Bread Ahead Bakery | Borough Market

You don’t step through a door to reach the counter here – the bakery is an open-plan stall integrated directly into the market floor. What began in 2013 as a modest pitch selling four types of bread has become a dominant presence in Borough Market, yet it retains the immediate, rough-and-ready feel of a street trader. Behind the high stacks of sourdough loaves and trays of focaccia, the kitchen is fully visible, allowing you to watch bakers shaping dough and managing ovens while the market crowds shuffle past. While the business was built on the back of Matthew Jones’s sourdough recipes, the queue that frequently stretches down the aisle is usually waiting for the doughnuts. The Crème Brûlée and honeycomb varieties are the standard orders here, filled generously and handed over in waxed paper bags. Because the volume of customers is so high, the bakery often operates a second, smaller satellite cart elsewhere in the market to manage the overflow. It is worth scanning the perimeter for this cart if the main stall looks impenetrable, as the selection is often identical. Beyond the sugar, the stall serves a steady stream of savoury options, including sourdough pizza slices and cheese rolls, which are typically eaten standing up in the nearby alleys. The location also serves as the anchor for the brand’s baking school, which runs workshops on everything from French baking to doughnut frying just a short distance from the trading post.