Ten years ago today F Mondays opened its doors on Brixton Hill. Alan Slingsby spoke to co-owner Ciara O’Shea
Ciara O’Shea and her co-owner Ken Nally have lived just across the road from their Brixton Hill coffee-and-more establishment for 20 years.
Both originally from Ireland, they would walk or drive past the derelict former estate agents that is now the Brixton Hill F Mondays and think “that’s a great shop” the sun “shone right through it in the morning”.
Ciara is make-up artist by trade and born in the small town of Templemore, Tipperary, and Ken, from the mountains of Wicklow, trained as an industrial designer.
But both sets of parents were self-employed, as are her brothers and sisters, so the idea of starting a business was never far from their minds.
Ten years on, Brixton has two F Mondays, the second handily placed between Premier Inn and the Prince of Wales on Coldharbour Lane in the centre of Brixton.
But getting started was slow-going. It took the pair a year and a half to find the owners of the derelict shop and more time to locate the keys.
They took three months to personally refurbish and transform a ruin into a coffee bar. Ken designed all of the furniture which was laser cut and then assembled by him and Ciara.
“Our friends came in and helped. We were taking off the wallpaper in the bathroom and a wall collapsed,” she recalls. “It was all of that.”
From the start, F Mondays was dedicated to quality based on good ingredients. “Good bread, good avocados, good eggs”. But they have to be affordable. Ciara remembers times when, as a freelance, there were many times when the only spare cash she had was just enough to buy a coffee.
There is also a deeper philosophy behind the business. “I often think in London, you can feel kind of unmoored,” says Ciara. “People think that young people don’t feel it, but they do,” she says. “And I think old people feel it too, and everyone in between, like new mums.”
So prices are kept as low as possible and how the half dozen or so staff behave and interact with customers is central to F Mondays.
For example … “We had this old artist that used to come in every morning at 7am because he didn’t sleep very well. And he was super friendly. The whole neighbourhood, the whole town knew him. So he would get chatting to everybody.”
With a church, Post Office sorting centre and school all nearby, says Ciara, “there’s lots of people around who might enjoy having somewhere to sit for half an hour.
“That’s why we’ve never really encouraged laptops, people talk to each other here.”
Early on, F Mondays would have a table in the middle of the room “where there would be people of all ages chatting. I love that,” she says.
“And I love that a little kid her mum – who told me –that I was on her list of trusted people. That’s such a compliment.”
Ciara wants F Mondays “to be an anchor in the community where people can feel they can come in, they can sit down. They can have a coffee. They can get some bread and soup to take home to have for lunch.”
They can also buy products from her body care brand – a result of her experiences as a make-up artist.
Like all business owners serving people face-to-face, Ciara and Ken had to find a way to deal with Covid and lockdowns.
Ciara was in America a lot with her make-up work, but “America was closing down” as the pandemic hit.
It also made business in Brixton difficult. Maintaining a supply of good ingredients became harder. Ciara and Ken were also very aware of how F Mondays was an important place for more than just coffee to many people, especially older customers who were affected by the lockdown regulations.
With no other work, they began to run the business themselves and turned a problem into an opportunity.
Their baker called to say that they had surplus stock as all restaurants were closed. “We were, like, everyone is walking in looking for bread,” says Ciara. “Bring it here,” they told the baker.
“I remember him throwing it out of the back of the van, and I was catching it and putting it on the counter. I felt like I was in an episode of Postman Pat or something.
“It was the same with the eggs. We just bought more eggs … and that’s how we started the deli,” she says.
“A lot of things that kind of got ironed out for us during that time. It was just Ken and I working, so it was pretty intense and exhausting.
“We had a table in the doorway; people would come up, and I would serve them. Ken would pack the orders and my mum would help him.
“We had a few hundred people a day offloading – me being the only contact they’ve had. By the end of it, I knew everyone we served pretty well.”
Ciara and Ken also had “very formative experiences” and saw lots of opportunities from this time.
“A girl that used to work with us who was studying to be an illustrator and she was brilliant. She always used to do the chalkboards outside when we were allowed to have them.
“She made us design for a jumper. We started selling them, and now they go like hot cakes.”
There is a celebratory one marking the 10 years of F Mondays. Others have been designed by customers and staff.
“We try and make it ‘for the community and of the community’,” explains Ciara.
That’s a natural thought for someone from a town with a population of little more than 2,000.
“I was very used to the idea that you would have somewhere or someone to stop and chat with. And I really love that about the shop.
But Brixton was also an inspiration. “I loved that about the Brixton that I moved to. It’s not happening so much now, and I feel it’s a bit of a shame.
“I would work out at Brixton Street Gym. I love those boys down there. I think they do such a stellar job, and they’re they’ve been in my life, like, 10 years on and off.
“They’re always a welcoming force. I love that about Brixton. I love the Soup Kitchen. I love that it’s a real mix of people looking out for each other in lots of different capacities.”
F Monday fits into this vision. Not something coming in from outside to sell speciality coffee. “Our approach was always about something like a little bright moment in your day that isn’t going to break the bank.”
Not that the coffee isn’t special. “Ken is really strict about how the coffee is made” – but he and Ciara want it to be “simple and delicious” without customers having to hear its life story.
While the pair are serious about their business, there is still plenty of spontaneity in its development.
From 2017 to 2020, they sold coffees to early morning commuters from a truck – now sold – in front of the Ritzy and had their eyes on the site of their Coldharbour Lane F Monday for years.
One evening they walked past it on their way to a meal in Brixton and saw a sign offering it for lease being hung in the window.
“As we sat down to dinner,” says Ciara, Ken said ‘Excuse me, I’m going to go back and talk to that guy’ and he ran off and spoke to the landlord – and that’s how that came about.”
It’s now been open since 2022.
112a Brixton Hill
Monday–Friday: 8am–4pm
Saturday & Sunday: 9am–2pm
436 Coldharbour Lane
Monday–Friday: 8am–4pm
Saturday & Sunday: 9am–4pm
