The ‘specials’ menus are still sitting on tables. Colourful cups, saucers and teapots are lined up on shelves and a plate of huge meringues adorns one of the 17th-century bow windows. But the place is dead.
Some of the black and white framed photographs already are askew; the ovens are cold; the revolving cake display cabinet stands empty.
It’s all over for The Polly Tearooms in Marlborough, Wiltshire, which has been a fixture on High Street since 1912 (open seven days a week) and, before that, a thriving coaching inn on the London to Bath route.
Yesterday, regular customers walked solemnly past the historic brick and timber building, several shaking their heads, perhaps in disbelief, certainly in sorrow.
That sorrow is felt more keenly by David Clarke than anyone. He and his late wife, Annie, bought Polly’s in 2013 and spent some £60,000 updating the basement kitchens and interiors.
‘It was always Annie’s dream to run a tea house,’ said Mr Clarke. ‘We knew the margins would be small but we wanted to give people a treat, producing everything from fresh on the premises and making customers feel special.’
But that dream ended last Sunday when Mr Clarke put up a sign on the door saying: ‘Sorry, we are closed for good because of relentless tax rises and overhead costs, plus another minimum wage increase… it is simply impossible to run a high street business in the UK in these circumstances.’
Mr Clarke did not make the decision to close until after John Healey’s budget on October 28.
It’s all over for The Polly Tearooms in Marlborough, Wiltshire, which has been a fixture on High Street since 1912 (open seven days a week)
The Princess of Wales was said to have loved the blueberry muffins at Polly’s
Sitting in his nearby home in the Wiltshire village of Axford, he listened carefully to every word Andy Burnham’s new Chancellor had to say, desperately hoping there would be a crumb of hope, a reason to struggle on. But answers came there none.
‘The Government has no understanding whatsoever of hospitality,’ said Mr Clarke, who was awarded an MBE for his work as group CEO of the Chartered Institute for IT. ‘I held out because I thought Healey might be different from Rachel Reeves, who clearly had no experience of business. But there was nothing to help us. Nothing at all.’
It’s the short-sightedness that infuriates Mr Clarke. Until recently he was employing 20 people, some full-time, others part-time.
For many, it was their first job, entry-level employment, learning as they went, gaining experience of being part of a workforce, a sense of community.
Those former employees will now find it difficult to secure new jobs given the current economic climate and the crisis in the hospitality sector. Which means they’ll be forced to sign on to the dole, adding even more to the already out of control benefits bill. ‘Everything was against us,’ Mr Clarke told the Daily Mail. ‘Our suppliers were squeezed and so, understandably, they passed those costs on to us and also reduced the amount of credit we could have, and on it went down the chain until it came to us.
‘But we couldn’t pass those costs on to our customers. They just wouldn’t wear it.’
A particular blow for Polly’s was the scrapping of the temporary Retail, Hospitality and Leisure relief scheme, which provided up to 75 per cent and later 40 per cent discounts on business rates. It ended at the beginning of the new financial year on April 1.
So, whereas Mr Clarke last year was paying £974 business rates, from April he’s been saddled with a bill of £2,400 per month. On top of that, the tearoom’s national insurance contributions went up, and energy costs soared due to America’s war against Iran.
Then there have been the increases to the living wage, which Healey announced will rise again next April from £12.71 an hour to £13.21. But the real killer is VAT. Hospitality businesses in Britain pay a standard 20 per cent VAT rate on food, non-alcoholic drinks and hotel stays, which is among the highest in Europe.
Similar companies in Germany pay 7 per cent, in Ireland it’s 9 per cent and in France, Spain and Italy the rate is 10 per cent.
‘Just reducing VAT to 15 per cent would make a massive difference,’ said Mr Clarke. ‘Businesses could then make a clear choice – either keep the money or pass it on to customers by reducing prices. In our case, we would have passed it on and encouraged more people to come through the door. It’s called growth.’
Currently, it’s called a crisis, even in an affluent town such as Marlborough, which was granted a charter by King John in 1204. In the past 18 months alone, at least half a dozen shops and hospitality outlets have been boarded up or sold.
Until a year ago, there was a WH Smith, which was then converted into a TG Jones outlet – but closed in October. Rejuvenesce Beauty Salon went into receivership last January and the fashion brand Mint Velvet threw in the towel in May. Even Costa Coffee, near the famous Town Hall, has packed up and left.
‘The tax burdens on hospitality businesses have soared in the last two years and now stand at 82 per cent of profits,’ said Kate Nicholls, chair of UK Hospitality.
‘We need immediate cuts in tax, and VAT is the quickest lever to pull. But business rates and employment tax cuts would help keep our high streets open.’
When the then Prince of Wales visited Marlborough in 2004 he said: ‘Towns do not come better than this.’ And for good reason. Its High Street is thought to be one of the widest and prettiest in the country and was essentially rebuilt following a fire in 1653, although several Tudor buildings survived.
The Polly Tearooms, on the southside of High Street, was founded by the women’s rights pioneer, Janet McCloud, and her business partner, Jean Leith Hay. It became something of a refuge for suffragettes.
Pupils at Marlborough College (on the site of the old castle at the west end of the town) also took refuge in Polly’s. Its luminaries include John Betjeman, Bruce Chatwin, Rab Butler and, more recently, the Princess of Wales (apparently fond of Polly’s blueberry muffins), Princess Eugenie and comedian Jack Whitehall.
‘We used to pop in for a cream tea but it was also somewhere we could hide behind a pillar and have a ciggie or two,’ says one former pupil who was at the school in the late 1970s.
Danny Kruger, the local Reform UK party MP, told the Daily Mail: ‘Polly’s has been a landmark for generations of residents and students. It’s desperately sad that a business such as this is just used as a cash cow by the Government to pay benefits. Labour doesn’t regard employers as proper working people.’
For now, Mr Clarke is left with debt – along with memories of happier days. The singer Robbie Williams, who lived nearby until he moved to Los Angeles, had his own table in a corner near a signed photograph of himself. He used to order the fish finger sandwich with chips and salad for £14.95.
‘He said he never wanted to be disturbed but on one occasion he was clearly so upset at not being recognised that he started singing Angels,’ said Mr Clarke, who intends to pay all his staff during their notice periods from his own savings.
Perhaps an angel investor will come to Mr Clarke’s rescue. For now, the Union Jack bunting that fluttered from the front of Polly’s has come down – and another unique British institution has given up the fight for survival.
