One of Kendal’s newest cafes is rapidly becoming a social and remote working hub for the town.

Chelsea Eddy-Waland runs Fold Cafe on the Beezon Road Trading Estate with husband Jack.

The cafe is attached to Fell Crossfit, which they also own and run.

They started Fell CrossFit three years ago and opened Fold as a space for participants to relax after a workout and as a cafe for the wider public.

The business also has a treatment room which is used by a range of different therapists.

Chelsea said: “The social side is a huge part of CrossFit.

“It’s all about bringing people together to get fit and have fun.

“It’s not about punishing yourself but making fitness an enjoyable part of your life.

"We want it to be an event space and we want it to thrive in and of itself. We want people to come here for remote working and branch out into being a bit of a conference facility.”

The cafe specialises in serving high quality artisan coffee, making use of a Modbar, which means the machine is under the counter and espresso runs from a font on top, much like a bar, hence the name.

Chelsea added: "Instead of having to go to the back of the counter or behind a big machine to make the coffee we can do it at the front while we're talking to the customer.

“It's just an extension of the whole concept of it being an open space. The process is automated and really consistent. No matter who in the team is making the brew it's going to be right.”

Although she grew up in Teesside, Chelsea was always a regular visitor to Cumbria and came to the county to study a PhD in English Literature at Lancaster University, specialising in Cumbrian gothic. She splits her work between teaching at the university and running the cafe and CrossFit business.

“I realised the two things I love are training and English literature and so I wanted to find work that allowed me to do both of those things and live in the Lakes as well.

“It was just a leap of faith really. I just wanted to do something that I love and I wanted to allow other people to do that as well and bring like-minded people together.

"People can be quite spread out living in the Lakes and so it can become lonely. We do a lot of social activities and events like retreats, training camps and workshops.

“We will be using the cafe for things like parties and wine tastings to help bring people together.”