Boswells opens Newbury’s largest café following £750,000 investment

Family-owned West Berkshire café group creates up to 25 jobs as it opens landmark Parkway venue.

Boswells has officially opened its new café at Parkway Shopping, marking a major investment in Newbury and a new chapter for the family-owned business that has been serving customers in the town for more than 40 years.

Following the closure of its long-standing Kennet Centre location, Boswells has relocated to a prominent new home at Parkway Shopping, ensuring the much-loved café remains at the heart of Newbury town centre.

Ahead of opening to the public, around 60 loyal customers were invited to enjoy a special sneak preview of the café, giving them the opportunity to be among the first to experience the new venue.

The new 4,700 sq ft café represents a £750,000 investment by Boswells and is Newbury’s largest café.   The venue has been transformed and offers stylish space, great comfort and an elevated dining experience.

The café features a dedicated workspace bar for customers looking to work remotely, study or hold informal meetings.  A fully equipped private meeting room is also available to hire, comfortably seating up to eight people and featuring state-of-the-art video conferencing technology and a 55-inch presentation screen, providing a professional venue for business meetings, presentations and collaborative sessions in the heart of Newbury.

The opening will support between 20 and 25 jobs, reflecting Boswells’ continued commitment to investing in Newbury and the wider West Berkshire economy.

Founded in 1972, Boswells remains one of the UK’s largest independent family-owned café groups and now operates 19 cafés across the South of England. While the business has grown significantly over the past five decades, West Berkshire remains firmly at its heart.

Boswells is still owned and run by siblings Nick, Matt, Tim Burn and Charlotte Jones, whose roots in West Berkshire stretch back generations. For the family, the opening of the new Parkway café is particularly significant, reinforcing Boswells’ long-standing connection with Newbury and the wider local community.

Customers can enjoy Boswells’ popular all-day breakfasts, lunches, afternoon tea, snacks and wide range of coffees, teas, smoothies and milkshakes, alongside children’s, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and allergen-conscious options.

Known for its warm, home-from-home atmosphere, Boswells places community at the heart of everything it does and is already planning a programme of events at the new café. The first will see comedian Samantha Day perform ‘I’ve Started So I’ll Finish – It’s Too Late for Questions’ on 19 July as part of the West Berkshire Comedy Festival.

Nick Burn, Managing Director of Boswells, said: “Newbury has always felt like home for Boswells. As a family business with deep roots across West Berkshire, we’re incredibly proud to be opening this beautiful new café at Parkway. We’ve served customers in Newbury for more than 40 years and were determined to remain in the town centre. This new café represents a £750,000 investment in Newbury, creates up to 25 local jobs and is now the largest café in the town.

We wanted to make a real statement about our commitment to Newbury. The new café gives us the space to create something really special for our customers.

We’ve designed the café to be much more than somewhere to grab a coffee. Whether people are meeting friends for breakfast, working remotely for a few hours, or hosting a business meeting in our private meeting room, we want Boswells to be a place where the community comes together.”

Andrew Marmot, Centre Manager at Parkway Shopping, said: “We’re thrilled to see Boswells officially open at Parkway. The new café looks fantastic and adds another great reason for people to visit the town centre and spend time at Parkway.”

The opening ensures Boswells remains a familiar part of Newbury town centre life while introducing a new generation of customers to the family-owned café brand.