Published: 17:45, 16 April 2025
A yoga instructor is launching a chatty café at her studio in a bid to help tackle loneliness in the area.
Leyla Ramadan says she has received “amazing support from the community” after opening House of Leyla in Milton Road, Gravesend, in September 2023.
For about eight years, she had taught thousands of yoga classes and meditation sessions under the House of Leyla banner at hired venues across the area.
She had always wanted a place of her own, so set up a crowdfunder in November 2022 to raise £30,000 for the lease and to change the layout of Shapers ladies’ gym.
Leyla was able to raise the money in just 28 days with the yoga community, friends, family, and people from as far as Australia and NZ all chipping in.
She then spent the next nine months transforming the unit after securing further investment of £70,000 from Lets Do Business loans before opening the doors to the studio.
Now, she has decided to launch the Chatty Café Scheme at the site – a non-profit organisation tackling loneliness.
Face-to-face meet-ups will be held at the venue’s café between 11am and 1pm every Thursday, starting from this week (April 17), where customers can get together and chat.
Leyla explained: “It’s an amazing scheme all across the UK where different cafes get involved and offer the space and put a reserve on tables that are just for the chatty café.
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“There’s volunteers from each café that will sit and talk to people who perhaps feel a little bit lonely or they don’t get to have chats with often.
“It’s free for anyone who wants to come and have a chat and enjoy the foods and drinks in the café.”
She says when she heard about the scheme, she thought it would be a “perfect” addition to the venue.
She added: “House of Leyla really was about providing a home for people who really want to focus on their mental and physical wellbeing and maybe find some kind of spiritual aspect to their lifestyle.
“A lot of people are not going to churches or temples anymore, and I think a lot of people feel quite lonely.
“So the idea is for people to have a space to come to so we can go on this journey together however they turn up – whether they’re happy, sad, or just there to listen.
“We really want to appeal to the older generation as well, It really breaks my heart that there are elderly people at home with no one to speak to or nowhere to go because places don’t facilitate and everything is online now.
“It’s about creating connections, either one-to-one or in a group where it’s face to face, it’s just so needed.”
