Cafe which once hosted Express & Star staff looking to help revive city's social scene

The space. Cafe has been a unique feature on Castle Street since it opened in November last year, having previously been the staff canteen in the Express & Star building.

The cafe was set to be part of the larger Fused wellbeing centre, but opened as a cafe and bar in its own right due to the Fused centre becoming a larger, long-term project.

Since opening, it has been a matchday venue for Wolves supporters, a place for people to work, a cafe offering top-quality coffee and a range of bagels, and a venue competing with other bars in the Wolverhampton night time scene.

Manager Molly Fleming said that she and her team had learned a lot in the nine months space. has been open.

She said: "We've found out that Wolverhampton is a tough crowd, but I think that's down to the fact that a lot of people don't know what is going on in the city as I've spoken to a lot of customers and they will say they didn't realise that this was on or that was on.

"Wolverhampton is a great place and it's got all the transport links, including a tram stop right down the road from us near the bus station, but it's all been about trying to get people to know what's going on.

"When space. started, it was very much bar-orientated and cocktail-orientated, which we can still offer, but it's been more about finding what Wolverhampton needed and what worked well by trying a number of different things.

"I think we've found what our bread and butter is by being a cafe with the bagels and the coffee, which we shout out is the best coffee in the city, and that's helped us to gain a clientele."

Ms Fleming said there was a drive to make it a community hub, with events happening each week, such as quiz nights, game show nights, karaoke and open mic nights.

She said: "We want it to be a hub and be a place where people can come not only to relax, but also to make connections, such as the people who come and work in here on the tables and use this place as their office.

"We're not looking at this as a bar, it's a cafe where we can hold extracurricular events on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and make a place where people look to see what's on here and in the city.

"Wolverhampton doesn't have enough people coming in to it, which what we want to change and I'm working in collaboration with a lot of companies in the city to try and change that because if Wolverhampton does well, we do well and businesses survive and we can keep working with each other.

Ms Fleming also said that the cafe was going to be having a relaunch at the start of September, to follow the community hub plan and make it a place that anyone can use to work, meet up and also take part in the different planned activities.

One such planned activity on Thursday, September 18 will be a reunion event for current and former Express & Star staff, with plans to put on food and drink as part of the evening, with Ms Fleming saying it paid homage to the history of the building.

She said: "We've been telling a lot of people about the plans for this event and we've met so many current and former staff who've come here to see what it's like here, so we'd love to have everyone come here to be part of it.

"It's been great hearing about all the different stories that people have as well and we'd love to hear more of them at the reunion night.

"It's also just one of many ways we're working within the city as we'll promote anything that happens at the Halls or the Grand Theatre and, hopefully, they'll send people our way as well, plus we're still doing pre-match for Wolves fans for Saturday matches, with 20 per cent off for season ticket holders, so there's lots going on."