'What's Happening in the UK?' London Bakery Says It's Being Kicked Out of Borough Market for Being 'Too Successful'

Bread Ahead, the doughnut bakery that made its name at London's Borough Market, says it has been ordered to leave the site where it began. The reason it has been given is that the business grew 'too successful'.

Founder Matthew Jones took the claim public on Thursday 10 September, posting a video statement to Instagram. In it, he said market management had told the business that its international expansion meant its lease would not be renewed. By his account, the bakery was asked to wind down its operations at the market. He is now urging customers and supporters to help him overturn the decision.

'I honestly never imagined that being successful could put our home at risk,' Jones said. He insisted the bakery remains founder-led and independent, rejecting any suggestion that it had turned into a faceless chain.

A Stall, Three Products, and 13 Years

Bread Ahead opened at Borough Market in 2013 with a single stall and three products. It went on to launch a baking school at the market and became known worldwide for elaborate doughnuts, from the viral crème brûlée version to a blackcurrant, mascarpone, and cheesecake filling. Over 13 years, the business grew across London and then overseas.

That growth is now at the centre of the dispute. Bread Ahead has outlets in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and the Philippines, and is preparing to open its first United States site in New York in November. It recently announced a bakery in Harpenden, its first UK branch outside London.

The company has travelled a long way from its market stall. Jones, who spent years in professional kitchens before launching the brand, has grown it from a small team into an operation employing well over 100 people. Its baking schools have taught tens of thousands of students in person and online, and in trade interviews earlier this year, Jones set out plans to keep expanding across the Middle East and Asia.

83 Jobs and a Public Appeal

Jones has warned that losing the Borough Market site would put 83 London jobs at risk. He has said he will not accept the decision quietly, and has asked supporters to share his statement across social media and other channels in an effort to shift the market's position.

He has also tried to lower the temperature. 'I don't want a war with Borough Market,' Jones said. He wanted the charity that runs the market to remember the small bakery that began with a stall, and to recognise what it has become.

The statement drew support online, where many criticised the prospect of the bakery being pushed out.

What Borough Market Says

A spokesperson for Borough Market said its relationships with traders 'are really important to us,' whether they are still trading or part of what it described as its alumni of success stories. The market said it remained in contact with the Bread Ahead team but would not discuss specifics, because talks about individual tenancies are confidential.

Borough Market is run as a charitable trust and describes itself as the only fully independent market in London. It rents pitches and units to traders rather than selling them, which leaves decisions on renewals with the market's management.

Bread Ahead is not the only long-standing trader facing an uncertain future at the market. Maria's Market Café, which has traded there since the early 1960s, was told in July that its lease would not be renewed, and its position is still unresolved.

For now, Bread Ahead continues to trade at Borough Market while the two sides talk.

No closing date has been confirmed, and Borough Market has not publicly backed the 'too successful' characterisation, declining to comment on the details of the case.