Beginning of a legacy: Cricklewood Coffee Roasters

There was something of a confessional about the Cricklewood Coffee Roasters van. As people made their way to work via Cricklewood Station, they’d stop by and tell owner James Colbourne what they knew about the area, what was happening locally, and their opinions and views. “I used to find out about all kinds of stuff that was going on,” he says. “It’s interesting when you get your regulars coming and telling you their side of the story.”

During lockdown, of course, things are quieter and the van is closed, but Colbourne is still serving people’s daily caffeine addictions, cycling up to 30 miles a day around this bit of London making deliveries of the beans he roasts. His coffee is a connection point for the community.

But Colbourne never set out to become a roaster and barista. “I was working at MTV before this,” he says. “As time went on, I knew I had to make a decision about whether I wanted to be part of that corporate world.” So when he and his team were made redundant, he took it as an opportunity to strike out alone. “I started freelancing, doing similar work to what I had been doing, but one day I was helping out with the garden at the train station, and wondered out loud why there was no one selling coffee there.”

Local councillor Anne Clarke was one of the people who overheard his musing, and the station manager was also encouraging, so he made the proposal, and eight months later, with a small van and skills learned from YouTube, he opened for business.

“I had no experience whatsoever,” he laughs. “But I was into coffee, and I’ve always liked tasting and cooking different things. It’s a good business to be in because, well, everyone needs coffee, and for that reason lots of coffee stands are either run by ex-bankers, or by champion baristas. I’m neither, so it might seem a bit random, but it suits me and it’s taken off.”

Once he started selling coffee he began to meet people at his stand who have helped him grow his business. “One day a guy walked up to my van and told me he and his wife’s family were coffee farmers in Brazil,” he recalls. “He offered to sell me the green beans for roasting directly. I’m incredibly lucky as most people have to use importers.

“I also met a guy who gave me warehouse space for roasting, which was great because before then I was trying to roast green coffee beans in my garden shed,” he adds.

Colbourne has lived in the neighbourhood for almost 15 years and he’s been selling coffee for four years now. It’s already won several awards from Great Taste and the Guild of Fine Foods. But it’s the longevity of businesses and how they become part of the patchwork of local life that’s important to him. “I like speaking to the older people who live here who can tell me what the different shops used to be,” he says. 

He takes his inspiration from an old coffee roaster called George, who’s been a fixture in Camden for over 40 years, and a cafe in Kentish Town where he used to get breakfast in his MTV days, run for 30 years by a man named Mario.“There are lots of coffee shops which are almost sterile spaces,” he says, “Places where there’s only one kind of person and you don’t always feel entirely welcome. But I like those cafes where all the locals go and you get workmen sitting next to authors all mixed in together.”

Though things are locked down right now, Colbourne has plans for the future to become part of the fabric of the neighbourhood, with a roastery where he can sell his beans, coffee, and ceramics made by his wife. “I want to be like George and Mario, to make a space for people who just want a good cup of coffee, whoever they are. It’s nicer when things are all mixed up.”

Cricklewood Coffee Roasters is currently selling coffee online. Photos were taken in 2019, before Covid-19 restrictions were necessary.