Our Story

Calme has evolved… and, if we’re truthful, it probably always will. Calme began life as something quite different. Many of you first knew this little space at Marsh Mill as Tiffins — a café filled with coffee, cake, chatter and familiar faces. And we loved that chapter. It taught us something incredibly important: people weren’t only coming through the door for what was on the menu. They were coming for company, conversation and connection. Slowly, almost without us realising it, something else began to grow. We introduced a workshop here, an evening there. We brought people together to paint, make, laugh, learn and sometimes simply sit around a table with people they hadn’t met before. And we watched what happened. People came on their own and left knowing somebody. People told us they’d nearly cancelled because they were nervous — and then booked the next one. Friendships started. Confidence grew. There was laughter. Lots of it. And somewhere along the way, we realised this was the bit we loved most. And so, Calme evolved. Today, Calme is a creative and social space at Marsh Mill in Thornton-Cleveleys, built around three things that matter enormously to us: Community. Creativity. Connection. We still love good coffee and cake — some things are far too important to lose! — but Calme is no longer simply a café. Our calendar is now filled with creative workshops, wellbeing events, food experiences, social gatherings, charity events, supper evenings and opportunities to try something completely new. One of the loveliest parts of our story has been our growing relationship with Lindsay from Paintopia. Our Paintopia painting workshops have become such a special part of Calme — relaxed, welcoming sessions where complete beginners sit alongside people who already love to paint. You don’t have to be artistic. You don’t have to know anyone. And you certainly don’t have to be good at it. You just have to come. There is something rather wonderful about watching a room full of blank canvases slowly become completely different paintings — and hearing somebody at the end say: “I can’t believe I did that!” And there is so much more Paintopia to come.  But painting is only one part of where we’re heading. We’re continuing to find brilliant people with something to share. New crafts. New ideas. New experiences. Gentle wellbeing sessions. Food around a table. Opportunities to learn. Reasons to get out of the house. Reasons to meet somebody new. Some things will work brilliantly. Some things we’ll try once and decide aren’t quite us. And that’s okay. Because we don’t want Calme to stand still. So what comes next? More creativity. More connection. More collaborations. More reasons to come through that door. We’re planning ahead into 2027, while still leaving space for those wonderfully spontaneous “I’ve had an idea…” moments that tend to become some of our favourite things. Most importantly, we want Calme to remain somewhere you can come with somebody or without somebody. You don’t need a tribe before you arrive. You don’t need to be creative enough, confident enough, young enough or old enough. Just come as you are. We’re incredibly proud of where we’ve been, but we’re even more excited about where we’re going. This isn’t the finished story of Calme. We’re still writing it — and perhaps that’s the whole point. Caroline & the Calme team x