please empty your brain below
have a look up of Blackbird bakeries in the south and south east london, before they go under…

Brian | 05.07.26 - 7:39 a.m. | #

I had been thinking all year that I don't know how they survived on the footfall they have. I couldn't understand why they didn't close quieter branches such as Chipstead Valley which wasn't far away from their Coulsdon branch.

I was saddened but not surprised when I saw the hand written closure notice in the window in Purley.

They used to sell a lot of bread many years ago and you generally had to queue but the bread got expensive at about £1 more than good quality supermarket bread.

I loved their apple Danish. It was my on-the-move snack when they hadn't sold out. Expensive at £3.25 but a staple treat. At Coulsdon the shop was by the bus stop. Even if the bus was due in one minute I could pop-in with my dog (allowed and welcomed) and buy an apple Danish and catch the bus.

Deeply missed but eventual closure was predictable.

Pedantic of Purley | 05.07.26 - 8:21 a.m. | #

South West London still has the 14 shops of the independent Cavan Bakery which retails a pretty traditional offering, if priced for the locality. The recent replacement of its Teddington High Street shop by a downmarket dodgy vape shop has caused much Hyacinth Bucket-style wailing in local media.

David B | 05.07.26 - 8:23 a.m. | #

Increasingly, if you like fresh bread but don’t like sourdough… you’re stuffed .

Michael Jones | 05.07.26 - 8:24 a.m. | #

Wenzel's have made at least a couple of incursions into what was traditionallh Percy Ingle territory.

There's one in Chingford Mount on the corner of Chingford Mount Road and Hall Lane (previously a branch of Shoezone.) Percy Ingle was on the corner of Albert Crescent (where the Bus Stands are) next to Aroma Café. GSV hasn't been updated since 2022 but shows it as a jewellers.

There's also a Wenzel's in Church Street, Enfield Town (formerly Specsavers before they relocated into Palace Gardens Shopping Centre.) Percy Ingle was directly opposite, next door to Cex, and it's now a takeaway.

Barry S | 05.07.26 - 8:46 a.m. | #

Both things could be true, increasing overheads and a desire to decant the property (which I assume is because its owned rather of leased) to another business. Perhaps the plan had been to sell the bakery business and charge rent to the new owners, but then the overheads (none of them are going to decrease in the foreseeable future, I think we now have the highest energy costs in Europe/the world/the universe) started getting out of control and they pulled the plug.

Still Anon | 05.07.26 - 8:50 a.m. | #

Also the good old Bath bun is impossible to find.

Barry Coppock | 05.07.26 - 8:51 a.m. | #

Hertfordshire has Simmons, competing with Gail’s and Greggs and the rest. 44 shops across the county, plus one in Luton (Bedfordshire), one in Waltham Abbey (Essex), and one in London (Cockfosters, although the website says it is in Middlesex).

Unlike council tax, which is stuck at 1991 values so takes no account of changes in property values over the last 35 years, valuations for business rates are updated every three years. The elements a government has more control over are the multipliers and reliefs. As things stand, retail, hospitality and leisure businesses have lower multipliers so pay significantly lower rates than other commercial properties.

If I had to guess, I suspect Coughlans moved the properties to a “propco” to separate the capital value from the operating business, like a private equity investor would with an asset-rich business, but then quarterly rent payment at the end of June pushed them over the edge. If they’ve made substantial losses for several years, something had to give eventually.

Andrew | 05.07.26 - 9:04 a.m. | #

Andrew pipped me to the post on Simmons. My regular is the one near my friend in Bushey, opened about a year ago I think. They’re at the posher end of the void between Greggs and Gail’s. They have a live (?) “doughnuts sold so far” counter on display. Excellent selection of baked goods and breakfast items, with tables and seats.

Stephen H | 05.07.26 - 9:14 a.m. | #

A great shame to lose a chain like this, but there do seem to be shades of the Wilko closure here with money being taken out of the company. I know we keep being told we're in a cost-of-living crisis but it doesn't sound like they've even tested the impact of increasing prices to cover higher NI and business rates.

Andrew S | 05.07.26 - 10:29 a.m. | #

Being firmly in Wenzels territory, I've never heard of Coughlans, but sad all the same.
Did spot a Gails in Chester though!

Cornish Cockney | 05.07.26 - 10:53 a.m. | #

I still miss the Sussex chain Forfars which went under about 10 years ago. Whenever I saw a branch I'd pop in and buy their wonderful cheese straws.

ap | 05.07.26 - 11:04 a.m. | #

It's a shame, but as Pedantic has said it's not a surprise. I'd suggest that if they didn't have to service the debt on doubling their number of shops in a rather short amount of time, they'd still be around. I rarely ventured in, because the quality was not a lot better than supermarket and the prices were not a lot less than Gails. In fact, the one thing they should really be good at - bread - was the most disappointing. It was really more of a posh Greggs, except that Greggs knows their customers better.

Chz | 05.07.26 - 11:29 a.m. | #

I'm amused by the suggestion that a Labour leader might be looking for ways to help the Kulaks.

Basil Jet | 05.07.26 - 12:33 p.m. | #

At the end of last year Williams The Baker of Wool in Dorset closed after the death of it's owner. This was a superb bakery serving South Dorset and was described by the local press as 'Beloved' A great loss to local people and those who had discovered their bakery.

Alan JS | 05.07.26 - 1:03 p.m. | #

Amazed to read positive comments about Simmonds in Herts and beyond. I've watched over many years as they squeezed out almost all the smaller opposition, and imposed their bang-average overpriced offerings. They appear to use differential pricing, with a per product variance between (say) St Albans and Harlow. Shame about Coughlans.

Frank F | 05.07.26 - 3:18 p.m. | #

There's a Wenzels in Hornchurch.

Ackshley | 05.07.26 - 4:01 p.m. | #

Directors OK, staff not. Romesh Ranganathan sucked in. Crocodile tears for PR. How assets are stripped these days.

Ian S | 05.07.26 - 4:25 p.m. | #

There is (was) a Coughlans in Beckenham which would be fractionally north of Thornton Heath (and has been missed off your list of London branches outside Croydon).

dg writes: updated, thanks

Adrian | 05.07.26 - 5:11 p.m. | #

Bought a loaf in the Wallington shop about four hours before the announcement. No sign of anything out of the ordinary, or any stock being marked down for quick sale, so if must have been a surprise to the staff. Shame to see them go, though realistically the cafe side never seemed to recover after the lockdowns. And it's another empty unit on a high street with too many of them. At least here we still have a couple of other bakeries not too far away, so will have to keep supporting them.

Nick L | 05.07.26 - 5:36 p.m. | #

I've never found a bakery selling iced ginger cake since Pheasents Bakery in Rayners Lane closed down. Chelsea and Bath buns also vanished from most bakers alas.

Anyoldname | 05.07.26 - 8:18 p.m. | #

There was a Coughlans in Sutton, opposite the station. I guess that must have closed some time ago, as it's not listed on the website.

Bread eater | 05.07.26 - 8:49 p.m. | #

Best premium/artisan commercial sourdough generally wants 24 hours plus to do a slow first rise ("this bread was flour at 2am" means it's been accelerated, still can be good, but maybe not the best). See videos by US based "Proof Bread" on YT where they run through their volume commercial sourdough process in pleasing detail and length.

MilesT | 05.07.26 - 11:06 p.m. | #

There was a branch at one stage in the old Arding and Hobbs Department Store at Clapham Junction. During the 1990s and 2000s it was a regular for me to buy bread on a Saturday morning. Sad the chain has now closed.

Victoria | 06.07.26 - 2:53 a.m. | #

MilesT - but if it was regular bread then 2am is fine, isn't it?

Al | 06.07.26 - 7:24 a.m. | #

We used to have Bartons in the east of Greater London and Essex

Stuart | 06.07.26 - 10:11 a.m. | #

Yes, SW London has its fair share of Gail's, etc, but it also has Gregg's, so not everyone there is only eating fancy pastries.

dncn | 06.07.26 - 2:30 p.m. | #

I popped into a Wenzel's this morning, and it struck me as quite old-school compared to Gregg's - lots of fresh unwrapped loaves on offer, breakfast sandwiches being prepared in the kitchen round the back rather than chucked together behind the counter. The prices also seemed higher - maybe more realistic than their mass-market competitor - so hopefully not their downfall.

In Scotland, Fife-based Bayne's seem to be on the offensive in Glasgow, and are opening up next to some of Greggs' busiest branches in the city centre.

Though my new favourite traditional bakery is in Uddingston, where Thos. Tunnock sell bread, cakes, and sweet and savoury pies (and their more well-known products from the factory around the corner).

martin | 10.07.26 - 10:33 a.m. | #











TridentScan v3.0.0 | Privacy Policy