A glimmer of hope amongst the slew of venues being forced to shut up shop in these tough times.
Waterloo's Scootercaffe — a favourite drinking haunt of Londonist and countless other Londoners — has announced it is reopening as of today (Monday 5 December), following what looked like curtains for the venue earlier this year.
Back in August, the bohemian-style cafe, which has been dishing up coffee and live music on Lower Marsh since 2000, announced it had been "forcibly closed down by the fire safety authorities", and would regrettably have to close for good.
Just over three months later, however, it appears Scootercaffe has done enough to switch on the Gaggia coffee machine, and fling open its doors in time for festive trade.
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An Instagram post from the venue says: "We have managed to negotiate with the powers that be and reduce the amount of work needed to pass the required tests in order to open to the public again! Most of these changes will not be all that noticeable to the average punter, and there is still plenty to do but a lot of effort has been put in by us to make our survival possible.
"This small business has just survived closure — please do come by and celebrate with us as well as support us getting back on our feet."
We second that, and will be down for a negroni in the very near future.
With the economic situation as it is — and landlords as they often are — London is witnessing a mini tsunami of closures of its cherished eating and drinking establishments. Since November, Simpson's chophouse, Trader Vic's and Canopy brewing have announced they're set to close — and we'd wager that's the tip of the iceberg.
