Sweet treats at Claridge's Bakery

Sweet memories: where to try nostalgic British baking in London

01 Jul 2026

Journalist

Discover the best places to try nostalgic British bakes in London, from iced fingers to confectionary-inspired treats to lost recipes

What are some of your earliest food memories? Perhaps it’s the satisfaction of biting down into and exposing the jam-filled centre of a soft doughnut crunchy with sugar from your local bakery, or licking the icing off an iced finger, followed by the imposition of a parent wiping your face clean with a damp hanky?

While the quality of UK bakeries has improved immeasurably in recent years – the ingredients, the creativity, the execution – the focus has very much been on perfecting the art of viennoiserie, with the kind of baked treats many recognise from childhood falling out of fashion and often seen simply as junk food.

However, a new generation of bakers is reviving these underrated classics, utilising local ingredients and a big dose of nostalgia to show off the best of British baking traditions. A return to seasonality, and flour ground using traditional methods is also, in a way, a nostalgic pining for simpler times.

So if you still want to lick the icing of an iced finger, or have a craving for a fondant fancie, here are the best places to try the nostalgic British baking trend in London.

Chatsworth Bakehouse

This viral South London bakery does a mean line in doorstop sandwiches, grandma pizza slices and cream-stuffed maritozzi. They’re also fond of a nostalgic British bake, like iced fingers topped with passionfruit and coconut icing, with dough that is a significant upgrade on what you may remember from childhood, and bread pudding. They also sometimes offer the not very well-known London cheesecake, a big in the 1950s and ‘60s confection of puff pastry squares topped with jam, frangipane and coconut (and no cheese). Chatsworth build theirs (pictured centre) with puff pastry rounds, topped with sour cherry jam and coconut frangipane, which is then baked and finished with white icing and fresh coconut.

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Racks of baked goods at Chatsworth Bakehouse.

Claridge’s Bakery

Baker Richard Hart (pictured) of Copenhagen’s famous Hart Bageri understands that bakeries are intrinsically nostalgic places, where you can be instantly transported to another place or back in time by the whiff of rising dough and pastry. You should 100% take home a loaf of his magnificent sourdough bread from a visit to Hart’s dainty bakery at Claridge’s hotel in Mayfair, but it’s with the British classics, like a play on a Jammy Dodger biscuit and a Bakewell tart that is all cherry jam and frangipane and crumbly goodness, that the fun really starts. There’s even a Marmite and Cheddar twist – what could be more British than that?

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Richard Hart holding a tower of sourdough loaves.

Fink's

The team at Fink’s, which has several locations across North London, know what people want to eat to kick off their days (whatever time that may be): homemade crumpets with seasonal jams or Marmite butter, beans on toast (with fancy beans of course, and nduja), Welsh rarebit and thick slabs of luscious stout cake for afters. When it comes to traditional British bakes, think scones with seasonal toppings like wild garlic and cheese, and syrupy treats like treacle cake. The vibe is always seasonal and playful, encouraging you to indulge your inner child – perhaps with a recent hit like hot-pink forced rhubarb rice pudding atop a flaky Danish?

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Crumpets and other breakfast dishes at Fink's Clissold House.

Quince

Anna Higham looks to traditional British and Irish baking for inspiration at North London’s Quince (you will NOT find a croissant), working directly with British farmers to source grain that she then has milled to order. Scones, hand pies and Hobnob-inspired oat cookies are always on the menu, with Higham working strictly seasonally – strawberry and elderflower iced finger to welcome the summer? Yes, please – sometimes even sourcing surplus produce from the local community. As befitting the location, they also have a Tottenham cake on the menu (Quince is in Islington, but it’s close enough) during mulberry season in late summer – a sponge topped with bright icing and desiccated coconut or hundreds and thousands.

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A person making a tart at Quince in London.

Toad Bakery

One of the signature bakes at Camberwell’s – and soon, Deptford’s – Toad is a play on a classic confectionery – Jaffa Cakes. Toad’s version (pictured) consists of a burnt-orange and almond sponge, yuzu-orange jelly and dark chocolate ganache. Other recent seasonal specials include a take on a chocolate Hobnob (arguably the greatest biscuit of all time) made from golden syrup-infused oaty cookie dough, and fondant fancies in a trio of flavours – jasmine and tonka bean, mango and lemon, and rhubarb and blood orange. A visit to Toad is a little like winning the treat lottery, but if sweet isn’t your thing, be sure to check out savoury options like the seasonal sausage roll made with cavolo nero, English mustard and apple jelly.

_{Photo credit: Teo Della Torre}

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