When you find a place that feels like your ‘home away from home’, you never forget your first experience there. It’s as if the place becomes a part of your identity. For Marmalade + Kindness, Founder, Adamantia Velonis, this place is Shreeji News, Marylebone, London. Now living in Oxford, she shares why this third space felt like home in a candid ‘love letter.’
To my dearest Shreeji News,
It’s raining heavily in Oxford as I write this. We now have a backyard – with apple trees! It’s such a delight to see their fruit sprawling across the lawn, despite the pouring rain. I can’t wait to show you the photos.
It’s such a shame to be so far from you. I think back to when we first met. Lockdown was starting to ease, and shops were reopening. I was in search of some foodie magazines to surprise my partner.
Walking up Chiltern Street, I almost didn’t recognise you; you had changed so much. A bright and airy façade, revealing all your journals and magazines, propped up on floor-to-ceiling honey-stained shelves. A central island with a vase of flowers and pastries – I felt like I was visiting a friend’s home, invited to the kitchen to enjoy an afternoon treat.
I bought Bon Appetit (there was no new issue of Ambrosia) and ordered two coffees to-go. (Another change!) Joe, the barista and coffee roaster, was chatting to me about the beans. And you had me at the first sip… Creamy and balanced, without a hint of bitterness, I knew I had stumbled upon something special.
We often talk about ‘third spaces.’ A ‘home away from home’ that offers some respite from work and everyday life. Many cafés try to create such a space, but despite their immaculate interiors, the experience remains transactional. But you, my friend, were so different from the others. You are more than the latest place to visit or somewhere to ‘be seen’ – you were essential to my daily life.
When lockdown started our lives became so limited – the apartment, that had served us so well up until that point, seemed so small. Its walls closing in on us day by day, as our stockpiles of sugar and flour seemed to grow exponentially. And on those days when you’d wonder why you were even getting up at all, you were there, waiting, morning after morning, with a smile, a fresh cup of coffee and some friendly banter.
I always loved living in London – vibrant and teeming with culture – but, the churn of people in a city of this size made it so hard to build enduring relationships. With lockdown, London turned into a local community overnight. All of a sudden, it meant something to be a local, to be known by your name. You would see us walking up, and start making our coffees, no questions asked.
Tracing the shape of the new titles on your shelves was like pouring over a personal collection, declaring ‘we are a space to share ideas.’ Paper, ink, the gentle hiss of the coffee machine and 70s glam-rock (Bowie, Bolan, Reed) all filling the front room, while vintage pieces and artisanal design add character to the back reading rooms, like a Proustian salon.
‘We’ll also grab a croissant…,’ we’d ask sheepishly. ‘Le Deli Robouchon’ reads the gold foil on the cards next to the stand, a glass cloche revealing perfectly crisp breakfast pastries. For the price of a coffee or a newspaper (and a bit of luck), we’d secure one of your bright red tables and read for hours. On those mornings, we’d pause our conversation to coo at every neighbourhood dog proudly trotting past – a giant Bernedoodle puppy rambling along, a glossy auburn King Charles Spaniel, a black pug called ‘Peggy’ – all just as much regulars as us.
But then again, you may not get a chance to read anything at all. Because here is the thing about true ‘third spaces’: they are places where you could find yourself lost in conversation with a perfect stranger. As sociologist Ray Oldenberg, once said, “…‘pure sociability’ is precisely the occasion in which people get together for no other purpose, higher or lower, than for the ‘joy, vivacity, and relief’ of engaging their personalities beyond the contexts of purpose, duty, or role. As [Georg] Simmel insisted, this unique occasion provides the most democratic experience people can have and allows them to be more fully themselves, for it is salutary in such situations that shed their social uniforms and insignia and reveal more of what lies beneath or beyond them.”
Yours is a place where you are accepted as you are without pretence. From business owners and management consultants to bloggers and artists, everyone there has something to offer, mingling freely, no one pulling rank…but possibly pulling up a chair. Everyone is happy to see you. Newcomers are welcomed with open curiosity. It’s through you that I found my illustrator – a casual conversation with a photographer over a latte led to a cherished collaboration.
Through these chance encounters, we realise the value of empathy, community and respect. In Celebrating the Third Place, Oldenburg concludes “the nature of a third place is one in which the presence of a ‘regular’ is always welcome, although never required. Membership is a simple, fluid process of frequent social contact, renewed each time by choice of the people involved. Eventually, social bonds develop through a type of informal intimacy. The important aspect of these relationships is that they occur outside of any commitment and exist solely in the realm of basic human respect. I ascribe huge importance to this one point because it is this one valuable kernel that is slipping away from our isolated modern world. I think that we all miss its presence and this affects us all in very slight, painful ways.”
I thank you for your respect and friendship, listening to my gripes, personal projects and for your advice on all manner of things. I miss my morning walks to you, Hallam making coffee with expert precision, Maysoon’s warmth and creativity, Sandeep’s wise words… but I take solace that I am only a train ride away.
In fact, the distance will only make weekend visits that much sweeter.
With love Xx
Shreeji News was established as a newsagent and tobacconist in 1982 by Sandeep Garg, stocking hundreds of international and hard-to-find journals. It was reimagined in March 2020 by developer and co-owner, Gabriel Chipperfield and his design studio Selected Work. Digital magazine Air Mail has also partnered with Shreeji for its reopening. It now features a coffee and pastry-bar: the beans are supplied by 15grams and pastries by Le Deli Robouchon. There is now also a curated reading-room and renovated events spaces. Gabriel’s wife, curator Laura de Gunzburg developing the interiors through her venture, The Artichoke.
Shreeji Newsagents
6 Chiltern St, Marylebone, London W1U 7PT
Mon – Sun 9am – 4pm
https://www.shreejinewsagents.com/
