Prescriptions to paninis: 'Iconic' pharmacy café on the market for £55k

Opened as a pharmacy in the Victorian era, The Pharmacy Café now uses antique drug cabinets to display chinaware. 

pharmacy cafe
The café still features “original decorative frontage”

The Pharmacy Café, which went from offering “pills, potions and posh perfumes” to cakes and cream teas, went on the market earlier this month (May 10).

The “iconic” premise was opened as a pharmacy “in 1877 by John Biddings”, estate agent Bettesworths said in the property listing.

Located in Newton Abbot, Devon, the leasehold property is up for sale for £55,000, it added.

Read more: Rejected! Banned from extending pharmacy into old cafe and barbers

The café still features “original decorative frontage”, “along with the mosaic tiled floor, which was fitted by Italian craftsmen”, the listing said.

Photos of the property reveal the “Honduras mahogany cabinets that housed the many pills and potions” have been repurposed to house teapots and trinkets.

Medicines to mochas

The estate agents revealed that the café, which “trades from 9am – 4pm” from Monday to Saturday, turned over “circa £150,000” in the year end 2024.

The Pharmacy Café “offers a range of freshly prepared breakfasts and lighter bites, sandwiches, paninis, salads, soups and jacket potatoes alongside homemade scones, cream teas and cakes,” it added.

The property includes seating for 36 customers, a commercial kitchen and a “sizable” function room, Bettesworths said.

Read more: Red letter day: Loughborough pharmacy and post office sold to regional chain

Situated in a “thriving” area, the premise is “close to the town centre and Newton Abbot railway station,” it added.

It comes as this month saw an inverse premise move rejected by government officials.

The Planning Inspectorate this month turned down Blackstone Pharmacy’s request to extend a barbers and sandwich shop into a pharmacy, despite it trying to move premises “to help facilitate the Pharmacy First service”.

Kate Bowie

Read more by Kate Bowie

Kate Bowie joined C+D as a digital reporter in August 2023 after graduating from a master’s in journalism at City, University of London. She began covering the primary care beat at the end of 2022, when she carried out several health investigations focused on staffing issues, NHS funding and health inequalities.

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