Sourdough Hub in Newmarket wins approval for outdoor seating

Sourdough Hub is set to add outdoor seating at 47 High Street, a practical upgrade that gives the Newmarket bakery more of a high street presence and a clearer place in the daily rhythm of the town. The pavement licence approval means the shop can move beyond being a stop for takeaway loaves and become a place where people linger over coffee, sandwiches and pastries.

That matters for Jennifer Marshall, who built Sourdough Hub from the ground up after starting as a self-taught sourdough baker during Covid. The bakery opened on Saturday, January 31, 2026, after Marshall had been selling from her Craven Way kitchen, farmers’ markets and pop-ups in Newmarket. The move to the High Street already marked a jump in scale; the outdoor seating now pushes it one step further.

The shop’s website says Sourdough Hub is open Wednesday to Saturday from 8:30am to 2:30pm, with sourdough breads, pastries, winter soups, focaccia sandwiches, matcha drinks and coffee on the menu. That mix is exactly the sort of offering that benefits from a few tables outside. It gives customers a reason to stay longer, makes lunchtime trade easier to catch and turns passing footfall into visible, seated trade right on the pavement.

The approval also sits inside a wider local policy shift. West Suffolk Council says pavement licences allow removable furniture on adjacent highways or pavements for serving food and drink, with the aim of attracting more customers and increasing trade. The consultation period for Sourdough Hub’s application ended on May 7, and the council said on May 12 that new pavement licence fees had been cut from £500 to £100 under a trial scheme. Renewal fees were cut from £350 every two years to £100.

Sourdough Hub has already shown it can draw a crowd. On opening day, queues stretched for hours, and Marshall said the first month in the town centre was very busy, with strong customer support. The new seating does not change the bakery’s core product, but it does change how the place works on the street: more dwell time, more visibility and more chances for a sourdough bakery to feel like part of Newmarket’s everyday life rather than just a successful new opening.