Rochdale Emporium marks first anniversary with Red Nose Day celebration

Rochdale Emporium held a charity cake sale at its Feel Good Café to raise money for Comic Relief and celebrate a year to the day since it opened its doors

Rochdale Emporium, on Yorkshire Street, held a charity cake sale at its Feel Good Café to raise money for Comic Relief and celebrate a year to the day since it opened its doors. 

Located above 25Ten Boutique, the Town Centre Management-run Emporium houses the café and a number of independent traders.

Debbie O’Brien, chief executive of Rochdale Town Centre Management, believes they have enjoyed a successful first year.

“We’re pleased with how the first year has gone,” she said. “I think we knew it could be a success as it was providing something new for Rochdale.

“We knew it would be difficult trading from the first floor but people are coming up to us now and saying it’s like being in something from Manchester.

“We have managed to get a group of regulars and the new ones who come in are often coming back too.”

Also based in the Emporium are independent traders Bags of Style and Craft Cottage while Wikid Wardrobe moved into the remaining unit in February.

Ms O’Brien believes seeing the success of traders in the Emporium has encouraged new people to get involved.

“It was about getting people to come along and when they have, they have seen the success and people have seen how well we are doing,” she said.

The café staged a number of events in its first year, including open mic sessions for upcoming musicians and a recent ‘Feel Good Friday’ event to raise money for charity.

Ms O’Brien added: “We are consistently busy - sometimes we’ll come in to see what’s happening and we can’t even get seats ourselves!

“It’s all about building on the legacy of the Feel Good Festival.”

Today’s event saw regulars invited to try an array of cakes in return for small donations to Comic Relief.

General Manager Lindsay Wigglesworth explained it was the café’s way of thanking  regular customers who have helped support the café in their first year.

“Today was about giving something back to our regular customers who have supported us throughout the year, and hopefully bringing in a few new faces,” he said.