Having coffee and cake at Marlow’s popular Ark cafe is more inviting than ever thanks to new automatic doors paid for by local community groups.
Bucks County councillor Carol Heap cut the ribbon at the official ceremony to mark the installation of the doors on Saturday Nov 22nd.
It means The Ark is the only cafe in the town with automatic doors.
The Reverend Kate Strange, Methodist Church Minister paid tribute to local charities and other organisations who contributed to the approx £30,000 cost of the doors at the cafe, which is attached to Marlow Methodist Church in Spittal Street.
They include South West Chilterns Community Board, Rotary Club of Marlow, Round Table, Harmony Belles, Inner Wheel, ArtXtra and Marlow Methodist Church musical group.
Rev Kate Strange said: ‘As a community cafe we pride ourselves on being as welcoming as we can to all members of the community. Providing enhanced access for all will make it easier for everyone to visit the cafe, in particular wheelchair users, parents with buggies, those with carers, the elderly and disabled.’
Liz Riches, manager of The Ark told us ‘We are all delighted. We call them our magic doors because they open up to welcome customers as they approach us without them having to do a thing. That is how we want them to feel. Parents with a buggy in one hand and a bag of shopping in the other who urgently need a cappuccino don’t deserve to have to fight their way through heavy manual doors. Our doors have always been open to all – now they will be open as if by magic.’
