New café for Colchester’s military community

A new social hub for Colchester’s military community has been officially opened.

The CESSAC Community Café, on Fallowfield Road, served its first coffee and cakes on Monday (31 Oct) after being officially opened by Brigadier Colin Weir DSO MBE, Commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, and Patrick Keefe, chief executive officer of CESSAC.

The charity, which was set up to provide run alcohol-free social centres for soldiers in 1857, will open the café every weekday from 9am to 3pm to provide a space for soldiers and their families to meet.

Brig Weir said: “A huge amount of work has been put into creating this wonderful café by CESSAC and Colchester Garrison, for which I’m hugely grateful. I hope this will become the heart of the military community in Colchester and I know from experience how important it will become for families when we deploy on operations.”

CESSAC already runs 10 cafes at military bases in Cyprus, Germany, The Falkland Islands and the United Kingdom.

CESSAC chief executive officer Patrick Keefe said: “As a charity we have been providing welcoming facilities to all ranks and families for more than 125 years, including a previous facility in St Botolphs Street, Colchester that opened in 1887. I hope that Colchester embraces this new facility and it can become an important part of life for soldiers and their families.”