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Legendary Pie and Mash Shop F. Cooke Closes on Broadway Market After 120 Years

The closure was earmarked by the family in May last year

Pie and mash in London: London’s best pie and mash shops include F Cooke Broadway Market Jonathan Hatchman/Eater London

The slow death of one London pie and mash shop

Legendary Broadway Market pie and mash shop F. Cooke closed its doors last week after 120 years, according to the Hackney Gazette. The family announced the closure in May last year, citing the number of restaurants on the street and a familiar cocktail of rising rents, changing tastes, historical erasure, ageing clientele, and displacement, — not veganism. Now, the family plans to move closer to their daughter, who has an F. Cooke in Romford, Essex, a telling illustrator of that displacement that has pushed pie and mash out of the city it has fed for hundreds of years. While Jonathan Hatchman wrote that “the tradition’s future isn’t necessarily as bleak as the discourse suggests” in a feature on Roman Road institution G. Kelly, they remain “cornerstones of a working class culture that’s growing far less present in London’s East End.” High-end local fishmonger Fin and Flounder will take over the space.

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