It’s hard to miss the mural on the corner of New Cross and Casella Road, with its mossy greens and ambiguous yet comforting figures. This mural, designed in collaboration with queer muralists 34 Bus, is called “Fluid”, and belongs to the building’s queer-owned café Corner. As a crowdfunded project though, it also belongs to the public.
This shared sense of ownership is cemented in the bedrock of Corner, owned by operations manager Mark Osman-Barter, 40, and architect Tarek Merlin, 48, who have been together for 14 years.
“We had never really set out to open up a coffee shop,” says Mark. “We wanted to do something linked in with our passions, and love, and something that would benefit the community around us.”
“We wanted to do something linked in with our passions, and love, and something that would benefit the community around us”
“Corner was one of the first places I took myself on a little self-date after moving to London and I’ve been a regular ever since,” said Elenora Rós, a baker from Iceland, in an Instagram “love letter” to Corner. “I sit there for hours, working, writing, reading, eating and drinking, people-watching, chatting and just being.”
Indeed, Corner welcomes all solo coffee and art lovers looking for a place to call home. “We see people where, they may recognise each other on the street, but haven’t necessarily had a place to meet and chat, and now they’ve become friends or they’re collaborating on stuff together,” says Mark.
While Corner is a coffee shop offering occasional boozy late nights and supper clubs, it is also a gallery hosting exhibitions and art classes. Its motto is: “You can be yourself with us”.
“You can be yourself with us”
Since its doors opened in 2022, New Cross locals have claimed it as their sanctuary, sitting together around the table from Mark’s childhood home, or relaxing on the sofa from Tarek’s first house.
“It’s meant to feel a bit like your own living room so you can just come in, relax and kick off your shoes,” says Mark. “We’ve turned it over to the community, and our customers have created a space that they want.
“People there are just working, or reading a certain book, and someone will comment on it, and that will then spark up a conversation,” observes Mark. “It’s just lovely to have these little organic moments that happen.”
In preparation for Pride Day on June 28, the café’s main space is turning into a studio, with one of its regular customers leading a paper flower-making session for Trans-Pride, to hand out to people during the Pride march. In addition to its Deptford-based coffee bean roaster Elsewhere, Corner will be serving coffee from the queer brand We Are Here Coffee as a guest blend..
What about after Pride Day? Well, Corner’s next major exhibition is a collaboration between POC Architecture and Architecture LGBT, where POC with a design or architecture background contribute any medium for its big showcase. This exhibit is on through August and September, and is free and open to the public.