A “first-of-its-kind” mushroom coffee shop is coming to Shropshire
It's set to open in the old Dorothy Perkins store in Oswestry
The proposed ‘Shrooma’ cafe has been awarded £5,000 of council funding for shop front improvements as part of an initiative to bring empty town centre properties back into use.
Based at the Grade II listed number 6 Cross Street, the business will operate as a coffee shop on the ground floor with the upper floors of the building dedicated to growing “gourmet and medical grade” mushrooms.
The shop was formerly home to high-street fashion retailer Dorothy Perkins, but has sat empty since 2021.
It's hoped that the project will generate employment in the town by transforming the downstairs into a coffee shop to sell mushroom coffee and the upstairs into a mushroom farm.
The application for funding was approved unanimously by a meeting of Oswestry Town Council, but they added that the award is dependent on a successful planning application.
An application for listed building consent for the shop front alterations was lodged with Shropshire Council last month, and is currently in progress.
The town council’s “Breathing New Life Into Empty Properties” grant scheme has been in operation for the past year and it says 19 different properties have benefitted from it so far.