For the past seven years the Glad Cafe has been running a packed programme of live music as well as art exhibitions, films, talks, comedy and theatre in our premises on the southside of Glasgow. We are a not for profit social enterprise with a brilliant staff team of 16 who make sure that our venue, cafe, Glad Rags shop and Glad Foundation music charity are providing our customers with a warm and friendly place to hear music, play music, eat, drink and participate.
WHERE WE ARE
We are based in a brilliant but crumbling listed building which we rent and share with 10 shops and 24 households. We open on to the street, but our actual premises run at ground level behind the tenement, and our roof provides a drying green and bin shelter area for the tenement flats.
RAISING THE ROOF!
Since opening in 2012 we have dreaded rain! Even though we’ve had help from the likes of a friend brushing water from the roof, or a choir member patching cracks in the bitumen, the drips continue to affect our whole Glad community. Cafe staff have to move customers away from the wet spots, the venue staff have to shift electrical equipment to safety, and the Glad Foundation manager regularly tries to keep the Glad Foundation room dry by placing buckets in the false ceiling. We’ve always wondered how to deal with this on-going problem, as fixing the roof properly has never been an affordable option and fraught with the difficulties that come along with listed building standards.
But at last we and our neighbours have been thrown a lifeline with the promise of grants from Glasgow City Heritage Trust and Glasgow City Council to cover half the costs of a complete refurbishment to the roofs, stonework and guttering of the whole building. However, we must all pay our share and the Glad Cafe’s share is a whopping £40,000.
WHY WE NEED TO DO THIS
We are desperate to keep the Glad Cafe show on the road! Not just because WE love it, but because so many of YOU do!
Can you help? https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/the-glad-cafe-raises-the-roof