NANA Café, winner of Nesta's Ageing Well Challenge, is now officially open.

The older ladies of the community café served tea and cake to mark the grand opening of their new space in former public toilets in Clapton, Hackney.

NANA is a social enterprise that empowers older ladies to get involved with their community and people of all ages by hosting a café.

Through the Ageing Well Challenge Prize, Nesta and the Cabinet Office called for ideas that would help reduce isolation in old age. Founder Katie Harris and NANA won the grand prize of £50,000 for demonstrating the biggest effect in reducing isolation among older people.     

For many of the older ladies of NANA Café – the NANAs – the café is a way of feeling valued in the community again. Andita Greco was retired and looking for a meaningful volunteer experience when she read about NANA Café in the paper.  

“You need to break the isolation. At a certain point, the children they grow up, they move out, they get married... You need to find a reason to get out of the house, to get together and share the knowledge we all have,” Andita said.  

NANA is a volunteer-driven café with all NANAs working at least five hours each week. After three months of work, volunteers become part of the NANA partnership and receive a percentage of the profits depending on how many shifts they have worked.

Katie’s own Nana, Eileen Lipscombe, was the inspiration for the community café. “My Nana has something planned every day and a strong clique of friends. But if you don’t have that, you need to find another way to reach people,” Katie said.

NANA launched as a pop-up café in a pub, The Elderfield, in November 2012. Now, NANA has its own space in the refurbished Brooksby's Walk Public Toilets.

The Clapton Improvement Society restored the building, even keeping the 1953 original hand dryer. The café occupies half the space, including the rooftop terrace, and the other half remains public toilets.

Jon Aldenton, chair of the Clapton Improvement Society, said the group was inundated with requests for the space, but ultimately chose NANA for its community benefit.

Now that NANA Café is up and running in Clapton, Katie said she hopes to spread NANAs across the UK by expanding as a franchise. “I’ve had so many ladies get in touch with me looking for a way to get involved. With the franchise, we could give out starter packs and support new NANA Cafes that way,” Katie said.