In a Merseyside seaside resort three tea shops sit alongside one another each bringing something special to the town.
The rain made an unwelcome appearance when we visited - but that didn't stop customers making the trip to the small stretch on Victoria Parade, in New Brighton. Here lies The Waiting Room Café and The Wirral Model Shop, Remember When Tearoom and Driftwood Café.
All serve tea, coffee and food, but each have their own unique style and selling point, giving customers plenty of choice just a few steps apart. It's 11am and we decided to visit Carole and Paul Bowie first at The Waiting Room Café located in The Wirral Model Shop.
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"It started as a joke at first"
Carole and Paul's business venture first began with the model shop. Paul said he's always been fascinated by model railways and around six-years-old he started to build them. After suffering from ill-health, Paul turned to model railways, carrying out repairs for people but often struggling to find the supplies he needed from his local model shop at the time.
At this point the 60-year-old told his wife he was going to open his own. Carole, from New Brighton, said she was unsure at first, but nearly 15 years later their shop is still going strong.
Speaking to the ECHO, she said: "It started off as a joke. I'm not going to lie it was a joke. Paul said 'I am going to open a model shop' and I was like 'oh god' because I was at uni at the time. Anyway, we did." When they opened around 2009 it was a time of uncertainty. The recession, which started in late 2007, was in full force and Carole worried if they would make it. But they did.
The 59-year-old added: "Everything had slumped and we thought are we going to make it? But we did and four years ago we opened the café. It's been amazing."
When Amanda Hardman opened Driftwood Café in 2015 just two doors down from The Wirral Model Shop, she and Carole became friends. Carole also worked at Driftwood for two and half years before getting the bug and opening her own café - The Waiting Room Café - located inside the model shop.
She said: "Amanda in the Driftwood, we were here and she opened up, and we became friends and it was nice [...] at the time I wasn't well, I had rectal cancer, so I was trying to get myself back together and everything and she phoned me up one day.
"She said 'it's me Amanda, can you come help me?'. So I ended up there for two and half years in the Driftwood and absolutely loved it. I was there with a law degree washing dishes and cleaning tables and I absolutely loved it. Amanda kept saying to me, you need to open your own."
Now Carole said she is "making cake constantly". Treats include lemon meringues, Victoria sponge cakes and banoffee. Model railway enthusiasts come from miles to shop their selection and also come to have a bite to eat surrounded in the railway décor.
Carole added: "Now we have the café as well, customers' wives are coming with them. So while they're browsing they are getting a bacon butty and a cup of coffee, which is great. What we wanted to happen was for each side to bounce off each other.
"We opened the Good Friday four years ago and within two days people that were sat down here bought stuff off there and people that were there stopped and had a cup of coffee and we thought, yeah, this is going to work because we weren't sure at first with it being a little quirky."
Speaking about being next door to two other tea shops, Carole said they all "do different things" and each have their regular customers who she said become like family. She added The Waiting Room pride themselves on welcoming everyone.
She said: "We are all busy, so we don't really know what each of us are doing or how we are because we are all busy. We all do different things. We do some things the same but also things different.
"I think because there is three of us, some people come this way and think 'oh there's three so I will get in one of them at least'. I don't care if I am last on the list, we have a really lovely regulars who come in. We are on first name terms. Some of them we worry about when they don't come in."
"I was a customer for years [...] I would come about three times a week"
Taking a few steps outside, we visited Michelle Hughes, owner of Remember When tearoom. This is a place for memories and nostalgia.
The tea shop is decorated in old photos, china tea cups, posters and art. Customers are transported back in time through its vintage décor and can enjoy breakfast, light lunches and afternoon tea. Michelle, from Wallasey, acquired the business two years ago and was a regular customer herself for many years.
Speaking to the ECHO, the 50-year-old said: "I was a customer here for years and I always loved coming here. I would come in about three times a week. I was always coming down. I just loved the ambience. The staff were lovely, the food was lovely and I just thought 'it is so nice here'.
"I always wanted a tearoom by the sea. I collect teacups and saucers and I have stuff in my garage with the thought one day I might have one. It was either a tearoom or an antique shop by the sea. When they owners said this was up for sale I thought 'well maybe this is my opportunity to have that'."
Michelle said she decluttered the tearoom and brought in a few of her own touches, including a piano where customers can have a "tinkle". Like The Waiting Room Café and Driftwood Café, Michelle also has her regular customers.
She said: "We have regulars who have the same thing all the time. When I took over I was told 'do not touch the Welsh rarebit, do not change the recipe, we love it the way it is'. None of the recipes have changed, they are all the same. We still make our own sausage rolls, quiche. We make our own jam like the previous owner used to do. So we have kept most of the menu, if not all of it."
The 50-year-old said during the holidays, and days of sunshine, the three businesses are extremely busy.
Michelle said: "It does get very, very busy during holidays, especially in the summer. You're absolutely rammed. They are queuing up outside the three of us, trying to get a table. It can be like that."
"We're always busy, our customers don't stay away for the wind, the rain or the snow"
Our final stop of Victoria Parade was Driftwood Café set up by Amanda Hardman in May 2015 with the help of her family. Opening on the weekend the Three Queens came to Liverpool, the business instantly became a success.
Amanda, 59, said she has been in catering since she left school and, before she had children, owned a café in Hoylake. After having her first two children, Amanda, from Greasby, said she became a stay-at-home mum but would still bake and supplied many cafés and businesses.
Speaking to the ECHO, Amanda said: "I have been in catering ever since I left school. I worked in lots of different businesses and had my own café a long, long time ago before the kids in Hoylake called Poppies. My dad helped me set that up.
"Then I had my first baby and then I got pregnant with my second and thought I will just be a mum now. I used to bake from home. I supplied a lot of cafes and businesses with what I baked."
Amanda also had a pop up tearoom where, once a month, she would provide afternoon tea in town halls. But then, in 2015, the 59-year-old saw the building, where Driftwood now stands, vacant and decided it was time to reopen her own café once again.
She said they "totally gutted" the building with help of her partner who is an electrician and her sons who are builders. Today, the café provides beach style vibes, painted in seaside blue and inside it is light and breezy. The walls are decorated with local art which Amanda does not charge or take any commission for. Customers can enjoy homecooked food, including breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and cake.
Talking about what each tea shop brings, Amanda said: "We're a seaside vibe, next door is vintage and Carole has her model shop." Amanda's daughter Lydia, 22, who works at the café, said her mum is "passionate" in only delivering the best.
She said: "My mum is so passionate about making everything herself. She doesn't want it to be slap dash. She wants everything to be as good coming out as it can be."
Like The Waiting Room and Remember When, Amanda and Lydia said they know exactly what their regulars will be ordering.
Lydia added: "We have people come in and the second they come down, we know exactly what they're going to order, the same things. It is nice as well because these people come in and they want to know about you as well. You make these connections."
Amanda added: "We're always busy, our customers don't stay away for the wind, the rain or the snow. They carry on coming."
To find The Waiting Room Cafe, please click here and here. For Remember When, please click here and here. For Driftwood Cafe, please click here and here.
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