Hang on, is this the nicest office in London?
This week we take a look at Wimbledon's brand new café and coworking space
Good morning, Wimblers — thank you for tuning in! We’re halfway through January (well done to all of you attempting a “dry” month; just a couple more weeks left to go). Thank you to the 200+ readers who signed up to our newsletter in the past week. Please keep sharing the Wimble with your friends, family and neighbours — we’re hoping to get to 10k by the end of the year!
This week is all about falling in love with your area again. We’ve got an exciting feature about Wimbledon’s brand new Huddle café and coworking space, a plethora of activities and events to add to your calendars and your usual snappy news updates.
Plus … drumroll please … we’ve also got an offer for all the AFC Wimbledon fans out there (that should be all of you). The Dons have very kindly offered all Wimble readers £15 tickets for Saturday’s match against Tranmere. Just go to the ticket portal on their website and enter the code “WIMBLEDONS” to redeem your discount.
Please keep getting in touch with your ideas for future stories. If you think there’s something to say about Wimbledon that you haven’t seen covered in these pages, please drop me a line: zak@thewimble.com.
CALL-OUT: We’re looking to interview Wimbledon’s longest dwelling resident. If that’s you, or someone you know, please get in touch.
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News snippets 🗞
🥐 A new independent bakery has opened in Broadway Court. Thrift Bakery, which is owned and managed by Sam Mccauley, opened last Saturday, having crowdfunded for the project before its launch. Check out their Instagram to see what they’re all about!
🚆Engineering works at Wimbledon will affect South West Railway services over the next two weekends. The disruption will affect services across SWR’s network, but it will also mean that long-distance journeys between areas such as Waterloo and Exeter St Davids will be diverted. Disruption will occur on the 18th, 19th, 25th and 26th of January. Direct trains to and from Waterloo will still run throughout the engineering works, though they will take longer than usual. Learn more here.
☕The Fire Station Café on Queen’s Road has officially opened! Pop in for some lovely coffee and freshly baked goods as well as sandwiches, soft drinks and more. I’ll be there most days if you fancy saying hello. Scroll down for my feature on the new café and the coworking space upstairs.
🛍️ The Plough Lane Retail Park is under new management. This week, news broke that M&G have completed their purchase of the retail site from BlackRock for £32.8m. The “Retail Park” is located just next to AFC Wimbledon’s stadium and currently includes businesses such as Lidl, Pets at Home, Wickes and more. What M&G have in store for the site remains to be seen, but watch this space. More details here.
💵 If you’re a local business, then Merton wants to hear from you! The council is inviting local businesses to share their thoughts and help shape their budget for the upcoming financial year. The meeting will take place at Merton Civic Centre on Monday, 3 February at 6:00 PM. Potential topics for discussion are “the council’s spending decisions, including investments in town centres and high streets, support for Merton’s local economy, addressing the cost of living crisis affecting businesses, and keeping Merton one of London’s safest boroughs.”
Property of the week 🏡
I do love a spacious flat, especially when that flat boasts ceilings as high as this one does. The living room is by far the nicest room in this three-bedroom ground floor Victorian property. That’s not to say that I don’t admire the cute, compact garden space and kitchen, but how can anyone not fall in love with that fireplace? It’s the sort of fireplace I imagine reading about in an Agatha Christie novel or — to be a bit more contemporary — one of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out flicks. But is it cheap? No, not really — it’s £1.34m. That’s still less than some of the mini-mansions in the village, but I’d hardly call it affordable. Check out some more photos here.
The Wimble’s to do list 🎨
🎨 Scottish Exhibition 2025 at Wimbledon Fine Art: This exhibition, which runs in tandem with Burns Night, is all about contemporary Scottish art. Get yourself up to Wimbledon Fine Art in the village for your chance to see some incredible pieces of work. Check out the gallery opening times here.
Where: Wimbledon Fine Art
When: Sunday, 12 January - Sunday, 2 February
🍻 Wimbledon National Trust Association Talk: Pubs of Wimbledon Town: Join Clive Wicklow for a talk on the history of the pubs “down the hill”. Expect stories and tales of times gone by. Wimbledon National Trust members will be charged £4.00 whilst non-members will pay £4.50. Tea and coffee will be served from 2:30 PM. Grab your tickets here.
Where: Christ Church Hall, 2a Cottenham Park Road
When: Saturday, 18 January, 3:00 PM
🏴 Burns Night at the Rose & Crown: Head over to the Rose & Crown to celebrate the legend that is Robert Burns. We’re talking Scottish wines, flavoursome national dishes and the peatiest of whiskys. Book your table here.
Where: Rose & Crown
When: Wednesday, 22 January, 7:00 PM - 11:00 PM
♟ Wimbledon Chess Club at William Morris House: A new chess club is launching in Wimbledon this January for children aged 6 years and older. The club will be run by “expert coaches who are passionate about developing young talent”, according to their website. Check this link for registration and more information.
Where: William Morris House
When: Sunday, 19 January, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM (first session)
🎶 St John's Lunchtime Concerts: The midday concerts are back with a bang! Join Anian Wiedner (organ) as he plays Messiaen’s L’Ascension and Franck’s Chorale No.2 in B minor. Refreshments from 12.30pm. Free entry. There will be a retiring collection to support St John's Music Fund. Refreshments are served from 12:30 PM, so make sure to get there early!
Where: St. John the Baptist, Wimbledon
When: Friday, 24 January, 1:00 PM
“Our café is more than just a flat white … we’re building a community.” 👔
Office culture has changed drastically over the past 20 years. We no longer think about our workspaces as mere outposts to get jobs done; our professional lives are no longer restricted to the four barren white walls of a 1950s office block. Should the office feel more like a home away from home? What would a work environment fully maximized for comfort and enjoyment look like? I’m biased because this is my new place of work, but there’s no better example of the office revolution in action than Wimbledon’s very own Huddle coworking space and Fire Station Café. Let’s take a look.
My friends and I used to have a saying at school: “I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but I do know that I don’t want to work in an office.” We weren’t alone. Shows like The Office — the British original and American adaptation — reflected and furthered our aversion to office culture. We’d heard the horror stories from our parents; we’d been warned about the mind-numbing water cooler chats and the toxic work environment. The mere mention of an office secret Santa scheme was enough to fill me with dread.
But something has changed. Covid-19, technology, and talk of work-life-balance have all paved the way for a new approach to office life. We no longer want to sit in silence under the glow of a hospital-white lamp. We no longer want to cram ourselves into an overcrowded Tube just to sit in a stark office for an unproductive, sweaty eight hour shift. We deserve better and we know it. But what does “better” look like? Well, it looks a lot like Wimbledon’s brand new Huddle coworking space.
I’ve been working in Huddle since it opened at the beginning of January. If workspaces had looked like this when I was growing up, my friends and I would have never been so quick to dismiss office culture. Huddle’s coworking space is nothing short of beautiful. It’s an airy, open room. The majority of the desks are in the centre of the space and are the perfect balance of private and open. Though it’s Huddle’s smallest site — they also have offices in Hammersmith and Fulham — it feels larger than it actually is. Part of the reason for that is the light let in by the floor to ceiling windows. Far too many offices lack natural light, and without light we, as humans, tend to feel trapped. Not in Huddle. The design is modern, and yet it retains many of the Grade II listed building’s original features, like the red brick walls below the ceiling length skylights. But it’s the kitchen that feels straight out of your best friend’s house that really brings the space together.
Sitting down with Van Tan (the space’s community manager) and Tayo Mustapha (community associate), I set about trying to find out what makes this space so special. “I think what sets us apart is the fact that we’re so community driven,” Van tells me over a cup of coffee. “Huddle’s coworking space is all about bringing communities and people from all different walks of life together. There’s a feeling that this space is your home away from home, but it’s a home that you can get work done in. It’s also about seeing familiar faces. Tayo and I are always here for our clients and members — whether they’re having a bad day and want a snack or if they’re in need of a conversation, they know where to find us.”
What opportunities could people get from working in a place like this rather than, say, a traditional office or a local cafe? “When you’re in a coworking space, you’re interacting with other people and companies in that same space,” Tayo explains. “A coworking space creates a natural environment for networking — networking that can start with something as simple as a hello. One client might work in aviation and another might work in recruitment, and, before you know it, they’ve connected and started to build a team. You can’t make those connections in a traditional office setting.”
“We might be the smallest Huddle site,” Van tells me, “but I feel as though we’re going to be the busiest … and that’s because locals are drawn to this place. We’re fostering a sense of community here.”
I decide it’s time to grab a coffee, so I head downstairs to Huddle’s Fire Station Café. It’s there that I meet Scott Bainbridge (operations manager for all three Huddle cafés). The café, having opened on Monday, is relatively unknown among locals. Scott wants to change this. “We’re creating a community of workers here, a community of people who appreciate good coffee and want to get to know one another,” Scott says. The space, much like the coworking office, retains the red brick walls of the old fire station. There’s a warm and welcoming feeling about the café. “I don’t want to create a corporate environment here. It’s got to be super relaxed. A lot of people rush around for coffee these days and never take the time to just sit and relax. Our café is more than just a flat white. We’re building a relationship for Huddle and we’re building a relationship for the community.”
The idea is to become a hub for the locals of Wimbledon. There are plans to host events and meet-ups in the near future. The café is keen to engage with the community; they’re already offering 25% off on all food and drinks for the police across the road, and there are plans to bring in a 10% discount for local businesses.
I leave the café with a delicious flat white in hand.
Back upstairs, I sit down and look around at the meetings taking place, the freelancers having a break in the kitchen, the conversations developing by the library area. If Huddle has taught me anything these past few weeks, it’s this: The office revolution is very much underway, and places like Wimbledon are leading the charge.
You can check out Huddle’s coworking membership plans here and see the private office hire here.
Question of the week 🔍
Last week I asked when the New Wimbledon Theatre was built. The answer: 1910.
Q: What is the name of the oldest pub in Wimbledon (still on its original site)?
You’re up to date 👋
Thanks for reading this week. If you have any ideas, feedback or questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out: zak@thewimble.com. Subscribe if you haven’t already, share if you can, and comment below with any thoughts! Don’t forget to redeem you £15 tickets for AFC Wimbledon’s upcoming game with the code “WIMBLEDONS”. I hope that you found this edition interesting (and I hope to see you in The Fire Station Café one of these days!). Have a great weekend. I’ll see you next time.
Love The Huddle, great name and a perfect environment, having experienced a few dire office spaces in the past, this is gorgeous! And if I was a football fan, I would snap up tickets for The Dons.