From two tucked-away rooms at the entrance - half concealed by velvet curtains and made cosy with log burners, flowers and tapestries - the Café Under The Spire in Gateshead opens up into a labyrinth of rooms with so much colour, artwork and quirky touches you don't know where to look first.
The café has brought new life to the former St Cuthbert's Church in Bensham where owner Alan Moncrieff also runs Cotfield Mirrors from a workshop where there are examples of his intricate creations in progress. His glittering mosaic frame mirrors are a familiar sight at the Newcastle Quayside market on Sundays and he and wife Carol, a fellow frame-maker, are currently making more stock to take to their annual stall at Glastonbury.
He's always back and forth between jobs, adding to the general café buzz as staff serve the customers dotted around in various rooms - although it's the sort of place that will have atmosphere even when it's quiet - and following breakfast trade, then the day-time regulars enjoying scones and lunches, the art-café morphs into a Bangladeshi-style restaurant at night, serving the likes of 'village food' dishes of lamb rogan josh and coconut chicken.
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When it comes to hidden gems, Gateshead's Café Under The Spire certainly fits the bill - quite literally, with its jewel-like interior and sparkling mosaics.
Giant rugs add colour to the stone floor; canopies of tapestries billow from the ceiling and the light is from chandeliers, table lamps and fairly lights - I even spot a glitterball - with the mix of seating just as varied. Alan, 54, has turned some of his mirror designs into light boxes and their changing colours add a whole new dimension in the evenings. Among them is a showstopper - inspired by the sacred geometry of the Flower of Life in Islamic art - which took him three months to complete.
Broken crockery is inlaid into an overhead beam - Carol also uses broken ceramics in her mirror frames which include one with an Alice in Wonderland theme - and there is vibrant artwork everywhere - again, Alan's work. Among the quirky touches is the sound of birdsong which kicks in when customers use the toilet, which is arty in itself with jungle wallpaper.
Upstairs - where the contrast of whitewashed walls and arched beams are a reminder you're inside a church - there's also an outdoor terrace with a view of the Tyne. Music is becoming a popular addition too, with a Polish twenties jazz night set for a return, and there still seems so much more potential, not least in all the three-floor building's unused space.
For anyone who hasn't been in before - or even those who have - there is much to explore. Its standalone spot in Derwentwater Road sees it passed constantly by traffic at a busy junction going off in various directions - town centre; Redheugh Bridge; Team Valley - but, as Alan points out, drivers can pass before they've a chance to stop, although it has a good size car park if they do. It is also on a bus route.
But once people discover it, it seems they just love it and Alan himself has never been in any doubt about the church's attractions. And he has seen it at its worst.
Before it was sold around 13 years ago, it had been standing empty for about four decades he says. He lives directly across the road at Cotfield House - dating from 1828 so there before the 1842 church was built - which is where he previously ran the mirror-making business he named after it. He recalls how he'd see it from his window and "sit with a glass of wine and think 'I'd love to get involved with that'."
And then it all happened organically. When he spotted it finally had been sold, he popped over the road to have a look, bumped into one of the new landlords and they got chatting about its potential for an art gallery and even a café. Almost before he knew it, the opportunity for the art venture was his and he says now: "How did that come about? It was amazing."
He soon found himself working there in one room, the church's Apse - a beautiful high-ceiling space which is now to have another use as Alan had moved Cotfield Mirrors to a new workshop space there - and he says: "Six months turned into nine years!"
Then the café idea took shape - even though he'd never done anything like it - and a year and a half was spent doing up the café-restaurant area before it opened. Then two months later the pandemic hit.
"We'd just opened but it wasn't finished," says Alan. "I'd run out of money; the van I'd used to go to Quayside market became a shed because I couldn't afford to run it and when Covid happened I was able to pay off debts." That was due to government support on offer at the time, which included grants and bounceback loans that saved the day.
He tried doing takeaways during lockdown but they proved a struggle because the café had not had a chance to establish itself. By the time restrictions eased and it could re-open, the building was finished and an alcohol licence in place.
Now of course the challenge is the cost of living crisis that has seen monthly gas bills shoot up to £900 and gas to £600. "We run the central heating and kitchen on gas bottles and used to pay £97 for two to last four days; now it's £150 for four days.
"And there's the staff" (there are nine). "I don't get a wage." He adds: "I just keep busy and get on with it." He has to try to balance his time between his frame-making and his work in the café where, having started each time morning with a trip to buy ingredients for the menu, he occasionally likes to chip in with the cooking too.
But he has no complaints. His working environment is unique. "You've just got to believe," he says. "I can't see how all this would have happened for it not to succeed." And he adds: "I love it - it's great!"
Visitors would be forgiven for thinking many of the cafe's interior features are traditional but the church, which was designed by John Dobson, was derelict when they moved in, recalls Alan. "It was like a building site. There was steel holding the next floor up - there was nothing here; it was an empty shell."
The landlord copied the likes of intricate moulding that would have existed around the arch windows and Alan lain wooden floorboards and and stone flags himself, recycling and reusing wherever possible and making good use of Facebook Marketplace. They managed to get tables for free; floorboards from a Jewish community centre in Jesmond's Osborne Road and a varied collection of chairs.
They've sourced stained glass for designs and there are inspired touches too. One night a stack of wooden beams outside the church were set on fire and, after the fire crew attended, Alan recalled hearing of a technique to salvage burned timber. The beams he saved can be seen inside where their charred look only adds to the appeal.
Taking out an upper floor area near the café counter - where popular Neck Oil and Punk IPA are among the beers on draught - opened the building up to its full height and let in light. They made use of a heavy fisherman's chain to rig up a light to hang in the long drop.
Further up, you really feel you're in the roof and here are two vast arched spaces, with great light and acoustics and timber rafters and pillars draped in fairy lights, which they hope to turn into a regular wedding venue - bringing marriages back to the church for the first time in decades. There are plans for the church's outdoor space too, with new seating to take advantage of the summer weather.
Friends have played their part in getting the venue off the ground and are now shareholders, like Andrew Leach who helped out for free in the early days and Naj Choudry who is the Bangladeshi chef in charge of the café-restaurant's evening menu which sees him lovingly recreate the traditional recipes handed down to him by his gran. They've now added pizzas to the menu too, deciding just to give them a go after buying a pizza oven on the spur of the moment.
All the food on offer is "fantastic" says Alan and that goes for another new addition to the menu which comes thanks to Lesya Bourn, a former regular customer at the café who ended up working there. She's a Ukrainian who has lived in Gateshead for years and has introduced cakes, such as a light and lovely honey cake, from her native country which are going down a storm.
She has helped add a new member of staff too, a refugee from the Ukraine who is also now on the staff. Lesya loves the cafe's community feel, its atmosphere and seeing it used by a wide range of people, from several local groups to park runners taking a breather and workers popping in for a breakfast at their laptops.
With everything going on in her home country, she also finds it a haven of calm and and a comfort. "With it being an ex-church building, there's this feeling that the saints are around you and keeping you. There's an atmosphere here."
For more about Café Under The Spire, which is open from 11am Tuesday to Sunday, when it also serves Sunday lunch, see its Facebook page here.
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