- New town centre shops include pottery painting, haberdashery, a health and wellness café and a multicultural grocery store
- Shops expected to open January or February 2026
- Significant milestone in Tamworth’s regeneration programme
An exciting variety of independent businesses have been selected to join Tamworth town centre’s brand new retail hub, bringing things like pottery painting, craft workshops and healthy food to the high street.
Tamworth Borough Council is delighted to welcome the first tenants to its affordable retail space – Town Hall Place – who are all busy fitting out their shops ready for opening next year.
Town Hall Place has been designed to improve the choice and appeal of the town centre in line with what shoppers want, while providing opportunities for more niche businesses to set up and grow.
The first successful applicants for the seven units have therefore been carefully chosen in line with those ambitions.
Brew health and wellness café
Brew is a new health and wellness café which will offer a selection of healthy food and drink including bagels, salads, acai bowls, fruit sorbets, matcha, iced teas, protein and collagen shakes.
It’s being opened by Amy Collins, who had been looking for the perfect location to bring her business dream to life for a couple of years.
She said: “I’ve always been health conscious, especially with food, and I think there’s an opportunity for something like this in Tamworth. I’ve had the dream of owning a café here for a long time, but I haven’t found the right place at an affordable price. When this opportunity came up, I had to go for it!”
Castle Notions haberdashery
Castle Notions aims to merge traditional haberdashery retail with community engagement, offering a place where people can buy their fabric, wool, buttons, thread and sewing machine accessories, but also learn new skills.
Alongside a retail offering of premium products, owner of the business, Novel Wust, plans to host workshops and social sessions in sewing, knitting, children’s crafts, sustainable fashion, upcycling, heritage crafts and theatre costume making.
For Novel, opening Castle Notions also represents a dream come true. While coming from a corporate background, Novel has had a passion for crafting since she was a child, inspired by her parents who work as tailors.
“This is about creating a community that transcends conventional shopping. I want to offer a personal service, somewhere people can join with others and be creative, or get help with a project they are stuck on. To teach children a skill away from computers and screens,” Novel said.
The Paint Pot Studio
Kate Watts has a vision to create a welcoming space for people of all ages to relax with cake and refreshments while trying their hand at a variety of different creative pursuits.
The Paint Pot Studio will offer ceramic pot painting sessions throughout the year, alongside a rotating programme of additional arts and crafts activities, such as painting in different mediums, bubble art, T-shirt making and more.
Further down the line, Kate hopes to include themed events, birthday parties, painting parties and after school clubs.
“This will be a space where people can chill out and be creative, while enjoying a coffee and cake,” Kate said. “One of my main drives is the price point; I want to be able to offer something for all budgets, where families can have fun away from screens, without spending a fortune.
“This has always been bubbling in the background and I decided to just go for my dreams. I want something to pass on. It is scary, but the support I’ve had from the council so far has been amazing.”
Tropical Market
The Tropical Market will offer a variety of authentic raw African and Caribbean foods and cooking ingredients, including plantain, beans, yam, cassava, frozen fish and meats, herbs and spices.
This grocery store venture is the brainchild of Fred Borson who recently moved to Tamworth from Birmingham and spotted a gap for authentic ingredients in the local area.
As well as providing produce from different cultures, Fred is also hoping to bring the community together through cultural events at the shop, such as cooking classes on how to use the various ingredients.
Fred, who currently works as a contractor for the civil service, said: “These are ingredients that you can’t buy in the local area. It’s a dream to have my own business, to serve the community and bring people together.
“People are trying to eat healthier with less reliance on ready meals, so we will provide the raw ingredients to help them do that. It’s about bringing the sunshine to your home.”
Final stages of town centre regeneration
The official opening of Town Hall Place marks the final stages of the multi-million-pound Future High Streets Fund regeneration project, which has seen the opening of a brand new college, a revitalised St Editha’s Square, the widening of the Castle Gateway, and the creation of a second enterprise centre in the town.
Extensive community engagement carried out prior to the original funding bid being submitted five years ago, revealed ‘niche shops’ as the number one thing people would like to see more of in the town centre.
Councillor Carol Dean, Leader of Tamworth Borough Council, said: “We know people want to see more variety in the town centre, and we hope Town Hall Place will help provide that. The units are small and affordable, with favourable terms to attract more creative, niche business.
“This isn’t just about filling the units; it’s about getting the right type of businesses in there that genuinely add to the town and provide new reasons for people to visit. With these first confirmed tenants, we believe we’ve done that, so it’s now over to shoppers to come and support these new businesses, which will hopefully have a snowball effect on the rest of the town centre.
“With the advice and support of our business team, the aim would be to help the new ventures grow to the point they can move to a more permanent vacant unit in the town.”
While the council is in discussions with various other potential tenants, expressions of interest in the remaining units are still welcomed as we seek to get the right mix of businesses.
More information is available on the Town Hall Place webpage.
For more information about the Future High Streets Fund project and all the different elements that have been delivered so far, please visit www.transformingtamworth.gov.uk.
