Bob’s Your Uncle café opens in Woolwich at new market pavilion
A café has opened its doors within a new market pavilion building built as part of a £22 million town centre upgrade.
Bob’s Your Uncle have taken it on having operated sites in Eltham and Croydon.
The pavilion building sits beside Beresford Square on a former toilet block. There are replacement toilets on site.
The wider square has seen new landscaping, seating, fountains and market stalls moved to the side where the pavilion is situated.
The previous government’s Future High Street fund paid for public realm changes which also included Powis Street. A separate Heritage England fund revamped storefronts.
Entrance gates at the Royal Arsenal Gatehouse have been opened up.
A separate project facing the square saw the old Ordnance Arms – or Gun Pit – pub renovated.
Next up on the square could be an already-approved redevelopment of a building currently housing Poundstretcher.
New shops units below 156 co-living units was approved earlier this year.
Meanwhile a short distance away work on two student blocks are now complete externally. They will see 430 student rooms.
And finally, work on 660 homes at Ropeyards is also underway with a green link set to be created.
That starts at a spot the other side of the road from the market pavilion and gatehouse. This site covered it last week.
The replacement toilets in the new building are terrible, or at least the men’s are – I haven’t seen the women’s. There’s so little space in there that, if you need a pee, you have to push past anyone else who happens to be standing there at the time. You can’t avoid physical contact. And I thought touching other men in public toilets wasn’t to be overly encouraged – seems the council thinks differently.
The Press House student housing is complete internally as well and has people staying there already. They’re advertising free summer accommodation for students who sign up for next year, and I think are doing tourist lets as well.