Help St Canna's Survive the Virus

Aim: Help St Canna's Ale House survive and thrive in the 'new normal'. We can do it!

About St Canna's

Welcome to St Canna's Ale House, a tiny pub in Cardiff, Wales, which exists to be a place where community is built, relationships are formed and where memories are made that will last a lifetime.

When Canna's was founded in 2017, its vision was to be the diametric opposite of 'plastic' chain pubs that were only concerned about customers consuming as much as possible as cheaply as possible. Canna's strove to reclaim the soul of the public house by welcoming anyone who walked through the door and creating affirming, communal experiences for them to enjoy. Over the last three and a half years, hundreds of people from Cardiff and beyond can regale stories from time spent at Canna's, whether it be singing Auld Lang Syne on New Years Eve with bagpipes, hearing the unbelievable local talent at Open Mic Nights, witnessing the epic Halloween Monster Mash dance off, being part of our own official TEDx event: TEDx Canton, or any one of hundreds of other events. Our pub is known as a place where whoever you are you can come, feel at home, meet new people and create amazing memories.

But Covid has changed all that.

The Problem

No longer are people able to meet together safely in the same way, so Canna's ethos of creating community and helping people build relationships and memories has been adversely affected on a grand scale. For their own safety our customers have to stay at their own tables and are unable to meet with friends and family outside of their own bubbles. Not only this, our revenue has been damaged as well, because we can only have customers on site for the number of seats we have available, and this number is greatly diminished due to social distancing. 

Our one saving grace is the beer garden. Because the virus has proven to be less contagious outside, restrictions on outdoor spaces are lighter and people are able to meet with others more freely. Also, the beer garden has allowed us almost double the amount of seating we have. This was amazing when we reopened in July after lockdown when (generally) the weather was fine, but now the winter is closing in, we face a real problem. Although part of our beer garden is sheltered, it is not set up to be a viable all-season seating space, and this is what we sorely need to survive in the 'new normal'.

But, we have a plan. And this is where our crowdfunder comes in.

The Solution

In consultation with Swansea based company Gower Sail Shades, we have come up with a solution: a pergola. But this is not just any pergola. This is a pergola that will cover the entire beer garden, will have a retractable roof for summer, will have heaters built in, and will have plug points for customer's convenience. Sound amazing? It is. Here are the details.

The pergola in question will be a 7m x 5.5m Rialto system from Practic. The aluminium frame will be iron grey and the electric retractable roof will be in white rose. It will have integrated LED lighting in the frame on all sides and integrated outdoor heaters. It will withstand the worst of what the Welsh weather can throw at us, and it'll do so with style. In short, it is the complete solution to our needs, and this is what we are crowdfunding for. 

We need you

We are asking our amazing customers, our community and anyone else who feels touched by our ethos to help make this dream a reality. Small businesses, especially pubs and bars, have been decimated by the virus. However, Cannas won't give in. We believe our ethos is an important one for society, and even in a world ravaged by coronavirus, with your help, we will continue to help build community, facilitate relationships and create life long memories that people will cherish forever.