Struggling cafe closes at Pontefract Castle

The café at Pontefract Castle closed this week after its catering company quit, claiming it was losing too much money.

READ: New contractors brought in to complete £3.5m castle worksAsparagus Green announced their intentions to leave The Liquorice Café on Facebook, saying: “While we have enjoyed our time here, we have reached the conclusion that due to low visitor numbers the café is no longer sustainable.

“We have tried everything over the past 18 months which has cost the business a lot of money. We made a significant loss last year with the advertising that we did and investment we made. We are sad it’s turned out this way as it’s not what we wanted.”

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The company won the contract to run the café last year as part of the £3.5m Key to the North project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic England, Wakefield Council, the Wolfson Foundation and EpaC.

£3.5m Pontefract Castle restoration project grinds to a halt for a second time after scrapping of contractorAsparagus Green, which still provides catering at the National Coal Mining Museum in Overton, was named the Wakefield Express’ new business of the year in 2016.

The café closed on Tuesday, but Wakefield Council says it will be looking to re-open it again in the New Year.

In the meantime, visitors can use the café space as a picnic area between 11am and 3pm daily and it is hoped that refreshment options will be available from the castle shop soon.