Popular Bristol park café to close later this month after two decades

A popular Bristol park cafe is to close this month after almost two decades of serving the local community.

After running for 18 years, Fay Aldridge has made the hard decision to close The Tea Gardens in St Andrew’s Park on April 30.

A mixture of reasons has led to the decision. One of the factors was the change of terms and conditions with Bristol City Council to re-tender for the new concession. 

Another major contributor is that her staff will be moving onto other things this summer, and she says it has been challenging to find good staff.

Fay says that running the café for 18 years has been very hands-on and takes up a lot of her time, and she will be moving on to make space to do other things.

"It's been a very, very difficult decision. One of the hardest decisions of my life is letting this go," Fay told BristolWorld. "It wasn't a given that I was going to get the pitch again even though I've been here for 18 years. I have known people who have lost their pitches. So I've decided to make a proactive decision to let the café go."

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"I was going to slope off quietly, and then I talked to my staff, and we decided we need to celebrate 18 years. So we're celebrating in style and we're going to have a good old-fashioned fête with races."

The Village Fête will take place at St Andrew's Park all day on April 28 with games starting from 2pm. There will be a sack race, a seven-legged trouser race, an egg and spoon race and the ladder game among other old-fashioned games with prizes.

When asked about her fondest memories of running the café, Fay said: "I've got fantastic customers and the support from the community has been amazing. They've always stepped up when I've asked them to, and I'm sure they would have if I'd asked them to on this occasion. It's been an absolute privilege working here.

"I'm overwhelmed with the kindness of people, and the conversations and the comments I've had in the last week have just touched my heart."