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Eco-shop & café · St John's Street · Keswick

Coffee, soup, and the American songbook.

There's a piano at Chinty's. Every March and October a 91-year-old from Oklahoma sits down at it and plays standards by ear, one song straight into the next.

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Inside Chinty's: an upright piano with an empty stool, wooden folding chairs and tables, bookshelves, a chalked soup board and shelves of jars and goods under a neon 'Chinty's' sign

The set

  1. WhoJim Barnes, of Stillwater, Oklahoma
  2. WhenEvery March and October, for about a month
  3. SetsTuesday to Saturday, 10.30am–noon and 1.30–3pm
  4. PlaysBroadway and movie standards from the 1940s on, from a list of nearly 100 songs, without music
  5. Since8 February 2020, the month the café opened
He's part of our cafe story and we are happy to welcome him every year!Chinty, in the Keswick Reminder, March 2026
The counter: cakes under glass domes, a box built from toy bricks, books on the shelf below, and a chalkboard reading 'Chinty's' above shelves of tea and coffee

Between sets

An independent eco-shop and café: excellent coffee, good food, bread baked locally every day and local produce, with work by local artists and makers on sale.

Find the piano

Address
24A St John's Street
Keswick, Cumbria CA12 5AS
Hours
Tue–Sat 8am–4pmAs listed in online directories. Please check before a special trip.
Email
chintyt@gmail.comChinty's own address
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Email Chinty
My philosophy is not to let anything go to waste, so if I have anything left over, I will use it in cooking.Chinty, in the Keswick Reminder, 2021

Chinty's is an eco-shop and café on St John's Street, Keswick, selling local produce and bread baked locally every day, and cooking from whatever is left over.

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What the leftovers became

Soups
Scones
Muffins, even cauliflower ones
Homity pie
Broccoli, onion & apple chutney

As Chinty described them in 2021. What's cooking depends on what's left, so ask at the counter.

The counter: cakes under glass domes, a box built from toy bricks, books on the shelf below, and a chalkboard reading 'Chinty's' above shelves of tea and coffee
Inside Chinty's: an upright piano with an empty stool, wooden folding chairs and tables, bookshelves, a chalked soup board and shelves of jars and goods under a neon 'Chinty's' sign

Call in

Winner of the Outstanding Micro Business Innovation Award, presented by the High Sheriff of Cumbria in 2021.

Address
24A St John's Street
Keswick, Cumbria CA12 5AS
Hours
Tue–Sat 8am–4pmAs listed in online directories. Please check before a special trip.
Email
chintyt@gmail.comChinty's own address
Email ChintyDirections
Email Chinty

how are you?

That's what the chalkboard under the neon asks. An eco-shop and café on St John's Street, Keswick, where people come in for coffee and stay for a chat.

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The back wall: a neon 'Chinty's' sign, a chalkboard asking 'how are you?', vintage posters, a clock and shelves
What I have found is that it is our customers who call in and stop for a chat that make the shop what it is.Chinty, in the Keswick Reminder, 2021
The counter: cakes under glass domes, a box built from toy bricks, books on the shelf below, and a chalkboard reading 'Chinty's' above shelves of tea and coffee

Call in, say hello

An independent eco-shop and café: excellent coffee, good food, bread baked locally every day and local produce, with work by local artists and makers on sale.

Address
24A St John's Street
Keswick, Cumbria CA12 5AS
Hours
Tue–Sat 8am–4pmAs listed in online directories. Please check before a special trip.
Email
chintyt@gmail.comChinty's own address
Email ChintyDirections
Email Chinty
Keswick · since February 2020

Opened. Locked down. Kept going.

Chinty Turnbull and Suzy Bennett opened their eco-shop and café on St John's Street weeks before the first lockdown, and turned it into a take-away, a grocer and a veg round.

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2020

Opened in February. Weeks later: lockdown, so the café became a shop and take-away.

2020–21

Fresh veg delivered across town in Chinty's 1970s Morris Minor van, with milk, bread, eggs and cheese.

2021

The Outstanding Micro Business Innovation Award, presented in the shop by the High Sheriff of Cumbria.

2026

Still pouring coffee on St John's Street.

Inside Chinty's: an upright piano with an empty stool, wooden folding chairs and tables, bookshelves, a chalked soup board and shelves of jars and goods under a neon 'Chinty's' sign
The panel of judges were very impressed by the many ways Chinty's has adapted with flair and creativity.The High Sheriff of Cumbria, 2021, in the Keswick Reminder

Come and see

An independent eco-shop and café: excellent coffee, good food, bread baked locally every day and local produce, with work by local artists and makers on sale.

Address
24A St John's Street
Keswick, Cumbria CA12 5AS
Hours
Tue–Sat 8am–4pmAs listed in online directories. Please check before a special trip.
Email
chintyt@gmail.comChinty's own address
Email ChintyDirections
Email Chinty
Eco-shop & café · Keswick

Half shop, half café.

Coffee and home cooking at the tables; bread, local produce and the work of local artists and makers on the shelves around them.

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The counter: cakes under glass domes, a box built from toy bricks, books on the shelf below, and a chalkboard reading 'Chinty's' above shelves of tea and coffee
Café

Excellent coffee and good food

Bakery shelf

Bread, baked locally every day

Larder

Local produce

Walls

Work by local artists and makers

The High Sheriff of Cumbria called it "an outstanding sustainable eco shop, serving home-made and locally sourced food that is free from plastic" (2021).

Inside Chinty's: an upright piano with an empty stool, wooden folding chairs and tables, bookshelves, a chalked soup board and shelves of jars and goods under a neon 'Chinty's' sign

Pop in

Address
24A St John's Street
Keswick, Cumbria CA12 5AS
Hours
Tue–Sat 8am–4pmAs listed in online directories. Please check before a special trip.
Email
chintyt@gmail.comChinty's own address
Email ChintyDirections
Email Chinty
St John's Street · Keswick · Cumbria

Born in Keswick. Café in Keswick.

Chinty was born in Keswick and went to school here. Since 2020 her eco-shop and café has been on St John's Street, in the middle of town.

Email ChintyDirections
Inside Chinty's: an upright piano with an empty stool, wooden folding chairs and tables, bookshelves, a chalked soup board and shelves of jars and goods under a neon 'Chinty's' sign

An independent eco-shop and café: excellent coffee, good food, bread baked locally every day and local produce, with work by local artists and makers on sale.

The piano came from Mrs F's on Main Street, where Chinty once cooked. Each March and October, a visitor from Oklahoma plays it.

What I have found is that it is our customers who call in and stop for a chat that make the shop what it is.Chinty, in the Keswick Reminder, 2021

Number 24A

Food hygiene rating 4 (good), September 2025.

Address
24A St John's Street
Keswick, Cumbria CA12 5AS
Hours
Tue–Sat 8am–4pmAs listed in online directories. Please check before a special trip.
Email
chintyt@gmail.comChinty's own address
Email ChintyDirections