'We provide a joyful and friendly place for everyone': Community cafe where the team want to help

The cafe can be found on the corner of Belmont Road at the junction with Mount Road and is set within a building which has changed hands and identities over the years.

It was bought by Ruth Uppal in late 2022 after having previously existed as Dukes, a cafe which closed earlier the same year and had existed doing just takeaways in that time.

Ms Uppal said the intention had been to create a place that would help to spread some joy within the community as she had found a lot of people had struggled with loneliness and other issues following the Covid-19 pandemic, herself included.

She said: "The whole reason for opening the place and giving it the name of Cup of Joy was to spread a bit of joy in the community, particularly after Covid as a lot of people were really struggling with mental health issues, loneliness and just feeling low.

"The vision behind the place was that this could become a place where people could come, not necessarily with someone or in a group, and they could feel comfortable to come in on their own.

"It's a safe space for them to have a moment and reflect and have a hot drink."

Ms Uppal said she could see the potential in the place, but had felt quite daunted about running her own business, even after years of working in the hospitality business.

However, she said that the vision for the place that she wanted to create was strong and helped her get over her nerves about it, as well as helping her to find ways to help people.

She said: "We were just really clear on the kind of stuff we wanted and what we wanted for the base, as we didn't want to just copy anybody else and just set out with our own plan of what we wanted to do.

"I wanted this to be a place of welcome and as I've had a few difficult moments myself, I found that reflecting and that first cup of coffee shows that it doesn't take something really big to show a bit of love, so I wanted to recreate that feeling here.

"We support the Well Food Bank, where we donate from our pay it forward scheme to them each month, and we get customers who come in who are lonely or struggling financially or grieving and we're here to listen to them."

One big factor is the success of the cafe has been the pay it forward scheme, which allows people to buy biscuits and make a donation to pay for another person's meal or hot drink, with Ms Uppal describing one example of a couple who paid for an elderly woman's meal on Valentines Day.

She said the scheme had been a wonderful example of the culture of the cafe, as well as running events like a tea and toast club for over 65s and also giving people cake and cookies if she felt they needed one without them having to pay for it.

She said the place had a proper local feeling, with all the food and drink purchased from local shops, and said it was like home for her.

She said: "We have a great menu full of nice breakfasts and good hot drinks and we source all the food locally, so our meat is from the nearby Penn Butchers and the cakes come from several local people and are homemade.

"Our coffee is locally blended and roasted by Iron and Fire in Shropshire and all our staff are local and we'll always provide jobs for them, as we do in the All Nations Christian Church in the city centre, which has been running since last October.

"This place feels like home and doesn't feel like work as I love coming here and the staff, like my manager Subrina, do everything to run the place how we want to do it, and I feel that it's not just us helping the customers, but also them helping us as they give us a laugh and share their lives with us."