The Clipper’s journey
The start of something new
Because of the work we were doing at Union Corner, local people were asking us to do something about the empty, run-down buildings on the street. After a lot of hard work we set up Nudge as Community Benefit Society in September 2017. Come November, we’d quit our day jobs and bought The Clipper — our first purchase. The Clipper was an old pub that had been well known as a 24-hour destination and it had been standing empty for 4 years.
Getting stuck in
Over the course of 8 months, with the help of a great group of volunteers, we renovated the ground floor to create a café and mini market area. We had highs and lows during this time, and lots of late nights! Some of the lovely and funny things that happened during this time:
The beautiful mosaic bar top collectively made by our volunteers, especially volunteer Ian.
Volunteer Tony restoring over 15 holes in the ceiling and Doug who, used to run the pub, got involved every week to do a bit of painting.
Hannah and Lizzie ripping out the urinal out and repurposed it as a planter outside.
Having only one working power socket for five months!
Replacing the old, dark, wooden porch with a new glass one.
Getting new flags and a mural inspired by architect John Foulston on the front of the building.
Finding a cupboard filled with 500 beer bottles.
Flooding the kitchen the night before we opened…!
Getting really familiar with our drains and Union Street’s problems.
Framing the Friday Night on Union Street mural and connecting with the artist’s family.
It opened in July 2018 and was a place for people to test their food business and small shops in a safe and low risk way!
We worked with the fab PCC environmental health team to support tenants and connected them up with the social sector in the city. Early day pop ups ranged from a clean food café by lovely local resident Lizzie to yummy Eritrean food. In January 2019 No Whey – a Mexican plant based food business, moved in after they held a fair the month before in The Clipper. They needed a more flexible solution as a small business. No Whey where based for a year and a half in the space and in that time they, experimented with their offer, solidified their menu, became a CIC, ran 6 markets filled with local sellers, had the chance to speak to a range of people including policy makers and successfully applied for funding and business support programs.
The Clipper has had a range of events and activities in the last 3 years, like a marriage proposal, book launches, Christmas carolling and a lovely massage business operating. Local organisations and our partners have done takeovers like Plymouth Collage of Art, Food Plymouth, Theatre Royal Plymouth Project X, Fairtrade Plymouth, Plymouth Social Enterprise Network, Diversity Business Incubator and quirky illustration fairs filled The Clipper with really talented students and creatives.
