Patrick Graham, a professional sound recordist, knew very few of his neighbours living in Numbers 1 to 244 Inverness Place, Cardiff. So he converted an estate agent's For Sale sign to read 'Unofficial Community Cafe. Open and free to all local residents as long as the sign is up'; and persuaded a local firm to let him run off a hundred copies of a newsletter about it.
Graham has had a trickle of visitors ever since, almost all women, coming in for a cup of tea. 'Now nearly everyone on the block says hello to me,' says Graham, and a young mother up the road has even borrowed the sign to host the cafe for a time.
'There are no official opening times,' he adds, 'just up with the sign and kettle full when you want visitors, take it in or pass it on when you don't.' He vets people at the door and has had no trouble so far. And his experiment in neighbourliness has cost him nothing, with visitors bringing gifts of tea and coffee.
Patrick Graham, 217 Mackintosh Place, Roath Park, Cardiff CF2 4RP (tel 0222 491127). The project is dormant now that he no longer lives in Inverness Place.