No matter how long the line gets, Higham always does the same job. She packaging up cakes and hands them across the counter herself, making sure she rewards everyone who comes in with a personal interaction, thanking them for standing outside in the cold. Higham keeps those out on the street sated by having her staff hand out freebie palmiers – puff pastry cookies – to people while they wait.

Online, videos of meringue tearing, bread ripping and cream dolloping transfix doomscrollers. Videos about ‘cloud’ bread and ice cream cake have been watched billions of times, and this hysteria is propelling those who produce panettone and egg tarts to rock stars of the post-booze era. The best London bakeries to try London bakers Richard Hart and Frédéric Doncel-Latorre of Claridge’s Bakery This last point is key: because fewer people are drinking, they’re looking for other ways to be hedonistic.

Delicious-looking bakery content is also easy to capture: all you need is a fiver and a phone to film with and you can sit back, take a bite, and watch your followers pile up. Cruffins, giant donuts, ‘swicy’ flavours, botanical infusions and pistachio-flavoured everything have pervaded the ‘gram, and everyone’s hungry as hell. “We’re two blocks up from the canal and the queue can hit the water,” Higham says of the weekend day trippers who line up outside Quince.

Her brown butter buns are the most popular, made using a recipe she developed while working at the Michelin starred but now-closed Lyle’s restaurant in Shoreditch (one of the capital’s most revered CVs, Higham has also worked at Bread Street Kitchen and Pétrus in London, and at Gramercy Tavern in New York City). Really, she’d rather the noise went away: as much as Higham understands the value of smiling for her fans and giving them each a special moment, she doesn’t much identify with the personality-driven part of her job. Bakers, she says, lack the “cheffy ego” common in kitchens, so they aren’t so bothered by the praise.

What’s more, Higham worries that locals will be hit hardest by her popularity. Unable to simply wander down the road to pick up bread in the mornings because of the viral interest drawing visitors from her parts of London and in some cases further afield (the bakery boom is far from London exclusive, with Farro in Bristol, Bread Source in Norfolk, and Northern Rye in Newcastle upon Tyne regularly generating huge queues and online hype). The London bakers treated like mixologists This sort of hysteria used to be reserved for mixologists.

Bearded, bespectacled men who wax lyrical about ageing and distillation. But then that went out of fashion, with many looking for healthier ways to spend their weekends. Bakeries are also an affordable luxury.

At some of London’s most expensive and Instagrammable hotels, if you can’t afford to book a room, then go in for a pastry. Bakeries have become central to the growth strategy at The Maybourne Group, which operates The Berkeley, Claridge’s, The Connaught and The Emory. At The Berkeley in Knightsbridge, Cedric Grolet’s cakes often sell out by midday.

Fans buy into the concept that they look exactly like fruit, and the al fresco seating area is often full, appearing from the outside more like a traditional restaurant – but then you look at the plates: these days, dessert is a serious pastime. Popular dishes include Grolet’s Le Citron, which is bright yellow with yuzu, lemon curd and almond and has a shiny, waxy exterior, exactly like a lemon. These cakes, made using classical French patisserie techniques, appeal to an international audience.

In contrast, the newly opened Claridge’s Bakery serves fancy versions of iced fingers, Bakewell tarts, fondant fancies and Jammy Dodger tarts, playfully paying homage to nostalgic British treats. Inside the best bakeries in London It’s the latest frontier in the luxury baking boom. Richard Hart, head baker at Claridge’s Bakery, finds it hilarious that he’s being asked to pose for selfies.

“Back in the day, baking was the lowest form of [kitchen] job,” Hart tells me. “It’s crazy that bakers have become pin-ups. Vogue did this piece saying sourdough was the accessory of 2026 – what the hell?” It’s hard to overstate the rise and rise of bread.

Taylor Swift has driven the popularity of sourdough by gifting her friends handmade loaves at parties (Selena Gomez, Radio 1’s Greg James and US TV host Jimmy Fallon have all spoken about receiving loaves from the singer). The Haim sisters were recentl