It may look like a traditional butcher selling rows of fresh meat – but Rudy's in Islington, London is strictly vegan. It will become the UK's first vegan butcher when it opens on Saturday to mark World Vegan Day.

The butcher sells only meat-free alternatives of traditional butcher products.

These includes vegan versions of pulled pork and meatballs alongside ready-made meals like "lobstah" salad and "chilli-non-carne."

Vegans can use the ingredients to make Full English breakfasts at home, as well as cruelty-free versions of many other meat-based dishes.

Rudy's Vegan Butcher

The substitutes are made from soya and seitan, and are designed to mimic the texture and taste of meat.

The store sells everything you need for a vegan Full-English breakfast, it says, with meat- and dairy-free remakes of bacon, scrambled eggs, black pudding, and sausage.

The butcher sells a vegan version of black pudding, a type of blood sausage.

Rudy's Vegan Butcher

The butchers even has a charcuterie section selling vegan smoked ham, salami de provence, pepperoni, and pastrami, and offers vegan turkey for the upcoming holiday season.

The butcher will send a range of vegan charcuterie products.

Rudy's Vegan Butcher

Rudy's has tweaked the name of many of its products to emphasise their vegan nature, such as "chick'n lover" pâté.

The butcher is delivering to the rest of the UK, too, and says that every order placed on its first day will include a free pack of "baycon."

The butcher follows the success of its owners' American-style diner of the same name in London's Camden area. The diner opened in April 2018 and sells vegan hot dogs, mozzarella sticks, buffalo wings, and milkshakes.

The owners of the butchers also launched a vegan diner in London in 2018.

Rudy's Vegan Diner

UK plant-based boom despite only 1% of Brits being vegan

The meat-free market in the UK is booming. Sales of plant-based foods grew 40% between 2014 and 2019 to around £816 million per year, according to estimates from analysts at Mintel. It expects this to rise to more than £1.1 billion by 2024.

Almost a quarter of all new UK food product launches in 2019 were labeled as vegan, its research found.

Around 1% of Brits are vegan, Mintel said in January, adding that this hadn't risen much in the past two years. The higher demand has instead come primarily from the rising popularity of "flexitarian" diets, said Kate Vlietstra, Mintel global food and drink analyst. 

"Many consumers perceive that plant-based foods are a healthier option, and this notion is the key driver behind the reduction in meat consumption in recent years," Vlietstra said.