Why ARKET Will Always Mean More to Me Than Just Coffee

Some places become part of your life without really meaning to. You go in for a coffee, sit down for a while, open your laptop, and before you know it, the place becomes tied to a version of you that was building something. That is a little bit what ARKET became for me. Yes, it is a coffee stop. Yes, it is aesthetically beautiful in that very effortless Scandinavian way. Yes, it is the kind of place where everything looks calm, clean and thoughtfully put together. But for me, it became more than that. This is where my website was also built. And I think that is why it will always have a place in my heart.

A coffee, my laptop and far too many tabs open

I spent quite a lot of time here with my laptop open, coffee next to me, working on Genes at First Sight (the website).

Not pretending to work. Actually working.

Changing things. Rewriting things. Questioning whether I liked something, changing it again five minutes later, opening approximately seventeen tabs at once.

A lot of this website slowly came together while I was sitting in this café.

Which is probably why I cannot look at it as just another coffee place anymore.

There is something quite nice about knowing exactly where an idea started becoming real. For me, part of that happened here.

The kind of place where you can actually stay for a while

The café itself sits at the back of the shop, so it feels slightly removed from Regent Street even though one of London’s busiest shopping streets is basically outside the door. And I like that contrast.

You can spend an hour surrounded by Oxford Circus chaos, walk inside, get a coffee and suddenly everything feels a little quieter.

Which, when you are trying to get some work done, is actually perfect.

And the people matter

This is probably the bit I remember most warmly.

On the days I was there, the two women working in the café were both genuinely lovely.

Friendly, warm, the kind of people who make somewhere feel easy to come back to.

It sounds like a tiny detail, but I think the people working somewhere have a huge influence on whether you want to return.

And I did. A lot. So yes, I am biased

There are probably bigger cafés.

There are probably cafés with longer menus, prettier pastries or coffee that somebody could analyse for twelve paragraphs.

That is not really why I am writing about this one.

I am writing about it because somewhere between the coffees, the laptop charger and all those hours spent staring at my screen, this little café became part of the story of Genes at First Sight. And for that reason alone, it will always have a little place in my heart.

This article is for education and does not replace personalised medical advice.