Sheffield board game venue proves a ‘strong player’ with over 150,000 visitors

Sheffield’s first board game venue Treehouse has provided a playing experience for 150,000 visitors since opening five years ago.

The Treehouse, 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.

Solicitors Wake Smith advised entrepreneurs Ruth and Andy Haigh on their first lease five years ago for the 2,500 sq ft independent café, located on Boston Street off London Road.

Wake Smith’s commercial property team has now negotiated a new 10 year lease extension for the popular 80-seater cafe, ranked the seventh best restaurant in Sheffield on Tripadvisor, which employs 18 staff.

Ruth commented: “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.

(L - R): Laura Saul with Ruth and Andy Haigh at The Treehouse boardgame cafe.

“And we haven’t stopped 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.”

The extensive library of games at the family and dog-friendly cafe, leased from landlords City Estates, includes 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, added: “This is one of Sheffield’s independent business success stories. 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 concluded: “Laura’s support is superb. The structure of the commercial lease was complicated and something we would not have been able to understand on our own. Laura offered clear advice throughout and completed a really good job for us.”

By Matthew Neville – Correspondent, Bdaily

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