Shropshire restaurant name immortalised in Dredd 3D

A restaurant in Shrewsbury will be immortalised into movie history after being namechecked in a new 45 million dollar – £28 million – Hollywood film.

Staff at the Peach Tree in Abbey Foregate are celebrating after discovering its connection with Dredd 3D, the latest take on the Judge Dredd comics.

The film, which stars Karl Urban, involves a team of judges taking on a drug gang in a 200-storey building called Peach Trees Tower – so-called as Dredd creator John Wagner met screenwriter Alex Garland at the Shrewsbury restaurant three years ago to discuss the making of the film.

To help celebrate the connection, Mr Wagner returned to the restaurant on Saturday to meet up with a group of Judge Dredd fans.

Two of them came dressed as the comic character – Shrewsbury's Darren Beddows, who is also known in the town for dressing up as Batman, and John Burdis, who came from his home in Maidstone in Kent for the day.

Mr Burdis said: "The whole film takes place in this massive city block and the reason the city block is called Peach Trees is because they met each other at the Peach Tree."

He said the pair had met up there because Mr Wagner now lives in the Shrewsbury area. Mr Burdis said Mr Beddows and himself had enjoyed their day in costume and spending time with the comic book writer. "We went to the police station to let them know what we were up to.

"The last thing we wanted was for anyone to misinterpret what was going on," he said. "Then we went to the Peach Tree and had a few pictures taken."

Grant Lees, manager of the Peach Tree, said staff had not been aware of the restaurant's connection to Judge Dredd until recently. "He said:

"When the movie does get released, we will have a special menu on the day."