Could Container Shelters Future-Proof Pubs And Cafes?

The importance of keeping customers sheltered from the weather is important for many pubs and cafes, not least those that have extensive outdoor areas. Of course, there won’t be many people sitting out on the pavement or in the beer garden on a cold winter’s night as on a sunny summer day, but the distinction is not always that stark.

For instance, a café may have an outdoor seating area that enjoys warmer temperatures but plenty of wet days even in summer, while smoking areas will still be used outside pub buildings.

An important question is whether, in an increasingly capricious climate, the kind of arrangements in place will be adequate.

This is exactly the sort of issue being considered by Emily Davidson, the owner of the Castle Beach Café in Falmouth. As she explained to Cornwall Live, to create a covered seating area to “future-proof the business from climate change associated storms” after the current open seating area was trashed by Storm Kathleen in April.

Castle Beach Café overlooks the sands on the south side of the peninsula that separates the English Channel from the estuary of the River Penryn, with the sheltered port on the north side. This location makes the cafe vulnerable to sea storms.

However, the plan involves using a used shipping container as the shelter for the seating area and while this would protect the seating against storms and enable her to open the café in bad weather, the previous use of the shelter may mean it lacks aesthetic quality, however practical it may be.

Indeed, Ms Davidson admits she is not certain whether she will be sure to go ahead with the plan, stating that she needs to consult her customers first.

If they don’t like the idea of a shipping container, could some other form of container shelter work? It would certainly have the same practical effect, while having an aesthetic edge. After all, Falmouth is not a container port so a shipping container, while now a common site as actual food and drink outlets, may not quite fit with the Cornish coast.

What such a cover will do, however, is give the café excellent protection against severe storms.

Elsewhere, a similar cover may be useful even a long way inland, not least at pubs or cafes with a flimsy shelter roof, which might get torn off or at least damaged in a gale.

In the case of the recent Storm Bert, it has been heavy rain rather than high winds that have done the most damage. But severe storms may be a growing feature of the months ahead.

So far, there have been three named storms in the 2024-25 season and while there have been past seasons with no more than that, last winter brought 11, with Kathleen and all the damage it did at Falmouth being the last of them.

By adding more robust shelters to your café or pub, you may find you can not only keep going in bad weather, but have far less damage to worry about - if indeed any - in the aftermath of a storm.