When you walk into Brown's Butchers in Twickenham you get much more than a few burgers or a joint of beef, you get 52 years of expertise and some free advice on how to cook it to perfection, too.

The shop sells beef, lamb, pork and poultry from local British suppliers, as well as game when its in season, local eggs, and the best vegan sausages we've ever tasted.

Owner Michael Brown celebrated his 60th birthday last year and has been working in the industry since the age of eight, when he started with the odd jobs around a farm in Tipperary, Ireland.

He soon became an expert butcher, winning the title of Regional and National Craft butchering champion for five years in a row.

Michael used to live in Hounslow but shopped in Twickenham, which is why he wanted to set up shop here. In 2019 he set up Brown's Butchers on King Street, after managing O'Shea's Butchers in Bermondsey, and now he lives over by the stadium.

He moved into the old Peacock travel and tours shop site at the top of Cross Deep and transformed it into a butchers, opening a few weeks before Christmas 2019.

"I designed everything inside myself," he said. "I sat in the café next door and drew it all out."

And business is booming. If you've been in Twickenham on Friday and Saturday you may have seen the queues right down the street.

So what does Michael put his success down to?

"My quality and my prices," he says, without hesitation.

"People are shocked that my prices are so reasonable. I deal directly with the farmers so I can keep my prices low.

"People call me up for advice and they come here because they know they will get a good service."

Michael has his own aging room, a large glass room kept between -1 and -2 degrees, where he ages all his own meat. He dry ages his beef for between 35 and 45 days for the best flavour and maturity.

"People get blown away by the taste," he said.

Before the pandemic Michael was also running masterclasses to teach people the art of cutting meat and making sausages and burgers, which he hopes to restart again soon. He is also currently writing a book on butchery!

"There are no real butchers anymore – that's why I teach the classes.

"I teach chefs too."

So how has lockdown been for business? Michael said unsurprisingly that the last year has had a direct impact on his work.

He said: "When lockdown first happened it was just panic buying, and then it eased off when people realised they didn't need to buy so much. People were buying a month's worth of steak!

"I was delivering to people in isolation because they were scared to come out – we went as far as Battersea.

"It's eased off now because people are buying for two meals a day rather than four, as they are not working from home anymore."

As well as selling in the shop he also has commercial customers including Twickenham's Salty and Masaniello.

Find out more On the Brown's Butchers website here.

Looking for a new job? Brown's Butchers is hiring for various part-time roles! Read more here.

Contact Michael if interested: +44 7913 300365

Find more Twickenham jobs on our jobs page here.