15/11/2023
The Hidden Corner Cafe and Bookstore in Bristol's Portland Square, was a brief but well loved community institution, specialising in minority literature in the heart of the St Paul's district of the city. You may recall we have previously reported on the sad closure of the business, when the unscrupulous landlord locked out the couple who ran it and then alleged assault by them. This prompted a furious local response from the black and LGBT+ communities including a protest at the luxury yacht owned by the landlord. Community leaders expressed satisfaction that the multiracial and LGBT+ couple who ran the Hidden Corner, have now been totally acquitted by a court in the city. The Bristol Cable, a co-operatively owned newspaper, said "A jury, after hearing five days of evidence, acquitted Aaron and his father after their barristers argued that it was in fact the landlord and his business partners who were the aggressors. They said their accounts – as landlords known for “deceiving and lying” to their tenants – were not credible". They paper also notes "this is not the end of the story. A legal battle over the legality of Aaron and Sophia’s eviction, after which the couple lost not just their business but the £25,000 they spent on equipment and refurbishment – is still to take place." One gay man tweeted, "I hope that Sophia and Aaron from the Hidden Corner have not been put off running an independent business from their rotten experience from a rotten and corrupt landlord. We need all the LGBT+ and black businesses we can get. I hope they reopen somewhere else and continue to serve an appreciative community".
https://thebristolcable.org/2023/10/the-full-bloody-story-behind-the-clo...
