The Treehouse Board Game Café: Sheffield cafe extends lease after welcoming 150,000 customers in 5 years

The Treehouse Board Game Café, which opened in 2017, gives board game lovers the chance to enjoy more than 800 games from the newest designer titles to the old familiar classics, to suit every age group, party size and concentration span. In that time, it has attracted over 150,000 visitors to the niche but popular café.

Husband-and-wife team Ruth and Andy Leigh recently negotiated a 10-year extension on the 2,5000 sq ft independent café, located on Boston Street off London Road. Ruth said: “In the last five years we have welcomed more than 150,000 visitors to the cafe and have had 1,200 members. We have also added new, more comfortable seating areas, expanded our events programme, and extended the shop to sell more board games, all around a difficult period with Covid.

“The success of the venture has gone way beyond our expectations. People reacted positively to the business, we have a big community of regulars, formed strong relationships, discovered new hobbies for people, and started them on a journey with games.”

The extensive library of games at the family and dog-friendly café ranges from favourites such as Monopoly and Scrabble to the latest games such as Blood on the Clocktower, with new releases and customer requests continually added.

Laura Saul, associate solicitor in Wake Smith's commercial property division, who advised the couple on the lease, said: “This is one of Sheffield’s independent business success stories.”

She added: "Ruth and Andy are delivering a winning formula through a great product and good service delivered by customer-friendly staff. Their customers are very impressed.”

Ruth added: “We haven’t stop gaming ourselves either. We probably played more games during the pandemic! Our aim hasn’t changed – we want happy customers playing games and eating and drinking great products.”