Entrepreneur Daniel Bull on opening The Lockdown Room and The Eleventh Hour in east London
Subscribe to our free Wharf Whispers newsletter here
BY LAURA ENFIELD
He is the kind of guy who runs a spontaneous marathon on New Year’s Day and goes on to clock 3hrs15 for the London event.
The kind of guy who sold sweets in the playground aged 13 to make money and, by 17, was the top salesman in a car dealership.
The guy who can lead a failing coffee shop business through the pandemic and emerge with venues The Eleventh Hour on the Isle Of Dogs and The Lockdown Room at London City Island.
“I remember my sister went on a ski trip with school and I said ‘Can I take the cash option?’ and bought DJ gear with it,”said Daniel Bull on his first move as a teen entrepreneur.
“I was into my music and saw the business opportunity, because what else can you do at that age?
“So I put an advert in the Yellow Pages and off I went.”
This seemingly innate entrepreneurial drive has always been matched by an attitude of never giving up – which emerged when he wrote off his first car after two weeks.
“I thought I would never get insured again so I emailed a few car dealerships and said I would work for commission only,” said the Isle Of Dogs resident.
“I was back in a car within a week.
“At 17 I was a top salesman and within two years I was managing the dealership.”
It was also this mindset that saw him land a spot on an MBA course aged 26 with almost no formal qualifications.
“So many business schools turned me down because I didn’t have an undergraduate degree, but I managed to get a fairly decent GMAT score and ended up going to Cass, which is now Bayes Business School,” he said.
“I was the only person without an undergraduate degree, but they liked that because they were trying to diversify the class and not just have a cohort full of investment bankers.”
It was while studying that he crossed paths with floundering company The Espresso Room.
It opened one of London’s first speciality coffee shops in 2009 on Great Ormond Street but by 2019 the owners were considering cutting and running.
Daniel picked up the baton as part of his final project and ended up taking it over.
turning things round
“There were two investors at the time and they said it was losing money and wanted to know if they should sell it or if it could be turned around? The product was amazing, but behind the scenes, it was a mess,” said Daniel.
“So I did a whole turnaround plan and decided to invest in it.
“I ended up opening two more shops with them and then the pandemic hit.
“Three of the four coffee shops had to be closed and most of the staff furloughed.
“We were basically bankrupt, but I decided to take it on fully and to fight to keep it going.”
The Bloomsbury branch had survived and Daniel and his team landed a gig handing out subsidised coffees to NHS workers battling Covid.
“I didn’t really know what I was doing and it was a whirlwind, but we kept busy. I think that’s why we survived,” he said.
“A lot of people threw the towel in during that time. I didn’t.
“I took a £50,000 bounce back loan and worked around the clock to make something happen.
“I kind of wish we’d gone online now like Grind did but I’m not complaining, because we managed to keep half our team.”
Instead of turning to the internet, he focussed on the community in Leamouth where he was living at the time.
His venue at English National Ballet had shut down and so he began offering a grocery delivery service to residents.
Through the various restrictions, it evolved into what is now known as The Lockdown Room.
launching Lockdown
“When everyone realized how bad things were and supermarkets and shops were staying closed, we asked the developer Ballymore if it had an empty space,” he said.
“They threw me the keys for one of their biggest retail units on the island.
“It was an empty shell with no water, no lights – nothing – and was full of old desks and chairs all covered in dust.
“We put a table out at the front and became a grocery pop-up.
“A few weeks later we put in a coffee machine and after a month a pint machine and ended up with loads of east London craft beer.
“Then, around June 2020, we bought a PA system and started doing live music outside and theme nights.
“We were building this community as we went along.
“We got a lot of residents involved and some friends set up a kitchen, and started doing Vietnamese street food and some other friends started doing a bottle cocktail business.
“It was an interesting time. I would never have thought to open a bar there, but it was definitely a fun project.
“Now we’ve had to diversify and scale it back a little bit, but we’ve also brought in our own Mexican street food concept called Taco Hut and get events with 400 people being booked in.
“We’re not just a standard venue. We’ve sort of found our niche and we get a lot of repeat bookings and repeat customers.
“So yeah, we’ve learned.
“It’s the hub of the community there and people are now recognising what we do as a business with all our venues.
“We’re not just the place you go to grab a product and leave. It’s about much more than that.”
opening The Eleventh Hour
Today Daniel has 35 staff and manages his brands and venues under The Bull Group.
They include The Barre at the English National Ballet and the Lockdown Room, both on London City Island and The Eleventh Hour on the ground floor of Wardian.
Despite the fact he speaks roughly 12,000 words in our 70 minute interview (that’s almost three words a second) Daniel is not fuelled by free caffeine from his shops.
Instead, he starts every day with a glass of water and a ginger shot, followed swiftly by a healthy juice or shake.
These are consumed in his Wardian flat before he descends a few hundred feet to his coffee shop below to check it is all running smoothly.
The Eleventh Hour opened last November and, like all Daniel’s venues, has found a niche.
“Before we opened a lot of people didn’t really know each other – no one really spoke to each other in the lobby,” he said.
“Now everyone feels they can talk and get to know each other and it’s amazing the difference it made even within a month.
“That’s what makes it fun and not feel like work.”
different designs
The space was created with interior designer Anna Moller, who also worked on The Lockdown Room and the penthouse at London City Island.
“She’d never done commercial,” said Daniel.
“Her background was high-end residential stuff, so it has created an interesting mix.
“We wanted it to be a neighbourhood coffee shop – a place that is warm and a home-from-home, where people just want to hang out.
“We’re not a big chain where we’re just trying to do them cheap and roll them out.
“Every venue we open has personality.”
The coffee it serves is a house blend made by a roastery in Winchester, but Daniel has also started introducing coffees discovered on his travels around Europe.
About 70% of the food menu is made at a central production kitchen, with items such as brownies, cookies, sausage rolls and energy balls made by a long-standing pastry chef and pastries supplied by a local bakery.
Having got the coffee crew rolling in, Daniel is now about to launch a cocktail menu with a party on October 31 to entice in an evening crowd.
“We thought we’d go big for Halloween,” he said.
“I think there is demand for this here. Even in Canary Wharf, there’s not many quirky neighbourhood bars.
“We wanted to crack the daytimes first, because the quality can slip if you’re trying to do everything at once.
“Now that we’ve nailed that, this is like a second phase.”
The cocktail menu will be served Tuesday to Saturday from 3pm to midnight and includes five different espresso martinis and a menu of gourmet bar snacks.
Not content just tackling the evening scene Daniel is also about to enter the health food market with Supershakes, due to launch on the Isle Of Dogs and as a pop-up at Royal Wharf later this year.
It will be a step away from coffee towards a more health conscious offering – driven by Daniel’s own fitness makeover.
He ran his first marathon on a whim four years ago and now regularly competes in Ironman events, mostly without any training. He also gave up alcohol two years ago.
more of a challenge
“I do like the fact of proving the impossible in a way,” he said.
“People who train for six months or a year, I’ve got a lot respect for them, because that’s what you’re supposed to do.
“But part of me likes to give myself even more of a challenge.
“I’m an all or nothing person – I used to get a buzz from partying and drinking and now I get it from this.
“I have learned not to be like that in business though, to not sacrifice everything for it.
“I know a lot of people who have done that and they’re not happy.
“For me it is about keeping a balance.
“I almost burnt out two years ago, because I didn’t have that and was using going out and drinking as stress relief – it was a recipe for disaster.
“But I found that if I keep nutrition, sleep and exercise in check, everything else seems to fall into place and be a bit more manageable.”
Keeping the balance in work is also a constant challenge but one Daniel is more than up for.
“The coffee scene is definitely saturated,” he said. “People’s attitudes have changed, with more supporting local and wanting to know about sustainability and that employers are paying the right wage.
“The pandemic was survival of the fittest and the coffee industry is definitely a lot tougher now. I wouldn’t go into it again because – with increased rents, wages, the cost of coffee, packaging – it’s not an easy win.
“We’re surviving because we’ve diversified.
“It’s like an Ironman – you just keep fighting.
“Nothing really fazes me anymore and I’m never short of ideas. If we were sat here twiddling our thumbs, then I’d be worried.”
key details: The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour is open Mon-Fri from 7.30am-5pm and Sat-Sun 8am-5pm.
Find out more about the cafe here
Read more: Canary Wharf unveils Eden Dock at the heart of the estate
Read Wharf Life’s e-edition here
Subscribe to our free Wharf Whispers newsletter here
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
