City tea room left

Owner says rising costs have forced shutdown

RISING living costs, pandemic struggles and roadworks have pushed owner Wendy Scullin to close Madigan’s Tea Room in Dundee after a decade in business.

The 37-year-old runs the Castle Street venue with her mother, Audrey Scullin, and announced on Facebook that June would be their last month of trade.

Despite the news being a shock to many of their customers, for Wendy the decision to close has been a long time coming due to various problems affecting the business.

Wendy said the cost of living crisis was the biggest factor that forced her to make the decision, with the prices of ingredients and products continuing to increase.

Wendy said: “There were a lot of considerations we had to make, but the cost of living crisis has hit us quite hard.

“We had just managed to make it through the pandemic and then prices – including electricity and everything else – kept going up.

“But footfall not going up has been a major factor in us deciding to close the doors after 10 years.”

Being located in the city centre, the majority of traffic at Madigan’s came from people walking by and employees from nearby offices.

Once the pandemic hit this reduced dramatically and Wendy says it has still not returned to the numbers of visitors pre-pandemic.

“Our main Monday to Friday business has always been the offices and obviously they are not all back yet,” she said.

Wendy also outlined that the emergence of the Covid vaccination centre at the Forum

Centre – previously retail shop Zara – close by also directly affected the venue.

She said all of the parking places were taken away for the centre, which restricted customers being able to use them.

As well as pandemic-related problems, roadworks have also resulted in many of Madigan’s regular customers being unable to visit the tea room.

Wendy said: “The tunnel that leads to Castle Street from City Square was closed for a few months while it was getting done up, so people were unable to get to the cafe.

“And for seven weeks the old Keillers China Shop was being done up on Castle Street.

“There was fencing and portable cabins up, and that is what really affected us at the end.”

As a result, many customers were not aware the cafe was still open. Wendy said many people were put off venturing to the area as a result.

“We always keep a flag up outside the shop and we have done for years – that is how people know we are open,” she said.

“People couldn’t see it when all the portable cabins were up and they wouldn’t walk down to see if it was open.”

After taking up a new job as a Labour councillor for Lochee with Dundee City Council, Wendy is hoping to pass the leasehold on to another budding entrepreneur.

Seating 26 people, the venue is ready to be taken on by someone looking to open a cafe or use the space for something new.

It is equipped with a coffee machine, service counter and shelves for the books – which are currently being sold at a bargain price.

Food is currently limited to soups, sandwiches and cakes due to the premises not having an extractor.

Wendy said: “We don’t have that long left on our lease so we are hoping the landlord gives us a short-term lease for someone to take it on and try it out.

“Our landlord doesn’t mind who takes it over and they have been excellent landlords, so it might be good for someone who is not too sure what they want to do.”

With the valuation and lease information to be finalised next week, Wendy is currently holding off on following up with any inquiries.

Tea with books at Madigan’s.