The idea is that it’s a communal space where you pay not for what you consume, but how long you spend there. When you arrive, the clock starts and you’re charged six pence a minute. All the drinks and snacks are included, as is the 100MB wifi.
So how did this happen?
‘It’s quite a romantic story,’ Ziferblat owner Colin Shenton told Metro.co.uk.
‘It was started by a man named Ivan Meetin.
‘Back in 2014 Ivan used to print Pushkin poetry on little credit card sized pieces of paper, laminate them and then spread them around Moscow.
‘The idea caught people’s imagination and before long Ivan needed a space for the people united by the project to meet.
‘He called it a “treehouse for adults”. It was basically a place for creative minds to come together.
‘No-one was charged for coming, but people donated based on how much time they were spending there. It became a sort of anti-cafe – like a version of Facebook in the real world.’
Colin met Meetin and was so taken with the idea that he wanted to expand it across the UK.
‘I’ve been in property a long time and no-one want’s to pat you on the back for building another office block,’ he says.
‘But with this, the positive reaction has been overwhelming. Most of all people seem enthusiastic about the way that it’s bringing barriers down and making a working space accessible.’
And it all comes, they say, from refusing to accept the spaces we’re given at the moment
‘We’re using public spaces that aren’t fit for purpose’ said Ben Davies, head of marketing for Ziferblat, tells Metro.co.uk.
‘We’ve all sat in coffee shops where they clean around your feet and give you half an hour of weak wifi. I think that’s part of why people are excited about Ziferblat.’
There are currently two Ziferblats in Manchester (picture), one in Liverpool, as well as the original London branch which is still owned by Ivan Meetin.
The good news is that there are plans to roll out more all across the UK.
Rebecca Reid
