Megatron Restaurant

In 1990, a mysterious object descended upon the unsuspecting people of Alconbury in Cambridgeshire (England) – the Megatron flying saucer restaurant.

The Megatron caused a stir from the very beginning. The night before its grand opening, there was a laser light show at the venue that could be seen for miles around, and police had to attend the scene as members of the public in the Huntingdon area reported what they thought was a genuine UFO.

The next day, children from a local school were invited to meet Children’s BBC presenter Andy Crane and the restaurant’s mascots, Azzara the space princess and her pet alien Fidjet.

The restaurant’s founder was property mogul Danny Blundell, the father of racing driver Mark Blundell. Danny had huge ambitions for what he thought would be the first of a chain of science fiction-themed restaurants.

At an eventual cost of £3.2 million, the planning and construction phase lasted about five years. Danny visited the sets of Star Wars and Aliens as part of his research and planned for holograms to greet customers.

The reality was no less impressive. The 1950s-inspired flying saucer sat proudly on a hill on the A604 at Alconbury, overlooking the A14. Guests entered through a tunnel and emerged in a room that seemed much larger on the inside than on the outside, much like a certain Doctor’s time machine.

Staff were dressed as aliens and robots, there were regular laser shows, and children could entertain themselves with various space-themed arcade games.

Perhaps most impressive for the time, customers could order their meals on touchscreen computers on a central console. This fledgling technology did not always work as planned, with some people recalling that the receipts regularly jammed in the machines.

The Megatron was situated opposite the entrance to RAF Alconbury, which at the time was operated by the US Air Force. The menu was geared towards the American airmen, who even had the choice of paying in British pounds or American dollars.

The burgers and diner food had a space age twist – patrons could buy ‘Nuclear Nuggets’, ‘Space Shakes’, ‘Protein Beans’, ‘Space Suit Spuds’ and ‘Jupiter Juice’. Their famous fries were cut in the shape of stars.

When the venue first opened, guests were greeted by Arbie the Robot, played by Roger Bunnage. He was soon replaced by a fellow robot performer by the name of Rob Clapperton, otherwise known as Cybertech.

Megatron ultimately proved a little too ambitious. The running costs for the 160-seat restaurant were always high, resulting in high prices for customers. The airbase was also winding down, later to be shut down completely, and there was little passing trade.

The restaurant closed its doors in 1992, but the building reopened as a McDonald’s the following year, albeit with most of the fixtures removed.

Eventually, the spaceship McDonald’s also closed, and the building lay derelict for many years.

Plans to turn it into a nightclub fell through, as did many other plans, and the building never opened its doors again.

When plans were filed to demolish it, a preservation order was filed, but it was too late. The bulldozers moved in and tore it down before it could be saved.