Bread Ahead secures its future at Borough Market
A month after being told it would lose its stall for growing too successful, the bakery has accepted a lease extension to 2028 from Borough Market Trust.
Bread Ahead, the bakery and baking school that opened at Borough Market in 2013, has secured its stall there after a month of uncertainty, accepting a lease extension to 2028 from Borough Market Trust. The agreement ends a dispute that began in September, when the Trust indicated it would not renew the bakery's lease.
Founder Matthew Jones said he had been told the brand had become too successful for the market, as its bakery and courses expanded into London, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, the US, the Philippines and Thailand. He called for public support to keep the Borough Market site, the original from which the rest of the business grew.
An offer that was on the table since July
A market stall that outgrows its market is still a market stall first.
Borough Market Trust said the extension had first been discussed in July and remained on the table throughout the talks that followed, with Bread Ahead now accepting it. Trust chair Shane Holland said its position on independent, market-based trading was unchanged, and that it would continue to negotiate exit plans with traders individually as leases came up for renewal.
“I honestly never imagined that being successful could put our home at risk,” Jones said of the month between the Trust's initial decision and the reversal. Neither side detailed rent terms beyond the 2028 end date.
A stall that became a group with five countries
The Borough Market unit remains Bread Ahead's anchor site even as the business has grown well beyond it. In early September, the bakery opened its first UK site outside London, a 2,500 sq ft bakery, baking school and all-day dining room in Harpenden, run under an owner-operator model that gives long-serving staff a stake in the business, a different approach from pastry-led openings such as Anna Higham's Clementine in Islington.
Bread Ahead's near-miss echoes a wider tension at Borough Market, where rising rents and stall turnover have squeezed some of the traders who built its reputation. For now, the market keeps the bakery that put its ovens on view to passing crowds for over a decade.
