The site of a popular cafe, which has been empty for four years, is to be given a new lease of life.

The Neptune Cafe in Sheerness High Street is believed to have been the longest running business of its type on Sheppey.

Terase Gevaux-Ross, who owned the business when it went bankrupt in 2010, said it can be traced back at least 80 years.

The 49-year-old started there as a Saturday girl and worked her way up to become manager before she eventually bought it from its previous owner Bill Goodsall.

Mrs Gevaux-Ross, of Winstanley Road, Sheerness, said: “Most of the time it was very busy. It was traditional meat and veg and it was all home cooking.

“We had lots of regulars. It was like a little social club in a lot of ways. They used to meet for a chat. Lots of groups would come in at different times of the week.”

She was forced to close the cafe due to declining trade, saying: “I think it was just the town was beginning to die a little bit. The roadworks that were going on at the time didn’t help and a lot of our clientele were older people.”

The cafe is going to reopen as something called the Meeting Room.

A poster on the front window says it will be a place for prayer gatherings of various religious groups and it is understood it will be a kind of social club.

Workmen refurbishing the inside are tight-lipped for now on more exact details about it and about what happened to a mural of the Roman god Neptune which used to be on one of the walls.

Mrs Gevaux-Ross said: “I don’t know a lot about it. Good luck to them. It could be a nice little social club type thing. I would wish anyone luck that is opening a business in the town again.”