What’s going on with Borough Market
In August, I spent a delightful morning at the Bread Ahead outlet in Borough Market, where the dean of nearby Southwark Cathedral, alongside people from the local community, blessed the bakery and the first harvested wheat of the year on what is called Lammas Day.
Everyone then moved across to the cathedral, where a service took place involving a blessed Bread Ahead loaf that was then used for the Eucharist. This whole experience very much highlighted how the bakery has become an integral part of Borough Market since its founder, Matthew Jones, opened his first compact little stall selling just two products in 2013.
The now much bigger Bread Ahead unit has gone on to become an important feature within the market and attracts plenty of people, as I saw first hand during my time on the site, where a number of the team were constantly filling its plump, sugar-dusted doughnuts. An impressive 1,500-2,000 are sold daily, and double this on Saturdays and Sundays.
Such has been its success in the market that Bread Ahead has gone on to open six further units in the UK and a number of franchised bakeries in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Philippines and the US. All good so far, but it appears that this success has gone on to cause it a bit of a problem. The operators (a combination of trustees and management) of Borough Market have taken the decision not to renew the lease after a six-month review process.
Despite the company complying and meeting all the criteria required for a renewal to take place, the market threw a spanner in the works late in the day by declaring that the use of franchising by Bread Ahead was a problem and the reason behind its decision. This took the business by complete surprise, because it has been operating franchise units internationally for some years, and this has not previously been an issue.
Jones has clearly been shocked by this turn of events and is currently arguing the case for how the business has become an important part of the local community and taught many thousands of people to bake from its market premises that also houses a bakery school. It is also still founder-owned and has eschewed any funding from private equity or other investment funds that could have turned it into the sort of large machine that would have justifiably ruffled the feathers of the Borough Market overlords.
This rather unusual decision has not been made in isolation because it comes alongside another surprising move by the market. Maria’s Café has been operating since 1961 and has become something of a Borough Market institution over that time. The “greasy spoon” of the market undoubtedly occupies a unique spot alongside the 100 stalls in the market that, over time, have come to include an increasingly global panoply of vendors selling everything from Spanish tapas, Persian stews, Jamaican sauces and Cypriot street food.
Nobody could accuse Maria’s of being too successful – it’s a single café that is now operated by Mark Aldridge, a friend of Maria’s who took the unit on after she retired in 2021. The five-year lease came to an end in the summer, and despite Aldridge stating that he has followed the food compliance protocols as required in the lease, it has not been renewed.
A campaign to Save Maria’s in now underway and has so far attracted more than 2,000 signatures. The feeling in the café’s camp is that the market trustees are likely to want to trade up to a more corporate brand rather than an old school British café specialising in breakfasts and other classics like bubble and squeak. Such delicacies do not represent highbrow global cuisine that much of the rest of the market has become.
The current lease decisions by Borough Market look rather puzzling to me. Bread Ahead appears to be being punished for its progressive initiatives while Maria’s Café is being penalised for maybe not being sufficiently progressive in its actions. What unites them both is that they have become part of the fabric of the market – but that maybe this does not sit that well with a market that has noticeably become home to some rather cool restaurants, across international cuisines, and recognisable chef’s businesses over recent years.
These have very much appealed to a younger customer base with their social media prowess, which helps pull in crowds that are willing to queue for their offerings. Let’s hope Borough Market is not making decisions for fashionable reasons.
Glynn Davis, editor, Retail Insider
This piece was originally published on Propel Info where Glynn Davis writes a regular Friday opinion piece. Retail Insider would like to thank Propel for allowing the reproduction of this column.