Controversial non-dairy cheesemonger La Fauxmagerie is leaving Brixton Village, saying it has “outgrown” its South London premises and that rent levels mean it cannot afford to keep two stores open.

Its new shop near Brick Lane in East London is almost four times the size of the Brixton store.

“We’re incredibly sad to be leaving Brixton, but after months of landlord negotiations and endless property viewings we realised that the only choice we had was to move somewhere where we could acquire a larger space (and afford the rent),” said the owners, sisters Rachel and Charlotte Stevens.

“We did consider keeping our Brixton Market store open, finding a second store elsewhere, and running them both together, but then we remembered London rental prices and the fact that neither of our parents is Scrooge McDuck,” they said.

“Who knows what the future may hold, perhaps one day we’ll be able to return to Brixton Market and open a second store, but until then we think our new home will help us grow and is better suited to what our customers want from us.

Their operations at Brixton Market ended on Monday (1 July).

A Fauxmagerie online shop opened today (3 July).

The dairy industry body, Dairy UK, has demanded that La Fauxmagerie stop calling its products “cheese”. A spokesperson said: “Dairy UK has a duty to ensure the nutritional and health benefits of real dairy are recognised by and communicated to consumers.

“It concerns us that consumers are being misled with the use of dairy terms like cheese by the plant-based sector.

Dairy UK said it would make La Fauxmagerie aware of European Union rulings on the protection of dairy terms.