THE Green Duck Tap Room is the latest business to open in Ely Court, the arcade linking Royal Victoria Place (RVP) with Camden Road. More food and drink businesses expected to open in the coming weeks.
The Tunbridge Wells-based family business already runs the Green Duck Emporium inside RVP, near the Grosvenor Road entrance, with the Green Duck Event Space & Bar and the headquarters-cum-creative space further up Grosvenor Road.
It joins the similarly family-owned coffee shop and record store Even Flow at 6 Ely Court, which also has another location in town, on St John’s Road.
After opening last Saturday (May 27) with a party featuring acts from the Tunbridge Wells Fringe later this summer, the Green Duck Tap Room will continue to draw on its local connections, said company CEO Matt Elesmore.
“We always try to incorporate events and anything community-based,” he told the Times last week, before the opening. “We plug into those networks an awful lot.”
Both businesses were a good anchor for the location and created a further buzz, according to TW Fringe organiser Grace Simpson, who told the Times: “We’re using the Green Duck’s opening as a little warm up, and to help them out with some of our amazing acts.”
Both Even Flow and another Green Duck venue are already scheduled to host events during the two-week festival in July.
Other new businesses are also expected to be cut from the same independent material, added Mr Elesmore.
“Even Flow is already here, and you will see others popping up here in the next couple of weeks,” he added.
Contacted for more information, a representative of the shopping centre’s management told the Times: “We have got some exciting things in the pipeline” – but was not able to comment further.
DESPITE its accessible location between RVP and Camden Road, Ely Court has had a troubled history as a retail area.
As reported by the Times, the arcade was empty when a food court called ‘Central Market’ opened in 2019 – before the pandemic.
It thrived, before collapsing in January 2022.
As the Times reported in January 2022, Central Market had a number of stalls that were owned directly by London-based businessman Joan Ferras Quintero as well as several independent shops that paid rent through their tills to him.
However, Companies House ordered Central Market be dissolved as the businessman had not filed any accounts since 2020 and the food hall had debts in excess of £125,000.
