Popular cafe and restaurant announces closure

A popular Ely café has closed its doors after almost a decade in business.

Surprised customers turning up at Café Carringtons, in The Cloisters, on Monday morning found the lights off and doors locked.

An announcement posted on the Carringtons website read: “It is with great sadness that we have had to announce the closure of all three of the Café Carringtons restaurants. Thank you for your custom and loyalty.”

Independently run, Carringtons celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2013, having been launched in 1983 by Peter Wuidart and Tony Whiteley.

The duo both found themselves redundant from the managing directorships of multinational companies and, after meeting through a mutual business friend, decided to open up a glass and crystal shop in Cambridge.

They found premises in Market Street and traded over four floors and a basement. The pair decided to trade in glassware on the first and second floors while using the upper rooms as stockrooms, leaving the basement empty.

Because of the high rentals, the pair decided to maximise their revenues by opening a coffee shop in the basement and their business took off from there.

In 1995 Carringtons was approached to open an outlet in the Grafton Centre, a shopping precinct in Cambridge and, in 2007, the Ely branch was opened.