The new owners of the Gylly Beach Café in Falmouth have revealed their plans for the site, including a new wellness facility with showers and changing rooms.
Healeys Cyder bought the popular venue on Gyllyngvase Beach in the summer off a guide price of £3.5 million.
A formal planning application has yet to be presented to the Council, but director Joe Healey has shared details of the initial concept.
“As a local family business, we’re really excited to be the new custodians of Gylly Beach Café,” he said. “It’s so much more than a café and we’re very aware of the role the beach and café plays within the local community. We’d like to think that over the next few years, we can help improve the area for locals and tourists alike.”
Part of the plans include a wellness facility which will include changing facilities and cold water showers, as well as a space for such pursuits as yoga and pilates.
“The amount of swimmers that already enjoy the sheltered waters, even in the December, is superb, and we’d like to try and help encourage this by providing some changing facilities and additional cold water showers, free of charge,” Healey said.
“We’ve had more than a few locals ask us ‘when is the swim platform coming back?’ – and we’re exploring options for this in conjunction with the Harbour Office and Town Council. We also know the demand for Yoga, Pilates and wellness retreats continues to rise, and we have potentially the perfect place for local instructors to offer year-round classes for locals to book onto, creating the ‘Gylly Wellness’ facility – yoga, cold water swimming followed by a hot sauna, all with the beautiful Gylly in the back drop.”
He added: “We’re wondering whether a few ‘visitor’ moorings may give the beach another USP – it’s already known as a place to boat-watch with the backdrop of ships at anchor – maybe a few boats tied to moorings would make the views even better? Obviously, these would be weather dependant.
“We’re also aware that strangely, there is currently no controls in place for tenders approaching the beach – so despite the large number of swimmers, tenders can currently approach the beach, at any point. We’re asking the authorities how others manage this, to try and improve the safety for swimmers, whilst ensuring the beach is available for everybody to enjoy.”
Healey also outlined his plans for the café and takeaway themselves, which, he conceded, need a little “TLC”.
“We’ve already completed internal decorations, and plan to improve the outside over the coming winter months – the canopy has also recently broken – so another thing to add to the list,” he said.
“The idea of the deck in front of the café is not new, with many beach side cafes/bars offering alfresco seating. We’d look to have an accessible route to the front, which would also allow us to deal with the ‘cliff edge’ that occurs after every rainfall down the main entrance to the beach – we’re really keen to keep the ‘beach café’ vibe, nothing too posh, just doing really good food and drink, whilst providing the perfect place to meet up and unwind.”
