St John to close Bermondsey restaurant as it plans two new bakeries

St John has announced plans to close its restaurant in Bermondsey's Maltby Street as it focuses on its bakery sites with two new openings planned for this summer.

The restaurant's neighbouring bakery in Druid Street will continue to distribute to restaurants, cafés and retail outlets across the city as well as selling to the public on weekend market days.

Further expansion of the business' bakery arm is planned following a series of successful pop-ups in Old Street Station and Bermondsey Street. St John has revealed proposals for two permanent retail bakeries in central London, with sites under negotiation.

The group's Maltby Street restaurant will close its doors permanently on 24 June to allow the team to focus on these developments.

The group said: "St John Maltby was opened three years ago, also as a pop-up café, to serve the adjacent St John Bakery during busy market days. As demand increased so did our offering and our reputation, and we continued the temporary lease. However we knew that we would always be restricted in our ability to meet demand by the constraints of the building, the facilities and the restrictive license and so, as of 24 June, we are calling an end to the longstanding, evolving pop-up that has been St John Maltby so that we can concentrate our small team on these exciting areas of growth."

Maltby Street head chef Alex Szrok and manager Rebecca McGauley-Dyke will move to to the group's Smithfield site with Szrok also continuing his role as chef consultant at its kitchen in the Bridge Theatre, close to Tower Bridge.

Trevor Gulliver, Fergus Henderson, and Jon Spiteri opened St John Smithfield in October 1994. Spiteri left a few years later but Henderson and Gulliver have continued to run the business, which has grew to include Bread & Wine in Spitalfields, St John Maltby, the St John Bakery in Bermondsey, the Bridge Theatre**,** and St John Wines. St John Smithfield also holds a Michelin star.

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