Bread Ahead win their initial battle to stay at Borough Market

Update: 20/10/26: In very good news indeed, the bakery announced this morning that they've been able to extend their lease with Borough Market. Owner  Matthew Jones said: "We’ve come to an agreement with Borough Market regarding our lease. In a nutshell, we won’t be leaving anytime soon. So plenty of road ahead to enjoy our bakes and come on a baking course. Roll on 2027!"

We're delighted to hear that the market responded to the outrage felt by Londoners to the original announcement (see below for details) and have relented, if only for a while.

In slightly WTAF news, Bread Ahead have just announced that their time at Borough Market could be drawing to a close after the market has told them that they will not renew their lease. The reason they've apparently given is that the bakery had become too successful.

The decision seems to spring from the recent news that the bakery are about to open their first location in America, launching in New York in November (they have other locations overseas too). According to an Instagram reel posted by Bread Ahead's founder Matthew Jones, they have been told that "they've been too successful and are franchised internationally". Now that's probably paraphrasing, but even so, that seems like a very strange reason to give. 

Bread Ahead's base in Borough Market was their first "bricks and mortar" bakery, so it's an important location for the company and clearly helped them get where they are today. It's also where they launched their first bakery school and over the years, it's become a key part of Borough Market itself. Why the market would want to shut down such a success story seems bizarre. 

But Borough Market do have form with hard-to-explain activity. Anyone who writes about London will know that if you ever write that a place is "in Borough Market" when it's maybe just on the outskirts, you quickly get a very shirty email from the market's representatives asking for a correction. Based on our own experiences, we can completely believe it making a decision like this. 

Bread Ahead aren't the only longstanding business to have truck with Borough Market at the moment. Maria's Market Cafe, which has been trading in the market since the early 1960s is also battling a decision not to renew their lease. You can sign their petition here.

We reached out to the market and a spokesperson there told us: "Our relationships with traders are really important to us, whether they're actively trading or as part of our alumni of success stories. No matter how long businesses are with us for, we value their contribution to making Borough Market what it is...We continue to be in contact with the Bread Ahead team about their future at the market, but as discussions relating to individual tenancies are confidential it would not be appropriate to comment on the specific details of this case."

Expect this story to develop throughout the day and in the meantime, Bread Ahead are asking everyone to publicise the story far and wide. We predict that this will be the next bizarre anti-business decision being picked up by the press, following Westminster Council's war on "vertical drinking" and wish Bread Ahead luck in getting this overturned. In the meantime, if you're in the area, you should definitely pop over, buy one of their great doughnuts, and give them your support.