Ignatius Sancho Café
A new Benugo café, named after Ignatius Sancho – serving freshly made pastries and cakes, toasted sandwiches, flatbreads, wraps, salads as well as ice cream and sundaes.
Charles Ignatius Sancho was a remarkable British abolitionist, writer and composer who became the first known Black Briton to have voted in an election, as well as the first to have his letters published. After arriving on a slave ship from New Granada at around the age of two in 1731, he grew up enslaved by a family in Greenwich, before receiving an education and gaining employment with the Montagu family, and eventually starting his own business as a shopkeeper. Throughout this time, Sancho also continued to develop his artistic talents, composing music, acting, writing plays, and even writing a book on music, gaining celebrity in Georgian London.
The café building was previously a private, residential lodge and sits within a newly landscaped area of the park, transformed from a concrete yard into exciting community facilities. In addition to the café, there are accessible toilets (including a Changing Places facility), a volunteer hub, and a community kitchen garden.
This new two-storey café provides an important space for park visitors to relax in, meet friends and family, and enjoy this corner of the park in a new way.
