New Ben & Jerry's ice cream ice cream parlour set to open in Peterborough next month

Peterborough’s new Ben & Jerry’s is set to open in May, it has been confirmed.

If all goes according to plan, the new store on Exchange Street will open in the week commencing May 13.

The franchise for the store has been taken on by- Richard Sharpe, Kieran Ali Charlie Marquillie as well as a fourth unnamed partner- who all will continue to work their day jobs while the project gets off the ground and hail from the area surrounding Peterborough, including Spalding, Long Sutton and Tydd Saint Mary respectively.

The new shop in Peterborough is the first of what is a contract to eight or nine similar shops in the region in partnership with Unilever.

It will take the place of Crown Bespoke Jewellers at 10 Exchange Street in the city centre, located just off St John’s Square.

Plans for the site include indoor and outdoor seating areas as well as a new shop frontage to restore the shop’s historical look- it is located in the City Centre Conservation Area- and will closely match the timber shopfront of the next door opticians.

Work began on the site on Wednesday (April 3) and is expected to take around five weeks.

One of the shop’s four directors told the Peterborough Telegraph: “We are all local guys who are just trying to start a business from nothing. This our first store and the first time we have worked together.

“It’s a really vibrant, colourful brand, anyone that knows Ben & Jerry’s knows that they are all about colour and being individual. It’s a very fun environment, lots of lighting, a lot of open seating.

“We’re going serve to all kinds of deserts, Ben & Jerry’s is obviously synonymous with ice cream but we’ll also do hot deserts; cookie doughs, brownies, waffles as well as waffle cones, ice cream cakes, milkshakes made up of ice cream and coffee.

“We’ll have about 20 seats so we hope people will come, sit in and enjoy the environment. We’re going to have some seating outside as well in the summer.

“I hope it’s going to be a real fun store environment that people can come and enjoy.

“There is a real opportunity in Peterborough city centre, especially around Cathedral Square and that hub, for businesses to come in now to keep the area as a place that people want to come.

“From our perspective, it’s a great location in a nice food end next to lots of other nice brands that complement us.”