Beloved community and cafe to be broken up by Prestwich demolition

It’s the end of the morning rush at You & Me cafe in Prestwich’s condemned Longfield Centre.

It’s the end of the morning rush at You & Me cafe in Prestwich’s condemned Longfield Centre. 

Groups of people are chattering over coffees and fry-ups, bandying ‘hullos’ across the tables, and eyeing anyone who comes through the door with a friendly curiosity. There’s an air of relaxed companionship in the Persian-infused caf, which serves bacon and egg breakfasts alongside Iranian stews. 

But there’s also something muted and sad in the air. 

The cafe will soon be demolished along with the rest of the sixties shopping complex in Prestwich. The site will instead become home to a multi-million pound complex with a new community hub, village square, market hall, and 250 new homes. 

While some welcome the regeneration and investment the £100m+ project is bringing to the area, many regulars at the cafe are devastated by its loss. 

Jamie

“Before I started coming here, I spent weeks at a time at home on my own,” Jamie Britton, 32, told the M.E.N. The single dad was watching his eight-year-old son TJ tuck enthusiastically into a cheese toastie. 

“It’s somewhere to go where I’m not just going to be at home staring at the walls. Before I started coming here I was alone a lot. Now I’ve got friends here that I can see regularly.” 

Raising a kid on his own, Jamie struggled to find work that he could fit around his childcare duties and also struggled with loneliness. 

“I’m sad it’s closing. A lot of people rely on the cafe not just for food or drink but as a point of contact with  people,” he said. “The new place won’t be the same. It’s not just that we’re friends with each other, we’re also friends with the staff. We all know each other. 

“There’s a difference between regeneration and completely making everything new and regeneration that still keeps the spirit of what was there before.” 

TJ, who celebrated his eighth birthday at the cafe, says he’s ‘made friends and memories at the cafe. 

“And they also do really good food,” he added with a toothy grin. “That’s why I’m going to miss it as well. No one makes food as good as this – not even Gordon Ramsey!” 

A table next to Jamie’s greeted him by name after settling down from a cigarette break. The group of pensioners all met through the cafe. 

Though only one agreed to be pictured, all of the friends described the closure as ‘a crying shame’ and ‘a real disappointment’. 

“They’re killing the place,” Steve Robinson, 69, said. “The cafe’s very important to me. You go into Costa and nobody speaks to you. But you come in here, and people speak to you. I’ve only been here five years. In that time I’ve made a lot of friends just by coming in here.”

Steve is worried the new development replacing the Longfield Centre will be too expensive. 

 “I get they have to take things down because there are problems, but they could’ve done it so there are still things for people to come back to. It’s alright putting in something like Waitrose… but most of us can’t afford Waitrose. They don’t think about things like that. They think about the people who are coming in who have got money. That’s what they want. It feels like they don’t give a damn about the people who actually live here.” 

Paula

Steve’s friend Paula Brown, 58, said: “It’s also people with mental health. I’ve got my own struggles with mental health. We all have our problems. It’s really important because it gets you out of the house and there are people here who chat to you. If it’s not here, I don’t know what’s going to happen. 

“It’s stressful because you worry about how it will affect people.” 

And Vera Jenkinson, 75, who sat with friend Susan Turner, 63, used to come with her husband, who loved the cafe. After he passed away two years ago, she continued to come to carry on her routine and see her friends who supported her. 

“When he went, I thought what am I going to do now? I’ve not changed my routine – it’s very hard.

“All of this, it’s for the younger generation. What about the older generation? What about us?” 

“I’m alright with change, I just don’t like the idea of people thinking that everything’s for the younger generation who’ve not finished growing up – well we’ve not finished growing up yet.”

Kim and George 

Kim Orourke, 70, has been taking her dad George Harland, 89, to the cafe for around five years, she said. 

“We’re going to miss the caf, aren’t we dad?” She said, as George tucked into a generously-sized omlette. “He loves it here. The meals are nice, the staff have always been lovely. 

“We only got told last month that it was going to shut down. It means a lot to us. It’s quite local to my dad, so we were quite disappointed. It’s a really good caf. It’s going to be sadly missed by a lot of people.” 

Not everyone opposed the new development. For couples like Dave and Ange Doesteon, 75, the cafe is a sad but necessary part of progress for the local area. 

Dave

Dave, a 72-year-old who grew up in Prestwich, recalls when the area was more of a village, with old cottages that were knocked down to build the Longfield Centre in the 60s. 

“It was always hammered,” Dave remembered. “There were gigs and dances in the community centre. We had the  biggest dancehall in Manchester at the time, with a springloaded floor. And it was full of shops. It was brilliant. 

“But gradually it’s declined. They need to knock it down. I think it’s a couple decades overdue. It’s old, it’s sixties stuff.

“I’ll be sad to see the cafe go. I’ve been coming here since day one. It’s nice people, it’s quick and easy food. You can watch the world go by. It’s a shame it needs to go. 

“But it needs doing. We need new blood round here.” 

Peter

Old friends Peter and Michael, bickering over Michael’s Manchester United hat, said they thought the cafe was a ‘nice place to come, get nice and warm, and have a good drink’. But Peter added with resignation: “It’s progress isn’t it? I don’t think much of the new place. I’ve been looking at the leaflet they sent me. It’s all open glass. Anyway, we probably won’t be here by the time they finish it.” 

Michael

The manager of the cafe said she didn’t want to speak about the closure because it made her ‘too upset’ to think about. She previously told the M.E.N. that she couldn’t afford to move to a new venue. 

A spokesperson for the council said: “The long-awaited regeneration of Prestwich is a truly transformational scheme that will replace a tired and outdated shopping centre with a wide range of facilities and attractions. 

“The demolition work does mean, however, that existing traders need to move out and find alternative premises. We have been in regular contact with them for many months and given advice and guidance wherever we can.

“It’s important that the new precinct is designed for everyone, and, while it is too early to say which shops will be in the new development, we do want to give priority where we can to local independents.” 

After the M.E.N. reached out for comment from the council, they said they ‘met with the owners of You and Me café yesterday, and discussed various options to enable them to continue trading, including the possibility of using a food van’.