Metropolitan Life: Your place or my place - or why not the `third place'?

`Third place' is the new buzz- word for the thriving cafe scene that has sprung up to accommodate the growing number of singles in Britain's cities. Tyler Brule on a revolution in the high street

IF YOU'VE noticed that your city centre no longer holds that old Friday-night magnetism, or that suddenly some of the hottest restaurants are just around the corner instead of on the other side of town, then you might be one of those lucky people whose local high street is in the midst of a revolution.

Up and down the land, modest parades of shops are sprouting streamlined little espresso bars. Dowdy department stores are revamping their restaurants; gyms are becoming places to meet people rather than to pump iron and pubs are discarding their dark mahogany interiors in favour of maple floors and Scandinavian inspired furniture. Why? Because a clutch of bright business people have realised that, since the closure in the Eighties of thousands of local cafes, pubs and family-run restaurants, the British have nowhere to hang out.

As a report published last week by the market research group Mintel showed, more and more people now find themselves both living and working alone. With these affluent singles in mind, planners and designers of all types of businesses, from bookshop chains to restaurant conglomerates, have been developing formulas to create the perfect "third place". It's the newest media buzzword, defining a comfortable place where people can congregate outside home and work (the first and second places) and spend a little money while they're at it. Across the Atlantic, a different set of economic, social and planning problems has already turned the "third place" idea into a multi-billion dollar business. Vast derelict neighbourhoods are being rejuvenated into modern day piazzas where the masses can sip mocha lattes, browse through magazines or compare the merits of the Nike Air Mada against the rival from Reebok.

Starbuck's Coffee Company, Barnes & Noble Books, Newsbar and Equinox are all names which now dot the Manhattan grid. They have sprung up to meet the need of a city of singles who don't want to go to smokey bars or overpriced restaurants, but still need a place where they can be around other people. For Howard Schultz, chief executive of Seattle-based Starbuck's, the raison d'etre of his 600-strong coffee shops is to act as a meeting place for harried urban people.

Taking their cues from Barnes & Noble books in America, both Waterstones and Books etc have signed deals to develop coffee bars where Brtish people can relax and thumb through paperbacks while slurping their decaff cappuccinos.

"I don't think this is just one of those cases where the English are copying an American example," says Ally Svenson, managing director of the Seattle Coffee Company, which has just done a deal with Waterstones. "This boom in `third place' spaces has come about because people really did need somewhere to go that was quick, easy and comfortable." With Starbuck's poised to bring its model to the UK and new player Coffee Republic about to boom, cities like London, Cambridge and Glasgow will soon become battlegrounds, as a host of contenders vie for "third place supremacy".

In the heart of London, the old-school cafes have long been slugging it out on the corner of Soho's Frith and Old Compton streets. By contrast, the new "third places" see themselves as models which can easily mutate to suit neighbourhoods, office buildings, department stores and hospitals. "It's about treating yourself to an affordable luxury," explains Bobby Hashemi, one half of the brother- and-sister team behind Coffee Republic. "We don't serve stale biscuits or coffee out of nasty polystyrene cups. We offer a beautiful space where you can read a paper, chat with friends and enjoy a macchiato that is perfect.''

Occupying a space designed by architect Eva Jiricna on South Molton Street, the Hashemis are going for consumers in search of a more upmarket "third place" (as opposed to Svenson's Seattle Coffee Company, which is on its way to becoming a fixture wherever it can find property). "I think Seattle does an excellent job, but we have to set ourselves apart in a market that is likely to see more and more newcomers,'' explains Sahar Hashemi.

Newcomers aren't only coming in the shape of coffee beans: gyms, supermarkets and a new wave of restaurants are also vying for different wedges of the same pie.

Perhaps the most curious participant is American-based pizza enterprise Domino's, which is currently testing a new restaurant concept aimed at affluent neighbourhoods where people need a reliable, well designed place they can go for a drink or a Caesar salad. Having built a company around a service philosophy that delivers pizza to customers in 30 minutes or less, even Domino's is realising that all those people don't want to sit at home and eat the cheese and pepperoni alone.

"Even though we're an American company we're trying this concept out in the UK first because we know there's a sector of the population who want a restaurant they can rely on and feel comfortable in,'' says David Skeen, new project co-ordinator at Domino's.

Not far behind is Terence Conran who will soon launch a prototype of his own called the Zinc Bar & Grill off Regent Street. Looking to move chain restaurants into the next century, the "hanging out" philosophy will undoubtedly be at the forefront of the brief that his designers will have to work with.

At the same time, Conran hopes to launch the mother of all third places a year from now when he completes work on the Bluebird Garage, at the World's End end of Kings Road. Complete with a coffee shop, uber restaurant, grocery store and newsstand, Conran is hoping that his will be the hottest hangout in Europe.

"Given that space is one of the most important luxuries we have at the end of this century, people want to be in beautiful, open surroundings, especially when their home environments seem increasingly cramped," explains Sir Terence.

With some critics claiming that people will soon tire of meeting en masse over steaming cups of Kenyan, others see it as the start of an even more sophisticated market that will continue to flourish and re-invent itself. As I sit in the solitude of my home office, I can say with authority that a "third place" around the corner would be a great idea.

how to know when you need a third place

If you find yourself spending considerable amounts of time in any of the following situations, then you've either found your third place or might still be on your quest...

You aimlessly push your shopping trolley around Tesco Metro after work and without really buying anything.

You often spend your out-of-work hours in the aisles of Dillons, yet

you hardly ever pick up a book.

You linger behind to read the bulletin board at the gym because you enjoy the buzz around the reception desk.

You have an urge to rush to the corner shop when there's nothing you actually have to buy.

You spend evenings at Habitat mentally buying furniture for the house you are never going to own.

Third places to go

LONDON Wagamama - Streatham Street, Bloomsbury and Lexington Street, Soho. You couldn't find more cramped human contact if you tried. Habitat Coffee Shop, King's Road. Freedom Bar, Wardour Street. Holmes Place Gym - all brances. Tesco Metro - most branches. Tower Records magazine section, Piccadilly Circus. Seattle Coffee Company - any branch. Clarke's Food Shop, Kensington Church Street.

Elsewhere Bewley's Cafes, Dublin. Morelli's, Broadstairs, Kent. Seattle Coffee Company, Cambridge. Salt's Diner at the 1853 Gallery, Saltaire, near Shipley, West Yorkshire. The Cornerhouse Cafe, Manchester.