The Excelsior Café on the vibrant Cowley Road was a famous Oxford institution in its heyday, and one of the city’s first greasy spoon cafés. From 1961 until its closure in 2014 it served locals, visitors and students. In its last years it became a friendly haven for disposessed people in the city.

When other cafés turned them away the two Cypriot owners, and Kosta the long-serving waiter, never refused them.

When it eventually closed down in 2014 it had hardly changed – apart a little decay and patching up of the 1960’s wooden and vinyl ripped seats, the tiger painting only a little bit browner and the postcards from around the world just a little bit more dusty. It left a huge hole in many people’s lives, especially for those customers who had called it home for most of their long tired day.