I had lunch here today with some ex-colleagues. Good company and good food in an architecturally impressive conversion of an attractive 1871 building, originally a Methodist chapel and schoolroom. It's right opposite the Oxford Union whose famous debates are the training ground for an alarming number of Britain's prime ministers, so it's an expensive bit of real estate.

The last time I was in this building it was to visit the improbably-located Gatehouse, a basement drop-in centre behind the rusty bars in the picture, that started in 1988 as a volunteer-run Christmas emergency shelter for the homeless. For 15 years tatty and run-down Northgate Hall housed Oxford's Lesbian and Gay Community Centre and at one point was also the home to the Catweazle Club - a long-established open-mic night for performers of all sorts.

The occupants gradually drifted away until only the Gatehouse was left and two years ago the owners, Oxford City Council, gave the Gatehouse notice to quit, citing financial pressures. What better, in straitened times, than to convert this to a place offering food to a very different class of people and turn the building next door to a 'boutique hotel'?

At first I was indignant that the Gatehouse faced closure but there is a happy ending. As they put it:

After about twenty years in the bowels of the Northgate Hall ... we emerged into the light and relocated to a fabulous new base [nearby]. But though our venue and opening times have changed, we still offer the same friendly service with an open door to anyone in need. Simple food - sandwiches, cake, fruit, tea, coffee... and soup in winter - is shared with those who need it most, six days a week. Most are homeless or badly housed but there's no test to pass: it's open to anyone over twenty-five years of age, whatever condition they are in. And it's all free of charge.
What we offer is a familiar routine for those on the street with a very unpredictable lifestyle... a friendly, accepting atmosphere with as little aggravation as possible, and all the sandwiches, tea and sympathy we can supply. The Gatehouse accepts people just as they are.

True. I'm sure when I visit them in their new base its regular users will invite me in just as hospitably as before and offer me food at least as welcome as what I ate today.