A Preston city centre restaurant has been subject to anti-social and criminal behaviour bringing a negative effect on the business and customer’s dining experience.

Theatre Street Bar and Grill situated on Theatre Street, has seen an increase in youths turning up, which is creating ‘weekly problems’ ever since the huge-scale fire blaze at the former St Josephs orphanage in May 2022.

Manager of the highly-rated independent restaurant, Sarah Shaw, raised concerns for the summer season ahead and told Blog Preston the numerous incidents where youngsters have caused issues for customers.

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Sarah said: “Since the big fire at the orphanage a few months ago there has been an increase of youths and we are genuinely concerned for the summer holiday when most of the trouble happens.

“We are having weekly problems at the restaurant itself and are having the ring the police daily.

“Although they do turn up eventually by the time they do, the damage has been caused, the disruption has affected the customers and the youths are no where to be seen.

“We’ve had numerous ‘really bad’ experiences. Two girls have asked to use the toilets, I said no and that the toilets were for customers only and apologised, one said in front of two female customers drinking in the bar that she had come on her period, I felt I couldn’t say no.

“They went into the toilet. Next the lights were all switched off in the restaurant when a lot of people were trying to dine and when they came out they had thrown bleach all up the walls, emptied three to four soap bottles into the sink and blocked the toilet with rubbish.

“Other bad experiences include them opening the fire door and screaming into the restaurant when we were full,  smashing up the planters outside and destroying the lights outside.

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Sarah also told Blog Preston that the derelict orphanage building needs to be made more secure, and that many other independent businesses may move to another location if the rate of crime doesn’t reduce.

She said: “The only reason they come down the street is to go in and out of the orphanage which no one seems to be making secure.

“After the first fire (there have been more since), surely it should be more secure now? There was one day when the teachers were on strike and this was the worst day we’ve had in a while.

“What’s going to happen in the summer holidays? What needs to happen for someone to do something? Where are the police?

“It’s very damaging to our business to be constantly having to apologise to customers for the behaviour of these kids.

“The average spend per head at our restaurant is £25 during the day and £50 at night and we have definitely had customers that probably won’t return due to the hassle from these kids.

“We are an independent, established business in Preston City Centre but we are seriously considering moving the business out of the city centre and to elsewhere where the amount of crime is not as bad. 

“I really think that awareness needs to be raised to help other business stay in the city centre.”

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In response to concerns raised by the Theatre Street Bar and Grill restaurant, a spokesperson for Preston Police said: “We are committed to tackling crime and antisocial behaviour in Preston City Centre.

“We are continuing to work with partner agencies to gather intelligence and will continue to provide high-visibility reassurance and targeting.

“Over the last two weeks, we have compiled evidence to obtain civil orders for repeat adult and juvenile offenders, conducted plain clothes operations to disrupt criminality in the City Centre and used our powers to stop and search numerous individuals for items including drugs, weapons and stolen property.

“Alongside partners, we are working to support individuals to change their cycle of behaviour through ongoing diversionary activities and interventions.

“In addition, repeat offenders will continue to be proactively pursued.

“Furthermore, we are also working with partners to ensure that abandoned buildings are secured, and regular checks are conducted by officers.”

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