Colonnade Traders Fear Uncertain Future After Cafe Closes
JOEL CHESHIRE
The cafe at the Bexhill Colonnade will not now reopen. Its operators are shutting the doors for good after months of refurbishment disruption and mounting uncertainty over the future of the seafront landmark.
Refurb works proceeding at the Colonnade
In a public statement, a spokesperson for the café says: “We have recently reached an agreement with the council to terminate our lease early. As of March 1, we will no longer be operating the Colonnade Cafe.
“We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of our customers for your valued support over the past seven years.”
The Colonnade, owned by Rother District Council, has been undergoing refurbishment works to address structural issues including water ingress, deterioration of the building’s historic features, and general wear and tear common to a Grade II-listed seafront structure. Businesses were required to vacate during the works. Some traders appear to have expected to resume after the works, but no formal guarantee has been publicly documented.
The apparent lack of clarity from the council has been at the heart of traders’ concerns. Charlotte Arundell, who ran the Bag Lady crafts shop on the site, originally reported that there was “no guarantee that any of the traders there can come back after the winter refurb.”
Another source of concern for traders has been the prolonged nature of the refurbishment, with initial expectations that businesses would be operating again by now having to be abandoned.
Cllr Christine Bayliss, Rother’s portfolio holder for economic development and regeneration, says: “We are welcoming proposals for the entire building, multiple parts or for individual units, whether on a licence basis or, where appropriate, as part of a longer-term or other lease arrangement.”
This seems to confirm a wider re-set of how the Colonnade will operate, with existing tenants facing uncertainty and, in some cases, early departures. The cafe’s closure after seven years of business is one confirmed outcome of that process. The fact that the council is seeking new traders within the Colonnade would suggest that other temporary closures may also become permanent.
While the restoration aims to secure the long-term future of the historic structure located below the De La Warr Pavillion, the immediate impact on independent businesses is already being felt. For this beloved seaside cafe, there will be no return.
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Rother just keep on mismanaging this site and making life as hard as possible for the traders. The cafe before this last one had been there for donkeys years and was always crammed, 7 days a week. It helped all kinds of local craftspeople and artists sell their stuff, was the heart of the seafront and loved by everybody. Rother threw them out, believing that a major chain cafe would come in and they could get more rent. It never happened and the place was just left empty for ages.