A much-loved railway station tearoom has closed its doors for good after nearly 40 years.

Lady Foley’s Tearoom, which has been a key fixture at Great Malvern railway station since opening in the early 1980s, closed permanently on Tuesday (October 31)

It was standing room only in the award-winning tearoom as an emotional owner Margaret Baddeley bid farewell to customers for the last time with many bringing cards and flowers for the send-off.

“I’m absolutely overwhelmed,” she said. “I really didn’t think so many people would turn up and I didn’t think so many people appreciated this place.

“It has been really busy for the last 10 days, ever since we announced we were closing. People have been coming from all over the place, so I’m just completely overwhelmed.

“There are people here today that I haven’t seen for years and years.”

The tearoom was packed for its final few hours with more than 60 people sampling drinks and cakes for the final time.

Joan Brown, 69, from Malvern said the closure of the tearoom was a “real loss” for the station and the town.

“I’ve been coming here for years and years and I’m really sad to see it go. It’s a real loss and such a shame since all the work has just finished.”

The closure of the tearoom follows a major multi-million-pound restoration of the 163-year-old grade II listed station by Network Rail.

Earlier this month, it was revealed the Victorian-style tearoom would be shutting down on Halloween after a perfect storm of the Covid-19 pandemic, train strikes and rising prices led to the decision to close permanently.

Ms Baddeley said conditions had been less than perfect, describing the last few years as “awful.”

“It has certainly changed a lot in the last 40 years and the last few years have been awful to be honest,” she added. “The pandemic didn’t help us at all and then prices have gone up.

“If I knew now that there was going to be a pandemic and that all of this would happen after it, we probably would have closed back then but you don’t know do you?

“We’ve plodded on and on but we haven’t been making much money. Not that we have made much money over the years anyway, but I don’t want to charge people a lot of money, I don’t want to fleece people.”