A pair of best friends who regularly visited a coastal town café for their lunch have changed careers - and taken over a tearoom tenancy.

Cheryl Moran and Sharon Rosborough have taken on the tenancy of Kensington Gardens Tea Rooms having previously worked at the CEFAS (Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science) government research building nearby on Pakefield Road, Lowestoft.

When they worked at CEFAS, Sharon as the project manager for the Research Vessel ‘CEFAS Endeavour’, and Cheryl as a regulatory scientist, used to visit the café most lunchtimes.

But after hearing last October that Mark Platt - who had run the café for 24 years - was wanting to retire, the best friends decided to see if they could take the lease on.

Mrs Moran said: "I have worked at CEFAS for 15 years, and I often looked across the road from our building to the café and thought 'I wish I owned that'.

"Then the opportunity came up and with my best friend we decided to go for it."

The pair took over the café in April.

Mrs Moran added: "There was nothing wrong with the business, but we wanted to make it into a proper garden tea room again to cater for what we thought Lowestoft people would like."

Open from 8am to 4pm seven days a week, an all-day breakfast has been added to the menu, along with classic dishes including cheese and potato pie and corn beef hash.

The cafe will have eight members of staff.

The franchise includes operating the canoes on the boating lake and the associated kiosk where ice cream, teas, coffees and sandwiches are sold.

The boating lake will open at weekends and in the school holidays.

The pair said they were proud to have been part of Jubilee celebrations.

Mrs Moran said: "When pupils from Ormiston Denes brought the torch and rickshaw into Kensington Gardens we got to hold it.

"Then we took part in the centenary celebration for Kensington Gardens as we joined in with the Friends and we sold little muffins for one penny, and we dressed up in 1920s costume."