The Lloc branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located on the A55 in Lloc (near Holywell), Wales.
Address and Onsite Information[]
ADDRESS: St Asaph Road, Lloc, Holywell, CH8 8RF
ONSITE FACILITIES: Park View Garage, Dragon's Rest Cafe, A&B Caravans
History[]
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Forte were eager to expand the Little Chef chain nationwide across Britain's road network. Given the popularity of the A55, a major route connecting Chester with Holyhead and popular with holidaymakers visiting North Welsh towns bypassed by this route, Forte opened a number of Little Chef restaurants along this road as a result and one of its earliest sites was Lloc, located on the eastern section of the route. The restaurant opened sometime between 1968 & 1972 next to a Burmah filling station on the adjoining site of a nearby small service area that previously had a pub known as "The Singing Kettle", which had been closed and demolished. Nowadays a McDonald's drive-through restaurant has been sitting on the former site of the pub since c. 1999, which was originally a standalone restaurant until 2008 when it was joined by a BP filling station, and is soon to be joined by a KFC & Starbucks as its neighbouring partners. When Lloc Little Chef opened, Penmaenmawr Little Chef, also located on the western section, was already operating in full swing, therefore it made perfect sense for a restaurant to open in order to cover the eastern section.
In the 1980s, the A55 around Lloc was upgraded to dual carriageway in order to cater for the increasing volume of traffic using the road. This however seemed to have had an effect on the Little Chef as it closed by 1989, probably due to a lack of trade as a result of the new bypass opening. The restaurant has since been demolished and the site is now home to Park View Garage. The filling station was also demolished too.
