THE owners of a Chester tearoom and bakery have been left with no choice but to make the "heartbreaking decision" to close their city centre premises.

Mad Hatters on Bridge Street Row has been operating for nine years but confirmed yesterday evening that it would be "unable to sustain itself" in the current climate.

The business said that it may be in a position to return "in some form or another" in the future.

Posting on the Mad Hatters Instagram page, owners Ann and Kerri said: "Having read the published Government guidance on reopening and spending the weeks previous pouring over cash flow forecasts, logistics and talks with the landlord – despite all of our efforts we have had to make the heart breaking decision to close Mad Hatters for the foreseeable future.

"This is not a decision we have taken lightly, and we're so unbelievably sad at things coming to such an abrupt end. With the Covid-19 Government restrictions, the nature and layout of our building and the high city centre bills, the business would be unable to sustain itself in the current climate, at our current location.

"Thank you so much for your support over the past nine years, it's been a blast and we leave with some great memories.

"We have so many amazing people in our lives thanks to Mad Hatters and hopefully we'll get to see a lot of you when we can.

"We'd like to say the biggest thank you to our amazing team, who over the years have greeted, fed and baked for hundreds and thousands of you! We're so lucky to have had such a fantastic team, past and present, and so proud of what we've achieved together.

"Our longest standing members Scott and Lou (a combined 14 and a half years between them for their sins) are well known to a lot of you and we couldn't have done what we have without them – thank you so much both

"We'll be keeping a close eye on things over the coming months, and Mad Hatters may yet return in some form or another in the future...never say never!"