Anti-cafe, pay-per-minute cafe, or post-cafe? A new type of urban public space in Russia and the UK

In January 2014, top media outlets across the globe have reported on London’s first pay-per-minute café called Ziferblat. It was the first British branch of the international chain originating from Russia, where the flagship Ziferblat venue was founded in 2011. Aspiring to create ‘a space of freedom’, young Moscowite Ivan Mitin came up with an idea of a gathering place where people pay only for the time they spend there on various social and cultural activities, with free drinks and nibbles. Since 2012, Ziferblat’s look-alikes have been proliferating in Russia and other post-soviet countries. Shortly after the Ziferblat’s opening, one of Mitin’s successors coined the term ‘anti-café’ that has become the most common designation of such venues in Russian-speaking countries. Meanwhile, by the end of 2015 Ziferblat has opened fifteen more branches, including three in the UK as the London locale was afterwards followed by Manchester and Liverpool.

I undertake a case study of Ziferblat to explore how such places both reflect and challenge existing social research on urban public space and café culture. Starting from the historical background of anti- (or pay-per-minute) cafés’ appearance, I will then present the results of a three-level socio-spatial analysis of British and Russian Ziferblat venues, considering their representations, physical environment, and social practices. Finally, after putting this case in a wider context of current debates on sociability, community, and commodification in urban public space, I will discuss what is sociologically new in these places and whether they can be regarded as ‘post-cafes’.