A BOURNEMOUTH cafe is removing disgraced Jimmy Savile’s name from its history.

Norwegian Wood’s menus stated the business was once owned by the TV presenter and former Bournemouth resident.

He worked at nightclubs nearby and was an occasional visitor to the cafe – but has now been branded a “predatory sex offender” by police over allegations he slept with dozens of underage girls.

Lindsey Webb, 52, owner of the Glen Fern Road cafe, said: “At the time we didn’t think anything of it, it was like ‘Oh, it’s Jimmy Savile’. Now it’s like ‘Oh my God!’ ”

She believed Savile owned the whole block when it was a nightclub complex during the 1960s and 70s.

She said: “He definitely would have been our landlord.

“We were thinking about doing a new menu and we would probably not put him on in it.

“He was always very pleasant when he was in here.

“He would sit in the corner with his hood up and you wouldn’t know who he was. The last time he was here a few years ago he sat outside with his chain and quite a few people were taking pictures.

“He said to me he was gutted that it was so quiet along there now, like a ghost town. In hindsight you look and think ‘Oh dear, what was he doing?’ “It’s a shame. He did so much work for charity and that’s how we looked at him then, really.”

Staff at the neighbouring Ambassador Snooker Club and Laser Quest also said they understood Savile had formerly owned the basement nightclub complex.

Savile bought a flat on Bournemouth’s East Cliff and moved in during April 1972.

He kept the flat and visited occasionally and it was reportedly sold for charity when he died in 2011, aged 84.

He worked as a public relations consultant for the Maison Royale/Le Cardinal nightlclub complex on Glen Fern Road from 1973 until 1978.

While publicising a charity telethon he told the Echo in 1990: “I’m not good at all. My word, I am very, very bad. Goodness gracious, yes.”

He claimed in interviews he was saving the Bournemouth flat for ‘old age’.

Meanwhile, his elaborate headstone is due to be broken up and sent to landfill at the request of his family. It has already been removed from the Woodlands Cemetery in Scarborough out of “respect to public opinion”.

Scotland Yard has formally recorded eight criminal allegations and four other forces are investigating – Surrey, Sussex, Northamptonshire and Jersey.

The Metropolitan Police said it was not able to comment on whether any alleged offences took place in Bournemouth.