I have been thinking a lot about your post and I think it is a great idea and initiative! Like a lot of other posters a sign of a good cafe is a clean, friendly cafe with good food - extra space is always welcome too! Otherwise, I would love to also see an entertainment area for kids. What about having a daily storytelling/reading time (which will bring people over) maybe entertainers dressed up in classics characters such as Alice or Humpty Dumpty would be nice or maybe mums could read the stories for a free coffee and croissant - and it would have more of a community feel and less cost for you? It would be great if you could stock some nice chocolates/macarons (such as Maison du chocolat or Pierre Herme) to pick or Fortnum and Mason foodie gifts - because I always end up giving the same boring chocolate box or flower bouquet and it would be nice to bring something different. I know I would come just for that. And for the evening, it would be great if it could become a small art-house cinema - style the Renoir in Central London (I know, a bit unrealistic) - playing classics or foreign films (though not sure how many other people would be interested so possibly not a great idea in itself). I guess depending on the space you find and how it is laid out will make it easier or not to hire for classes, party venues or other uses. Let us know how you get on, I will be happy to pop by and do some reading (if not too far away)!

Hello All

At WoW we are always seeking to improve and being a new business this will obviously take some time and a lot of tweaking.

To AbbevilleMummy we take comments seriously and I was very shocked to hear that you were charged for the use of our play area. The play area was placed in the best possible way to make it comfortable for customers that had their children with them, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE DO WE CHARGE FOR THE USE OF THE SPACE and as your comment states you were charged, we would appreciate any help you could offer for us to investigate this matter.

Fooxxy, as we are a similar concept please come by and I will gladly share any info or help with any questions you may have. I'm sure I'll know a thing or two about opening a cafe that's child friendly.

To our customers, thanks alot for your support and please do message us any comments as we strive to achieve the best possible standards in becoming a successful business within the Lavender Hill community.

Kurt
WoW Cafe
02072239990
wonderworldofwishes@hotmail.co.uk

I think the real challenge is space. The bigger the place you can find the better.

Another thing is cleaning! You'll need to keep in clean... very clean. I find that baby / toddler cafe's can be dirty and smell unless someone is cleaning all the time.

And as people mentioned... you gotta keep the price down. People with new babies are usually on a restricted salary.. as now they only have one bread winner.

Try to find an untapped location... I think that Cavendish road near Henry Cavendish School could use a good kid friendly cafe.

Good Luck. x

I would love to see something like this open for all the reasons that other posters have already said & I'm adverse to going to the chains such as Starbucks etc & much prefer to support the nndependents.

I live very close to Barmouth Kitchen a& it's great, but a larger cafe with lots of room for little ones would be great.

Space for music classes or other things aimed at children would work, I was a member of Cupcake on Earlsfield Road until it closed and that worked really well.

Good luck & keep us posted as I would love to support you.

X

One of the nct teachers in the Wimbledon and Wandsworth branch runs a cafe in South Wimbledon called The gooseberry bush cafe. I'm not sure just how toddler friendly it is - I also rate Deelight bakery as a very good toddler place & great cakes and coffee - but it has space for nct classes, baby massage etc in a room upstairs so thinking about space that can be hired might help with turnover?

Good luck with your venture. Rather than going for just a small soft play/ toys area which as people have said does get overly used and grubby quickly, how about having an entertainment area which you can rent for classes? Then you can have a cafe area with yummy food either whilst the little ones are being entertained or after the class (seriously check out Deelight or Lavish Habit- food and drinks are spot on) . You could also sell cards and gifts. Buggy parking space is always an issue though and I don't suppose issuing parking tickets for overstayers would go down well.
The other thing to look out for are venues that open in the evenings only as they may be willing to rent their premises to you. I always think its a shame that the Exhibit in Balham isn't open during the weekday as its a great space that could easily fit a lot of buggies.

Personally, I would LOVE a cafe with a little play corner - some sort of distraction for my children while I have something hot to drink. I was very disappointed when Crumpet (on Bellevue) closed down because it was a nice option to have - I could easily spend 45 minutes to an hour with both children there. It wasn't without its drawbacks though.

I think you might look at aiming toward a middle ground - providing good takeaway coffee, pastries, quality loose-leaf tea, for example, but also with a toy table/corner. If you have the storage space, maybe do toy rotations every week or so. I'd say the toy area shouldn't be too extravagant - mainly easy to clean and space efficient. A train table (one with glued-down wooden tracks) might get you a stream of repeat customers (i.e. parents of train-obsessed boys, myself included! ). I think if you go toward the enclosed miniature soft-play area you are opening yourself up for too much rough-and-tumble, and this will cause problems between mothers of younger toddlers and those of older children. Nothing worse than having to leap up every 5 seconds to monitor things, and coming back to a cup of cold tea.

Personally, my biggest bugbear is overcharging for mediocre food. Seeing beans on toast costing 500%+ more than it would at home is galling especially when the portions are small. On the other hand, I'm fine with paying a bit of a premium for things like nice pastries, loose-leaf tea etc because those are things I don't fix for myself at home.

Don't know if any of this is useful, but I wish you every success in opening your cafe!

I used to manage a place like this. Do not underestimate how difficult it is!
You need a lot of capital and amazingly patient, hard working and reliable staff - who can pretty much double up as creche staff- as any play cafe with a lot of children/infants/toddlers, invariably end up with little ones trying to scoot out the door, coming behind the counter etc etc. even if the paremts are trying their hardest it's always difficult to have everyone on a good day!
Us mums are a tough market to please as well, most of us are readily armed with a list of complaints - and why not want the best for our pride and joy?!

The cleaning and maintenance is paramount in these places, which I think is part of the reason why peole stop going to them. Everyone thinks the place is great when it's all shiny and new, but when the toddlers are unleashed on the place, it soons ends up like a slightly grubby house that doesn't feel much of a treat to escape to!

The rents are astronomical, but to be a success you need to be where the mums are, and that's always a pricey housing market. My advice would be to open a wonderful cafe that welcomes all, has high standards of cleanliness, interesting edibles that not everyone stocks, and make it child friendly - but not specifically aimed at this market. These places just get a battering that a cafe can't take - that's why play centres are still so popular, they are built to take a battering and are not very parent orientated. In my opinion it is v tricky to meld the two without a HUGE space. First and foremost where mums and small children are concerned, the key is great, friendly, caring staff.

I have often thought of this idea myself but agree with the other posters in that it is extremely difficult to turn a profit.

If you look at Crumpet, despite it's often negative reviews, it was always packed and yet it still folded and I think that was because each cover would spend a long time at the table but not actually spend that much over the counter.

The ones that I think are great are Barmouth Kitchen, but that's a co-op and the bakery on Ritherdon Rd but it's USP is that it's an excellent bakery.

As for WOW, I have been a couple of times and each time sworn I would not return. Over-priced, poor quality food, uncomfortable space and the last time I was there they added £1 to my bill for my little girl spending 5 mins in their tiny play corner!! I will definitely not go back a third time!

I went to WOW with my charge, a nanny friend and her charges

we were not impressed... expensive for what it is, not the most helpful / happy staff either.

hi

lovely idea but as others have said, difficult to make a living out of it if it is just a play cafe for mums and children/baby.

You should check under the green tree in clapham old town, not sure how they are now as I havent been for a long time, but she has a fab concept. I think if you want to make it work, you need to offer something as well so your customers have a reason to come back rather than just lovely coffee and toys because yes a lot of people cant justify £3-4 to spend everyday on coffee and juice for the kid (£67.5-90.00 pcm).
And to make a living out of it you need returning customers...

There is a gap in the market for another age group with after schools activities... maybe you should look into it. I think although nobody has got it right yet, the mum and baby market is saturated especially around here hence a lot of places closing down. Last time I went to WOW a month ago, the cupcakes were dry like you couldnt eat them, place was filthy and the staff unhelpful... I wish it is not going to close because they have a nice idea but for the price you pay, you expect better food...

Good luck to you! Keep us posted, would love to try a new place!!!

Hi

I also had an idea about doing something like this. I wanted to do a nice, clean play cafe to provide a relaxing atmosphere for mums and maybe teamed with a personal trainer to offer group PT sessions for mums whilst offering a 'pop up' creche to look after the kids whilst the mums train.

Either way, a play cafe is a great idea. However, I think it's really hard to make money from this - loads of cafes have recently shut down, presumably due to the fact that they can't make money - cupcake putney and earls field, and all the crumpets (I think) have closed down recently.

The problem I think is that rents in london are obviously expensive and to have a good play cafe you need a lot of 'dead' space - e.g. for parking buggies and for the soft play area.

The other problem I think is that mums and carers don't have a huge amount of disposable income - most are quite frugal (being either on mat leave or having no income as a stay at home mum....or as a nanny, you're quite conscious of not spending too much of your employers money) so the spend per person I don't think is all that high.

I think the most successful type of play areas are those that charge an entrance fee, e.g. its a kids thing and jitterbugs cafe in wimbledon (if that's still there....haven't been for ages). They also do birthday parties so make quite a bit from that presumably.

I agree with sparkle tiger, nowhere has quite got it right - or at least no where quite does it how I'd like it to be done but I imagine this is due to constraints (like making money!)

One way that it could maybe be done is through a co-operative style ownership, where making money isn't necessarily the main aim. The Barmouth Kitchen which recently opened is a small cafe run by a group of local parents (don't know the business model in terms of profit making etc) but it's got such a lovely community atmosphere.

But obviously if your main aim is to do this to bring in a good income whilst doing something you're passionate about, then a cooperative style approach might not appeal.

Anyway, like sparkle tiger, I'd be happy to provide a sounding board / help out with ideas etc if that would be helpful.

It is a great idea and tho lots have/are trying to do it I'm not sure anyone has got it quite right yet. Haven't tried the battersea one previous poster suggested. Will do tho. The guys at WOW have clearly put a Great deal of thought into it and have made the space the best they could but its just too small to house more than a few children/families.

I def use cafes with my 4yr old and 15 month old and there is still a gap for a good place I think. Can't see how it would make enough tho. Perhaps consider working with a childrens centre. I provided a free massage for
Mums service at one and it worked well - no overheads for me and it met local needs and helped the centre achieve targets.

I've also run Mummy Loves Disco for Clapham NCT and am a
Member of a parents cooperative nursery so I'm passionate about
Trying to do stuff to make mums (and of course dads) and childrens lives easier and enjoyable. Please feel free to pm if you what some help or even just as a sounding board.

I would strongly urge you to check out Eat Play Love on Battersea Park Road at the York Road junction.

It is exactly the concept you are thinking of and it is on the other side of town where choices are limited at the moment , so mums and babies like going there.

I have been there a couple of times already .....and so have other mums in the area

Idea sounds great but so many have tried it like Wonderful World of wishes who are based on Lavender Hill to keep the rental costs down. Unfortunately no one is willing to make that trip on a regular basis unless they live around there. From the state of the place lat time I went in I think it is goin under.

Northcote Road is the location to have but £50-60k per year rentals you'll struggle to make any money unless charging huge prices or having it more of a restaurant as opposed to a coffee shop where all people will buy is a coffee.