Read our short interview with Leas Lift Hero, and owner of Craft Coffee, Jamie Evans
How did Craft Coffee come about?
We started Craft Coffee in 2011 with a weekend stall at the Maltby Street Market near London Bridge. My former boss had a railway arch and asked if I wanted to come and do coffee. We slowly grew the business from there and at one point had a shop in Shoreditch and a car at King’s Cross – which was particularly successful. After around 10 years in London, we decided to move to Folkestone.
What made you decide to come to Folkestone?
At the time we lived on a narrow boat, first in East London and then in the countryside near Hertfordshire. It was idyllic but also quite challenging at times – we sprung a leak in the boat once which wasn’t easy to get fixed and having a chemical toilet wasn’t great either! We did some online research on places to live with good links to Kings Cross and came across Folkestone. We didn’t have any ties to Folkestone; I have family in Deal but had never been there. We visited a couple of times and fell in love with the place and moved here in 2017. We commuted up and down to London until Covid hit.
During Covid, we were unable to continue our business in London. Getting quite restless sitting at home, I started sending emails out to various locations asking for pop-up spaces. We did walk past the lower station of the Leas Lift around that time and thought it would be a nice place, but it looked like an abandoned building. We were surprised to hear shortly after that a tender to run a café at the site was about to go out. To be honest, my partner Emily was keener to take it on than I was, but I am glad we did it, because it’s been a real success and it also made us feel much more a part of the local community.
How did you get word out mid-Covid that you were opening at the Lift?
I think there was generally a lot of local public interest in the Lift building. With everyone spending a lot of time on social media during Covid, word got round pretty quickly that we were setting up. During lockdown, people were only allowed out of their house a couple of hours a day, so in a weird and wonderful way the Lift Café became a draw for anyone seeking some normalcy and interaction. It also helped that the park and beach were nearby.
We were busy from the get-go, serving out of the hatch initially but thankfully able to open the café itself not much later. All in all, it was great we were in Folkestone during the pandemic, and able to work, instead of being stuck in inner London.
A lot of people know about the Leas Lift because of the Lift Cafe
We didn’t do it on purpose I guess, but I do think we played quite an important role in putting the Lift back on the map of Folkestone, and we are happy we contributed to that. I never saw the Lift operating but lots of people coming to the café talk about their memories of the Lift and about taking visitors on it. My kids are especially excited that the Lift is re-opening!
It’s nice to think back to our first visit to Folkestone when we saw the fencing around the Lift’s top stations and were wondering what it all was. If only we knew how big our involvement with the Leas Lift would become! I hope the Lift will open up the town a little bit, I really see it as a necessary mode of transport.
And finally, what are your next plans for Craft Coffee?
We will be going back to our coffee-serving roots and have therefore decided to part ways with the Leas Lift. The Lift Café has grown much bigger than we had anticipated in the beginning. We are grateful for that and the years at the Lift have been very good to us but now it is time for something slightly different, and more coffee-focused.
We have taken up a pop-up in the Urban Room. We have the space until the end of September but we hope to be able to extend our contract.
We wish Jamie and Emily all the best in their new endeavours. Watch this space for info on a Lift Café end of summer event – more detail to follow soon!
