New café opens at Trent Park House ahead of museum's big launch this summer

Museum trustee and comedian Helen Lederer cut the ribbon for the café on Sunday

Guests at the opening event for Trent Park House's new café included trustee Helen Lederer and council leader Alessandro Georgiou — Guests at the opening event for Trent Park House’s new café included trustee Helen Lederer (centre), Enfield Council leader Alessandro Georgiou (behind Helen) and deputy mayor Chris Joannides

A new café has opened at Trent Park House ahead of the big launch this summer of a long-awaited museum.

On Sunday (14th), guests gathered to mark the official opening of the Trent Park House of Secrets Café, with the ribbon being cut by actor, writer, comedian and museum trustee Helen Lederer.

Helen’s grandfather, Ernst Lederer, was one of the wartime ‘secret listeners’ who covertly gathered intelligence from high-ranking German officers held at Trent Park during the Second World War.

A museum telling the story of the secret listeners – as well as Trent Park House’s pre-war history under the ownership of famous socialite Sir Philip Sassoon, who used it to entertain the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Winston Churchill – is now set to open at the end of July.

Among those attending Sunday’s café opening were trustees, local residents, friends of the house and members of the wider Sassoon family – including Philip Sassoon’s biographer Damian Collins.

Enfield Council leader and Cockfosters councillor Alessandro Georgiou, plus deputy mayor Chris Joannides, also attended.

Lederer has said she is “in awe” of the work that has gone into opening the museum, and that the café will become the “hub and heart” of the house.

The café is being run by Blends & Beyond, which also operates a venue next to Oakwood Station, and is based in Trent Park House’s ‘blue room’ where Churchill was known to enjoy painting.

Blends & Beyond owner Ioan Bena said the team are “honoured and thrilled” to be part of the Trent Park House project.

Inside the new Trent Park House of Secrets Cafe (credit Trent Park Museum Trust)

Sunday’s opening event included speeches from some of those who have each played a vital role in the museum’s progress, including Jason Charalambous, founding trustee and co-chair of Trent Park Museum Trust; Alan Perkin, founding trustee and deputy chairman; and museum director Giuseppe Albano.

The day also had one very special four-wheeled guest: a gleaming 1931 Ford Model A Roadster which arrived courtesy of the Whitewebbs Museum of Transport, evoking the interwar era in which Sassoon entertained at Trent Park.

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