Loved this email from Ralph Oswick – former Artistic Director at Bath’s Natural Theatre Company.
“Although I regret the demise of Silcox, Son and Wicks, the wonderful family-run furniture store off Kingsmead Square, the coffee shop that has replaced it, also called Silcox, has solved the annoying (to me and many others, I suspect) phenomenon of permanent occupation by students and their electronic detritus.
They have a number of computer-free tables for ‘normal’ customers. Great! But also a side area where there are tables with sockets available, where one is welcome to work and drag one’s flat white out for hours on end.
If only other places would do the same (and at the risk of being labelled grumpy, similar zones for dogs, or as I call them, trip hazards on leads.”
Thanks, Ralph!
Interesting. I remember Silcox Son & Wicks as a furniture store and my parents buying new bedroom furniture for my brother’s bedroom in the 1950s – some of which was held on to for at least 30+ years. Part of Bath’s retail history (well, at least for those of my vintage!). Shame that the original wording on the wall seems to have gone.
What a fabulous idea. If only other cafe’s followed this, it would be much more pleasurable to visit them. Although I am not sure it is just students who commandeer tables and sit there all morning nursing one cup of coffee and using the facilities of the establishment. Well done Ralph for bringing this to my attention and also well done to Silcox coffee.