Spud-U-Like Chester closed at end of business on Wednesday (May 30) after 35 years selling the humble jacket potato.

Unfortunately, this meant seven part-time staff were made redundant.

Former employees and customers have expressed sadness at its disappearance as well as recalling memories associated with the Bridge Street eatery over more than three decades.

The venue is apparently the last of the Spud-U-Likes to be run under a franchise.

Spud-u-Like franchisee David Thornhill outside the shop in 2014 with author Beverley Cowperthwaite, aka Evelyn Winters, for the launch of her book about Roman history, including the historical artefacts within Spud-u-Like, and her grandson Caiden Cowperthwaite-Stockton, then aged three.

Spokesman David Thornhill said: “We feel quite sad about it. It was just trade patterns have gone down.”

He acknowledged high rent and rates were also a factor.

The Chronicle understands another café or restaurant-type business has been lined up to take over the premises but nothing is signed.

Spud-U-Like was one of the more unlikely eating places visited by the late Sir Terry Wogan in 2015 while filming for Terry and Mason’s Great Food Trip co-presented by Mason McQueen. And the pair discovered Spud-U-Like Chester not only sold potatoes but also grew them at the family farm.

Sir Terry Wogan and Mason McQueen at Tea on the Wall in Chester
The late Sir Terry Wogan and Mason McQueen at Tea on the Wall during the filming trip to Chester in 2015.

Spud-U-Like’s most famous regular customer was former Liverpool, Newcastle and Real Madrid striker Michael Owen from Northop, North Wales. But former Coronation Street actor Ian Puleston-Davies and even TV chef Ainsley Harriott are rumoured to have popped in for the odd spud.

The Spud-U-Like building is interesting because in the basement is an in situ 1,800-year-old Roman hypocaust – from the Greek word meaning ‘fire beneath’ – which was a common form of central heating used by Romans. A cartoon-like Roman centurion model often stands outside Spud-U-Like beckoning tourists to go inside and take a look.

Similar hypocausts can be seen in a rear stockroom of the former Miss Selfridge store at 12 Northgate Street – which may have been the heating system for the Legionary Commander’s quarters – and in a display at the Roman Garden.