A POPULAR Chinese restaurant may stand empty if a new owner is not found.

Golden Dragon, on Hexham's Battle Hill, was set to close its doors in May after 15 years of trading. 

However at the eleventh hour, the landlord agreed to offer a short extension to the lease.

Now with one month of trading remaining on the extended lease, the restaurant has offered an update to its customers on social media.

A Facebook post said: "We were scheduled to close in May as our 15 year lease expired, the plan was to find a new owner. However, that fell through due to lockdown restrictions and a fear that restaurants would struggle in a post Covid world.

"Due to last minute negotiations, the landlord agreed to offer a short extension to give us the time to find a new owner. That is still the case, and hopefully we can still get a new owner in.

"However until that time, we have approximately one month left before the renewed lease expires again at which point we won’t be extending it any further and have no option but to just leave without a new owner, meaning it’s likely that the premises may be left empty for a while."

The restaurant will remain open six-days a week for takeaways until July 25. Post July 25, the restaurant will only be open Thursdays to Sundays.