Hunt & Darton Toolkit
Hunt & Darton Toolkit
By
Hunt & Darton
Hunt & Darton share a brief guide on securing a pop-up space. The guide draws on their experience of finding a home for their pop-up art installation Hunt & Darton Cafe.
Hello
Great, so you have an idea and you want to find it a home on the High Street. We can do this.
The following is a brief guide on how we found a home for our pop up art installation, Hunt & Darton Cafe, over the last three years in centrally located retail units across nine towns in the UK.
Stay positive throughout the search and remain flexible. The plan will change.
We like to lower our expectations at all times because then they can only go up from there. It's an ethos we ask everyone who visits our cafe to adopt. It's better that way. Either that or embrace sheer stubbornness and never give up no matter who says 'no'. Both work... up to you... Good luck!
The right town
It is time to decide where you want to do it. We strongly advise a visit before you make your final decision even if you thought that it couldn't possibly happen anywhere else. We also strongly advise hanging out in similar businesses to that you wish to open. To us this meant hanging out in cafes and pubs so not hard work really!
The Hit List
Once you know your town, literally walk the streets in search of 'To Let' signs on appealing properties. Take a snap and note the street name and contact number. What do we mean by appealing? You've found a shop you like the look of but also look for the following:
- Is it located in a good spot?
- On first inspection does it look big enough?
- Is there a good footfall of people?
- Who uses the street - do they have any reason to come to you?
- Is there an existing art community?
- How easy is it for people to get to e.g. local parking, train stations etc
- Does it look habitable? Or at least manageable to make habitable with your budget?
