Busy Lizzies has a 15-year lease on the Grove Park cafe in Weston-super-Mare and is paying for the fit-out. The park's toilets reopened after a 20-month gap.

Grove Park in Weston-super-Mare has its cafe back. North Somerset Council said on 28 August that the two-year rebuild of the park is finished and that the new operator, Busy Lizzies, was preparing to open over the bank holiday weekend. (North Somerset Council, 28 August)

Busy Lizzies is a new local business. It won a competitive process launched in March and has a 15-year full repairing and maintenance lease, which means it carries the cost of keeping the building in good order. It is paying for the cafe’s renovation itself. (North Somerset Council, 22 June)

Lizzie, the owner, said the fit-out took eight weeks.

“From the beginning, I wanted Busy Lizzie’s to be more than somewhere to grab a coffee,” she said in a statement issued by the council. “We’ll be open seven days a week throughout the year, with selected evening openings too. We’re also planning lots of events and workshops.”

What has actually changed in the park

The council lists the completed work as:

  • a redesigned main entrance with additional planting
  • new seating and upgraded landscaping
  • improved signage and resurfacing
  • a sustainable drainage system
  • a new public toilet block with an accessible toilet and baby changing

The entrance was the point of the exercise. Cllr Mark Canniford, the council’s cabinet member for sustainable places, said the new layout means “you can now see the attractive Grade II Listed bandstand and the tower of St John the Baptist Church as you enter”, restoring a view park visitors would have had when it opened 135 years ago. (North Somerset Council, 3 August)

The toilets took the longest. The old 1960s block was closed in December 2023 after vandalism. A specialist contractor removed asbestos from it, the building was demolished in November 2025, and the replacement units were lifted into position by a 60-tonne crane that December. They opened on Monday 3 August, a gap of about 20 months.

Weston-super-Mare Town Council managed the old toilets and will manage the new ones.

Timeline of the Grove Park improvements in Weston-super-Mare, from the 1960s toilet block closing after vandalism in December 2023, through works starting in July 2024, demolition in November 2025, new units craned in that December, the cafe lease advertised in March 2026 and awarded to Busy Lizzies in June, the toilets reopening on 3 August 2026 and the works confirmed complete on 28 August
Graphic by The North Somerset Post
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Who paid

The work is part of Improving Weston, funded by a £20m award from the UK government. The designers were We Made That, working with Super Culture, and the contractor was John West. The council says residents and community groups shaped the design through an engagement programme.

What it means for you

Grove Park has had no cafe and, for most of that time, no public toilets, since the end of 2023. Both are now back, in the middle of the town centre and a short walk from the high street and the seafront.

If you are driving in, the upper floors of the Carlton Street multi-storey are still shut. The council points drivers to the Sovereign Centre instead, which has more than 800 spaces from £1 for an hour to £5 for 24 hours, and has extended its hours to 11pm Sunday to Thursday and midnight on Friday and Saturday. Full tariffs for every council car park are on our roadworks and travel page.

We have not been able to confirm the cafe’s opening hours from the operator directly, so check before you make a special trip.

More on what is on locally: things to do in North Somerset.