Popular independent Sheffield café unveils plans for third site with a bakery

Marmadukes, which has traded on Norfolk Row since 2012 and opened a second café on Cambridge Street in January, is expanding once again while breathing new life into the old Royal Mail sorting office on Ecclesall Road near Banner Cross.

Owner Tim Nye, who runs this business with his wife of 28 years Clare, said Marmadukes Three will open in November ‘if it kills him’, having experienced multiple delays since acquiring the building over a year ago.

He said: “There’s a real attraction for the building so we thought ‘Let’s go for it’.

“At 5,000 square-feet it’s much, much bigger than we needed or planned but we liked it so much we have just gone for it.”

The new café will have space for about 70 customers at full capacity, with indoor and outdoor seating, toilet facilities and a patisserie. An on-site bakery will prepare fresh food daily for all Marmadukes cafés.

The menu will be ‘slightly different’, Tim said, and Clare has been working with Sheffield-based design agency 93ft on the building’s interior design with a view to reflecting its history.

The expansion will also add up to 20 new employees to the their 46-strong workforce, 10 of whom will be full time.

There is enough space in the two-floor old sorting office for expansion should business go well, Tim, a retired police detective from Derbyshire, added.

“Rightly or wrongly, in these strange times we have gone for it. I still believe it will be great but we might have to wait longer for it to develop,” he said.

“It’s such a difficult time for hospitality, it won’t get off to the flying start it would have otherwise.”

Tim, who lives in Bakewell but has visited Sheffield regularly since childhood, admitted business is ‘definitely down’ at the city centre cafés – and joined the growing list of people calling for improvements to Fargate.

He said: “As a city we have got to try and rally round and do something because it’s not good for us. I don’t think anyone wants to see it like that, it looks awful.

“We have all got a part to play. If you are a customer you are not going to come if it’s looking like that, but if you are a business you are not going to come either. It needs some leadership.”

Still, he remains optimistic for the future – and highlighted the £470 million Heart of the City II scheme as a positive development.

Tim said: “It’s nowhere near where it should be but I do think that area will be great in time. That area has huge potential.

“I’m confident with all three sites going forward and that’s what keeps you going. We have got three sites we’re happy with. There seems to be a real appreciation of us going to Ecclesall Road and that’s what spurs me on to be truthful.”