posted on 03 Jan 2017

Letterpress at Lollipops Play Café, Bournemouth

My two year old granddaughter had her birthday party at this rather lovely café in Westbourne, Bournemouth a few months ago. It is an imaginative venture that has used an old church building to become a friendly and spacious place for parents and their young children to eat, drink and have fun. There is a small entrance fee which, once paid, means that even very little ones can jump about and shriek to their hearts content in a well -designed soft play area.  Apart from hosting birthday parties they also offer a wide range of regular events like arts and crafts, music and cooking but much to my surprise – no story reading. Spotting an opportunity to fill this gap I offered to do a pre- Christmas slot reading lots of related stories.  

I arrived to find that I had been given the corner by a wonderful papier -mache tree which was part of an area usually secluded by folding doors for the children to eat their party food away from the noise. This was a perfect place to read stories once I had added a rug and displayed my books on some tables. Several mothers arrived in the café with their young children but none came my way. Eventually I was joined by one of them with a toddler who took a quick look at me and then ran off! After a while a couple of other mothers came along with babies who couldn’t escape so we looked at some simple lift the flap books together. All went very quiet again for half an hour until a group of eighteen children from ‘ Cuddles ‘ Nursery arrived and after playing on the soft play, were shepherded in for some quiet time. They sat beautifully and joined in with some singing as well as listening to three stories. My final audience were three little sisters and their mother who had come specifically to hear the stories as they had seen the event advertised on the café Facebook page. They had planned to meet some friends who had unfortunately been delayed so I didn’t get to meet them.

Even though it means competing with the delights of the soft play, I think that I would like to try this venue again but hope that some promotional posters and flyers might attract more people.      

Karen Argent

January 2017