Fitzbillies Closing

[Duncan]

I see today that Fitzbillies (cake shop and tearoom) in Cambridge has ceased trading: World-famous city cake shop ceases trading

Anyone who has spent any time in that area will recognise them as one of the great Cambridge institutions. Especially famous were their Chelsea buns (and if you think you know what a chelsea bun tastes like, then until you've tried the Fitzbillies version you really don't). I spent much of my undergraduate career nourished by Chelsea buns, or rather by the reduced price rejects that they sold to impoverished students.

It is reported that the high cost of rent is what drove them over the brink: if true that's particularly bitter to me as it's my old college that owns the building.

[PoppySeedBagel]

Maybe you should complain as an old student. Charity trustees are in a very difficult position as they have an obligation to maximise returns, and probably feel they can't afford to be sentimental. You could suggest that they should follow the example of the de Walden Estate around Marylebone and increase the overall value of their portfolio by encouraging the sorts of shops that people living nearby want to use, hence increasing the value of the flats etc.

It may too late to save Fitzbillies, but it may stop something else being replaced by yet another photofit coffee shop.

[Duncan]

Maybe you should complain as an old student. Charity trustees are in a very difficult position as they have an obligation to maximise returns, and probably feel they can't afford to be sentimental. You could suggest that they should follow the example of the de Walden Estate around Marylebone and increase the overall value of their portfolio by encouraging the sorts of shops that people living nearby want to use, hence increasing the value of the flats etc.

It may too late to save Fitzbillies, but it may stop something else being replaced by yet another photofit coffee shop.

I'm not so sure about that rumour now. The source that suggested the rents were high seems to have been the BBC and when I found the relevant article it actually seems to have been a quote from the owner of another business complaining that all rents in central Cambridge are too high. It might be interesting though to drop them an email and see what they say.