that his dad had just bought an old launderette, and the three flats above it. Quite amazingly it was the same business, and Cassie's colleague was able to put in touch with his father, Malcolm, who agreed to rent the shop to us. He is now employing builders to return the shop from it's desolate state, making it structurally sound and watertight. The building itself was a launderette, but has been out of use for 10 years, and is in a pretty dilapidated state.

The front of @TheWell with space for outside seating, and bikes, all these spaces need a little TLC.

Some sort of Cupboard

Our long Hallway, to onside of the space, will encompass, storage and a kitchenette.

The space itself, it is bigger than it looks.

This space behind the 'shop' will become the folding room, with the two large machines and driers, will also have toilets.

The toilet as was, this will remain, after some serious work

This was the entrance to the back of the space, it has now been opened up considerably, and when the shop is secure will become mostly unused as the front of the shop can be opened up to both staff and customers.

Our building is 145 Gloucester road (right opposite where the riots in Stokes Croft were against Tesco). stokes croft is a great up and coming alternative area of bristol, with a great sense of community, something we are definitely promoting ourselves.

Logo designs

We have come up with many designs for our logo, each time trying to capture something of our prospective business, but we are not quite there yet, but boy have we looked at a number of options. 

We wrote and wrote and wrote, but came to no satisfactory conclusion, until ellen took the problem to one of her workmates, and he designed us this lovely shop front. 

It's not perfect, Ellen felt the font itself was a little "witchy" so that problem remains somewhat unsolved, but there's a man on the case, and we're defiantly getting there. The background colour with be painted a very bright greeny yellow, and the font colour will be a dark grey, that much is decided, but comments are always appreciated, we can afford to change it now, will will not be able to when it is up. 

We are then planning to laser cut this design, or at least one similar, onto some pegs and distribute them, along with a discount around the local stokes croft area, and beyond. 

Being thrifty

As just a family of four, with none of us earning astronomical amounts of money, we knew that we were going to have to cut corners on the spending costs, without cutting any of the corners on quality. So over the last two years, we have been slowly compiling furniture, lighting, crockery, decorations and much more. Wherever possible we have got things for free, from freecycle etc, and then work hard to "do up" the furniture, so that it either looks new, or deliberately old. We have learnt a number of new skills, painting, distressing, upholstering, bartering, wombling, cushion making, and all in the name of serving a community one cup and wash at a time!

A few months ago, we laid out all these things we had bought, in order to take stock of what we had. Luckily Ellen and Cassie, have a big living room. Chaos ensued...

Because of our collections from many different sources, jumble sale, charity shops, car boot sales, skips, the street, wood reclamation yards and as gifts, we have a pretty jumbled collection, but we are working hard to adapt what we find to give it a uniform style, even if an eclectic one. 

Copenhagen came calling

When the idea became more concrete, we began our research in earnest, trying to discovered where else in the country and the world this combination was being used. They were few and far between,  one up an running with 2 branches in Copenhagen caught our eye, aptly named The Laundromat Cafe. So last year, we set off of a fact finding mission, to discover whether it was a concept that was a viable business, and frankly we took it as a great excuse to go on our first proper family holiday. 

We traveled round multiple launderettes, taking snaps and picking up ideas as to what works. The trip by no means put us off, which was encouraging, and even helped to persuade our mum Jane, that we weren't going to make a huge mistake. Since then, she has become hugely enthusiastic, and the other day bought us a cash register for £35, which will mean a set up an happen all the more quickly and cheaply. 

In The beginning

Hello, We're 3 sisters, Ellen, Cassie and Lily, and about 3 years ago, with no experience or qualification, we began our journey to create a Cafe/ Launderette in Stokes Croft, Bristol. It has been a challenge, and we're not there yet, but with a building under construction (well reconstruction) and a whole host of things bought to fill it, we thought we would share our story thus far with you. 

Well, first Ellen had this bright idea, that we all loved. Why not have a launderette with a cafe, where you could wait for you washing while have a cup of tea? I cannot tell when the hatched idea grew quite so quickly, it almost seamlessly went from a cool plan in the pipeline, to us forking out £500 for planning permission for our building. But however it happened, @thewell has been such a huge and exciting part of our lives, and we're so grateful to the help and support of friends and family, as well as our great team of handymen and workers, who are making this random wacky idea, a random wacky reality.