Third-generation craft butcher · Aldeburgh High Street · since 2013
The third-generation Aldeburgh butcher. Whole-carcass on the bench, since 2013.
Gerard King learnt the trade as a packing boy in his father's Hackney shop, with 3am Smithfield Market trips alongside his father and grandfather. Thirty years on, the bench is at 107-109 Aldeburgh High Street. Lincoln Red beef from Natasha Mann at Iken, British Lop pork from Thatched House Farm, organic lamb from Alice at Shimpling Park. Whole carcass to the bench, then to the counter, then to the box.
Dry-aged lamb · on the bench · IP15 5ARWhole-carcass butchery on Aldeburgh High Street. Beef, lamb, hogget, mutton, free-range pork and poultry, seasonal game.
12Years on Aldeburgh High Street
3rdKing-family generation on the bench
28+Days dry-aged on the bone, minimum
£85Free chilled UK delivery over
Three rooms · one bench · one butcher
The counter, the cure room, the chilled box. Same meat, three doors out.
Whole carcasses arrive at the back of the shop and are broken down on the bench by Gerard and the team. The cuts that go on the counter in the morning, the sausages that get mixed in the back, and the chilled box that leaves on the afternoon courier all start in the same room.
The counter
Whole-carcass butchery on the bench. Beef, lamb, hogget, mutton, pork, poultry, game.
Lincoln Red beef from Natasha Mann at Iken, British Lop pork from Thatched House Farm on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, organic lamb from Alice at Shimpling Park near Bury St Edmunds. Local rose veal and seasonal game. Beef hung on the bone in the cold room for a minimum of twenty-eight days. Bistecca Fiorentina, bavette, picanha, Boston butt, Barnsley chops, the cuts that supermarket butchery does not touch. Gerard works the bench Tuesday to Saturday.
Bench-cured & made on-site
Preservative-free sausages, nitrate-free bacon, the Aldeburgh Sausage, the salted brisket.
Sausages mixed and stuffed in the back of the shop from the same pork carcasses Gerard breaks down on the front bench. The Aldeburgh Sausage is the house recipe. Bacon dry-cured without nitrates, gammons cured the Wiltshire way. Spiced potted beef, salted brisket and brawn made from older butchers' recipe books, with, as the shop puts it, varying success. Pies built around the cuts that did not make the day's display.
Chilled UK delivery
From bench to doorstep, chilled overnight. Free UK shipping on orders over £85.
Full Shopify shop with chilled UK delivery in insulated wool-lined boxes on next-day refrigerated carriers. The cuts that come off the bench in the morning go into the boxes that leave that afternoon. Bestsellers from £4.50 grass-fed beef dripping through a £19.50 Barnsley chop to a £72 centre-cut fillet. The Good Meat Club membership gives early access to the dry-aged primal that comes off the rib each fortnight.
Heritage breeds · the short supply chain
Traditional breeds, slow grown on Suffolk pasture, named farms within an hour of the bench.
The reason the beef in the box tastes like beef and the lamb tastes like lamb is breed and time. Lincoln Reds from Natasha Mann's herd on the marshes at Iken, fifteen minutes up the river. British Lops from Thatched House Farm on the Norfolk-Suffolk border. Organic lamb from Alice's flock at Shimpling Park, near Bury St Edmunds. Sutton Hoo free-range chickens from near Woodbridge. Whole carcasses, named farmers, short trips.
Beef hangs on the bone in our cold room for a minimum of twenty-eight days. The dry-aged primal then yields the Bistecca Fiorentina, the bavette, the centre-cut fillet, the diced braising portion. The old-cow line through autumn and winter is dairy and breeding cows finished slowly on Suffolk grass and aged longer than a prime steer, the kind of beef supermarket butchery does not handle because it does not fit a yield model.
Dry-aged on the bone
Minimum twenty-eight days, in our own cold room, before the rib goes to the counter or the box.
Whole carcass
Animals arrive whole. The bench breaks them down into every cut, nothing is shipped pre-portioned.
Preservative-free
Sausages mixed with salt, herbs and the cuts that came off the same bench. No industrial pre-mix.
Nitrate-free cure
Bacon dry-cured with salt, sugar and time. Gammons cured the Wiltshire way.
“It is all about a craft butchers. Sourcing our produce from local farms and having a short supply chain is really important. The countryside community needs this kind of thing.”
Gerard King in the East Anglian Daily Times, on the trade
The bench at 107-109 High Street. Whole-carcass butchery, dry-aged on the bone.
Named farms · named breeds · named distances
Where the meat actually comes from. By breed, by farm, by farmer.
Most butcher counters will tell you the meat is local. Few will name the farm and the farmer. This list is read off the back of the bench, not built for marketing.
Lincoln Red
Native English breed, traditional dual-purpose beef.
Natasha Mann, Iken
British Lop
Pasture-reared rare breed, sweet long-fibre pork.
Thatched House Farm
Organic lamb
Slow-grown on Suffolk grass, hogget after eighteen months.
Alice, Shimpling Park
Sutton Hoo
Free-range Suffolk chicken, slow-grown to forty days.
Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge
Old-cow beef
Dairy and breeding cows finished slowly, longer-aged, deeper flavour.
Suffolk pasture, mixed sourcing
Local rose veal
Welfare-led, pale rose veal, by-product of the local dairy herd.
Suffolk dairy farms
Gerard King · third-generation King-family butcher
Three generations of the King family on the bench. Bill in Hackney in 1950, Gerald in 1960, Gerard in Aldeburgh since 2013.
Gerard King started as a packing boy in his father's Hackney shop, slowly learning the trade for a cosmopolitan and discerning mix of customers including the local Turks, Greeks and West Indians who then populated East London. Smithfield Market shaped his early years. Daily three-in-the-morning visits to the iconic market with his father and grandfather built the working rhythm he kept for the rest of his career.
After leaving his father's shop, Gerard worked at well-known London butchers including Doves of Battersea, then moved to Suffolk to help set up the multi-award-winning butchery at the Suffolk Food Hall. In October 2013 he opened Salter & King at 107-109 Aldeburgh High Street with a single brief: to be the link between local farmers and their appreciative customers.
Twelve years on, the bench is Gerard's most days of the week. The East Anglian Daily Times named the shop one of the seven best butchers in Suffolk. The Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival hosts him on the demo stage each year. A second site at the former J R Creasey's premises on The Causeway in Peasenhall is under way. The Hackney shop is gone, but the bench is the same bench it always was.
The timeline · 1950s to today
1950s
Bill King runs a butchers in Hackney, East London. The photograph on the where-we-came-from page is dated 1950.
1960s
Gerald King, Bill's son, takes the family bench. The 1960 photo shows him outside the St Jude Street shop.
1970s
Gerard joins the trade as a packing boy in his father's Hackney shop, working alongside Smithfield Market 3am buying trips with his father and grandfather.
1990s-2000s
Gerard works through some of the best-known London butchers, including Doves of Battersea. Builds a thirty-year career on the bench.
2010
Moves to Suffolk to help set up the multi-award-winning butchery at the Suffolk Food Hall.
2013
Opens Salter & King on Aldeburgh High Street in October. Companies House registers Salter and King Limited at 107-109 High Street the same month.
Today
Twelve years on the High Street. Whole-carcass on the bench, nationwide chilled UK delivery, dedicated artisan cheese counter, named in the East Anglian Daily Times as one of the seven best butchers in Suffolk.
Hours · the shop runs the High Street rhythm
Open Monday to Saturday. Closed Sundays.
High Street rhythm. The shingle beach takes Aldeburgh on a Sunday and the High Street is quiet, so the bench takes the day off. Bank-holiday Mondays are listed on the contact page; the shop is closed Mon 4 May and Mon 25 May 2026.
Shop & counter
107-109 High Street, Aldeburgh.
Mon 08:00 to 17:00
Tue 08:00 to 17:00
Wed 08:00 to 17:00
Thu 08:00 to 17:00
Fri 08:00 to 17:00
Sat 08:00 to 16:00
Sun Closed · Closed Sundays
Order ahead
Hold a rib, a half-lamb, a Christmas turkey, a chilled box.
Tell us what you want and roughly when. A dry-aged rib on the bone for Sunday lunch, a half-lamb cut for the freezer, the Christmas turkey and the festive sides, a chilled hamper to send across the country. We will phone or email back to confirm what is on the bench and when to collect or post.
Chilled UK delivery on next-day refrigerated carriers, free over £85. Insulated wool-lined boxes, ice packs sized to the contents. Collect at the shop on Aldeburgh High Street any day Mon-Sat.
Visit · 107-109 High Street, Aldeburgh · IP15 5AR
Fifty paces from the Aldeburgh Moot Hall and the shingle beach. Between the Aldeburgh Bookshop and the fishmonger huts on the seafront.
Aldeburgh High Street runs parallel to the shingle beach a single street away. Pay-and-display parking on Crag Path along the seafront, fifty paces from the door. The Aldeburgh Bookshop is two doors down. The Moot Hall, the fishermen's huts and Maggi Hambling's Scallop sculpture are all a short walk from the shop.
107-109 High Street, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, IP15 5AR. On the High Street between The Aldeburgh Bookshop and the Moot Hall, one street back from the shingle beach.Open in Google Maps ↗
Five questions
The ones Aldeburgh and the chilled-box customers actually ask.
Do you deliver outside Suffolk, and how does the chilled box stay cold in transit?+
Yes. Chilled UK delivery on next-day refrigerated carriers, free over £85, anywhere on the British mainland. The boxes are insulated, wool-lined, packed with ice packs sized to the contents. The cuts that come off the bench in the morning are vac-packed, boxed and on the courier that afternoon. Most boxes arrive at the doorstep by the following day at sub-fridge temperature. Order before noon Wednesday for Friday delivery if you are catering a weekend roast.
Where does the beef come from and what breed is it?+
Lincoln Red, the native English dual-purpose breed, raised by Natasha Mann on the marshes at Iken, a fifteen-minute drive up the river from Aldeburgh. We also run an old-cow beef line through the autumn and winter, dairy and breeding cows finished slowly on Suffolk grass and aged longer than a prime steer. Both come to the bench whole and are dry-aged on the bone in our cold room for a minimum of twenty-eight days before they go on display. Bistecca Fiorentina, bavette, picanha and the centre-cut fillet are all yielded from the same carcass.
Can I order a half lamb or a whole hogget for the freezer?+
Yes. Phone the shop on 01728 452758 with a rough idea of your freezer size and how your household eats lamb, and we will spec the cut sheet back to you. We work mainly with the organic flock that Alice runs at Shimpling Park near Bury St Edmunds. Whole-lamb and half-lamb orders need two to three weeks of lead time so the carcass hangs properly first. Hogget (over twelve months) and mutton (over twenty-four months) are also available in season.
Is the bacon nitrate-free and the sausage preservative-free?+
Yes to both. The bacon is dry-cured by hand at the back of the shop using salt, sugar and time, no nitrates or nitrites added. Sausages are mixed and stuffed on-site from the same pork carcasses we break down on the front bench, no industrial pre-mix, no preservative blends. The Aldeburgh Sausage is the house recipe, made daily. We can also build a custom sausage for parties or restaurants with a week of notice.
Do you take pre-orders for Christmas turkey, beef rib and the festive sides?+
Yes, and we strongly recommend it. Christmas turkey orders open in October, with bronze and white free-range birds from local growers, and the rib of beef on the bone is allocated against deposits taken from late November. Ham, gammon, pigs in blankets and the festive sides go on the order list at the same time. Phone the shop or join the Good Meat Club newsletter for the order window opening date. The week before Christmas the queue runs out of the door, so the booked orders are the only ones we can guarantee.
