The owners of Worcester’s first LGBTQ+ cafe hope it will become a hub for the city’s queer community.

Sugar Daddy’s Cafe has opened in the former Concorde Stationery shop in Trinity Passage in the city centre.

Owners André Oldfield and Sam Robertshaw-Krieger had planned to open at the beginning of May but were hit by a number of delays including having to get Western Power to reconnect the shop to the electricity grid at a cost of £2,000.

“This place was a wreck,” Mr Oldfield admitted. “The floor was all mismatched and we had to take down walls.”

An accessibility ramp is still being fitted and other finishing touches are being made to the cafe, but it is now open from Tuesday to Sunday, 8am to 5pm, and can be hired out in the evening.

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“As a small, queer business we know we’ll be relying on word of mouth,” said Mr Oldfield.

“We chose this location because it’s central and easy to find if you’re looking for us, but we don’t have to rely on foot traffic.

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“I’m from London, where there is a very large gay scene, and when I first moved to Worcester I could only find one gay bar in the whole county - The Flag.”

Worcester News: Worcester's first queer cafe has opened in the city centreWorcester's first queer cafe has opened in the city centre

Mr Oldfield founded Worcestershire Pride alongside Dr Daniel Somerville, a lecturer at the University of Worcester, and Amanda Hickling, the former owner of Cafe Bliss, but says he has always wanted “a daytime queer venue for the city”.

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“There are so many queer people in Worcester, as we saw at the last Pride parade in 2019, and we want this to be a place where they can come and be as openly queer, trans, non-binary as they want.”

Mr Robertshaw-Krieger said: “There was nothing like this when I was growing up in Kidderminster.

Worcester News: The finishing touches are still being put to Sugar Daddy's CafeThe finishing touches are still being put to Sugar Daddy's Cafe

“The first queer venue I went to was a nightclub in Birmingham when I was 18. It was dark, loud and full of drunk people and it was not my thing.

“This is a place where people can go and explore who they are and to meet people like them.

“It’s very hard to have a community if you don’t have a physical place to be.”