The Alnwick branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located on the A1 near Alnwick, Northumberland.
Address and Onsite Information[]
ADDRESS: A1, Brownieside, Alnwick, Northumberland, NE67 5HW
ONSITE FACILITIES: Carnaby's Cafe
LITTLE CHEF NOW: Demolished
History[]
The Little Chef at Alnwick, originally known as Brownieside and later North Charlton, first opened in circa. 1974. It was housed in a long and narrow whitewashed building and was built alongside a filling station on what used to be a single carriageway section of the A1.
In October 1993, a new 1.3 mile dual carriageway opened immediately to the east of the site, serving as an upgrade to the A1. Although the Little Chef and filling station were still accessible from the new bypass via a T-junction, the site experienced a significant decrease in trade, most likely due to it being poorly visible from the A1. Consequently, the filling station closed shortly after the new bypass had opened, with the Little Chef trading as a standalone site thereafter.
A strange feature of the site related to its map classification. From 1999, when the Forte numbering system stopped, then owners Granada reclassified the sites by geographical area, breaking the UK into eight areas. Alnwick was always listed as a Scottish site, despite being in England - however, this may have been for sheer ease of showing it on a map, due to the line of the border.
In 2004, then owners Permira put 131 Little Chef branches up for sale and Alnwick was one of them. The restaurant closed and had remained in an abandoned state ever since, serving as little more than a breeding ground for birds. The former car park still featured the minimilk lampposts, serving as a hint to the Little Chef's past.
In 2013, and after standing empty for nearly a decade, the former restaurant building was demolished. A few years later, an independent known as Carnaby's Cafe opened in the place of the former Little Chef.
Gallery[]
