We are very grateful to all of you who have supported us on this site and want you all to know of our plans for the future.

The Vaults & Garden will close on 26th November but we will be opening a new cafe to continue our traditions, albeit on a smaller scale, at 2 King Edward Street just across the High Street from our current location.

There we will be offering our same signature menu using local organic produce serving breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, including our famous scones.

The new cafe will offer both ground floor and lower floor seating inside together with a number of tables and chairs outside on one of central Oxford’s quietest and most historic streets being the home of Oriel College.

We are looking for a larger location in central Oxford to accommodate all of our many customers, both locally and from around the world, and we will bring you news of this as soon as possible.

And for those of you who are already customers of Chick Pea in King Edward Street, do not worry. We are moving Chick Pea to the High Street where you can continue to enjoy all of our delicious bowls and pitas.

We are relieved to to put this long-standing dispute behind us and concentrate our full attention and energy on hosting our customers.

We thank you once again for your support.

The Vaults & Garden team

We appreciate so much the generosity of all 373 of you who have given to help with our legal costs in our campaign to save the cafe.

Some of you have given two or even three times to help and we appreciate your concerns for us and your wish for the cafe to stay open. We are very grateful.

It is apparent to us now that we are not going to raise the £100,000 target of this campaign to help with the £200,000 of legal costs that we have already incurred and we have decided that we cannot incur the further costs needed before trial.

Accordingly, we have taken the decision to reach an agreed settlement with the church which will allow for the orderly closure of the cafe before the end of the year and to plan to open in a new location.

We are very sorry to bring you this news and we do appreciate the generous help that you have given us.

This campaign will close on 4th November but will remain open until then for those who still wish to help with the costs we have incurred to date.

A big thank you to you all.

The Vaults & Garden team

With only two months before trial in the High Court, our legal costs have hit £200,000.

We had no idea when we decided to defend the notice to quit given by the church more than two years ago that the legal proceedings would be so lengthy and costly.

We have tried over the last 20 years to offer a special venue for the people of Oxford, students, and visiting tourists. We believe we have succeeded.

Our long-running dispute with the vicar, the Revd Will Lamb, which ended with him giving us three months’ notice to quit as trespassers, is something we have tried to settle in a spirit of goodwill. But we have not been successful.

The University church is a powerful financial institution with £2 million of assets and annual profits of £700,000 from its trading activities, including visits to the tower. 

By comparison, we are a small business despite the thousands of you who visit us every year which is shown by the  15,700 who have given us their support on the Save the Vaults petition.

We are grateful to the more than 300 of you who have donated £14,242 to our legal costs campaign to date but we need much more now if we are to succeed  at trial.

So please share this message with all your friends on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and X.

And especially share this link to the Crowdjustice site by email https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-the-vaults-and-garden-cafe/

We thank you all.

The Vaults & Garden team

A new campaign card machine has been installed on the cafe counter to help donors give more easily.

We are very grateful to the 294 donors who have given a total £12,630 to date but we are a long way short of our target of £100,000 before trial in the High Court in October.

So please forward this message to all of your friends who are already customers of the cafe and others that there is a another way to give when they are visiting.

The machine is located directly at the end of the tray counter where the cafe's usual payment machine is located and only needs the selection of an amount and the swipe of a card.

We thank you all once again for your generous support. Please share this update by email and social media to all of your friends and colleagues.

And remember that most donations are generated by the email link which is

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-the-vaults-and-garden-cafe/

A big thank you

The Vaults & Garden team

A message from Will Pouget, cafe founder….

More than two years has passed since I and the cafe’s operating company were given three months’ notice as trespassers to quit the Old Congregation House by our landlord, the Parochial Church Council led by the vicar, the Revd Will Lamb.

The public response against the eviction proceedings which have followed has been demonstrated by the 15,660 supporters of the cafe who have signed the Save the Vaults petition on change.org.

At the time, I had no idea of the level of legal costs that would be needed to defend our claim that we had a statutory tenancy resulting from our 20 years of occupation and substantial investment in the premises.

As the legal process has unfolded, our costs have escalated dramatically and we have had the benefit of the advice of a leading firm of solicitors together with a barrister specialised in both property and ecclesiastical law. They have extended credit to us in the belief that we will win our case eventually but I had no idea when we began how long this might take.

We are now faced with a trial in the High Court in London and our legal costs are already in excess of £100,000 with the need for at least another £30,000 before trial begins  at the end of October.

The Vaults & Garden has been a successful and profitable small business but is not able to afford the level of costs which have been incurred to date and which are needed to continue our fight.

Our opponent is a wealthy charity with assets of more than £2 million and income of more than £700,000 a year. We are a very small business by comparison and I have tried to settle this dispute without success despite my best efforts to seek mediation.

We need urgent financial help now if we are to survive this legal battle and continue to keep the Vaults & Garden open for the benefit of all of you who love us and the future of our devoted staff. 

Please pass my message to all your friends and share on social media. Thank you for your support.

Will Pouget

We are glad to report that your support has enabled us to reach our initial appeal target of £10,000 this morning 12 days early, A big thank you to all 188 of you.

As a result, the appeal now goes live and your pledges will be debited. Our aim now is to raise £100,000 to pay costs already incurred and to finance further legal expenses before trial in London's High Court at the end of October.

The appeal end date renews every 30 days so we have more than four months to reach our final target meaning we need to raise at least £20,000 a month from now.

It is vital that you continue to share the appeal page on all of your social media, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and X.  There is a Facebook button at the foot of the CrowdJustice page. Please press it as often as you can!

Also please ask at least 2 other friends to email 5-10 people with the link to the CrowdJustice page and request them to share too. WhatsApp is a very good medium to share the link.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-the-vaults-and-garden-cafe/ 

Once again, many thanks.

PS There is no need to pay the CrowdJustice tip!

The Vaults & Garden team

After only two weeks our appeal has raised £8,958 of our initial £10,000 appeal from 160 backers. Thank you all for your support.

Please be advised that CrowdJustice does not take any money from your pledge until we meet our first target which we expect to achieve shortly.

It is vital that you continue to share the appeal page on all of your social media, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and X.  There is a Facebook button at the foot of the CrowdJustice page. Please press it as often as you can!

Also please ask at least 2 other friends to email 5-10 people with the link to the CrowdJustice page and request them to share too. WhatsApp is a very good medium to share the link.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-the-vaults-and-garden-cafe/ 

A big thank you once again to you all.

PS There is no need to pay the CrowdJustice tip!

We are pleased to report that our appeal has now raised £7,049 of our initial £10,000 target from 140 backers. Thank you all for your support.

Please be advised that CrowdJustice does not take any money from your pledge until we meet our first target which we hope to achieve soon.

It is vital that you continue to share the appeal page on all of your social media, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and X.  There is a Facebook button at the foot of the CrowdJustice page. Please press it as often as you can!

Also please ask at least 2 other friends to email 5-10 people with the link to the CrowdJustice page and request them to share too. WhatsApp is a very good medium to share the link.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-the-vaults-and-garden-cafe/ 

A big thank you once again to you all.

PS There is no need to pay the CrowdJustice tip!

Thank you all for so much support. After only three days we have reached 52% of our initial £10,000 goal with 90 backers and donations of between £5 and £999.

Please be advised that CrowdJustice does not take any money from your pledge until we meet our first target which we hope to achieve very soon now.

It is vital that you share the appeal page on all of your social media, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and X.  There is a Facebook button at the foot of the CrowdJustice page.

Also please ask at least 2 other friends to email 5-10 people with the link to the CrowdJustice page and request them to share too. WhatsApp is a very good medium to share the link.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-the-vaults-and-garden-cafe/ 

We need to keep up the momentum now to achieve our first £10,000 goal.

A big thank you once again to you all.

PS There is no need to pay the CrowdJustice tip!

Thank you for your support and we are glad to report that after 48 hours we have reached 23% of our initial £10,000 appeal.

Please be advised that CrowdJustice does not take any money from your pledge until we meet our first target which we hope to achieve soon.

So far 61 of you have joined our campaign and we would be glad if you could share the page on all of your social media. There is a Facebook button at the foot of the CrowdJustice page.

Also please ask at least 2 other friends to email 5-10 people with the link to the CrowdJustice page and request them to share too. WhatsApp is a very good medium to share the link.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-the-vaults-and-garden-cafe/ 

We need momentum now to achieve our first £10,000 goal.

A big thank you to you all.

PS There is no need to pay the CrowdJustice tip!