The new owners of of a popular Falmouth beach cafe have revealed their vision for the future of the site, including a wellness building with showers and changing rooms.
Gylly Beach Café on Gyllyngvase Beach was bought by Healeys Cider this year after Vickery Holman handled the sale for the previous long-standing owners.
The business was transferred from long-term ownership to become part of the growing Cyderhouse Co Ltd, a new subsidiary of Healeys Cyder, off a guide price of £3.5 million.
At the time of the purchase new owner Joe Healey, a seventh generation Cornishman, and his brother Sam said it perfectly complemented their long-term ambitions to own and operate unique quality venues.
That vision has now been revealed with plans for the café presented in a document, although no planning application has been submitted yet.
In a statement issued to the Packet Joe Healey, Managing Director of Cyderhouse Co Ltd, said: “As a local family business, we’re really excited to be the new custodians of Gylly Beach Café.
"It’s so much more than a café and we’re very aware of the role the beach and café plays within the local community.
"We’d like to think that over the next few years, we can help improve the area for locals and tourists alike."
The plans include a new decked area in-front of the café on the beach and a Gylly Beach Wellness centre with showers and proper changing cubicles to encourage swimming.
They also want to install a swimming platform at sea (similar to Helford Sailing club) as well as add visitor moorings along outer edge of the yellow buoys for craft to moor up to.
It would also include a flexible, licensed roof top space for year round yoga, wellness activities, events, meetings.
There would also be Gylly Beach Café (nee ‘Takeaway’) with a small amount of indoor seating to allow year around operation. There is also potential for roof top conversion.
"The amount of swimmers that already enjoy the sheltered waters, (even in the December) is superb, and we’d like to try and help encourage this by providing some changing facilities and additional cold water showers, free of charge," said Joe.
"We’ve had more than a few locals ask us ‘when is the swim platform coming back?’ – and we’re exploring options for this in conjunction with the Harbour Office and Town Council.
He said there are currently no controls in place for tenders approaching the beach – so despite the large number of swimmers, tenders can currently approach the beach, at any point.
"We’re asking the authorities how others (e.g. Swanpool) manage this, to try and improve the safety for swimmers, whilst ensuring the beach is available for everybody to enjoy," he said.
"Finally, the café and takeaway themselves need a little TLC – we’ve already completed internal decorations, and plan to improve the outside over the coming winter months."
The Healey brothers already run the Fives Cyderhouse, formerly 5 Degrees West, which they took over in August 2022, after it had been in the Hancock family for 45 years.
Their family owns Healeys Cornish Cyder Farm at Penhallow near Truro, which has been making Cornish cyders, wines, spirits, juices, preserves and sauces for four decades.
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