Banbury to welcome a new provenance-driven food and drink market in Lock29

Published by

Nicky Godding

Food provenance pioneer, Happerley, is building a ground-breaking independent food and leisure destination in Banbury as an epicentre of food transparency in England which will open later this summer.

Based at Lock 29 in Castle Quay, Banbury, Happerley England will give farmers, suppliers and producers a platform to champion their produce for which they will be able to name the exact sources of their core ingredients back to the primary producers.

Happerley England says this is the UK's first centre to celebrate food & drink provenance.

Lock29 is located on the historical Oxford canal. The project began as an idea to breathe new life into a canal side destination in Banbury, using abandoned space that would benefit the local community and beyond. In addition to the venue featuring a range of diverse food and drink artisans, there will be a casual pop-up cinema for secret cinema clubs and educational activities, space for events which will be open to the whole community and an edgy independent retail offering which binds it all together.

Happerley England will open from Summer 2020 with 21 opportunities for food and drink producers with Happerley provenance to enjoy town centre space.

Recognising the business challenges facing the retail and hospitality industries following Covid-19, and in agreement with Cherwell District Council, Happerley has developed flexible and affordable fees to create an eclectic, diverse environment from which the project and its tenants can only grow.

When Happerley England was launched, earlier this year, founder Matthew Rymer said: “Happerley England is a focus, a celebration and a centre for the very finest food and drinks that have complete provenance. In too many cases the consumer is being misled. To my mind, it should be a basic right and expectation for the consumer to know where the food and drink they’ve purchased has come from."

The venue will officially launch in September 2020 with a food and drink festival.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.