So what if upmarket bakery chain’s arrival means gentrification | UK | News

You might think Gail’s most serious crime would be her overpriced croissant… but the bakery chain has been accused of everything from spreading gentrification to homogenizing the UK’s high streets. The crazy Left has even fallen victim to an unsavory strain of antisemitic conspiracy theories. Does the luxury bakery industry really deserve such harsh criticism? Of course not.

The original Gail’s was opened in Hampstead in 2005 by British-Israeli baker Gail Mejia. It was later transformed into a chain by Israeli entrepreneur Ran Avidan. Private equity firm Bain Capital, which has money in Israeli cybersecurity companies among many other assets, became the majority shareholder in 2021, hence the emergence of nasty conspiracy theories.

So what? Judging by its pastries, cakes, breads and happy customers, it is the biggest street success story of recent years. Unfortunately, it found itself on the wrong side of the culture wars, with some branches being painted and vandalized with antisemitic slogans. And all they want to do is improve our coffee and snack options. Anyway, I was delighted to hear that Gail’s was coming to my hitherto neglected hometown of Banbury.

The town should be a Cotswold hotspot and Gail’s is just what we need to brighten things up. When you pull off the M40 at junction 11 and pass through three junctions before coming across a large Tesco and Jacobs Douwe Egberts Peets factory, you could be forgiven for walking right on by. Or you think you’ve inadvertently landed in Milton Keynes instead of the Cotswolds.

We’re just down the road from Chipping Norton and our local villages in ‘Banburyshire are beautiful chocolate boxes made of Horton’s signature honeystone, but our suburban town (just 55 minutes from London Marylebone) remained largely untouched during the Cotswold revolution.

When I first moved here there was Gap, Debenhams, M&S, Laura Ashley and H&M but since the pandemic they have all closed. It’s now mostly brow bars, pound shops and The Range. But all of this may be about to change. Gail’s, which is supposed to be the ultimate vanguard of gentrification, is preparing to open stores in the next few months. That’s why I’m here.

Yes, you might charge over £4 for an almond croissant, but it would be nice to have a nice place to meet friends and colleagues in the city. And I’d rather drink a matcha latte at Gail’s than at the goddamn Starbucks. While some believe the bakery will open on the site of the former Shoe Zone store near the market square, there has been wild debate over where the exact location will be.

But others claim it will open stores at Banbury Gateway, the new retail park next to the motorway. The sprawling Americanized Gateway is home to a multi-storey Primark, Starbucks and M&S and has already pushed shoppers out of the city centre.

If Oxfordshire Gail’s other stores are to be looked at (there is already one in Thame, two in Oxford and one in Witney) it will be in the city centre. Could Gail’s be the start of a new revolution and finally put Banbury on the map? It worked in Walthamstow, north London, so why not my hometown?

There is now Pinto Lounge and The Light cinema, as well as Lock 29, a food court with live music at Castle Quay in the city centre. I think it’s time Banbury was probably best known for its symbol, the Banbury Cross, a tall bronze statue of the ‘Beautiful Lady’.

Gail will make a welcome addition.