Picnic lunch

Picnic lunch

R.S. Ashby

R.S. Ashby

Established by the late Robert Ashby and now run by his son, Jon, along with Marc Dennis who is married to Jon’s niece, Ashby’s remains committed to supplying top quality produce coupled with excellent and attentive service, something that larger companies often struggle to achieve.

From their roots as a butcher shop in Leadenhall Market, Ashby’s soon started supplying meat to directors’ dining rooms of the banks and insurance houses head-quartered in that part of the City and Jon remembers making deliveries on the shop’s traditional butcher’s bicycle when he was younger.  Recognising that this was a growth area, in 1990 Ashby’s established a catering arm of the business in Bermondsey and then, when the lease ran out on the Leadenhall shop and the rent was trebled, they decided to move the entire business over to the larger, more modern premises south of the river.

Jon feels that changing lifestyles and shopping habits, where we now do a weekly shop in a supermarket rather than picking up fresh food daily from smaller suppliers, have led to the demise of traditional butchers, green-grocers and fishmongers.  Ironically, Ashby’s shop in Leadenhall is again a butcher, albeit one where they will cook the meat for you to either eat in or take away, but Jon is not complaining.  He understands that time doesn’t stand still and you have to adjust your business in order to succeed.

Ashby’s sources much of its meat from Smithfield Market, but also buys direct from abattoirs and farmers around the country.  Jon explained that the role of the butcher has changed a lot in the last 10 to 20 years from the days when whole carcasses would be bought and cut up and aged on site.  Nowadays, much of the initial cutting is done at the slaughterhouse and butchers will finish the meat – French and larder trimming, boning and preparing joints to order, work that would once have been done by chefs. H&J works with Ashby’s to train our chefs in these traditional butchery skills; buying in whole sides of lamb, pork and beef to break down, to help preserve these skills and give the chefs a better understanding of the different joints and cuts of meat.

Ashby’s hopes to remain a family-run business and with Jon’s son Douglas now training to be a butcher and learning how the company operates, with any luck they will still be offering their fabulous service many years from now.

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