The closure of the Seven Tea Four tearoom in Immingham has delivered another blow to the local hospitality scene in North East Lincolnshire after they announced they will be closing after Friday 23 February.
According to a statement issued earlier this week through their social media channels, the cost of living crisis and rising costs for “pretty much everything” are major contributors to the closure. Speaking to Gi Grimsby News, staff stated that they are “not prepared to sacrifice the quality of what we offer, nor are we prepared to increase our costs,” and so they have decided to close after almost 8 years of service.
Originally opening in 2016, Seven Tea Four offered a variety of freshly baked cakes, home-cooked food, and specialty tea and coffee.
We spoke to co-owner Cheryl Hanslip, who explained that she started the tearoom back in 2016 with her two daughters after being made redundant from North East Lincolnshire Council.
She said: “We decided we wanted to do something together, and this is what we thought we’d do as we all enjoyed baking.”
Cheryl then went on to describe that one of her favourite parts of operating the tearoom was that she was “doing something for the community and all of our locals who come in regularly and who we saw every week.”
She further explained that “building it from scratch” was a personal highlight, as she was met with a mixture of nerves and excitement on the first day, with running a tearoom being something she was completely new to. She added: “It’s coincidental really because we were hoping to keep this going, but unfortunately we couldn’t, but we are still keeping our catering side open.”
Cheryl and her daughters plan to still run their cake shop which recently opened in Cleethorpes, where they offer services to companies and individuals wishing to treat themselves cakes and deserts.
