Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Don’t miss this special offer - 12 issues for just £12!
SUBSCRIBE
Culture

Mark Millar opens new community café to boost his hometown

The Rainbow Family Café is the comic creator’s latest project aimed at revitalising Townhead in Coatbridge where he grew up

Mark Millar Stuart Crawford Flickr

Kingsman and Kick Ass creator Mark Millar has swapped comic book pages for tea and cake as part of his ambitious plans to turn his hometown into a “destination”.

The latest scheme he has cooked up to help the Townhead area of Coatbridge is the Rainbow Family Café, which opened its doors with free food and superhero support on Sunday. The cafe is Millar’s attempts to build a sorely-missing community hub for his hometown and will be open on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday afternoons.

The comic book legend, alongside wife Lucy, has spent the last few years investing money from the sale of his Millarworld company to Netflix to help restore the town to its former glories, including holding Comic Cons stacked with Marvel talent.

And he told The Big Issue that he has bigger plans to serve up in the North Lanarkshire town to lift it out of the economic problems that have dogged it in the last 40 years.

“There seems to be a really good market for it and every penny from it will go into the community – we’ll essentially give money away to start it up and then it will become self-sustaining,” said Millar, who unveiled his latest Netflix project The Magic Order last week.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

“My plan is to make Townhead a destination. I want to have movie premieres for my films there, I want to have comic-cons, I want to have festivals, I want it to become a destination in a way that it never even was in its glory days.”

Rather than aiming to offer a social mobility boost to lift people out of Townhead and leaving the town to rot, Millar has opted to take the approach of improving his hometown.

The cafe is just a small part of Millar’s five-year plan to make things better in Townhead, whether it be working with the local church and schools or the bigger aims like the aforementioned premieres.

“There’s two ways you can look at something like that,” said Millar, who guest-edited The Big Issue in 2016. “One is you can kind of move out and go somewhere else or you make it better. And I think that the healthy approach is to make it better.

“I loved growing up there and I only have positive memories of it but at the same time the town has suffered from problems that the west of Scotland has suffered from in the 40 years. But I think that there is something to build on and I’d rather contribute to it then help people get out of it, I’d rather it became even better.”

Image: Stuart Crawford/Flickr

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Never miss an issue

Take advantage of our special subscription offer. Subscribe from just £9.99 and never miss an issue.

Recommended for you

View all
Beyoncé's stunning Cowboy Carter tour reclaims country and proves history can't be erased
Music

Beyoncé's stunning Cowboy Carter tour reclaims country and proves history can't be erased

The weaponisation of fear and misinformation is nothing new. We must act against it
STOREHOUSE ; Production ; Cast: Bonnie Adair, Chris Agha, Dawn Butler, Elizabeth Hollingshead, Scott Karim, Rob Leetham, Harriett O’Grady, Zachary Pang, Nina Smith, Nat Kennedy, Grace Hussey-Burd, and Darrel Bailey. Founder and Concept Creator: Liana Patarkatsishvili ; Creative Director: Sophie Larsmon ; Lead Producer: Rosalyn Newbery ; Production Designer: Alice Helps ; Sound Designer: James Bulley ; Lighting Designer: Ben Donoghue ; Story Producer: Donnacadh O’Briain ; Co-Writer: Tristan Bernays ; Co-Writer: Sonali Bhattacharyya ; Co-Writer: Kathryn Bond ; Co-Writer: Katie Lyons ; Co-Writer: Caro Murphy ; Co-Writer: Rhik Samadder ; Dramaturg: Sophie Drake ; Costume Designer: Julie Belinda Landau ; Original Compositions: Anna Meredith, Sinemis Buyuka & James Bulley ; Deptford Storehouse ; Sage and Jester ; London, uK ; 1 June 2025 ; Credit and copyright: Helen Murray ; www.helenmurrayphotos.com
Misinformation

The weaponisation of fear and misinformation is nothing new. We must act against it

Pulp's Jarvis Cocker: 'We only have a finite amount of time to do the things we do'
Exclusive

Pulp's Jarvis Cocker: 'We only have a finite amount of time to do the things we do'

Dangerous Animals review – you're gonna need a bigger bait
Film

Dangerous Animals review – you're gonna need a bigger bait

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know

Support our vendors with a subscription

For each subscription to the magazine, we’ll provide a vendor with a reusable water bottle, making it easier for them to access cold water on hot days.