Eleanor Crow’s East End Bakers
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Beigel Shop, Brick Lane
Eleanor’s richly-hued watercolour paintings of favourite East End Bakers set my stomach rumbling just to look at them . “I live in a bakery-free part of the East End and popping out for decent bread usually involves a cycle ride,” she admitted to me, “So I’m always on the lookout for good bakers and I wish we still had a proper bakery in every neighbourhood like they do in the rest of Europe.”
In common with Eleanor, I also plan my routes around the East End using the bakers’ shops as landmarks – so that I can take consolation in knowing the proximity of the nearest one, just in case the desire for something tasty from the bakery overtakes me.
“One of my regular bus routes has The Baker’s Arms as its final destination and close by is a beautiful set of almshouses, built by the London Master Bakers’ Benevolent Institution in the nineteenth century,” Eleanor informed me, elucidating bakers’ lore, as she took the first bite of a freshly baked Hot Cross Bun still warm from the oven.“Luckily people always want bread, so the traditional bakeries can still thrive alongside new businesses – but I do recommend sampling the goods a few times in each one, just to be sure which is the best…”
Robertsons, Lea Bridge Rd
Novelty Bakery, East Ham
Jesshops, Newington Green
Rinkoff’s, Vallance Rd
Goswell Bakeries, Canning Town
Akdeniz Bakery, Stoke Newington
Star Bakery, Dalston Lane
Fabrique Bakery, Hoxton
Raab the Bakers, Essex Rd
Percy Ingle, Lea Bridge Rd
Anderson’s, Hoxton St
Daren Bread, Stepney Green
Illustrations copyright © Eleanor Crow
Thank you Eleanor and the GA for a colourful tour of East End bakeries. I really do wonder what European tourists make of us. We have allowed supermarkets to dominate and one trip to buy everything in one place, seems to be all we have time for. Not for me. We have few bakers here in Worcester but I sniff them out and reroute my walk back from the station to pass one. We are not as dedicated to bread as the French but when I am there, I do buy bread bread every day – freshness is everything. It’s about time we started moving away from supermarkets and supported our small independent businesses. Sadly, I know that supermarkets often offer the lowest prices which for many must be the driving factor. Sad isn’t it?
I love these illustrations. I wish we still had a traditional bakery in our town. Ironically the last painting shows a “Daren” bread sign, the flour was milled back in the day here in Dartford, Kent, on the River Darent, hence the name!
nice work
I remember Percy Ingle’s in Lea Bridge Road. I used to buy bread from there when I lived just round the corner off Markhouse Road.
Not on the list of bakeries is Kossoffs. I worked in one of the tax offices in Finsbury Square in the 1970s and 80s and I used to buy my lunch from there. The rolls were big poppy seed rolls with great chunks of cheese filling and they used to sell huge slabs of bread pudding. The rolls cost 30p each and there was always a queue out of the door at lunchtimes. The branch near Broad Street must have gone when area was redeveloped but I remember walking through Wentworth Street (I think it was), some years ago and there was still a Kossoffs there, though I suppose it is gone now.
Rinkoffs Vallance Road – where is this property situated? Which end of Valance Road would this Jewish building be?
Is it true that Hoxton was the most poorest and roughest area of the EastEnd?
The pictures truly capture the colourful fabric of the Eastend.
Thank you for sharing.
Irene