London cafe tells a woman and her crying baby to leave

Owner Fergus Jackson says parents have responsibility to look after children. Photo / Getty

A mother with a three-month-old baby was asked to temporarily leave a trendy south London cafe because the child's crying was annoying customers.

Staff approached the woman at the Brick House Bakery in East Dulwich, South London, and requested she stepped outside to settle the upset infant.

Owner Fergus Jackson told MailOnline: "Parents have a responsibility to look after their children. We are a cafe, not a creche."

A row broke out on social media hours after the mother told her friends she was suddenly asked to leave the trendy bakery, reports Daily Mail.

Jennie Hall, who was with the mother at the time, took to Instagram to slam the owner's decision.

She wrote: "It was three minutes of crying which the mother was trying to settle and she was stressed about it as it was.

"Unfortunately it's a fact of life that a three-month-old baby cries, if this had been a first time mother she would have left in tears.

"We were not even offered paper bags for the food that had just been purchased.

"Totally on board with a crying baby being annoying but a friendly, 'Would you mind popping outside to see if baby quietens, you can leave your just purchased food here' would have sufficed. A little compassion goes a long way."

A row broke out on social media hours after the mother told her friends she was suddenly asked to leave the trendy bakery. Photo / Instagram

Mr Jackson, who runs the cafe along with his wife, said: "Parents have a responsibility to look after their children. We are a cafe, not a creche."

"We've had a number of complaints recently that our café is turning into a crèche. We don't have a policy about crying children but as business owners we are responsible for the overall environment.

"She was very politely asked if she would step outside for a minute to settle the baby but she chose to leave."

Another customer Dan Berrie complained on Instagram about the incident. He said: "Love what you guys do, but your attitude towards babies stinks.

"Our mate was asked to leave your place in East Dulwich today because her three month old was crying. Absolutely disgraceful kicking out (paying) customers for that reason. Hold your heads in shame."

The café responded: "If you have been to our cafe you would know that our attitude to babies does not stink. At any given time, there are a number of babies in the cafe. We provide high chairs, changing facilities, happily warm bottles and make babycinos and have no problem with breast feeding. But, we are a cafe not a crèche, and we have been getting an increasing number of complaints from (paying) customers about babies crying."

They added: "It's not something we relish or enjoy, quite to opposite in fact, but our goal is always to keep the majority of our customers happy and protect our business."