It was 4.45 pm by the time we reached this tasty stop off café. I gazed at the front entrance and felt my cholesterol level rising by the second. One more minute and I would be floored clutching my chest, in agony.
Imagine what the 'Busy Bee's Diner' visual presence would do if it was open for bacon butties, greasy eggs, sausage cast-offs, and decaying tomatoes pulled from the outcast skips behind your local Lidl.
Yes, I am being judgemental, but I don’t think I could have stomached the ‘Busy Bee Diner’ when it was open. Its appearance was one of those oleaginous trucker stops with the lowest possible quality ingredients contained within.
Source
…'Happier days..., Busy Bee was open as recently as January 2021, the inside hasn't half deteriorated quickly'…
Parking was a no-go, with a large sign stating 'vehicles will be clamped if left here'. Knowing the law was changed in 2012 and non-cop clamping was now illegal we decided to pointedly ignore the said sign and dumped the car next to it.
Next door to 'Busy Bee's Diner' looked like the smallest decaying mansion in the world, complete with stately double pillars at the entrance point.
We headed around the back noticing the pleasant ‘fuck off if you are not a customer’ signs in more than one place.
The back of the diner was extremely overgrown, it was better to take the path of least resistance.
Access to 'Busy Bee's Diner' was hardly an issue with more broken windows than intact ones. I wasn't holding out for the finest exploration this year.
We entered via a second-floor window courtesy of some handy metal steps that were attached to the side of a building. The floor was looking ropey, but stable enough with some care.
The ‘Stretch Armstrong’ was missing but told me that kids used to live here.
Very fashionable, or are they? I didn’t take this place as a shoe shop.
We quickly found an alternative route out, that exited into the overgrown wilderness. The place looked ready to collapse here so we hurriedly backtracked to the relative stability of the front areas.
Is this where they cooked the bacon? Add a little rust to your food for some extra flavour.
Was this the room for the kid, and if so... why are there bars on the window?
A very dubious-looking bottle, with equally bad-looking liquid within.
My Whippy is that Ice Cream that is extra white, and a diversion from your general Vanilla flavour.
Marilyn is so good, you need to see her three times.
The fire surround hardly looks a good fit, but for once it's been left. I was starting to wonder if there was a healthy black market for these, considering their rarity in abandoned places.
Cooking oil for those sausages, can you imagine your extra cheap meat being fried in that oil? My lips were quivering, the edges of my mouth salivating.
This was getting too much for me; I wanted the Mega-Special and wanted it now.
Some tables were a little small, a table for one?
Plenty of ladies' shoes adorned the ‘Busy Bee's Diner’.
Pie and what… for £5.50?
It's your regular run-of-the-mill café food, at reasonable prices. Whether you can keep it down without a spat of aftermath barfing is another debate.
This area would have been crammed with tables; they seemed to have been removed.
Not paying your road tax, Mr. Sutcliffe? Tut.., the DVLA appears to have sold the debt to a collection agency. They do that here a lot.
5-star rating, should I eat my words? I suspect ‘Busy Bee's Diner’ was a casualty of the COVID nonsense and collapsed in 2020-21 from what I could see.
‘Take out only’ could have been their last chance to save the business. 30p to take a piss? No thanks, I will use the surrounding bushes.
‘Busy Bee's Diner’ appears to be an independent outlet, a diminishing sight in the UK with the chains taking over everywhere. I feel for them a little.
The toilets were a surprise. This is not a music store and I was not expecting glued vinyl all over the walls.
You can never have too much ‘Cooking Salt’. Throw it all over the food to disguise the true taste.
This is where the staff hang out, a right old cheery place, complete with a cheap rusty fire and hard plastic chairs for those cold winter months.
Plastic straws are going to be worth a fortune one day, they don’t make them anymore.
If you hadn't guessed, this was the cellar complete with extra worn stone stairs.
‘Busy Bee's Diner’ is slowly falling to bits. I can’t see anyone buying this as a business and it will likely get worse over the next few years.
Surprisingly.., Busy Bee's Diner still has their own Facebook page. It's not been removed or taken down.
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