The best-known fish-and-chip shop in the UK faces closure by its parent company after 83 years of serving up skinless haddock and mushy peas to millions of punters.
Harry Ramsden's at White Cross in the Leeds suburb of Guiseley is expected to shut its doors after Christmas with the loss of 24 jobs. The move does not affect the rest of the group.
The Yorkshire icon has long lost the supreme reputation built up by Ramsden who constructed an unprecedented palace for the consumption of the 'people's food'. A series of takeovers and franchises diluted the unique atmosphere and other restaurants challenged successfully for the crown.
Ramsden's was most recently bought in January by the Birmingham company Boparan Ventures headed by businessman Ranjit Boparan. He forecast expansion of the 35 branches in the UK and the firm's chief executive Joe Teixeira stands by this in announcing the start of the clsoure process at White Cross.
He says:
We discussed this long and hard at the board because of the heritage issue and the decision was not taken lightly. But we have to face the economic reality that the branch is making a loss.
The haven of chandeliers and plush furniture at White Cross, which traditionally had a permanent queue at the restaurant door, was built in 1931, replacing a small wooden hut where Ramsden started frying in 1928. He chose his site cannily, at the junction of two roads leading from Leeds and Bradford to the workers' playground of the Yorkshire Dales.
His original hut survives at the back of the restaurant whose sale is under discussion by the company.
The business made the Guinness Book of Records when seating reached 250 and made the building the largest chippy in the world. But it consistently tapped into local roots, including piano recitals by Harry Corbett, the creator of Sooty, who was a nephew of Ramsden and originally from Guiseley.
In 1952, the White Cross junction was a solid sea of customers as Ramsden celebrated the restaurant's 21st anniversary by serving 10,000 portions in a day, at the original 1931 prices.
The local Conservative MP for Pudsey Stuart Andrew said that the closure meant the loss of an icon and was hugely disappointing. Teixeira said that the required 30-day consultation with staff was under way and the company hoped to avoid compulsory redundancies.
He said:
I appreciate that this news will be deeply upsetting and stressful for our staff. We are giving them as much information as possible and doing whatever we can to help them through what will be a traumatic period for them.
