Highgate Butchers warns ‘use us or lose us’ on 40th birthday

A beloved butchers has defied the decline of traditional high street shops to reach its 40th anniversary - but its owner has warned “use us or lose us”.

Highgate Butchers, at the heart of Highgate Village, has served up fine cuts of meat to the community since it first opened its doors on March 19, 1975.

Forty years later, it is still going strong. But its owner Phyllis Harper said it has been tough to survive.

“It has been very, very difficult. We had times when we thought we would have to shut,” she said. “Use us or lose us, that’s my motto.”

Mrs Harper paid a poignant tribute to her late master butcher husband Paul, who died aged 40 just six years after the couple opened their shop, and six months before their daughter Paula was born.

Their son Lee stepped into his father’s shoes to become the shop’s master butcher. “He would be so proud,” Mrs Harper said.