THE unexpected closure of the 2XS bar and restaurant is the latest blow for Kingsbury Street in Marlborough.

The restaurant closed its doors on the last day of July and will not be re-opening customers have been told.

Owner Terry Martin is a partner in a consultancy called the Restaurant Doctor run from the same premises, that advises other catering businesses on how they should be run.

Top chef Steve Smith, who previously ran kitchens at a number of hotels and restaurants with Michelin stars, has been left looking for a job.

The 2XS restaurant and bar was popular with the town's financial and construction industry directors and senior staff.

It was opened three years go after operating for a number of years as Bentleys, which despite its name, was unconnected with Bentley's restaurant at the Parklands Hotel in Ogbourne St George.

It had previously been the base for the former Church Farm Dairy that kept its milk floats at the rear of the premises and ran a very popular shop, which virtually everybody in the town had to visit to pay their milk bills.

Kingsbury Street was a thriving retail centre in its own right in the days of Church Farm Dairy with men's and women's outfitters, a gunsmiths, greengrocery, haberdashery, photo studios, umbrella and leather goods shop, shoe shop and caf at the foot of Perrin Steps.

The daily comings and goings of pupils at Kingsbury Hill House School with their parents formerly generated a lot of trade in the street.The school has recently closed after its owners said it was no longer economically viable.

Paul Martin, the presenter of the popular TV antiques show Flog It, closed his antiques business in the street earlier in the year to concentrate on his broadcasting career. The shop remains empty and it's understood will soon be placed on the market.

Anthony Spranger is retiring and closing his secondhand and collectables book shop next to 2XS this weekend after providing a popular service for the past ten years.

Mr Martin said he was convinced the closure of 2XS was only temporary and that another business would open in its place before the end of September.

The Gazette has learned that the new owners of the premises are possibly contemplating opening a Spanish style tapas bar.

Mr Martin said he had no idea what sort of business would take over but agreed that a tapas bar would be well received in Marlborough.

He said the reason 2XS was closing was that he and his wife Claudette had become tired of running the business.

Mr Martin said: "We have given it over three years and we really did not want to go any further with it."

"In fact it would be fair to say we had become tired of it and it takes an awful lot out of you."

Mr Martin declined to say who had sold the premises to but said he was confident the business would be re-opening under another name before the end of September.

The Restaurant Doctor is advertised as having three professional advisers, Terry Martin, Pierre Kofmann described as one of Britain's best known and most accomplished chefs, and Rex Leyland who is a co-director of three London restaurants.

It states: "The Restaurant Doctors all share an interest in a successful restaurant called 2XS which is in Marlborough, Wiltshire.

"What was once a dowdy and run-down dump has been transformed into a stylish, slick and successful operation.

"Over the past two years we have tripled the turnover and 2xs is now reviewed regularly in the national press.

"It is a perfect example of a business that has taken the Restaurant Doctors' medicine and reaped the rewards as a result."