Abandoned Cambridgeshire service station once home to Little Chef

Many people will have fond memories of stopping at a Little Chef to break up a long journey. The now-defunct chain of restaurants used to have branches across the country, with several buildings still standing today.

While some have been repurposed, others have been entirely abandoned. One of those former Little Chef buildings which has seen better days is at the former Lolworth service station on the A14^[1] westbound, which saw the final business there closed in 2019.

The Little Chef at Lolworth was one of four built along the A14, formerly the A604, between Cambridge^[2] and Huntingdon^[3]. It opened in 1972, at a time when the road was still a single carriageway, meaning traffic coming from either direction was able to stop off at the restaurant.

Little Chef initially opened in a converted transport café and bungalow, before it was later demolished and rebuilt. The petrol station was also rebuilt.

After the road was made a dual carriageway, another service station opened at Swavesey to serve the eastbound carriageway. This meant there were fewer customers visiting Lolworth.

A Little Chef Lodge hotel opened at Lolworth in 1986 and was rebranded as a Travelodge in 1989. The building also had a Little Chef Coffee Stop added in the early 90s to cater for customers passing by on the busy road.

The petrol station saw tragedy in November 1990 after a crash on the A14 caused a lorry to leave the road, crash through the forecourt, and come to a stop in the shop. A customer inside the shop was killed and a fire blazed for two hours.

The Coffee Stop was later replaced by a Burger King, which closed in the mid 2000s. The Little Chef at Lolworth also closed in 2014 – to allow for a refurbishment which then saw the Burger King reopen.

Both the Burger King and Little Chef closed for good in 2017, apparently due to plans to widen the A14 near Lolworth. The BP filling station closed too, with the Travelodge closing in 2019.

For now, the former Little Chef building sits next to the A14, awaiting the next stage in its journey. You can still see it as you drive past, looking empty and abandoned.

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References

1. ^{^} A14 (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
2. ^{^} Cambridge (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
3. ^{^} Huntingdon (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
4. ^{^} You can also sign up to our dedicated Peterborough, Traffic and Crime newsletters for the latest updates on the topics you are most interested in. (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)