Aerated Bread Company

The Aerated Bread Company Ltd was founded in 1862 by Dr John Dauglish. It was set up to exploit his patented ‘carbonic acid gas method’ of fermentation which drastically reduced production time.

The company’s first bakery was in Islington, London. For many years it had a major bakery on the Regent's Canal in Camden Town, London. This closed in the 1980s and is the site of the present Sainsbury's store and canal-side flats designed by Nicholas Grimshaw.

A.B.C. as it became known is mostly remembered for its chain of self-service tea-rooms of which the first opened in 1865. At its peak in 1923 it had 150 branch shops in London and 250 tea rooms [ [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=074-acc2910&cid=0 National Archives] ] and was second in terms of outlets to J. Lyons and Co.

The company was purchased by Allied Bakeries (now Associated British Foods plc) in 1955 and continued trading until the early eighties when the name disappeared.

The Dauglish fermentation method has since been rendered obsolete by the adoption of mechanical high speed dough processes.

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