Lumen Café

This is a café in a church. I mention that because I didn’t realise it until about half way through our visit! I’m not sure quite how I missed the large sign over the building («United Reformed Church»), but the inside isn’t a typical church — it looks like a medium sized hall spilt into a café and a lecture room, with a strange igloo type structure in the middle. The inside is not cosy, it is quite airy and bright, with plastic chairs and a canteen like lay out.
We arrived at that awkward time between breakfast and lunch, which this country doesn’t quite know what to do with. We asked about breakfast and they said that they could rustle up some bacon, lettuce and bbq sauce sandwiches. I asked for mine with just bacon (I dislike hot lettuce) and my friend asked for his with tomato instead of lettuce. We both requested brown sauce instead of bbq.
Our bacon, lettuce and bbq sauce sandwiches arrived quite swiftly and once I had got rid of the limp green stuff and exchanged brown for the bb sauce, they were actually quite nice. The coffee was nice and the service was lovely, if a little vague over the substitutions that we wanted!
The loos were clean, but had that common design flaw of water pressure that is too high for the relative size of the basin — hence splashes all over the floor. But they were generally fine.
I wouldn’t go back — it’s not special enough for the trip that you have to make slightly out of the way, but if you are in the area, looking for a quiet place to have a regulation bacon sandwich, I’d try it!

Je crois qu’il est important de dire d’emblée que le Lumen café est… (drumrolls)… une EGLISE. Oui, oui.
Quelle n’était pas ma surprise en passant le pas de la porte de cet endroit très lumineux (cf le nom), aéré, calme, à la musique classique reposante et élégante… Rapidement je réalise cependant que derrière la partie café, moderne et aux airs de galeries d’art, il y a une église. Ainsi qu’un espace au milieu de la salle, comme un grand four géant à pizza, dans lequel on peut «méditer», se reposer… Un quiet space.
Bön mon premier réflexe est de «freak out» comme on dit aux Etats Unis d’Amérique. Me retrouver à bosser dans une Eglise… Pas trop mon truc.
Mais en fait la partie café est vraiment sympathique: le mec derrière le comptoir (en sandales svp) était jovial et m’a servi mon scone and tea pour 2,50 pounds seulement. J’ai travaillé 2 heures sur fond de musique classique, entourée de quelques quinquagéniares sympa et souriantes. Une fois passé le malaise initial, c’était donc vraiment une expérience plutôt très plaisante. Une fois l’heure du déjeuner venu le lieu emplit vite: mais on est loin du public hipster branché de Londres: c’est plutôt vieux monsieur en Trench qui vient manger une quiche aux légumes.
Les prix défient toute concurrence ce qui n’est pas négligeable dans cette ville non plus.

I had the pleasure of having not only lunch here, but also morning tea plus cake. Yes, I eat a lot, but we were also doing a training course here so it was logical at the time.
For morning tea I had a scone, very tasty and only 80p. For lunch we had to pre-​order as there was a large group of us. I went for the chicken breast with pesto, sweet potato and beans. It was £7.95 so I didn’t expect a large portion but was really excited when I saw I had a whole breast and maybe ½ a potato worth of fries. The chicken was cooked perfectly and the pesto sauce was delicious. The only downside was that it wasn’t really filling enough for lunch, which meant I had to order a piece of cake to finish off the meal. I went for blueberry cake which had a really nice icing on it with blueberries through the cake.
Service was friendly, helpful and polite. The café is really nice and airy and has lots of seating. I’d definitely head back here if I was in the area.

On a recent trip to London I stayed in the Bloomsbury neighborhood and just a few steps from my doorstep was Lumen. I walked by it a few times during my stay and kept reminding myself to try it out as it always seemed packed full of busy people. I finally went to it when I was tired of Pret and many of my other favorite establishments.
Lumen’s food is sold as healthy and local. While it leans toward the veggie side, you can also get chicken and other meats if that’s what you fancy. I went for the Spanish tortilla which comes with a side salad. The salad was your typical fare, but the dressing was really tasty. The tortilla was light, yet filling, and you could tell it was very vegetarian. I would have liked a little more spice or flavoring, but it was a good meal nonetheless.
I’d recommend this place to anyone wanting a healthy and filling meal. Also, big props to the staff here. Everyone was smily and chatty friendly.