‘Customers have been crying their eyes out because they’ve grown up here’
15:19, 24 Dec 2025Updated 15:24, 24 Dec 2025
Maggie May’s has been serving home-cooked meals since 1995(Image: Liverpool Echo)
One of Liverpool’s best-known cafés is closing its doors today – and the ECHO was there to witness tearful farewells and visits from old friends at a true city institution. Having first opened Maggie May’s 30 years ago, the Lea family will be bidding an emotional goodbye to the city centre café when it shuts its doors for the final time this afternoon.
Co-owner Andy Lea, 48, whose parents Susan and John first opened the café in 1995, told the ECHO today: “This morning, I was up at the crack of dawn getting up and out to just try and savour the moment. I’ve just mentioned to the first customer that ‘I don’t know whether this makes sense, but you’re our first and last customer’ and he said ‘it does, it does’, he was made up.”
As they prepared to close the doors on Christmas Eve, Andy said it still hasn’t fully sunk in that they will be closing for good. He added: “Old customers have come in, Stewie from FA Welch [jewellers] over the road has been in with his wife. I think tears will be shed a lot, it’s still a surreal feeling [that we’re closing].”
He added: “With most of the staff, you turn around and they’re wiping the tears from their eyes because there’s so many customers that they’ve touched.”
Andy said that it has been an emotional time for staff(Image: Liverpool Echo)
As he shared stories of the customers and friends who have paid a visit to the café since its closure was announced last month, Andy reflected on why they have built such a deep connection with the café over the years. He said: “Customers have been crying their eyes out because they’ve grown up here, they’ve come in with their parents [over the years] and sadly some people have lost family members and they cling onto this place as a rock, and [it acts] as a reminder of those loved ones. I suppose it gives them a homely feeling because their parents have brought them here, so they have sort of replicated that.”
Carly and her brother have been serving customers at Maggie May’s for years (Image: Liverpool Echo)
Evidence of that connection customers have formed with Maggie May’s down the years comes from visitors like Simon and Helen Denny who have made a visit to the café part of their weekly routine since the late 1990s. Helen said: “Whenever we come to town of a weekend, we always come here for breakfast. It’s the best breakfast in town by far.”
She added: “When I first started coming, I loved the veggie breakfast, but I’m not veggie, so I always used to order the veggie breakfast with extra bacon. The first few times she would look at me [the waitress], but it doesn’t faze her now.”
Maggie May’s are set to close their doors for the last time today(Image: Liverpool Echo)
In the 30 years since they first opened, Bold Street has almost changed beyond recognition, but Andy thinks that the cafe’s consistency has been the key to its longevity down the years.
He said: “I think for just being a typical Scouse hub for people to come and meet, it’s just a hub of scouse authenticity. It’s a collective of many cultures and backgrounds. We’re not pretentious, we don’t have a jus [on the menu], it’s just a steak pie, chips and gravy. It’s just your traditional home-cooked food, it’s something that your nan would have done years ago. We will never ever beat a nan’s scouse, but we’ve done our best.”
Andy added: “It’s become what it has become because of Liverpool and what it represents. We are a collective, we gather together when chips are down and people love homely food, a good gathering.”
Maggie May’s has been packed full of customers since they opened this morning(Image: Liverpool Echo)
While it is Andy and his elder sister Carly who have been running the business in recent years, Andy said their parents will be making one last appearance before they close this evening.
He said: “We’re going to have my mum and dad coming down, we want them to take part in making the last few meals. My mum obviously sent the first meal out and we want her to send the last one. I think that’ll be emotional, it’ll be huge. I’m lost for words.”