History

1950

In the 1950s Hubert Mons made his living trucking food across France. After a decade accruing knowledge about producers & farms, he began sourcing artisanal cheeses from his native region - the Auvergne - & sold them at local markets with his wife, Rolande.

They bought their family home on the Cote Roannaise & with land to call their own, constructed their first maturing room to age their stock. The cellar was dug into the hillside
& insulated by two metres of earth – a technique that would become a hallmark of the family’s maturing rooms.

They went on to open a shop in Roanne called ‘L’Auvergnat’ which enabled the expansion of their maturing rooms and the inception of a national wholesale operation.

1980

In the 1980s, Hubert & Rolande's two sons - Laurent and Herve - joined the business. Laurent took over the shop and Herve oversaw cheese ripening, whilst developing wholesale sales, nationally & internationally.

Laurent went on to expand the network of family shops locally, & developed a learning centre & curriculum in cheese making, maturing & all associated care & sales skills – Mons Formation. The academy welcomes cheese professionals from around the world, seeking to enhance their technical knowledge & capabilities.

Herve added another earth-insulated maturing room to the original premises & expanded into a disused underground railway tunnel in nearby Ambierle to mature Tommes and other un-cooked, hard cheeses like Salers.

As part of the expansion & modernisation of his original maturing rooms, he installed a small cheese-making dairy – the Laiterie de la Cote Roannaise - where in-house cheese & yoghurt recipes went into production.

Herve opened a group of fromageries in Lyon & further a-field in Southern France, taking the number of shops in the family network to 15.

Before retiring in early 2024 & passing the mantle to his nephew Jules, Herve acquired the Fromagerie des Hautes Chaumes & wrapped it into the family businesses. Based in nearby Sauvain, the dairy’s reputation is built on the production of Fourme de Montbrison & has become the sole supplier of this cheese to the company.

2006

Herve & Jon Thrupp began working together to bring the family’s cheeses across The Channel.

Mons Cheesemongers opened in the UK in 2006 on a small stall at Borough Market, as the area was in the throes of its renaissance as a food destination.

Our fledgling business had the support of a small handful of discerning trade customers.

With Retail at our heart, in 2011, we opened a second stall in Bermondsey’s reputed Maltby St market.

In 2012, we allied ourselves with the fellow food traders & producers of the Spa Terminus group.
We equipped a railway tunnel within their network near Tower Bridge with the necessary elements to care for our cheese & our first UK maturing room was born.

2016

We located a site in East Dulwich’s Lordship Lane that presented an ideal fixed home for our cheese. The Winter was spent preparing the building for use & in Spring of 2017, we opened our first bricks-and-mortar shop at number 153.

With our maturing rooms developing to mirror the growth of our shops & markets, we expanded yet further in Bermondsey in 2018.

& 2020 saw the addition of our online shop to the company’s website.

Today

We select traditionally made Continental & British cheeses, aged in our cellars in London & on the Cote Roannaise.

We also supply a range of dairy produce, cured meats,
crackers, condiments, beers, wines, ciders & perries.

Provenance is key to the quality of the cheese we age & sell. As such, we prize our relationships with producers. You can find a series of short biographies of some of our favourites on our website. Include link to films.

You can visit us at our shops in Bermondsey, East Dulwich, or at our stalls in Borough Market & Brockley
Market. Home deliveries are available through our online shop at www.mons-cheese.co.uk. Promotion description appears here.

We also run a programme of cheese & wine tastings from our shop in East Dulwich, or can tailor tastings to your interests & needs for private bookings.

We offer a wholesale service to trade customers nationwide. We currently supply Specialist Cheese Shops : George Mewes Cheese, London Cheesemongers & The Courtyard Dairy; Foodhalls :
Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges & Wholefoods Market; independent Restaurants : Noble Rot, Primeur, Club Gascon, Maison Francois; & Delis : Meadows, Welbeck Farm shop, Gladwells Deli and Grocery, Trudes Grocery, Jones of Brockley.

For more information visit our Retail and Wholesale
pages or get in touch with Jon Thrupp directly on 07734 737 708 with any other questions.

Wonderful cheese

The French selection of cheeses was great, a good mix of hard and soft cheeses delivered in excellent condition. What a shame the delivery company didn’t have the same high standards , delivery a day early, parcel left on the front doorstep in full sun not in the safe place specified. Just as well a photo was sent so we could ask a neighbour to retrieve the parcel and keep until our return 24 hours later!

What do I think?

I think you are brilliant

Daniel Ozeri is amazing and deserves a raise

Daniel ensured that our cheese order arrived at the requested date and time for our office event. The cheeses were packaged and wrapped perfectly, and the hard cheeses were already pre-cut for us as I had explained that we do not have a cheese knife or any sharp knives in our office. Daniel helped us with the cheese selection and with placing the order and provided helpful descriptions of the cheeses, so that I could describe the cheeses to my colleagues and know what to pair with them. He left a professional letter with the cheeses explaining why he had substituted one of the cheeses to ensure we received the best quality possible. This was good initiative and I appreciate this.

TASTE thE DIFFERENCE

I have eaten this cheese is summer and winter and can appreciate the difference. there's a tendency for the non-expert to think the livestock eat the same thing, they produce the same milk and it makes a static type of cheese that you buy in the supermarkets. Geting to know cheeses through Mons shows they are as affected by the seasons and climate changes as wines or coffee are. I love the non-traditional format and the clean, slightly sharp flavour of the winter cheese, especially spread over a black damsal or beetroot biscuit. Very satisfying.

Delicious

Everything was first class - from ordering online to collection. We always have a substantial cheeseboard over the holidays and Mons never disappoints! Lovely staff too.

Let customers speak for us