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Large green hoarding with the words: Percy Ingle Bakers & Confectioners in orange and white writing on blue metal railings.
A barber shop next to Ingles bakery. A woman walks in front of the barber, two boys and a woman walk past the barber.
A sign reads 'A traditional bakery born in East London'. Behind perspex there are donuts cakes and sandwiches.
Three brown paper bags with pictures of bread and words reading 'Ancient Grains Sour Dough on top of a counter with loaves of bread in the background.
Shop front reading 'Percy Ingle bakers and confectioners'. A street-sweeper pushing a cart walks past and a queue of five men waits outside the baker.
Red single-decker bus with 'Go' logo rides under and Arch reading 'ROMAN ROAD' with Tower Hamlets logo. Closed Ingles bakery shopfront with 'To Let' sign above. On the wall is written: 'MAKE THE RICH PAY FOR COVID 19'.
A shop front reading Percy Ingle in orange on green backdrop. White writing reads: 'Bakery - Sandwich Bar & Cafe' and 'Established 1954'
A shop front reading Percy Ingle in orange on green backdrop. White writing reads: 'Bakery - Sandwich Bar & Cafe' and 'Established 1954'. In foreground bottle of fizzy orange drink and blue and white social distancing sign and palm tree.
Red double decker bus with 'Stagecoach' logo rides under and Arch reading 'ROMAN ROAD' with Tower Hamlets logo. Closed Ingles bakery shopfront with 'To Let' sign above. On the wall is written: 'MAKE THE RICH PAY FOR COVID 19'.
Red double decker bus with 'Stagecoach' logo with number 8 on its back drives down the road beyond 'ROMAN ROAD' with Tower Hamlets logo. Closed Ingles bakery shopfront with 'To Let' sign above. bus covers a logo written on wall with the word : 'MAKE' visible.
Large green hoarding with the words: Percy Ingle Bakers & Confectioners in orange and white writing on blue metal railings.
Image of green shutters closed beneath Orange Percy Ingle logo next to closed shutters of other shops.
Roadworks scene next to closed Percy Ingle store. Red sign, white letters: Pedestrian Crossing: When red light shows wait here.Two blue signs point go-ahead further down road.
Woman pulling shopping trolley looks up at closed Percy Ingle store sign while another woman walks in the other direction.
Man wearing black leather jacket and black trousers stands in front of a former betting shop looking at phone while a woman in red coat with a black hat walks passed a shut Percy Inge store. Both shops have a 'to-let' sign above them.
Rebranded Ingles store covered in messy white graffiti. Logo reads: 'Ingles - Family bakers since 1954'
Man wearing bright orange jacket rides a bike with Uber Eats logo past a shut Ingles Bakery. In front of the store is a rack of clothes with a '£2' sign.
Loaves of bread and rolls laid out on racks. Between racks a sign reads 'HAND MADE WITH EXTRA LOVING CARE'

Brown Bread

The sad demise of a much loved baker to the people of east London
 
The death of a chain of east London bakers in 2020 illustrates a broader story of how the pandemic has accelerated a move that sees local, well established smal and medium-sized businesses hammered by the unrelenting forces of unfettered late capitalism.
 
Percy Ingle was a much loved institution that sold bread, sandwiches and cakes to people in east London. With over 50 outlets from Holloway Road in north London near the Arsenal stadium to Romford, deep into Essex, the chain was the biggest independent player in east London. 
 
Ask any regular and they’d tell you the quality of its offering was in a different league to the now ubiquitous Greggs. Freshly made in its Leyton factory, the bread didn’t have to travel far to get to its customers. 
 
The bakery shops provided jobs for local youngsters and treats and breakfasts to workmen, commuters and school children. You could pick up a freshly made fried egg or bacon roll for little more than £1. The cakes tasted as good as they looked, which was saying something. 
 
But in March 2020, just as the first covid lockdown was set to sweep the nation, all the stores closed, never to re-open. Many high streets across east London have a sad green metal boarded-up front where these emporiums of good-value treats offered locals cakes, sausage rolls, freshly made sandwiches and loaves.
 
Percy Ingle, founder of the chain, died in xxxx, but his heirs seem to have decided that selling up valuable east London retail real estate offered an easier way of weathering the pandemic than employing hundreds of staff to keep cockneys in bread and cake. 
 
Rewind just a year before the pandemic and the picture looked very different. Percy Ingle was getting a re-brand. It’s distinctive green and orange livery was being replaced with a more modern, stylish branding and a name that showed it was now a multi-generational family business: Ingles. 
 
Recipes were being revised, new products offered, but old favourites like the Tottenham Cake (a sponge cake with Jam and coconut topping) held their spot on the shop-floor. In 2022 some of the shops have been redeveloped with new businesses. A desert shop at the top of the Roman Road in Bow looks fun; Route a chain of Turkish owned cafes offers high-end cakes and snacks in Broadway Market, in the fashionable bit of Hackney near London Fields.
 
But many sites remain closed two years later. Here my photos show the chain after its upgrade, and then some of the sites after their closure. I’ve also taken some of the many derelict sites in East London, but also in more affluent areas of the capital and elsewhere in England. A general sense of town centres being neglected has led to graffiti across many areas being the norm as well as some wonderful street-art.