The iconic Rose Garden Cafe in Graves Park, Sheffield, has reopened for sit in diners and coffee-drinkers after an extensive period of closure.
For months now, the cafe has been operating on a takeaway only basis, after it was forced to close.
Campaigners fought off demolition plans to save the building and now a partnership between the Friends of Graves Park, Save The Rose Garden Cafe campaign and Sheffield City Council is working to improve the site.
The Star's Harry Harrison spoke with Caroline Dewar and Gertie Whitfield from Friends of Graves Park about the reopening.
For months now, the cafe has been operating on a takeaway only basis, after it was forced to close.
Campaigners fought off demolition plans to save the building and now a partnership between the Friends of Graves Park, Save The Rose Garden Cafe campaign and Sheffield City Council is working to improve the site.
The Star's Harry Harrison spoke with Caroline Dewar and Gertie Whitfield from Friends of Graves Park about the reopening.
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00:00We're absolutely delighted that the Rose Garden Café managed to open up in full.
00:05It's been open for a little while as a takeaway, but it's not the same as having the inside fully open.
00:13And I think the business that has been done in the past week, the number of people who have visited the café,
00:21pays testament to just how much it means to the people who visit the park.
00:27Every time I've walked in the park, there are people coming up to me and saying how happy they are that it's finally open again.
00:36They are so delighted.
00:39But now the hard work really starts because we need to start raising serious money to get this place reopened.
00:46We've got to raise ÂŁ2 million.
00:50There are lots of different ways that we might go about doing that.
00:53The council have put forward some funds and have been supporting the partnership so far.
01:00But we've also got to apply to funders and so on.
01:05And everything we do will obviously be to restore and renovate the building, but we also had a huge public consultation.
01:13All the postcodes in Sheffield, the S postcodes apart from 5, represented, which just shows you how popular this park is.
01:24But also they had some really great things to say about what we should be doing with the building.
01:31And obviously we've collated all of that and we will be responding to that.
01:36So it's not about us, it's about what the people of Sheffield have told us what they want to save the building and how to improve it for the next 100 years.
01:45This park was given to the citizens of Sheffield by J.G. Graves in 1925, 1931 and 1936 in free parcels of land.
01:57This cafe was first opened in the summer of 1927 and it was his gift to the citizens of Sheffield.
02:06So it's important for the friends of Graves Park to keep that gift in the hands of the citizens of Sheffield for them to enjoy and for them to have in the future.
02:19To say I'm pleased is a complete understatement about the reopening of this.
02:25Because it feels like a real, you know we've been working at it for such a long time.
02:30And it feels like we've finally managed to get something really positive that's come out of the partnership.
02:38And that people can see we've managed to do something and the partnership is a successful organisation.
02:46A kind of coalition between the council, Friends of Graves Park and the Save Rose Garden Cafe campaign.