Life after Covid for Harland Works
Back in March 2020, when Covid first hit, Harland Works fell largely silent. Our courtyard, which is usually busy with the bustle of people coming and going - cafe customers, tenants and their visitors, Zag Yoga students coming for their regular weekly yoga classes, was mostly silent and empty as people stayed home.
I am thankful that I didn’t know back then how long people would need to stay home, and how long the courtyard was going to be (largely) quiet and empty. It was a worrying time - and a particular kind of worrying for people running small businesses, trying to navigate the new conditions and figure out how to respond, and survive, despite Covid.
But now as more people are safely vaccinated, and Covid numbers are falling, the courtyard is gradually starting to come back to life.
Our cafe has re-opened bringing a welcome return of the chat and noise of cafe customers. Although they aren’t allowed inside yet and have to make do with sunny spots in the courtyard for now.
We have also got a new tenant. Eyeye Opticians has opened a smart looking shop in the unit next to the Cafe. Their renovations have opened up the view into the courtyard from the street which is a lovely new perspective to add to an old building. When the shop is open you can now see all the way into the courtyard from John Street, which looks amazing. They have moved here from their previous location on Devonshire Green and are attracting a steady trickle of new people to the building as their customers discover Harland Works.
It’s a lovely feeling - and makes it seem possible that we’ll return to our ‘normal’ levels of hustle and bustle soon. That’s good news for the courtyard and it’s also good for many tenants who - like tattooist Maz Ink - are relieved that lockdown seems to be finally ending and they can now, finally get on with the work of opening and welcoming back their customers.
Changing tenants in our street facing units has had an unexpected bonus. It has meant that we were able to take down some unused signs and in the process allowed us to rediscover the original signs for the two buildings that make up Harland Works! We had no idea they survived under the modern signage.
Next week (strange May weather permitting) we are scheduled to have some renovation work done to restore them to their former glory with a good clean and a re-paint in the capable hands of local signwriter Will Rea (@Willustration).
Our newly discovered and restored signs feel like they could represent where we’ve got to in coping with Covid. We’re putting on a newly-spruced up, brave face on the past year or so, focusing on being optimistic about what’s coming next, and committing to the idea that things can now, finally, start to get better. Fingers crossed!
If you’re a small business owner I hope that you too are managing to emerge from Covid.
In case it’s helpful I’d like to signpost the fact that we have some free resources for small business owners - see below. And please sign up to our mailing list to keep updated with any new resources we share in the future.
Small Biz Resources:
We’ll be running our free Summer School for Social Media Success for Small Businesses in July so please sign up to our mailing list if you thing a refresh/restart for your social media could help you.
See also our Branding Workshop from the Branding Fox - good advice for small businesses on how to tap into the magic of branding to attract ideal customers here
And advice from Rosie on how you can keep track of your business finances in 20 minutes a week. - we’ve included a short presentation from Rosie on how to do it on our blog here
PS if you are a small biz expert who’d like to share a resource to help small biz owners, please get in touch and we can talk about adding them to our free resources. Thank you!