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Artistic Vision Revealed for Market Place Cafe, Prescot

By on Thursday, April 5, 2018

A local couple with a background in theatre and food will become proprietors of the cafe in the newly redesigned Market Place, Prescot.

Francesco and Gaynor La Rocca have comedy, drama, music and community activities in mind for the transformed space.

Gaynor is Artistic Director of MATE Productions, the community theatre company based in Cockpit House, the former museum building on Church Street. Before bringing Shakespeare to Prescot, she spent four years as Creative Communities Manager for Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008.

Francesco, a property lawyer (pictured as a jester in the 2016 MATE production of As You Like It), is the son of Filadelo La Rocca, owner of the fondly remembered Rocco’s restaurants in Prescot and Rainhill. He’ll be drawing on his family’s experience and expertise for the food and drink side of the business.

Gaynor said that she and Francesco were “overjoyed” and “already have a long-standing relationship with Prescot, which we consider to be our home. Our vision is to create a community cafe, a meeting place for friends, a centre for activity, entertainment and conversation in the heart of Prescot.

“We plan to host a range of events, including comedy nights, poetry evenings, film nights, book clubs, arts and craft clubs, parents and toddler groups and in the outside space there is potential for open air cinema, markets, pop up performances, Christmas events, summer events – the possibilities are only limited by imagination.”

Work on Market Place begins this month, and the new public space and community cafe are due to open in September 2018. The redesign is by Mark Wray Architects, who were chosen last year from a list of 45 architects from around the world.

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