HOW Creative Are You? asks the calling card for Pulse, a new kind of art, café and internet venture that appears to have landed from the future, snuck between Fossgate and Walmgate’s burgeoning vintage fashion shops.

“WANTED! Artists, Animators, Bands & Musicians, Film Makers, Fashion, Jewelry & Accessory Designers & Producers, Programmers, Apple Enthusiasts & Geeks & All Other Creative Types… Enquire Inside.”

We duly did, drawn to the sofa, glass tables, tall chairs and cushions in the window, and the courtyard garden hidden away at the back.

“We want it to be very neutral, a blank space for whatever people want to put up there,” says Paul, pointing to the walls. “We want to offer people wall space to sell or expose their work.

“Hopefully, ideally as it develops over time, we might be able to make more from it. At the moment, we’re just happy to get people interested and obviously the more varied it can be, the better, as we want to appeal to as many people as we can.”

Paul, 32, had had enough of working in catering and managing bars in London, Leeds, Scarborough and his home city of York.

“I figured it was time to do my own thing,” he says. “I was bored of working for other companies and I’d thought for a long time that York was missing a late café, a good arts space and Apple support.”

Private investors have given him that chance. “To call it an Internet café would be wrong; it’s not somewhere where you come in, use a lead, pay £1 and go. We offer free Wi-fi, free re-charging and free text support if anyone is struggling with the applications, with the best of our knowledge.”

Pulse’s cash flow instead will revolve around the café, art, jewellery, T-shirt sales and IT support. “I want to brand it as an IT café and creative lounge, which may sound like it’s bordering on the pretentious, but we don’t want to be an internet café when Wi-fi is what everyone needs now.”

The choice of location for Pulse was carefully considered. “We were looking for somewhere this side of the city, with a good footfall of students coming along Walmgate and Fossgate from the university,” says Paul.

Students may be the primary audience, but Pulse wants to attract plenty of creative types, be it Julia Marshall’s T-shirts; Shaun Gordon’s graphic designs, Polish artist Zosia Olenska’s paintings, Dutchman Jacob de Graaf’s portraits in the finest brushstrokes or Corinne Evans’s 3-D montage pieces.

“Other places have tried to do something like this but it’s not really worked but we figure that by having a creative lounge we’ll attract creative people,” says Paul.

“We will be open seven days a week, from 8am to 10pm.”