Abandoned Little Chef

(DISCLAIMER: As an overall nice human being, I do not force entry, vandalize, steal, or disclose means of entry or location if it isn't obvious. I do this to protect locations and respect them. Trespass without forced entry is a civil offense rather than a criminal one, which isn't worth acting on unless one causes damage, steals, has ill intent, etc. I simply photograph and leave everything as I find it. I do not condone breaking and entering, and I do not condone what I do. I'm a danger to myself and a terrible role model )

Two blogs into our road trip, four houses behind us, and we started bickering.
It's a perfectly reasonable debate though, about what could be the greatest threat on our road trip? Hillside cannibals that are living off the grid or the terrifying Welsh Mafia?
After all, we need a big fictional hindrance to stick in the blog titles sooner or later for clickbait reasons. Thats how the internet works, right?
But our debate was interrupted by our driver, who casually made eye contact with me via rear-view mirror and said "Shouldn't you be navigating? None of us actually know where we are."

Whoops. My bad! I am, after all, the guy behind this road trip.

So I told him to pull over at a service station that we were approaching.
"Hungry are ya?" he asked.
"Something like that," I replied.

And yes, I was hungry.
For adventure.

In case you missed the last blog post, Operation Cobra is a road trip of abandoned places that we had earlier this year, assembling a team for the sole purpose of finding an abandoned location up in the wilderness of North Wales. And given the distance, and the gamble over whether or not it was even accessible, my trusty henchman, Tree Surgeon, helped me compile a list of other places to visit along that route. We decided to visit each one in a glorious road trip. And on that route, right on the Shropshire border, was this disused service station, formerly a Little Chef.

As you can tell by the buildings behind this Little Chef, we haven't quite left civilization yet. Lets take a look at Little Chef.

 Here's the main entrance, leading directly into the main public area. But it has been a long time since the public accessed this.

 For those who do not know, Little Chef was a chain of roadside restaurants that date back to 1958, where the first one opened in Reading. The chain expanded rapidly through the 1970s and 1980s. There were twelve in 1965, 25 in 1968, 44 in 1970, 100 in 1972, and then 174 in 1976. Eventually it was impossible to go anywhere without seeing one. It just kept spreading, like if syphilis was a family restaurant. The number of restaurants across the country peaked at 439 in 1999. And then things started to decline.

 The decline of Little Chef was also pretty rapid, partly due to neglect from various owners and managers, and due to increase in competition and also greater use of motorways across Britain. Many were put out of business when the most convenient route from A to B stopped being the roads that they were on, and became these massive convenient motorways.

By 2006, the number of restaurants had dropped to 235. The owner at the time was also struggling with his failing health, and in 2009 the company was purchased. However 38 of the branches were not included in the sale, so they closed down too. Further closures occured and now there's apparently only 71 left, with these set to be converted into more modern brands like Starbucks and Greggs in 2018.

This particular Little Chef closed down in January 2012. There were apparently ten jobs lost, although some sources say five, and the staff were banned from talking to the media about it, although one staff member broke this rule and told the media that they just showed up for work one day and were told that they should seek alternate employment. I guess being banned from talking to the media doesn't hold much weight when you're out of a job anyway. What can they do? Sack you?

There are apparently plans to build eight homes on this site, so it was nice to get in when I did.

The dated interior is very 1990s, and this apparently also served the decline of Little Chef. They simply didn't invest time in changing with the times.

A set of doors led to the public toilet areas.

While they have seen better days, there is an advert for dental hygiene still on the walls. 

 But who designed this female symbol? I have never, ever met a woman with arms growing out of her chin. What is this? Concept art for a Left 4 Dead zombie?

The toilet has the remnants of a previous trespasser, or a very angry staff member on their last day of employment. It's still in better condition than the toilets in some pubs and clubs.

Moving back into the restaurant...

Among the leftovers are this sign advertising great tasting coffee, and also this drinks machine.

As a fun fact, did you know that Fanta was invented by Nazi Germany? It's true! One of the side effects of being at war with almost everyone was that trade routes were disrupted, and Germans no longer had access to cola. And as a result, the Germans invented Fanta as an alternative.

All of the kitchen appliances have been taken away.

 Entering into the staff-only areas, I was able to find a little more evidence of the places history.

 The water dispenser is still here, which would have kept the staff hydrated on shift.

There's a banner on the floor, advertizing their new British menu.

Leading off from the main staff area is this store room which I imagine would have been used to store staff belongings. 

 There are instructions on the wall for servicing the drinks machine.

 And this site details the procedure to follow when an independant contractor is on site.

I was slightly disapointed that nobody had written any "farewell" notes on the whiteboard.

Moving on from this room was a very tiny staff room.

There's a staff notice board, and a legal notice board, which I guess would have contained policies and procedures.

And here we have a communication board, which if its anything like anywhere I've worked, probably descended into an anonymous bitching contest. This is usually the only reason why a workplace requires something like this, for the grumpy colleagues to vent and make sneaky little comments about their enemies.

There's a second communication board here.

But honestly, that room is so tiny, it's difficult to imagine it furnished. Presumably it was. Presumably this was an office for the manager, or a break room for the other staff. 

Making our way around the back...

I'm going to assume that these shelves were for the stock.

This sign made the entire adventure worthwhile. "Please turn tap off at night to stop another flood."
The key word here is "Another." This must have been a fun place to work.

As a final note, there was a little shed around the back of Little Chef. But for now, it was time to move on. Operation Cobra had even more places to see!

Starting with a nearby nuclear bunker!

Lost in the hills of the Welsh border, we found this little beauty. Unfortunately it's padlocked, and since we don't force entry, the interior of this place is closed off to us.
As a bit of exposition for what this place is, it dates back to 1958, and was used as a nuclear monitoring post. Over a thousand of these marvelous little places exist across the country, all identical in layout but after the passing decades, each unique in what you'll find inside. Basically, beyond this door is a fifteen foot ladder into the ground, which leads to a tiny office which is presumably furnished with bunk beds, and once also housed nuclear monitoring equipment and communication equipment. This particular post was decommissioned in 1991. While the majority of them are like this one, locked up tight, a few are accessible and the majority of those are in terrible condition. I've been in a few now, and you can see a good example of what one looked like here!

I was disapointed that this one was locked, but even being here, standing on the surface, it remains a grim reminder of a time when nuclear weapons were new and scary, and the world was wetting its collective undies. The government set up these monitoring posts but as nuclear weapons became more refined, this sort of protection also became obsolete. Some argue that it was obsolete to begin with, but this was a time when the government had to look like it was doing something. These were tense times.

Thats all I've got today, but next time, the Operation Cobra road trip will continue with a drive across the border, into Wales, to see what we can find. And trust me, what we find is pretty cool. In the meantime, if you like this blog post then share it on social media of your choice. And don't forget to follow my Instagram, Twitter and like us on Facebook.
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Stay awesome!