AN ART cafe in the centre of Southampton has been saved from closure after reaching their £25,000 target.

The Art House in Southampton were facing a decision in February - pushing one final time to reach their goal, or closing its doors.

Following a long month of donations and fundraising events, the cafe and hire venue will now remain open after smashing their goal.

Devin Valentine, director at The Art House, said: “We did not expect it.

“We were at about £18,000 and we thought we have made a good dent, we can carry on but maybe not everything we wanted to do.

“Then we had one donation from one person to make up the difference - we were overwhelmed.”

Devin said the team were “very shocked” and it was a “dizzying moment”.

The donation was made up from an artist who has been supporting the Art House since they opened and had also donated previously to their campaign “Not the last fundraiser”.

Devin expects the Art House to close in the next couple of months for a week or two.

This would be so they can create more room for customers to hire a venue.

Devin previously said: “We would tear back some of the cafe and make the venue, stage and art area bigger since that is our passion.

“So the idea is to transform the space, we will continue running the cafe but it will not be our main priority, because at the moment we talk about food 80% of the time and that is not our passion.”

They are planning to sell food such as wraps and sandwiches which are easy to pick up and do not need to be made to order.

Future plans include charging for hiring the stage and venue areas, this will mean they can run the business more profitable.

Devin added: “An idea we have had is patrons who donate can hire a venue for a hour or two and that can pay for groups who want to use an area they can’t afford to hire it out.”

He said he was “relieved” when the money was raised.