please empty your brain below
in the 8 or so years we've been going to our local chippy (High Fry in Leyton), our regular order for two people has gone from a fairly stable 'around £20' to 'nearly £40' early last year, but is now back down around the £30 mark. It's not queued out the door as often as it used to be, but still seems to be a sustainable business.

martin | 16.08.23 - 7:12 a.m. | #

My local chip shop does a lunchtime special: buy cod and get free chips before 4pm. (Not good if you want fish & chips for supper, obviously.)

Paul Ingerson | 16.08.23 - 7:26 a.m. | #

My local fish shop advised me a while ago about the price increases for all the reasons mentioned. What must also be taken into account is the quality of the fish and chips and how much you get for your money. Price alone is not everything.

Barry Coppock | 16.08.23 - 7:48 a.m. | #

With the collapse of the grain deal farmers in Ukraine aren't going to plant the same amount of wheat for next year - so world food prices are going to keep going up.

That ammonia pipeline also got blown up - so fertilizer becomes more expensive.

Forget five years ahead, just worry about prices this time next year.

Still Anon | 16.08.23 - 7:50 a.m. | #

I buy fish and chips once a week (no salt added) and the price is similar to yours. However my local fish and chip shop always gives you so many chips and such a large fish that I eat half one day the the rest the next.

John | 16.08.23 - 8:15 a.m. | #

A takeaway Cod & chips from Fish! in Borough Market will set you back £14.95,

spankybackpack | 16.08.23 - 8:16 a.m. | #

For all the reasons you've explained it's now an occasional treat rather than a regular option. Ideally eaten crisply straight from the shop - not soggily at home. And haddock is the king of fried fish.

Frank F | 16.08.23 - 8:19 a.m. | #

My local chippy - shopping parade in a commuter town outside London - has reached £9.90 or £10.90 for medium or large cod and £3 or £4.10 for medium or large chips. But they have won prizes for their quality. And a large f+c will comfortably feed two people (although ravenous teenagers will demolish their own with no trouble)

Andrew | 16.08.23 - 8:24 a.m. | #

Funnily enough I checked out the price of fish and chips locally last night. I recoiled in horror at £8.50.

Scott | Homepage | 16.08.23 - 8:33 a.m. | #

Always find it interesting the amount of fish and chip shops that also sell kebabs and chicken in london.

Tom | 16.08.23 - 8:58 a.m. | #

Still not bad for the occasional treat though, considering two cups of coffee in a High Street chain will set you back about 7.5 and you will still be hungry afterwards.

mikeH | 16.08.23 - 9:07 a.m. | #

Whatever happened to "medium" as a size? "Regular" to me means something that happens repeatedly at the same interval, so maybe fish and chips once a week.

I remember my dad getting the etiquette of ordering wrong once. He asked for 4 cod and chips, and as we opened the wrapper we were disappointed to find only a single portion of chips. He should of course have asked for cod and chips 4 times.

Andrew S | 16.08.23 - 9:31 a.m. | #

I don't find it too bad, because as a few people have noted a regular fish and chips can feed two quite easily and we stretch a large out to 3 so long as there's pudding (pineapple fritters!) for Junior Chz.

What mainly appalls me is what they charge for curry sauce or mushy peas now!

Chz | 16.08.23 - 9:36 a.m. | #

As a child in the 1950s I grew up living opposite a fish and chip shop where a portion of chips just about large enough to share between a family of three cost 6 old pence (2.5p). How economic times have changed…

Piscatorial | 16.08.23 - 9:42 a.m. | #

In my corner of outer London we have two such establishments. One which has sprung up recently and seems to believe there is business to be had selling slightly upmarket fried fish, and the other - the local institution which has been doing business for decades, which also happens to sell kebabs and other bits.

I went out for a takeaway recently, passing the local chicken shop on the way which seems to mostly cater to the local 'yoofs'. I was undecided that night, and perhaps the recent media coverage played on my mind, but I came back with some lovely fried chicken. It was delicious. Outstanding even.

It seems the youngsters had it right all along. I'm sure Pie and Mash shops seemed unassailable once too, but I fear the reports on the death of fish and chips are not exaggerated.

Michael T | 16.08.23 - 9:58 a.m. | #

My first ever job was in the Whistle Stop chippy opposite Raynes Park station, 12 hours a week for the tidy sum of £6.50, free pie and chips to eat on the bus home thrown in.

Kev Hennessy | 16.08.23 - 10:00 a.m. | #

In my town cod and chips may be obtained for £8.30 at one outlet and £10.50 at another. However, the gulf in quality outweighs any saving by a country mile.

cau1khead | 16.08.23 - 10:02 a.m. | #

Interestingly, while at my local chippy fish prices have increased at about the same percentage you mentioned, their other options - notably the burgers and chips, have remained the same for the last 3-4 years!

As the fish & chips is shared between 2, with still enough left for lunch the following day for my other half, I find it's still good value for just under £10. I baulk at the prices for the same in pub restaurants

Cornish Cockney | 16.08.23 - 10:18 a.m. | #

Hence the massive popularity for air fryers at home, for your supermarket frozen battered cod and oven chips done more cheaply.

A bit like people choosing to drink supermarket beer at home rather than in the pub, all over again.

I just wish these same chippies would sell "snack size" portions of chips for £1, and maybe small fish for less (Too embarrassed to order child's portion for myself, so maybe a branding thing.)

MilesT | 16.08.23 - 10:36 a.m. | #

Do any of them use beef dripping, the non plus ultra of traditional fish and chips?

Margaret | Homepage | 16.08.23 - 10:52 a.m. | #

£11.90 for Haddock and Chips in Bognor Regis yesterday (they didn’t sell cod). They asked if I wanted ketchup and I then discovered that was a further 50 pence, but it did come with tartare sauce. Would not recommend.

Lorenzo | 16.08.23 - 11:17 a.m. | #

Last month the Guardian published a very interesting "long read" about the threat to / demise of various chippies which you can read here.

The focus is on Scotland but the challenges, many of which you mention, are universal.

CJS | 16.08.23 - 11:22 a.m. | #

There is a fish and chip shop over on the Northumberland coast that sells medium f&c (that looks very average) for £13.50. Clearly people on holiday have more money than sense.

Blue Witch | 16.08.23 - 11:23 a.m. | #

I've just walked past the nearest Fish and Chip shop to my office in Holborn, the lovely Fryer's Delight on Theobald's Road, and after this was surprised to see a central London place would have ended up joint cheapest on your list, with cod at £7.50 and chips at £2.50.

Margaret, according to the article you linked to there are only six left in London that still use beef dripping:

The Fryer's Delight in Holborn
And several in South West London:
Knights Fish Bar (West Norwood)
Marlow Fish Bar (Anerley)
and Superfish in Surbiton, Cheam and Morden

lockedintheattic | 16.08.23 - 1:41 p.m. | #

My local chip shop in Sheffield is £5.80 for cod and chips (70p more than 2 years ago). I suspect this is largely because it's an old school chip shop opening from 11am until 2pm weekdays only, because the owner says he doesn't need to open more hours as he makes enough money. That's great for local workers (and for me now I work from home) but less good for the thousands of new residents and bars that have opened up in an area that is now firmly classed as full of hipsters

Anders | 16.08.23 - 2:15 p.m. | #

Sadly, in many places fish & chips will be cheaper in Wetherspoons and to be fair to the chain, some of their pubs do it very well.

At the seaside we usually by two fish one chips. That helps keep the price down.

ap | 16.08.23 - 5:24 p.m. | #

The ONS now publishes the average price of many of the individual items in its inflation basket online. The current average price of 'Takeaway fish and chips' is now apparently £9.43.

Matt | 16.08.23 - 5:35 p.m. | #

I'm sorry to report that my local chippy, the establishment aforementioned as Fish & Ships, is under new ownership and has changed its name to Oldford Fish & Chips. A downgrade in the name, I know!

jimmyk | 16.08.23 - 5:47 p.m. | #

...well they haven't changed the name on the front, because that Fish & Ships photo was taken yesterday.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 16.08.23 - 5:51 p.m. | #

Indeed, I had been informed by the very nice gents that work there that they have yet to get around to it, but it exists as Oldford Fish & Chips on Google and their business cards carry their new name.

jimmyk | 16.08.23 - 5:57 p.m. | #

Thanks very much, lockedintheattic, you obviously read it more carefully. Fryer's Delight it is!

Margaret | Homepage | 16.08.23 - 6:18 p.m. | #

I get irrationality irritated by restaurants and cafés who forgot to denote the units / denomination of their prices. I know there are more important things to be annoyed about but still...

Toby Jenkins | 16.08.23 - 6:34 p.m. | #

Love the fact you switched to decimal pricing (13.7) for the posher places!

dg writes: they did that.

James Webber | 16.08.23 - 6:46 p.m. | #

My local chippy here in Moray charge £9.60 but have a smaller option for £6.80 which they describe as a 'Pensioners' Fish Supper. I've quickly gotten over the embarrassment of ordering such as it is ample sized with only a slightly smaller fish and a more sensible amount of chips.

Mikey | 16.08.23 - 10:17 p.m. | #

My local choppy was the best in the area for all round good quality food and friendly staff

However Covid and a family death caused a downturn in sales and they sold up last year and there is new ownership and its just not the same

Rachel | 17.08.23 - 7:22 a.m. | #

Great post!! Alan's is my local and I'm upset that their chips & battered sausage has crept up to £5.10.

So now I can no longer pay with a fiver and ask them to keep the change, like I'm a flexing millionaire :)

Joseph Clift | 17.08.23 - 7:33 a.m. | #

Yes, the price has gone up by a similar amount in most of the fish and chip shops around Bromley. I did learn recently of one place in Welling which regularly does a special offer (I'm not sure if it was £5.50 for cod and chips or just the cod) but I prefer rock so it was no saving for me.

But hey, I've noticed something else which has also risen just as sharply, over the last year or two: judging by the last two that I've had, it seems men's haircuts have shot up from about a tenner to more than £15.

RogerW | 21.08.23 - 2:54 p.m. | #

Some additional fish and chips statistics:

Hainault: £7.50 + £2.50 = £10.00
Old Malden: £7.90 + £2.50 = £10.40
Old Harlow: £8.00 + £2.50 = £10.50
Sanderstead: £8.00 + £2.70 = £10.70

So still very much £10-£11

diamond geezer | Homepage | 21.08.23 - 9:00 p.m. | #











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