Before 2020, the lunchtime queue at Leon in the Square Mile felt like a barometer of office life. By noon, Liverpool Street, Cheapside, Moorgate and Ludgate would be humming, a steady stream of card taps for hot boxes, rice pots and, yes, anything fiery and chicken-adjacent. Today, the shutters on those City of London addresses tell a different story: even a much‑loved brand with a loyal commuter following couldn’t outrun the structural shifts that followed the pandemic.
What happened to the four City locations?
Liverpool Street: Dependent on station traffic and office workers, the unit lived and died by the 12–2pm rush. Hybrid working has thinned that window to a midweek peak, with softer Mondays and Fridays. When your P&L hinges on two hours a day, a 20–30% drop in footfall can be fatal.
Cheapside: High rents, hefty business rates and a landlord market still anchored to pre‑pandemic expectations made break‑even a moving target. Even with solid midweek trade, covering fixed costs outside peak hours became tougher as energy and labour bills rose.
Moorgate: A classic commuter site, Moorgate was pressured by the same forces hitting every grab‑and‑go brand in the area: a permanently smaller office population, competition from discounted meal deals and subscription coffees, and rising input costs for core lines like chicken and cooking oil.
Ludgate: Shaped by legal and media footfall, Ludgate’s rhythm never quite returned to the old normal. Shorter trading days and fewer impulse purchases took the shine off what had been a banker of a location pre‑2020.
Across the Square Mile, landlords have been re‑letting some of these units to coffee specialists, convenience formats and value‑led operators; others have sat empty longer than anyone would like. In each case, the cold maths was similar: steady but narrower demand up against higher fixed costs and a supply chain that wouldn’t stop inflating.
Did Leon “go into administration”?
No. While a number of high‑street names used insolvency processes to restructure during and after the pandemic, Leon took a different path. In 2021 the brand was acquired by EG Group, the forecourt operator led by the Issa brothers. That ownership shifted Leon’s centre of gravity: fewer traditional city‑centre leases and more roadside, travel‑hub and convenience‑led formats, where all‑day trade can smooth out the volatility of commuter peaks. In 2023, Asda agreed to acquire EG Group’s UK and Ireland operations, further entwining Leon with a convenience‑first retail strategy.
In plain terms: Leon has been reshaped rather than put through administration. Portfolio pruning in Central London, including those four City addresses, sat alongside openings in drive‑thru, service‑station and supermarket‑adjacent sites, plus a bigger push into retail ranges.
Why stronger menus weren’t enough
Food alone rarely fixes a location problem. The City sites were textbook examples of concentration risk:
Demand compression: Hybrid working bunched demand into fewer, shorter bursts. Even best‑sellers can’t compensate for lost trading hours.
Cost inflation: Poultry, vegetable oils and packaging rose sharply from 2021–2023, while wages and energy followed suit. Passing all of that on to price‑sensitive office workers is a hard sell.
Competitive repositioning: Subscription coffee, aggressive meal deals and workplace catering clawed share from the premium fast‑casual lunch. The “Naturally Fast Food” pitch still resonates, but value architecture matters more than ever.
Property rigidity: Long leases and high rates don’t flex with footfall. Unless landlords move with the market, marginal sites turn loss‑making.
What the future holds for Leon
The brand is unlikely to disappear; it is more likely to keep evolving away from a pure Zone 1 lunch play.
Convenience‑led growth: Expect more Leon in and around petrol forecourts, travel corridors and Asda’s convenience ecosystem. These formats capture breakfast, snacking and early dinner, not just the office lunch hour.
Fewer legacy big‑box city units: The Square Mile may see Leon return selectively, but on shorter, more flexible leases or in smaller footprints where landlords sharpen terms. A “right site, right deal” approach will trump a blanket re‑entry.
Menu engineering and value tiers: Continued emphasis on perceived value (bundles, rotating specials, lighter portions) alongside health‑led hero items. Expect inflation‑proofed recipes and tighter SKU counts to stabilise margins.
Digital and off‑premise: Click‑and‑collect, workplace catering partnerships and delivery at commuter pinch points can extend trading beyond the lunch bell.
Retail and brand halo: Sauces, snacks and ready‑to‑heat lines in supermarkets keep the name in front of shoppers even when the nearest restaurant is miles away, helping demand when new sites open.
For Londoners who loved those City branches, the closures sting. Leon helped define a particular moment in the capital’s food culture: quick, bright, veg‑forward comfort served at speed to people with places to be. But the post‑pandemic city works differently. The brands that thrive will be the ones that find customers throughout the day, not only in a ninety‑minute window between meetings.
If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Leon’s pivot gives it options other operators lack. With the backing of a supermarket‑convenience platform and a clearer view of where all‑day demand still lives, the chain can be choosier about where it plants flags next. That may not bring back Liverpool Street, Cheapside, Moorgate or Ludgate in their old guises. It could, however, put the brand in front of more people more often — even if that’s now on a motorway spur or tucked inside a neighbourhood Asda rather than on the lunchtime front lines of the Square Mile.
Note: Individual site statuses change, especially in Central London. Check Leon’s store locator or the landlord’s listings for the latest on specific