The best butchers in London for ethically sourced meat

Whether you're on the hunt for the best-tasting meat, want to support small or want to change your habits to eat more ethically sustainably and healthily, we've got one answer for you: getting your beef or chicken from an independent butcher is a way to achieve all three.

Luckily, London is home to a wide array of great neighbourhood butchers, who make it just as easy to do your shopping as the supermarket. 

There are definite wins when you choose to buy your meat from one of the smaller guys. An independent butcher is more likely to know where the animal has come from, and the quality of life it led.

They're also more likely to give you a better cut of meat, and they can tell you the best way to cook it, too. You won't find a butcher out there who doesn't love meat, and doesn't love the animals it comes from – which means a focus on ethics and quality.

And if you think getting your meat from a butcher is more expensive? Well, it's probably priced fairly for the quality you're getting, and it'll taste better than the cheaper stuff.

Not to mention you can tell the butcher how much you want to spend and they'll be able to give you cheaper cuts of meat that suit whatever you're cooking.

They guys seriously know what they're doing. If you've got a question about meat, they'll be the person to answer it.

From Islington's Turner & George, from renowned meat man Richard H Turner of Hawksmoor and Blacklock, to North London favourite Provenance, to HG Walter, the Barons Court-based butcher, no matter where you live around London, we've got you covered.

Don't plan a barbecue or a Sunday roast without a trip to one of London's mightiest, meatiest butcher shops. 

Best butchers in North London

Turner & George

399 St John St, EC1V 4LD

Located somewhat unexpectedly between Angel and Clerkenwell, Turner & George comes from Richard Turner, the restauranteur involved with Hawksmoor, Pitt Cue, Blacklock and Foxlow, and James George, a life-long butcher. They set up the East London Steak Company more than a decade ago, which rapidly became so popular that they turned it into artisanal butcher shop Turner & George. The idea was bring the quality of meat found in the Turner's restaurant kitchens to the high street – and therefore into our kitchens. Stop into the shop for native British breeds reared on independent farms and smallholdings, dry-aged on the bone in house, house-made sausages and burgers, and meat boxes to go – or even a butchery course.

Also an online butcher. turnerandgeorge.co.uk

Provenance Village Butcher

93 Salusbury Road, NW6 6NH

Nico Wills

Nico Wills

Provenance is more than just a name to this independent butcher that has shops around London: it's a whole way of life. The business is built on understanding where the produce comes from, how it's lived – and probably most critically of all, why it's been farmed that way. Provenance considers itself an essential link between you and the farmer: that's why every single member of the team knows exactly what they're doing, and wants to share their knowledge with you in a friendly approachable way. That's exactly the kind of attitude we can get on board with – because you don't need to feel intimidated when you just want to pick up a couple of bangers for the barbie. Most recently, it's launched an online arm with next-day nationwide delivery, making it well on the way to being one of the best, most accessible butchers out there.

Also an online butcher. provenancebutcher.com

Meat London

Stoke Newington and Kentish Town

Meat London's two outposts in Stoke Newington and Kentish Town are newer than many of these family-run businesses, but this forward-thinking company strives to uphold traditional British butchery values. Set up by two friends, it quickly became a community butcher. The shop is small, and there's no counter – this means you get up close and personal with your butcher, and your meat. The sausages here are particularly good, and the Stoke Newington shop has a basement busily churning them out all day, every day. Elsewhere, there's space for deli products like cured meat, pies and cheeses, not to mention a great wine selection. You can sign up to a variety of butchery courses with Meat London, too, which might not turn you into a butcher overnight, but will give you insider knowledge on what you're eating and how to make it taste as good as it possibly can.

Also an online butcher. meatlondon.co.uk

Godfrey's Highbury

7 Highbury Park, N5 1QJ

Sat in the stretch of independent shops (and, er, Greggs) in Highbury Barn, Godfrey's has been around in some guise or other since 1905, and so has its recipe for its signature Lincolnshire sausages. That's a long old time to be perfecting something, so you know these bangers are going to be pretty damn good. Back then, butcher Frank Godfrey would graze his own livestock in Clissold Park, before herding them to the original site on Stoke Newington. Enough with the history, you say? All you really need to know today is that Godfrey's specialises in premium, free-range, additive-free, slowly matured beef, poultry, lamb and pork, supplying chefs around Europe. The brothers that run it regularly visit the farms they work with (a very good sign) so they know exactly what conditions the animals are raised in. All in all, it's not surprising that queues for this brilliant butcher go around the block at weekends.

godfreys.co

Best butchers in South West London

M. Moen & Sons

24 The Pavement, SW4 0JA

Sitting pretty on the edge of Clapham Common, Moen's counts chefs like the patrons of Honey & Co among its customers – which is how you know it's one of the best butchers in London. Sure, you should stop in here to get your sausages, but the window displays are also worth checking out. Come Christmas time, feathered turkeys are hung in the windows in creative displays. The shop also has a small deli section, where it stocks brilliant produce sourced from London makers and beyond.

Also an online butcher. moen.co.uk

Dugard & Daughters

Herne Hill & Earlsfield

Dugard & Daughters has a focus on family: it's run by husband and wife Neil and Rosie, while the 'Daughters' references their two little girls: Pearl and Lily. The kids aren't quite ready to wield a butcher's knife just yet, so the work rest in the hands of their very capable parents, who both seriously care about food and independent retail. All the meat you'll find here is rare-breed, free-range and ethically reared, and the beef is dry-aged onsite for at least four weeks. Neil and Rosie's two sites in Herne Hill and Earlsfield are also larders stocking brilliant local beers, wines, cheeses and more.

dugardanddaughters.com

Best butchers in West London

HG Walter

51 Palliser Road, W14 9EB

HG Walter's reputation is so good that when a restaurant mentions it uses the family-run butcher's meat, it's become something of a guarantee of quality. Despite being a small business, it supplies more than 200 restaurants, and a fair chunk of those are Michelin-starred, too. The meat is all ethically and organically raised, and sourced from small specialist farmers around the UK. You can't really go wrong when you make a trip to the sleek pale cream and grey Barons Court shop, but the well-known favourites include the pure-bred Aberdeen Angus beef, or the shepherd's pies and scotch eggs in the deli section.

Also an online butcher. hgwalter.com

Notting Hill Fish & Meat

287-289 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2QA

Milo Brown Photography

Milo Brown Photography

Milo Brown Photography

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Notting Hill Fish & Meat originally began life as a fishmonger, but did one almighty pandemic pivot to team up with other independent producers around the country to create a sustainably sourced superstore that stocked as much seasonal produce as possible. Given how hard it was to get to the supermarket when Covid first hit, we're bet the lucky burgers of Notting Hill were very thankful indeed. If you like the convenience of going to the supermarket (and we can't say we blame you), this is the shop for you as it has it all. When it comes to meat, that means it stocks produce from the likes of HG Walter, mentioned above, and other small scale producers from around the UK.

Also an online butcher. nottinghillfishshop.co.uk

Best butchers in East London

Hill & Szrok

60 Broadway Market, E8 4QJ

Broadway Market's Hill & Szrok is a butcher and cookshop. That means you can pop in for a steak, but you can also take a seat and munch duck rillette with pickles. Sounds like our kind of party. This butcher works with small independent farmers who use low-intervention methods and have small herds that they mainly keep for private consumption, allowing them to graze to maturity the way nature intended – in direct opposition to the mass commercial farming that's causing so much damage to our planet. Beyond delivering delicious cuts of meat, this means you simply can't get the produce you'll find at Hill & Szrok anywhere else.

Also an online butcher. hillandszrok.co.uk

The Ginger Pig

3 Clock House Parade, High St, Wanstead, E11 2AG

The Ginger Pig is practically a household name in London, but despite its big name, it originally had small ambitions. In fact, its story is heartwarming. Having bought a farm with an old pigsty, Tim Wilson, a former antiques dealer, purchased a small number of pigs to fill it, including a ginger Tamworth pig he named Dai Bando. Soon proficient in sausage making, he was quickly selling his wares from a stall in Borough Market. Today Wilson's team rears its own livestock, works with other farms to top up supplies (eg corn-fed chickens from Leicestershire) and will only open shops where there is local demand, and where there isn't already a butcher. 

Also an online butcher. thegingerpig.co.uk

Best butchers in Central London

The Quality Chop Shop

90 Farringdon Rd, EC1R 3EA

The Quality Chop House is truly a bucket list London restaurant. And given it celebrated its 150th birthday in 2019, it seems like it's been an iconic venue for many, many years – not bad going in the hospitality industry. Obviously the restaurant specialises in chops, so it made sense for it to open its own butcher next door. It gives punters like us access to the meats that made the restaurant so revered and the chance to bring a bit of that magic into our own kitchens. You can get whatever your hungry little heart dreams of: chicken kiev, pork chops, brown beef butter. The Quality Chop Shop is more than a butcher though – you can get all kinds of gourmet produce, from fruit and veg to wine and ready meals. Date night tip: get a ready meal and a bottle of wine for two. A bit of an upgrade on that infamous supermarket meal, no?

Also an online butcher. thequalitychophouse.com

Keevil & Keevil

London Central Markets, EC1A 9LH

We thought Godfrey's of Highbury was old, but Keevil beats it by a whole 15 years. There's been a Keevil's butcher at Smithfield (London's oldest, largest meat market) since 1850, during which time it's built up a rep for beef and steaks (although everything else is pretty damn good too). We'll save you the full history lesson, but you can read about it on Keevil & Keevil's website, and FYI it's really, really interesting). On to the meat: the butcher is now owned by Smithfield Market trader George Abrahams, but it's held onto its principles: to supply people like you with unusual, gourmet cuts of meat, with a passion for friendly and approachable service.

Also an online butcher. keevilandkeevil.co.uk

Best butchers in South East London

William Rose

126 Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, SE22 8HDT

William Rose is another family-run, independent butcher with a London history that stretches as far back as 1862, when it set up shop in Vauxhall (note to self: butchery sounds like a pretty fulfilling career, and just THINK of all the delicious meat you'd eat). The current iteration of the shop is located in East Dulwich, where it sells rare breeds like longhorn and red poll beef, blythburgh pork and salt marsh lamb. Everything is excellent quality – and, crucially, excellent value, so you get serious bang for your buck whether you're looking to spend £10 or £100.

williamrosebutchers.co.uk