Fuckoffee - Best Café Design 2025

LCF Awards Spotlight Q&A

1. Congratulations on your win! Can you tell us a little about your business and what makes it special?

Fuckoffee has been part of London’s independent coffee scene since 1999, before speciality coffee became what it is today. From the beginning, the idea has been pretty simple: take the coffee seriously, but don’t take ourselves too seriously.

We serve high-quality coffee in spaces that are welcoming, comfortable, a little rebellious and unmistakably Fuckoffee. Good music, good people, a sense of humour and absolutely no interest in being bland. We want our shops to feel like places people want to spend time in, rather than somewhere designed simply to get you in and out with a flat white.

At the centre of everything is the coffee. Our signature coffee is an organic, Fairtrade, single-origin Arabica from Papua New Guinea, which we’ve been proudly serving for years. The personality might get people through the door, but the coffee has to make them come back.

2. What award did you win at The London Coffee Festival Awards 2025, and what does that recognition mean to you and your team?

Fuckoffee Bermondsey won Best Café Design at The London Coffee Festival Awards 2025, which meant a huge amount to us.

Our shops have never been designed by following a standard coffee-shop formula. Bermondsey has evolved into a space with its own identity, eclectic, colourful, comfortable, slightly chaotic and full of character. Everything is intended to make the shop feel lived-in and human rather than overly polished or corporate. An all inclusive space with something for everyone.

To have that recognised by the London coffee community was a brilliant moment for the whole team.

3. What inspired you to enter The London Coffee Festival Awards?

The London Coffee Festival is such an important gathering point for the industry, so the awards felt like an opportunity to put what we’ve built in front of the wider coffee community.

Fuckoffee has always done things in its own way, and we were particularly proud of the Bermondsey shop. Entering gave us the chance to celebrate not just the design itself, but the years of ideas, personality and people that have shaped the space.

4. What do you think helped you stand out and secure the win?

Probably the fact that Bermondsey doesn’t look as though it has been designed to fit a trend.

There’s a very clear Fuckoffee identity when you walk through the door. It’s eclectic, provocative, comfortable and full of things to look at. There are big comfy sofas, crazy artwork, signs, colour and personality. We've been doing sustainable design for nearly 30 years now.

But the important thing is that the design still works as a coffee shop. People settle in, meet friends, work, talk to the baristas and stay for another coffee. For us, good coffee shop design should create a feeling, not just a good photograph.

5. Tell us about the journey behind your business. What has been your proudest achievement so far?

The journey goes all the way back to 1999, when we opened our first shop on Brick Lane as Coffee@. It was the era of the internet café, long before London’s speciality coffee scene exploded, but even then our focus was on serving genuinely good coffee.

Since then there have been all the normal highs, lows and occasional chaos that come with running an independent coffee shop business in London. The brand has evolved, shops have evolved and the city around us has changed enormously, but the basic philosophy has stayed consistent.

Our proudest achievement is probably still being here, still independent and still recognisably ourselves more than 25 years later. In an industry where businesses and trends can come and go very quickly, building something that people continue to connect with is something we’re genuinely proud of.

6. What impact has winning had on your business, team or community since the awards were announced?

The biggest impact has been the sense of recognition it gave the team.

Running coffee shops involves an enormous amount of work that customers never see, so having an award from the wider coffee community is a real boost. It gives everyone involved a moment to stand back and recognise that what they have helped create is genuinely special.

It has also introduced more people to Fuckoffee and given existing customers another reason to feel proud of their local shop. We have a lot of loyal regulars, so it feels very much like something shared with the people who have supported us.

7. How important is it to receive recognition from the coffee community?

Very important.

We enjoy being irreverent and we’re never going to become too serious about ourselves, but we are very serious about coffee and hospitality. Recognition from people who understand the industry therefore carries real weight.

There is an incredible amount of talent in London’s coffee scene, from baristas and roasters to independent operators and designers. To be recognised amongst that community is a real compliment.

8. If someone was visiting your coffee shop for the first time, what’s the one thing they absolutely shouldn’t miss?

Try the coffee! And know that you are welcome here!

The signs, artwork, sofas and general Fuckoffee madness may be the first things you notice, but the coffee is why we exist. Our signature organic, Fairtrade, single-origin Papua New Guinea coffee has been at the heart of what we do for years.

Grab your favourite drink and a sweet treat, definitely try our famous banana bread, then find a sofa and stay long enough to soak up the atmosphere. That’s the proper Fuckoffee experience.

And if you want to take a bit of Fuckoffee home with you, check out the merchandise before you leave!

9. What’s next? Are there any exciting plans, projects or ambitions on the horizon?

More Fuckoffee.

We currently have five London shops, with locations including Bermondsey, Clerkenwell, Bethnal Green and Mile End, and we’re always looking at how we can grow the brand without losing the independence and personality that made people connect with it in the first place.

Infact we've got an exciting announcement, with a new shop opening in Pimlico very soon.

Beyond the shops, we’re continuing to develop the coffee side of the business too. That includes reevaluating our supply chain and looking at how we source and deliver our coffee beans, ground coffee and compostable pods, alongside growing our merchandise range. We also support the Free West Papua campaign and continue to raise awareness of their cause for independence.

The ambition is to introduce more people around the world to Fuckoffee, while keeping the things that matter most, great coffee, welcoming and inclusive spaces and individuality.

10. What advice would you give to businesses thinking about entering The London Coffee Festival Awards in the future?

Enter!

Don’t wait until you think everything is perfect, and don’t change what makes your business distinctive because you think it will appeal to judges or voters. The coffee industry is at its best when independent businesses have their own point of view.

And if your café is covered in neon, strange artwork and offensive signage, apparently that doesn’t hurt either!

Instagram: @fuckoffeebermondsey