TV Restaurants

What Happened to The Priory After Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares?

Closed

As of October 2026, The Priory has closed — confirmed via sussexexpress.co.uk, February 20, 2017.

Primary source
sussexexpress.co.uk ·
Secondary source
realitytvupdates.com ·

Last verified

What the source shows: SussexWorld reported on 2017-02-20 that the former Priory restaurant in Syresham Gardens, Haywards Heath, which appeared on Gordon Ramsay's Channel 4 programme in 2007, had been put up for sale in 2012 and that developers wanted to replace it with 53 flats. Reality TV Updates, in a page last updated 2021-12-31, says the Priory closed in 2008, less than a year after its episode aired.

  • Season / episode Season 5, Episode 5
  • Original air date
  • Address The Priory, Haywards Heath RH16 3XB

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What happened after Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares?

The Priory was a 100-seat carvery in a historic former convent building in Haywards Heath, Sussex, owned by Scott Aitchison, a former IT consultant, when Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (Channel 4) aired its episode on 2007-11-27. TheTVDB's listing for the episode says the business was in desperate need of help.

The problems: According to Wikipedia's episode list, most customers paid with 50%-off vouchers for the carvery, so the restaurant lost money on almost every meal it served. The list describes the head chef, Toby, as having a weak work ethic, and says the kitchen held old food and rusting equipment and that a menu which never changed had left the staff unmotivated. General manager Matt was an experienced chef.

What the rescue changed: Ramsay replaced the rusted kitchen equipment and introduced a grill menu, per Wikipedia's episode list. He demoted Toby to sous-chef and put Matt in charge of the kitchen, which got service running more smoothly. He also arranged an advertising campaign in the town center to promote the new menu, with staff carrying out the promotion.

The relaunch and revisit: The list says that when Ramsay checked back, Matt was still running the kitchen and Toby was no longer working there. Scott was offering the new menu only on weekdays, with the carvery still in use at weekends, so the owner had not fully switched to the format Ramsay introduced.

Reality TV Revisited, a show-tracking site, reported that the Priory closed in 2008 after reverting fully to a carvery, and that the building then housed a tapas restaurant, La Capilla, which closed in 2010. SussexWorld reported on 2017-02-20 that the former Priory restaurant in Syresham Gardens had been put up for sale in 2012 and that Mid Sussex District Council's planning committee had refused a plan to replace it with 53 flats, while approving listed building consent for the convent's chapel. An estate agent's listing for apartments in the Grade II listed Priory building says it was converted to flats in 2020.

Featured on Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares

Season / episode
Season 5, Episode 5
Original air date
Episode title
The Priory
What was featured
Haywards Heath carvery losing money on vouchers; grill menu and new kitchen lead
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
The Priory

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Visit info

Address
The Priory, Haywards Heath RH16 3XB
Venue type
restaurant
Official website
None found

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Sources

  • TheTVDB — https://www.thetvdb.com/series/ramsays-kitchen-nightmares/episodes/341277
  • Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsay%27s_Kitchen_Nightmares

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