It's a chilly afternoon in North Yorkshire and Ed Hamilton-Trewhitt is plumping cushions and topping up supplies of free tea, coffee and biscuits - ready for locals to enjoy.
The 55-year-old chef recently opened a ‘warm lounge’ above the busy community bakery he runs in Guisborough.
He’s just said goodbye to a couple of older ladies - who’ve spent a happy hour here, catching up over a brew.
And it won’t be long before these cosy rooms - dotted with plush armchairs, shelves of ‘help yourself’ books and paintings - will be full of people again, glad of a place to relax and get out of the cold.
As Ed, who founded the Brickyard Bakery and Academy cookery school, says, with winter approaching the cost of living still rising, providing spaces like these is essential.
“People need somewhere safe and warm to go,” he says.
“With prices like they are, people are too scared to put their heating on, they’re just not using it.
“We know people will die, there will be people who freeze to death this winter.
“People are being left out in the cold, literally. It’s dangerous.
“Being able to be warm and safe - especially later in life - is just a basic essential. I run a community bakery and academy here so people talk to me, I think they trust me, and I realised I could help.”
It was a conversation with an elderly customer that inspired Ed to act.
“I was chatting to this lady and she told me that her plan for the cold weather was to ride around on the buses all day - as that was the only way she could afford to keep warm.
“That just got me. I couldn’t have that.
“Our bakery oven is huge and gives out a lot of heat which means our storage rooms above stay warm.
“Fuel rises meant I’ve gone from paying £1,000 a month to £2,200 a month to keep the oven on so I thought, ‘if I’m paying that, let’s make the most of it’.”
Ed and his team got to work - clearing a room above the shop and kitting it out as an inviting lounge. They added tea and coffee making facilities and used Facebook to let people know it was open for anyone to use.
“Straight away the post went viral” says Ed. “We started off with one room but now we’ve opened three to make sure everyone has room.
“We’ve got books and newspapers, everything you need to have a bit of time to yourself or if you want to, to be sociable.
“We know there are cafes and places you can go but you have to spend then leave.
“Here you can relax, stay as long as you like, with no pressure.
“People still ask, ‘what’s the catch?’ and I have to explain that there really isn’t one.
“This is a picturesque place, there are people with plenty of money here but there are a lot of people struggling too. It’s a town of two halves. And if it’s happening here, it’s happening everywhere.
“There are two elderly friends who live just behind here in the sheltered housing, they’ve started coming in to have a coffee. It makes a massive difference to their well-being - something to look forward to, being somewhere cosy.
“It doesn’t take much really. We’ve just cleared the rooms, made them homely. It’s awful that we have to do this but it’s good that we are able to do it.
“As a community we’ve got to keep pulling together.”
Ed, who has worked all over the UK as a chef and even cooked for the Queen, spends a staggering 120 hours a week keeping things ticking over here.
He bakes through the night to stock the shop with healthy but affordable food - giant scones for 70 pence each, fresh sourdough at £2 a go and slabs of cake for £1.70.
“We make everything big so it can be shared and so it’s available to everyone,” he smiles.
“That way everyone can have a treat, even just a scone.
“In my old life I cooked food that only five per cent of people could afford.
“Here, I wanted to make good food universal.”
Ed’s passion for serving others is one of the reasons he’s signed up to Warm Welcome - the subject of the Daily Mirror’s Winter Appeal - a hub designed to help communities provide safe spaces for their friends and neighbours too.
We’ll be collecting donations to help buildings of all kinds across the UK stay warm and open for anyone that needs a place to go.
As the winter weather takes hold, communities can sign up to our platform for help and guidance about how to set up and maintain a warm space of their own - in everything from community centres to mosques, churches and shops.
And as Ed explains, he intends to keep his warm lounge open for as long as possible.
“I can’t see us not needing the space any time soon can you?” he says.
“The weather has been pretty mild so far and the price hikes are only just hitting. We all need to do what we can.”
His colleague, marketing manager, Eve Le-Fay, 58, agrees. As she says: “I met another elderly lady in here, she just wanted to come and sit in the warm and read a book. And she wanted a conversation. A lot of people are cold - but they’re also very alone.
“We all love coming here, there is a spirit of generosity.”
One of today’s visitors is mum, Trish, here with her 11-year-old son.
She has a job but says she feels worse off than some people who aren’t in work.
She’s suffered from anxiety in the past and says she’ll be coming to the warm lounge for the heat this winter but also for a safe place and change of scene.
“You have to get out sometimes don’t you?” she smiles.
“But everything costs money. I know I’ll be safe here, I’ll definitely be coming here again.”
As we leave Ed to his next batch of baking, a retired couple are on their way up the stairs for a cup of tea and a sit down.
Smiling, the man tells us: “In this day and age I didn’t think you could get anything for free but this really is, isn’t it? It’s brilliant.”
