Le Petit Four Francais is one of the longest running cafes in Peterborough's city centre, but just mere weeks into the lockdown, the company called a meeting to wind up the business.

Its social media pages have been inactive and there is a large pile of post at the front door - and it has been confirmed on The Gazette, the official public record, that the company Storm Catering Developments Ltd, trading as Bakehouse and Le Petit Four Francais, has been liquidated.

On April 22, one month into the lockdown, the meeting was held to confirm the resolution for winding up Le Petit Four, at 42 Bridge Street. CFS Restructuring LLP has been registered as the official liquidators.

TAMU, the dessert lounge, also closed weeks into the lockdown, offering a closing down sale on April 24.

The premises is now completely empty. TAMU was previously the only dessert lounge in Peterborough, but three more sweet-treat locations have popped up over the past few years.

Pret A Manger has also closed in Peterborough, after cutting numerous stores when businesses were able to reopen this year.

A Pret spokesperson said: "We have taken the difficult decision to not reopen our Peterborough shop. We’re incredibly grateful to all our Team Members and will be doing what we can to help them find new job opportunities.

"Although we are working hard to adapt Pret to the new retail environment, the coronavirus pandemic has massively affected our industry and it is no longer financially viable for us to continue operations at this shop. We hope to return to Peterborough in future."

Prior to the lockdown, multiple locations in the city centre announced their closure, including Beales, Millets, Mountain Warehouse on Bridge Street and an additional restaurant Handmade Burger. Its old premises in Westgate are still dormant.

A spokesperson for Bills, on Cathedral Square, said that no date has been confirmed for reopening.

For those businesses that were already facing a challenging time, the lockdown caused further challenges. Meanwhile, other locations were hitting a point where they were struggling, but the government Eat Out to Help Out scheme helped them get back on their feet.