About

 

                       

 

WHAT?  We are a collectively run community social centre, with a café. We serve delicious, affordable food that will satisfy wallets, taste buds and moral compasses alike– Organic? Locally sourced? Fairtrade? Vegetarian / Vegan? YES INDEEDY. We also house some lovely meeting rooms which are used by all manner of ace groups, along with a variety of live music, zine, poetry and storytelling events.

WHO? We are steered by a group of voluntary directors, an active workgroup, a group of five Café Coordinators and an ever growing posse of incredible volunteers. Volunteering at the café can mean anything from cooking vegan cakes and running the coffee machine to organising events or redecorating the space. If you fancy volunteering, making friends, learning skills and contributing to the space– just pop in and say hi, sign up to work in the café or come along to one of our regular workgroup meetings.

WHEN? We open the café for lunch every weekday from 12pm till 4pm.
Events also take place most evenings and weekends.

WHY? The Treehouse Café started 15 years ago as the Fair Trade Café. We’ve developed and changed over the years, but have always kept a firm belief in the power of food ethics, a motley crew of dedicated volunteers and a passion for radical alternative social spaces where people can come to meet and eat.

WHERE? We are situated just opposite the university on the corner of Great Horton Road at 2 Ashgrove, see map!
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History of the Treehouse and Fair Trade Cafe

Treehouse opened in September 2006, but it didn’t really start there…

In 1994 the Fair Trade Mark was launched. Bradford University’s Third World First group (People and Planet, as it is now) was putting loads of energy into telling people about it, but were aware that they couldn’t buy any Fair Trade products closer than Oxfam on the far side of town. At the same time, the new chaplain, Mike Harrison, arrived at 2 Ashgrove and found much more space than he needed….

These things came together into the Fair Trade Café!

The Fair Trade Café opened in September 1994. It opened for two hours a day (later three hours), weekdays in term time only, and employed a new, devoted but usually inexperienced coordinator every year – paid for many less hours than she or he worked – and a fluid group of committed volunteers. The café drew invaluable support from its customers and from a large, dedicated, and enthusiastic community of volunteers who gave their time, energy and creativity to make the café’s aims a reality. This support was the core of the café’s success. It began as a group of people with a vision in a basement, and everything – equipment, furnishings, publicity – came through goodwill and hard work.

The Fair Trade Café closed in June 2005, following a decision by the landlords to sell the building.

In its eleven-year history, the Fair Trade Café:

  • Provided at least 28 people with paid employment
  • Attracted over 100 volunteers
  • Supported around 10 volunteers with extra support needs
  • Provided more than five placements for volunteers with learning difficulties
  • Offered three study tours, to India, Guatemala and Madagascar
  • Donated more than £6,000 to overseas development charities
  • Served over 100,000 bowls of soup!

Even in those days, the Fair Trade Café always aspired to be more than a café. It was a centre for campaigning, social events and education around trade justice and food related issues. As one ex-coordinator said: “it was a place you could come and hear conversations that really mattered.” But there was never the capacity to really do these things justice…

…So when we heard that the building was for sale, we decided to treat it more as an opportunity than a threat…

In the beginning, the café received immense practical & emotional support through the dedication of Mike Harrison. However, when he moved on to pastures new, the goodwill of the Diocese remained but less so the practical support. By this time though, there was a loose collective of ex-coordinators and volunteers and committed customers who were willing to provide more active support. When we heard that the building’s future was up for discussion, we formed a management committee, both to provide support to the coordinator, still officially employed by the Diocese of Bradford (though as ever funded out of café takings), and to be a more formal entity that the Diocese would be able to ‘see’ and talk to.

For the next few years, the FTC continued much as it had always done – with an undercurrent of activity in the background … Could we get a mortgage? Should we get a mortgage (or should we ‘not touch the building with a barge pole’ as a friendly structural engineer advised!)? Who and what and how would go on in the space…?

At the same time, we heard that the Commonweal – a national peace library housed by Bradford University – was also reviewing its own future. Commonweal is a small charity and has always led a precarious financial existence, flourishing under the love and efforts of its dedicated Trustees and volunteers. However, the time had come when the Trustees decided to formally hand over the long-term care of the Collection to the University. The Trust had always wanted to have a more accessible outreach space for the Collection, but couldn’t afford to lose the generosity and security of their home within the University. It seemed a perfect partnership! The bulk of the Collection would stay within the University, and the outreach and growing collection – and the new Children’s Peace Library – could come to Treehouse.

In the end, the Diocese decided that the building was NOT for sale (a blessing really!). We re-negotiated our rent (i.e. we agreed to pay some, and at commercial rates too), formally dissolved our links, and set up as the Bradford Centre for Nonviolence. Then came a year of frantic activity, culminating in the eco-refurbishment of our space. So much hard work and so many volunteers! And a fairy god-person or two, which enabled us to buy the Cambodian fair trade tiles in the café and the reclaimed furniture (which was once a school science bench, a Victorian housing development and an army barracks – swords into ploughshares!) – not to mention some real commercial catering kit at long last!!

So, we now have a better space, proper wages for our staff, and much more scope to do exciting stuff. We still have the same fantastic volunteers and the same ideas and aims though…

We also have the scope to be something more than a café. We are especially excited about the children’s library, and would really like to put some energy into our adult resource room, and into making more use of our space…

But what happens next is up to everyone who uses Treehouse! We hope you’ve enjoyed reading a little bit about our history – and we hope you feel inspired to join us in making the future of Treehouse happen!