Little Chef Wiki
Register
Advertisement

The Black Cat branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located at the busy Black Cat Roundabout serving the A1 and A421 roads near Wyboston, Bedfordshire. 

Address and Onsite Facilities[]

ADDRESS: Black Cat Roundabout, Wyboston, Bedford, Bedfordshire, MK44 3BE

ONSITE FACILITIES: None

For more information, visit Motorway Services Online

History[]

The site was first built in the late 80s by Little Chef's rival chain, Kelly's Kitchen. The site was a joint venture between a brewing company, who operated the restaurant, and Petrofina, an oil company who operated the forecourt. This was one of 18 Kelly's Kitchens/ Petrofina sites operating across the UK. Kelly's Kitchen restaurants were very distinctive, housed inside a building with an overhanging roof, cottage styled windows and a large funnel-like chimney built into the site and the roof. 

In 1989/90, Forte were eager to expand the Little Chef portfolio and therefore decided to acquire the Kelly's Kitchen chain and rebrand all 18 restaurants as Little Chefs, resulting in a rival brand being removed from the roadside. In 1997, when Granada took over Little Chef from Forte, a Burger King restaurant was added to the site, although this later closed. In 1999, a Travelodge hotel was also built on site.

In 2011, the Little Chef received the 'Wonderfully British' refurbishment along with 9 other sites. Wonderfully British was the follow-on, slightly tweaked version of the "Hestonised" site with slightly different interior finishes, new branding (Charlie lost his tray and instead had his arms open to welcome visitors) and Little Chef's new "grab and go" take-away option branded as Good to Go.

In 2014, there were plans for a Burger King outlet to be resurrected by Kout Food Group. However, this never materialised.

Following the takeover by Euro Garages in 2017, Black Cat was one of a number sites converted to an EG Diner in January 2018. This was due to the expiration of Euro Garages' right to use the Little Chef brand name. However, the EG Diner closed in Summer 2018 and was later reopened as a Greggs and Subway combination site. However, the Subway closed in September 2020 and the Greggs in December 2020, most likely as a result of the building works, but also the coronavirus pandemic which resulted in decreased trade.

Following the upgrade of the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon, Highways England devised plans to upgrade the A428 between Black Cat and Caxton Gibbet to dual carriageway in 2019. This would consequently result in the demise of Black Cat services, due to the construction of a new junction which would be built on top of the site. Work was expected to start in 2022, but was delayed.

The former Little Chef and Travelodge buildings were demolished in November 2023. The neigbouring Shell had closed by February 2024, leaving the whole service area empty and ready for the construction of the new junction.

Advertisement