Building work has begun on the expansion of mental health charity Jami’s Head Room café and support hub in Golders Green Road.

The next door premises, a former charity shop, are being renovated to provide an enlarged café with a bar area at the back and three meeting rooms. The kitchen is being remodelled to enable it to offer an extended and healthier menu and there will be two additional disabled toilets.

High definition TV screens, including one in the window, will show content, even when the café is closed.

Although the charity is keen to minimise disruption, it is anticipated that the existing café will have to shut for a few months in autumn to facilitate construction, with completion expected during winter.

Jami opened Head Room with the aim of bringing the conversation about mental health to the high street.

Chief executive Laurie Rackind said that it had succeeded but “there’s neither sufficient space to deliver all the groups we want to run, nor adequate room to be able to collaborate with other organisations and deliver community support.

“On top of this, we are also catering for people who pop in to enjoy really good food and drink. Ultimately, we just need to make the space bigger and better.”

Jami intends to expand its peer-support programme of groups and events, which are free and open to anyone in the community.

With increasing demand for private events, the café will have the capacity to accommodate larger numbers, including catered business meetings.

Jami is awaiting planning permission to develop a second Head Room on its Mill Hill site, where support activities will transfer for the period the Golders Green premises are shut.

It is also looking at other potential sites in areas of Jewish population and more mobile offerings, such as Head Room To Go. Discussions with key funders are ongoing.