THE BREADLINE

An artisanal bakery boom is seeing us queue up at dawn and pay a premium for our daily bread but behind this rise lies a story of gentrification, ultra-processed foods and a health divide between the haves and have-nots

-  Hannah Twiggs

Bread is as British as a cup of tea, a Sunday roast or a rainy summer holiday, woven into everything from breakfast to pudding. Whether it’s the comforting crunch of toast drenched in never-enough salted butter, the frugal joy of bread and butter pudding or the humble bacon sandwich – where even that much-derided processed white-sliced can hold its own – bread is a constant, ever-present staple in British life.

It’s no wonder, then, that in recent years, Britain has experienced something of a bread renaissance. After decades of industrialised, supermarket fare, we’re rediscovering the joys of “real bread” – the kind that crackles when you slice it and leaves a dusting of flour on your fingers.

Across the country, in certain postcodes, Brits are queueing at the crack of dawn, ready to fork over £5 for a loaf that’s heftier than a dumbbell. We’ve gone mad for the stuff – and having a Gail’s or similar opening in your neighbourhood has become the ultimate sign that your neighbourhood is on the up.

Well, not in Walthamstow, apparently. Residents are up in arms over the impending arrival of a new Gail’s bakery on their hallowed high street. The rebellion has been akin to discovering someone’s put pineapple on pizza.

Meanwhile, in the genteel seaside town of Worthing, the arrival of another Gail’s has sparked a debate that’s threatening to tear the place apart. Some welcome the bakery as a sign of muchneeded progress, while others see it as a harbinger of gentrification, posed to strip away the town’s local businesses. And all this over a loaf of bread.