I can just about remember the Buttermarket in its incarnation as a thriving indoor market; there was a sort of train set stall, if I remember right.
At some point in the 80s the market was closed and the building sold and renovated into an indoor shopping arcade on two levels. Trouble was the rents and rates were so high that nothing ever stayed open for long, the exception probably being Strays bookshop before that moved to its current location.
From then on, decline really set in, to the point when only about 3 of the premises were occupied.
Recently, the council bought the building back, and slashed the rents for 6 months to encourage pop up businesses and now virtually every unit is occupied with various little boutiques and craft shops.
Long term, how sustainable this will all be is all in the air, but here's hoping.
Anyway, the unit formerly occupied by Strays now has a little food quarter, in which the wonderfully named "Soup Dwagons" operate, among others. And at the back of this, is the gaming cafe.
Basically, it has hundreds of board games for you to play with your friends. I love boardgames, but given my lifestyle I don't really have anyone to play with. Luckily for the cafe, plenty of people do, and every table was occupied with folk playing games while I sat and had a cup of tea and read the magazines, in a delightfully geeky atmosphere.
The trick for me is to pluck up the courage to ask someone to show me how to play Carcassonne next time I go in.
Si
All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 16.03.19
