We’re opening a community café in Poole

We’re opening our fourth community café on Sunday 26 May at Alexandra Park in Poole.

The café is located in the newly refurbished pavilion building in the park and will offer a range of food, drinks, and snacks.

The Alexandra Park Café will be open all year round, initially seven days a week over the summer months, from 9:30 – 16:30.

We will host an official launch event at the café on Saturday 6 July, with further details to be announced.

John Hanson, our Chief Executive Officer, said, “We’re so excited to expand our work in local parks by opening this café, which we hope will become a much used and loved neighbourhood space, providing a hub for the community.

“Alexandra Park is a beautiful park which the café will further enhance, giving visitors the opportunity to take a seat, have a cuppa, and enjoy the park for longer.

“Our charity has been working in the park for several years now, delivering a range of free nature-based activities for all ages and developing a now well-established GreenFingers volunteering group. The group has been very busy readying the space outside the café, planting trees and flowers for visitors to enjoy. They also help tend the community garden where we’ve installed raised beds for growing vegetables and planted an orchard. So, there’s lots to do when visiting the park!

“And, like our other community cafés at Winton Recreation Ground, Redhill Park, and Boscombe Chine Gardens, and the Kingfisher Barn Visitor Centre on the Stour Valley Nature Reserve, all profits from Alexandra Park Café will help our charity continue enhancing parks across Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole. So, visitors can enjoy a brew knowing they’ll be helping their local parks too.”

The new café will offer volunteering opportunities and we welcome all members of the community who are interested to get in touch with us and find out more. Volunteering can be as often as a couple of times a week to once a month, and full training is provided.

If you’re interested in volunteering at the Alexandra Park Café, please contact us on info@parksfoundation.org.uk, call 01202 143724, or pop into the café for a chat.

We also welcome working with other local charities and community groups and we invite those interested in hosting their activities in the café to get in touch.

Work on the building has included a structural refurbishment as well as a new plumbing system, new kitchen, new toilets, and a facelift to the building.

The Parks Foundation would like to thank everyone who has supported our work and helped fundraise or secured grant monies, and all those that have worked so hard transforming the bowling pavilion into the new café.

For further information about the café, visit the café page.

Published May 2024