Glady’s Vintage Tea Room in Hartlepool set to close its doors at the end of August

Glady’s Vintage Tea Room, in The Front, in Seaton Carew, has announced it will be closing at the end of August, leaving customers “sad” and “gutted”.

Owner Jacky Sullivan took the decision to close the tea room on Sunday (August 6) after herself and staff fought to keep the business going for months.

Jacky, 54, has explained she made the difficult decision to close Glady’s after struggling with health issues since the start of the year.

"It has so much potential, but because of my health I couldn’t commit,” she said.

"We were slowly perfecting the afternoon teas and we were going to move on to bigger things.”

She added: "It’s my baby and it’s a very sad thing for me. It’s quite hard.”

There has been an outpour of support for the tea room and “overwhelming messages” following the announcement of the closure, with people from as far as Canada commenting on the Facebook post about the closure.

Thanking the “lovely, lovely” customers, who would sometimes just stop by to say hello, and her staff, Jacky said: "I couldn’t ask for better staff. We worked really hard as a team.

"You look after your staff and they look after you. And they have.”

Grandmother-of-three Jacky took over running the tea room previous owner Jackie O’Beirne in 2021.

She has looked back on some the best memories she and her staff shared with customers over the past two years.

Recalling one of the many happy moments, she said: "There was a young lad that came in. He was autistic and he didn’t go to many places.

"He walked in and his mum couldn’t believe that he ate his food and he was relaxed.

"He booked in his 16th birthday party with us. He loved it.

"Just little things that made a difference.”

Glady’s is currently the highest rated cafe in Hartlepool according to reviews on Trip Advisor.

There are hopes the business could be taken over, with Jacky already receiving a large number of enquiries.

A closing date is yet to be confirmed.