Marden's Old Post Office Is Now a Coffee House, and the Village's History Lives On Inside

On Marden's high street, the village's old post office is now The Old Post Office Coffee House - a café run by sisters Olga and Anna that has kept the building's history close at hand, right down to a postman's bicycle hanging on the wall.

Olga and Anna grew up in a Ukrainian family where welcoming people with tea and home-baked cakes was second nature - their mother would regularly feed their entire school class of 25. After moving to England over 20 years ago and settling in Coxheath, the sisters fell for the English tradition of afternoon tea and began talking about creating a space where people could get together over tea and cakes, much like they had at home. When the old post office building in Marden came up, they knew it was the place.

Rather than strip the building back, Olga and Anna built the café around it: the exterior wall was replicated inside as the coffee house's main wall, and a bicycle once used by the village's postman - donated by Peter Hall - now hangs at the top of the stairs. Marden History Society supplied old photographs that are displayed throughout the café, and Graham Tippen, grandson of the man who ran a bike and gift shop in the same building in the early 1900s, is now a regular. All the cakes and bakes are supplied by local bakeries or made by Olga herself, alongside a menu of baguettes, paninis and jacket potatoes. Source: The Old Post Office Coffee House