Gail’s seeks planning permission to convert former Bishop’s Stortford Halifax bank into bakery and café

A controversial bakery chain has asked East Herts Council for planning permission to convert one of Bishop’s Stortford’s most historic buildings into a new café and shop.

Gail’s Ltd, which has 150 branches and is reported to be ready to open up to 40 new outlets this year, has submitted plans for part of the Corn Exchange in Market Square.

It was last used as a branch of the Halifax, which closed last October.

The bakery came under fire recently when it set up a new branch in the former NatWest Bank in Lewes, East Sussex, and was accused of ditching old oak doors.

Last year in Walthamstow, the original home of Bishop’s Stortford’s Eat 17 in Potter Street, residents launched a petition against Gail’s arrival in their borough amid fears it would fuel rent rises and price out independent shops.

Market commentators say Gail’s sales rose 32% in the last financial year ahead of a rumoured sale of the business in 2025.

Now corporate, the bakery began in the 1990s when Gail Mejia set up a wholesale business, The Bread Factory, to supply London’s top chefs and restaurants.

The first Gail’s opened in the capital’s Hampstead High Street in 2005. The nearest outlets to Bishop’s Stortford are in Cambridge, Chelmsford and Epping.

The brand boasts: “We take great pleasure in using the best ingredients we can find for food and drink, using seasonal ingredients from suppliers we trust.

“Though we’ve grown over the years, our philosophy has remained the same: to make good food that people love and create bakeries people want to keep coming back to.”

The proposed works at the Stortford premises include removal of a modern suspended ceiling, partition walls, doors and internal glazing.

A rear staircase and step will also go, as will the “modern entrance area, including glazed doors and steps, to be replaced with a new entrance area”.

The application says “all windows and features of the first floor to be retained and made good where needed”.

The premises are part of the original Corn Exchange building, dating from 1828. However, there have been at least three changes to the façade, with the present dating from the early 1900s.

The site was first occupied by a bank, London & County, in 1839. This branch then moved to North Street to become a Westminster and then a NatWest.

According to Bishop’s Stortford History Society member Christopher Connell, between 1869 and the early 1900s there were various shops on the corner, including a hairdresser, a beer seller and a fish merchant.

He said: “And then in about 1904, what had been Foster’s Bank at 4 Market Square, and then became Capital & Counties Bank, moved to the Corn Exchange premises and this then became a Lloyds Bank in about 1918.”