Family bakery to close after 65 years in town

A FAMILY-RUN bakery in Henley is to shut on Saturday after 65 years in the town.

John Lawlor & Son, which is known as Lawlor’s, was started in Hampstead, London in 1948 and moved to Henley in 1956.

The business, which is now based at Henley Enterprise Park, off Greys Road, is to be wound up because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a letter to the Henley Standard this week the team said: “In the current climate of covid-19 and the lockdown of the pubs, which are the main source of our business, it has become simply not practical to continue.”

It said it had been “privileged” to have had so many customers.

The team included founder John Lawlor Snr’s son Mike who joined the business after completing his national service in 1956, the same year the business acquired a bakery at No 14 Reading Road.

The premises doubled as a retail outlet and the family acquired a second shop in Duke Street.

In the early Sixties, W H Smith bought the Duke Street premises, so the Lawlor’s shop moved to what is now the Loch Fyne restaurant in Market Place.

In 1972, Lawlor’s left Market Place and for about the next 10 years operated from only the Reading Road site. Then it acquired a property in Market Place Mews, where it stayed until 2003.

In the early Eighties the shop and bakery in Reading Road were closed.

The business is now based at the enterprise park, the former Empstead Works, and has been mainly wholesale since 2003.

For the full story, see this week’s Henley Standard.