The 125-year-old 'ghost' that's been resurrected on Birmingham's busiest street

When the Kardomah Cafe closed on New Street in 1968, it hit Brummies that had met there for decades, to sip the coffee and chew the fat, hard. At the time, Andrew Docherty, a British Rail welder who got his cuppa every morning for 12 years, lamented to reporters: "It's going to make a lot of people very sad. It's another part of Birmingham's history that's just slipped away."

It was a history that stretched back in Birmingham for 68 years, but the Kardomah itself wasn't the dream of a Brummie come true. The business was a Liverpudlian creation, a chain that made its way to our city and found a home here.

It's where Brummies created their daily routines, a regular meeting place for friends and, if Post writer Anthony Everitt was to be believed when he looked back on it four years after it shut, it was where 'a motley collection of eccentric or suspicious came together, exchanging gossip or arranging business deals'.

Read more: Gail's opens its first Birmingham bakery - price list, opening times and what to expect

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Last week the smell of coffee drifted out from the door of 42a New Street once again. After a spell of being an Ecco, and before it a branch of Hawes and Curtis, Gail's bakery - a venue that's made its fortune in London - opened its first Birmingham branch on that corner. In many ways, it's a step back towards reclaiming the history that welder Andrew Docherty was so sad to lose.

While it's been there all along, the ghost of the Kardomah Cafe sign once again feels prominent above the doorway of the building. It's listed, so Gail's couldn't have scrapped it anyway, but staff inside the building were making a point to mention it to customers when they popped in on the first day.

Inside, the memories of the Kardomah are more tangible than just the scent of roasted beans. Now that the shoes have been shifted from the shelving, the glorious (also protected) historic wooden staircase is, once again, a significant feature.

For the first time in years, Brummies can ascend up them to natter. This time, they might be doing it over £4 matcha lattes and £8 avocado toast but, that's a sign of the times.

At the very back of the store, past the counter stocked with pastries, cakes and tarts, is a grand old fireplace. If you squint at this photo of the cafe from the 1940s, you can make it out on that back wall. In this photo gallery, you'll see what it looks like now.

Many may look at Gail's coldly because it's a chain. But when you're reminded what the Kardomah was in the first place - a come-lately from another city that made a mark on the history of our fine city's hospitality scene and in the lives of the Brummies who enjoyed it (upon closure, Edgbaston customer Bruce Burton said the Kardomah had "the best coffee in Birmingham") you might warm up to it.

READ MORE: Gail's in pictures as new bakery opens on New Street in Birmingham

We don't know what lies ahead for a bakery like Gail's in 2025. The hospitality scene is challenging and, if our round-up of the businesses the city lost last year is anything to go by, nothing is exempt from the bite of the cost of living crisis and that makes it hard to fall in love with a place entirely.

But for now, the ghost of the Kardomah has been resurrected, in part, on Birmingham's busiest street. And given how New Street has been ailing of late, it's a welcome spirit.