Bloom Cafe & Hope Centre

Bloom Cafe & Hope Centre exists in central Brighton, a short walk from Brighton train station, set slightly back from the North lanes. People from all walks of life stop by for a chat, or a coffee and cake, with their laptops or armed with a team of colleagues. It’s a bright space with exposed brick walls, bunches of flowers and a brightly-coloured bar, but most of all, it’s a warm space.

I ventured upstairs to the meeting rooms, which are above and below the cafe. The meeting rooms are used for team building, as recovery rooms and as therapeutic and creative spaces - and even though you wouldn’t know about these rooms from the cafe itself, the care and hospitality of Bloom is imbibed into it’s very walls, embraced and sandwiched in it’s very DNA, you can feel it.

I stepped outside to take a few exterior shots of the building. Several passerbys were ducking past my camera. As I noticed Nando’s popping into the cafe to say hi. I captured the atmosphere as I saw it, took some staff headshots and snapped the delicious drinks and cakes on the counter.

Bloom is a friendly and vibrant addition to London Road and the wider Brighton scene. It’s a special place, many seem to have found home and hope here.