Sydney Street

Butchers and the North Laine

Bakers was one of seven butchers along Sydney Street in the 1950s. The butchers held a meat auction every Saturday morning, and the street was crowded with people after a bargain cut.

Sydney Street is one of the North Laine shopping streets that form a continuous link between the retail areas of London Road and the Old Town. It was developed in the mid nineteeth century on the land of the North Hall located in the Third Furlong of the North Laine.

In the nineteeth century, the North Laine attracted the food industry because it was midway between the town and country. The area was full of market gardens, orchards, and food processing concerns, corn stores, bacon curers, bone yards and slaughterhouses.