Britain’s Best Bakeries 2026
Published 24 March 2026

Owned by Flora Shedden, a Dunkeld local and once the youngest-ever finalist on The Great British Bake Off, this stylish whitewashed bakery enjoys a prime position on the main thoroughfare and has contributed to the town's burgeoning reputation as a foodie pit stop for the Highlands. Locals have much to be pleased about too, with a roster of seasonal danishes (from wild garlic and goat's cheese to fig, honey and walnut), alongside beautifully flavoured, inch-thick shortbread, golden sausage rolls, focaccia sandwiches and house sourdough made with landrace flour, grown and milled in Scotland. Hot eats include cheese and kimchi toasties as well as seasonal soups, which are best enjoyed at a spot by the window if you can snag one.

Founded by Singaporean restaurateur Ellen Chew and French-born patissier Alix André, this bakery and café started life as a Soho pop-up before putting down roots in the heart of Covent Garden in 2020. East Asian flavours weave their way into a display counter of dazzlingly good-looking treats from hotdog croissants with Japanese BBQ sauce to miso bacon escargots and 'gula melaka' coconut buns. The honey butter toast – a take on Japanese shokupan (milk bread) – is a must-order. A second outlet can now be found on Duke Street in Marylebone, and a third outlet is due to open on Shaftesbury Avenue in 2026.

What started in Harry Robins' Putney flat – loaves and pastries delivered by cargo bike to a band of devoted regulars – has blossomed into one of London's most exciting bakeries. Since crowdfunding to launch their Clapham Common shop in December 2024, Harry and his wife, Florrie Beard, have wasted no time making their mark with meticulous bakes that prioritise substance over style – although the line-up of sweet, seasonal buns and burnished focaccia sandwiches is hardly short on good looks. Proof that the best things really do come from small beginnings.

Having earned a glowing reputation making bespoke bakes for Sheffield’s top coffee shops, the team behind Bakers Yard have opened their own café in a quiet corner of Kelham Island. The signature rum canelés are superb, as are the white chocolate, pistachio and lemon cookies, and the salted whey caramel and chocolate ganache tarts. Savoury bakes also change constantly, but do order the vadouvan-spiced potato and Baron Bigod cheese pie if it’s on offer. Lunch specials generally showcase vegetables – our favourite is an assembly of garlic-roast purple sprouting broccoli, cavolo nero, romesco, pickled chillies, spicy roast almonds on toasted sourdough. Outdoor seating is basic, but great for sunny days.

Bandit's sourdough loaves are excellent, as are the fluffy focaccia and crusty baguettes. Once you start going for those, it’s hard to stay away from the croissants, fantastic cinnamon buns, cookies and brownies – especially as the small coffee shop (and its excellent coffee) is such a draw too. And did we say it was totally vegan? With his commitment to high-quality ingredients, Peter Leonard has raised the bar on what bakers can achieve. A beacon of flavour-forward breads and pastries.

By Wednesday each week, the Beefcake Café's Facebook page reveals the eclectic delights that will be available to eat in or take away from Thursday to Sunday (10am-2pm). The owners have an obsession with sourdoughs and a passion for pastry, and this very personal business sells out fast. Their regular menu of filled floury baps brimming with breakfast or brunch, loaded sourdough toasts and viennoiserie is supplemented by the likes of sweetcorn fritters with avocado and poached egg, while pies might bring bold combos such as butternut squash with oyster mushroom and halloumi. Otherwise, their perfectly laminated croissant-based options are supplemented by ever-changing danishes (think pear, blackberry and tonka bean). There's bread, of course, and the place is licensed too.

Former Nottingham Post journalist Bryan Henesey retrained as a baker, worked his way up through several Nottinghamshire kitchens, and eventually set up his own small operation at Sneinton Market Avenues in the heart of the city. The career change has paid off in spades. The sight of a snaking queue will lead you towards his burgeoning range of sourdoughs, dark and complex rye loaves, sweet panela custard tarts and savoury brioche. Small but mighty, and very much worth seeking out.

Sian Evans and Tom Mathews turned lockdown loaves for neighbours into one of Britain’s most lusted-after bakeries – a sell-out success story that has never let its standards slip through five years of unremitting hype. Despite operating both a pre-order pick-up address at 120a and a walk-in site a few doors down, you’ll know you’re near when you spot the queue. Understandably so, as everything from the stacked focaccia sandwiches and airy pizzas by the slice to the malted-milk maritozzi and pumpkin spiced doughnuts hits a home run. 

Some bakeries deserve extra praise for their beautiful creations, and this sophisticated sourdough bakery and coffee shop at the heart of the Crieff community is one of them. But while Emily Hart’s almond croissants may be a sweet hit with many, she is equally well-known for her savoury danishes, sourdough loaves and focaccia. However, we reckon the soft, flaky, buttery morning bun, drenched in orange and cinnamon sugar, is the showstopper, transporting us to pastry heaven.

Deeply embedded within the Queen’s Park community, you’ll find this bakery-by-day, restaurant-by-night buzzing from first thing on a Monday morning. And rightly so. The quality and originality of the goods from head baker Keren Sternberg is outstanding. Just try turning down the gorgeously glossy brown-butter maple challah doughnuts or the buttery crackle of a bergamot sfogliatella. There are also freshly baked sandwiches for weekday lunches or pies at the weekend, and you could do worse than relax into the low-lit good looks of evening service for a seasonal small-plates supper.

There’s a perma-queue at the counter at this bakery and café beneath Hackney's railway arches but it moves quickly and you’ll soon find yourself at a table with your coffee and a bun. Take a laptop or stylish baby if you want to look the part. The baking is exceptional, both in terms of skills and ingredients: their croissants, for example, are made using three different types of heritage flour, stoneground on site and laminated with raw cultured butter. The menu changes constantly but currant buns, florentines and rye cookies are constants. For something more substantial, choose soup, a sourdough sandwich or a seasonal special. There are outlets in Poplar and, from May 2025, in Hackney Wick.

Arguably the best croissants in London (if not the UK) are on offer at Eric’s – a local bakery run by ex-Flor supremo Helen Evans. Inside, it has a level of refinement that most of its rivals simply cannot match: carefully chosen interiors and an intentionally gentler style of service create what one visitor called 'an elevated experience'. Those croissants get their unmatched depth of flavour from a mixture of meticulously sourced wholemeal and emmer flour, but everything excels here: savouries include a rich, tangy and devilishly moreish aubergine and fermented fava bean swirl, while sweet inducements range from exemplary pain au chocolat to cinnamon buns. Eric's only serves filter coffee, but that’s just fine by us.

In the most unlikely of locations, right by the city’s Bearpit roundabout, ‘probably my favourite bakery of all time’ puts the focus on ancient grains; the owners mill their own in-house and produce an einkorn wheat loaf with an incredible depth of flavour. Best pastries are probably the honey and almond croissant, the pastel de nata and the totally ‘unmissable’ canelé. So often, bakeries lose that element of quality by branching out into sandwiches and the like. Not here. All they do is bake bread and pastries to wonderful perfection. Takeaway only.

Gothelney Farm is a beacon of regionally powered regenerative agriculture and when it comes to picking up a loaf, it doesn’t get more local than on-site Field Bakery, where Rosy Benson oversees the stone mill and shows the care that goes into nurturing the soil. The results speak for themselves: extraordinarily good loaves, cinnamon buns and kimchi sausage rolls (made from the farm's own pasture-reared pigs) are the top picks – note that bakery hours are limited to Fridays (and occasional Saturdays), but coffee and locally produced provisions make the trip worthwhile, and a pre-order system is in place to avoid missing out. For the real bread heads, there’s also a regular roster of field-to-loaf workshops and baking classes. 

The golden croissant-shaped door handle sets the tone of this glossy bakery and café before you've even stepped inside. Fred's Oxford Circus outpost, opened in 2025 and complementing the original in Holborn, has earned its place on the social circuit – though its merits run far deeper than influencer aesthetics. Butter-laden bakes are a portal to the streets of Paris at their finest; a decadent tiramisu bun tempts the sweet-toothed, but it's the cinnamon buns, baked fresh throughout the day and served still warm, that stopped us in our tracks.

Anna Gerrans and Nat Galliano-Hale’s bakery opened as a wholesale business in 2021, supplying sourdough to cafés and restaurants. But a weekly counter selling baked goods directly to the public quickly built up a following and, such was the demand, the couple moved to a larger retail space in 2023, allowing them to incorporate a café alongside the on-view bakery. Meticulously baked sourdough loaves, viennoiserie and updated versions of classics such as Danish pastries (with fillings like coffee crème patisserie, whipped cream and dark chocolate crumb) give locals good reason to keep coming back. As an added attraction, there are also eclectic savouries along the lines of bone broth with a carrot kimchi toastie.

Family-run with a passion for all things sourdough, this easy-going bakery and café is fast building up a solid, enthusiastic fan base. Bang on target, with cheery staff encouraging a sense of bonhomie, it’s as good for breakfast (shakshuka eggs) as it is for lunch (fish-finger sandwich or a savoury roasted beetroot and cream danish). The coffee is good, sourdough croissants and cinnamon rolls fill the gaps, and ‘Friday Night Dinner’ ranges from steak or pie feasts to chicken and salsa rossa with hazelnut pangrattato. There's an offshoot in Faversham.

The sign outside Kate and Hugo Hamblin’s neighbourhood-focused bakery is simple: Bread Baked Here Daily. And it is, along with carefully crafted cakes, biscuits, buns and cookies, with an array of deli items on sale too. Sourcing is of the utmost importance with only directly traded organic, stoneground flour baked into the custard and candied Seville cake, whole-fruit financiers and Swedish bun staples perfumed with cinnamon and cardamon. For something savoury, consider a slice of sourdough pizza made from Maris Widgeon and ‘population’ wheat, topped with Westcombe ricotta. A second location – Hamblin kiosk and snack bar – can be found in Oxford’s Covered Market.

Handy for a classy train snack to go, this excellent bakery next to Bristol Temple Meads station is also a hugely popular destination in its own right. Inside, it’s simply decorated with moveable counters on castors and a gleaming coffee machine in front of the open-plan workspace. There are also a few tables inside and a couple of outdoor benches for those who want to linger over their doorstep sourdough toasties or cinnamon buns. Open from early doors till 3pm, its daily menu of baked goodies is supplemented by lunch specials such as chicken and tomato broth with asparagus and peas. Coffee is from the local Extract roastery. é

Phil Clayton, a largely self-taught baker, credits his flavoursome loaves with the flour grown and milled in small batches by Yorkshire Organic Millers – you can taste the splendid results by purchasing his crusty sourdough classics and slow-fermented yeast breads. The Haxby shop, where it all began, has a counter stacked with pastries, tarts, cooked meats and store-cupboard ingredients, as well as the venerated ‘pain au levain’. There's also an outlet (also with a café attached) in the characterless Clifton Moor Business Park, where eager locals take advantage of a bigger range of goodies ranging from generously filled focaccia sandwiches to sugary cinnamon buns and good coffee. Get there early – they’re invariably sold out by midday.

Named for Will Prosser's late grandmother, Hilda is Bristol's small but mighty bakery on wheels – a little hatchback van that draws a devoted community around it wherever it parks up (most frequently on Whiteladies Road). There's no bread here, just pastries and very good coffee, but what pastries they are: laminated tarts piled with seasonal fillings such as roasted cherries and bay-leaf custard are visual works of art and fabulously delicious too. Original, utterly charming and worth tracking down.

Mexican chef Tonatiuh Erreguin has a soulful approach to baking which has nourished a grateful community of customers in Stoke Row and across the Chilterns since opening in an industrial unit in 2019. Her standout sourdough attracts snaking queues (it’s advisable to arrive early), while sweet and savoury seasonal danishes, pistachio ‘cruffins’ and golden sausage rolls complete the flavour-packed line-up.

Filipino and Korean bakes are the order of the day at this handsome little bakery on Cherry Hinton Road. Tuck into matcha cream buns, a riff on Basque cheesecake made with ube (purple yam) or pillowy ensaymada pastries filled with buttercream and topped with a drift of mild cheese. Savouries grace the counter from mid-morning, so keep an eye out for egg sandos with kimchi butter and sesame, or tuna mayo focaccia with a sprinkle of sweetcorn. Grab a seat inside to enjoy a bake with coffee, or enjoy a strawberry matcha latte on one of the pavement tables when the weather's fine. 

Since opening in central Bath in 2018, Andrew Lowkes’ independent, community-focused bakery has expanded to become a city institution. Locals are obsessed with the sourdough loaves, made with speciality grains sourced directly from local farmers and milled at the bakery’s own granite stone mill some 20 miles south, near Evercreech. And good luck with getting out without at least one cardamom bun, hazelnut praline cream bun or fennel-studded sausage roll. While it never stops being a bakery, Landrace is also a treasured all-day resource – operating as a ground-floor daytime café (the coffee is excellent), while the space above is home to the excellent GFG-rated restaurant Upstairs at Landrace, headed by chef Rob Sachdev.

From lines out the door at The Palmerston to crowds overwhelming her Stockbridge bakery, Darcie Maher can’t help but attract queues for her pastrywork. Do the goods deliver? Absolutely. The sunny corner spot is an apothecary-like arrangement of glistening cardamom buns, puffed-up pain au chocolat, vanilla slices and sugared cinnamon scrolls stuffed with cloud-like vanilla cream, while a hatch onto the working bakery offers a glimpse of masters at work. To get the best selection, it’s wise to turn up before 9.30am – or earlier if you can. Coffee is Obadiah and the hot chocolate is from Glasgow’s micro bean-to-bar factory Bare Bones.

Brummies have been enjoying an upsurge in quality bakeries, but this tiny one tucked down an alley off King's Heath High Street brings something new. In honing his approach to viennoserie and French-style baking, self-taught Pascal Bishop has built such a following for his flaky, butter-rich croissants, sourdough loaves, crusty baguettes, pillowy focaccia and brioche that a second branch is now open in Stirchley. Pascal uses French organic flours from Moulin Viron, a family-owned flour mill located just outside of Paris, and his unconventional savouries (Marmite and Cheddar swirl), and highly delicious pastries (white chocolate and pistachio pain au chocolat) are ranked among the city’s best baked goods.

Tamara Williams’ shining star of the South Wales baking scene is noted for its wonderful set of baked goods. There are sourdough loaves and buttery, flaky croissants that require a three-day process of mixing, lamination, and shaping, while sausage rolls, swirling cinnamon buns, and leek and potato pasties are standouts with customers. Menu staples include Welsh cakes and focaccia sandwiches. A second location is in Brynmill.

Taking over a long-disused site back in 2020, this bakery from Pollen alumnus Jenny Oakenfull has breathed new life into Levenshulme. A small team of all-female bakers turns out a satisfyingly creative selection of sweet and savoury bakes – perhaps a pandan lamington (a take on the coconut-drenched Aussie classic) or an ‘everything bagel’ croissant stuffed with dill, spring onion and cream cheese – while classic cakes and pastries are presented with equal doses of flavour and flourish. With a tiny production kitchen, bread comes from the also-excellent Holy Grain Sourdough in Manchester city centre. Like any self-respecting neighbourhood bakery, they sell out quickly – so get there early. 

Working directly with Somerset farmers through the South West Grain network, James Cartwright and Frederica Bullough have been serving up the model of an accessible, sustainable food system alongside their delicious bakes since 2022. Their Wiveliscombe bakery has won over locals with its full-flavoured porridge tin loaves, and rye/spelt malt loaves, while the line-up of seasonal sweets might include rhubarb and custard pies, roast apricot bostock and cream buns with strawberries macerated in Somerset cider brandy. As a small operation, hours are limited to Friday collections with orders to be made by 2pm on Wednesday. Plans are afoot to start up pizza nights, join the farmers' market circuit and offer baking classes.

Baker Aidan Monks was on the sourdough scene long before it became fashionable. In fact, he first set up shop in Kendal in the late ‘80s and has built a mini empire in the North West that continues to rake in the plaudits. Exclusively British organic flours are baked into a wide range of loaves and pastries that are available for delivery country-wide and are sold over the counter in Burneside, Altrincham Market, Kirkby Lonsdale’s weekly market, and at the Kendal HQ, which is a worthy detour for any Lake District visitor. Favourites from the range include the khorasan loaf, Northumberland rye and the flavoursome, buttery croissants which, with a specialty coffee from neighbouring Rinaldo’s, makes for the perfect mid-morning treat.

Hai Lin Leung works to her own schedule when it comes to running her micro-bakery from her Walthamstow home – and rightly so, given that she juggles a career as a full-time doctor alongside it. Her signature bakes, to which loyal locals set their watches, are a reflection of her British-Cantonese identity and include fluffy pineapple buns and her signature sesame soy congee sourdough.

Former Pophams head baker Dan Frazer and Downham Market local Lucy Peacock have been delighting residents since setting up shop on the Market Place in 2024. Pophams fans might recognise the maple-bacon swirls, the rosemary sea-salt twists and the seasonal danishes, but there's plenty more to intrigue and delight – including damson iced buns, Hawaiian pain suisse and sourdough loaves spiked with spelt, honey and oats. If you’ve waited in the line snaking out onto the street, a warm welcome awaits – so we suggest grabbing a seat at the communal table to savour it all.

Painted in handsome navy blue with condensation clouding the windows, this little in-and-out bakery attracts a hubbub of locals as soon as doors opens at 8am. The bakes taste as good as they look, with cardamom-studded buns and rum-and-raisin danishes twinkling from their glass cabinet while the shaping and scoring of new loaves continues at the back. As a bread-led business, flavourful flour is a serious matter, so Cornish and British-grown wheat are used exclusively in wholegrain tin loaves, ciabatta, focaccia and sourdough baguettes.

Since opening by a tributary of the Tyne in 2020, this little bakeshop in the bohemian enclave of Ouseburn has created quite a stir among the city’s cognoscenti. Behind the counter, energetic black-clad staff construct imaginative sandwiches such as roasted aubergine with chimichurri and curtido (fermented vegetables) or ham and pease-pudding rolls. What makes these a class apart is the superb bread, from cruncy-crusted baguettes to best-in-class olive and rosemary focaccia. Among the sweet stuff, the slightly salty, buttery chocolate-chip cookie is worth every calorie. Laptop-tapping regulars sit on the few stools inside, sipping tasty mochas, while others eat outside by the river. There are also outlets in North Shields: a ‘stunningly good’ bakehouse, a coffee shop, and the bakery itself. 

Five years have flown by since Monika Olszewska and Charlie Smith followed their dream of opening a bakery by the sea, and it's been a story of ongoing success among the Fishguard community. You'll often find queues down the High Street for their all-organic sourdough and their seasonal danishes sporting spectacular lamination. So long as you get there early, there's plenty to choose from – perhaps a carrot-cake cruffin, a slice of rum and raisin croissant pudding, or a leek and Stilton savoury.

Leeds Dock was once a stew of 19th-century warehouses, where barges would offload coal to supply the heavy industries of nearby Hunslet. Its transformation came in the mid 1990s with the arrival of the Royal Armouries Museum and later a mix of residential and business premises, of which Sarah Lemanski's bakery, opened in 2019, is a major standout. There’s no seating but you can watch the dough being kneaded while waiting to pick up one of their long-proved sourdough loaves, brown butter madeleines, almond croissants, or a bag of chewy chocolate-chip cookies. The counter and shelves are also stacked with all manner of on-trend provisions from esoteric homemade marmalades to Leeds honey, pasta and pulses. Eight-week 'bread subscriptions' available.

Chef and pastry buff Jamie Heffey returned to his love of baking post-lockdown and, after selling out at farmers' markets in the early days, has made a roaring success with his fully fledged patisserie north of the city centre. The unit might look basic but the fastidious attention to detail delivers seriously good bakes. Dessert flavours ranging from Black Forest gâteau to tiramisu define a sweet-toothed line-up of danishes and cruffins, but you’ll also find seasonal savoury twists, fish-finger butties, chicken Caesar sandwiches and Pastille's beloved breakfast baps.

There is a lot of local love for Clare Mansfield and Fred Mackenzie’s warm-hearted bakery at the centre of this ancient market town. Fred’s meticulous approach is evident in fragrant, gloriously crusted sourdough loaves and baguettes, flaky croissants and irresistible pastries. Come for the espresso buns and the seasonal fruit 'danish' riffs (blood orange on our visit) – they are popular for very good reason. However, for many fans, the most memorable creations often straddle the border of sweet and savoury – look out for the likes of fennel, salami and béchamel-filled croissants, or roast tomato, tomato jam and whipped ricotta danish.

Few spots in Manchester can match the joy of a sunny Saturday morning at Pollen – especially the OG Ancoats site that started it all (a second can be found at Kampus). Bag a canal-side seat, settle in with a well-crafted coffee and take your pick from a glossy, caramelised Breton-style kouign-amann or a perfectly laminated croissant. The team's longstanding commitment to quality ingredients and technical precision produces bakes that punch well above their weight. A destination worth every minute of waiting in the queue.

Forming part of a business collective comprising an art gallery and wine bar with live music at the weekends, Owen Postgate’s bakery-café takes up most of the space at this hugely popular warehouse conversion. It’s all about quality, with provenance to the fore – everything is sourced as locally as possible, from fruit and vegetables to the grain used in the baking. Everyone praises the ‘divine’ pastries: the cardamom buns are a daily sell-out and there are ‘absolutely delicious’ seasonal Danishes (we enjoyed an orange crème version). On the savoury side, don’t miss the homemade pickles, ferments and salads or the Neapolitan-style fior di latte, pesto and pepperoni pizza from the huge pizza oven. There's an offshoot café on Whittox Lane. 

Housed in a one-time primary school, Small Food is the brainchild of Kimberley Bell – baker, ‘sustainable food activist’ and founder of the UK Grain Lab. It’s not only a genuine community hub, but also a treasured source of organic produce, naturally leavened breads and much more besides. At the centre of things is an eco-conscious, artisan bakery and café, where you can procure sweet and savoury treats to eat in or takeaway. Seasonal hits range from croissants, fruity Danish pastries and cheesecake with blackberry jam to sausage rolls, pies, pizza slices and immense potato and leek scones. Small Food sits cheek-by-jowl with Beam (a bookshop and gallery with its own barrista-led coffee shop).

Started by Harry Doherty in 2023 as a wholesale business before branching out to sell direct, this industrious little bakery has wasted little time securing a place in the hearts of its lucky locals and firming up its reputation as the finest bakery on the Wirral. British-grown stoneground organic grains are at the heart of everything here, arriving as fresh as possible from the mill and transformed into exceptionally delicious sourdough loaves, buttermilk bloomers and seasonal pastries. Pre-orders are recommended, though weekend walk-ins are warmly welcomed.

Pa Modou’s petite little Suba bakery is one of Walthamstow’s greatest hits. From the Gambia by way of Hackney, his African- and Asian-inflected bakes are spectacular elevations on the classics. Estate Dairy butter and milled-to-order grain from Scotland are baked into ‘plain’ croissants, produced in batches throughout the morning for the ultimate stretchy, flaky freshness and finished with a mango syrup glaze. There are also bantu buns fragrant with caraway, and sunshine shades in the signature 'mango baobab danish' with cardamom cream. On our latest visit, a Japanese egg mayo sandwich was a savoury highlight. There are outlets in Spitalfields and Upper Clapton.

Daniel and Lauren Cadoo have become an integral part of the local community by producing ‘amazing’ bread at their gem of an independent bakery in the heart of Market Harborough. From ‘really excellent’ sourdough, via traditional yeasted loaves (white tins, wholemeal) to the more unique (for the area) Turkish flatbreads – all are worth trying. The pastries (croissants, pain au chocolat) are made from scratch in the traditional French style, and the sausage rolls are ‘very, very good’. In addition, there are sandwiches and more ‘fun’ baked items such as cheese and Marmite swirls or 'cruffins' with sweet fillings.

Named for the fabled Lost Windmill of West Cowes, this heritage-minded bakery and coffee shop puts the Isle of Wight firmly on Britain's baking map. Flour sourced from the island underpins everything, from standout sourdough loaves to slow-fermented croissants – a four-day process that shows in every buttery layer. Cherry and almond bostock and glazed cardamom knots are among the sweet highlights, while homemade buckwheat granola or soup with a sourdough roll will see you through from breakfast and lunch.

The cinnamon buns are excellent, but it's hard to ignore the rest of the regularly changing display of cakes, pastries and viennoiserie on offer at Wild Loaf. The croissants (both plain and almond) also come highly recommended, as does the coffee. On the savoury side, their sourdough cheese toastie is a must (a glorious amalgam of cheese and onion marmalade) – and don't forget to pick up a loaf to take home. After all, the sign on the window proudly proclaims the ‘best sourdough in Liverpool’. Prepare to queue, especially on Saturdays, as Jessica Doyle and Emily Sandeman have built a huge following for their tiny enterprise. If you’re lucky, you might just bag one of the few tables.

At the weekend, you may have to join a lengthy queue if you accidentally hit peak time, such is the popularity of this small, crowdfunded Camberwell bakery where excellent bread is a given. Sourdough is long-fermented and made from UK-grown, sustainably farmed grain, but the stars of the show are the pastries. Choose from sweet treats such as almond croissants, saffron and vanilla teacakes or yuzu orange Jaffa mini cakes; otherwise, pick up a savoury croissant (beef brisket 'bear claw' with pickle, say). There are daily meat and vegetarian sandwich options, too.

Image: Teo Della Torre

It’s not hard to understand the appeal of this standalone bakery across the courtyard from the White Horse pub. With a charming beamed and stone-walled interior – plus a winter-warming wood-burner and pretty, partially covered terrace seating – it’s clearly popular with a local crowd. The daytime fare is exactly what you would expect: breakfasts of Clarence Court poached eggs with local thick-cut ham on sourdough or croissants filled with smoked salmon and cream cheese, plus excellent pain au chocolat, almond croissants, Danish pastries and very good coffee. Lunch brings home-baked focaccia filled with roast pork and apple sauce or a Walsingham Cheddar and ham toastie. Don’t forget to pick up a baguette, some rye bread or a sourdough loaf when you leave. 

From sourdough bomboloni to German schrotbrot, soft Scottish batch rolls and buns layered with freshly milled green cardamom, there’s nothing John Castley can’t – or won’t – turn his hand to. What comes out of the wood-fired oven is less about good looks than how it eats, and a wholehearted dedication to the Scottish grain revolution has put this pretty Perthshire village on the international baking map. In addition to the Comrie shop, Castley's bread and pastries can be found at Perth Farmers’ Market as well as several delis, farm shops and cafés across Scotland.

There’s something of a local fan club for this town-centre bakery/deli run by the Wooster family, so look sharp because the early laden shelves can empty quickly. Try the deep, malty flavour of a peerless sprouted rye sourdough or go for a bouncy white batch loaf. Meet your sweet needs with a cream-filled morning bun or a paper bag of soft amaretti, and don’t miss the squidgy richness of the malt loaf. Wooster's pops up at local farmers’ markets and there’s nationwide delivery of some items. A second branch can be found at the Bull Pen at Wyken Vineyards.