The rise of London's artisanal bakeries

With celebrities such as Taylor Swift turning baking and gifting homemade loaves into a trendy "doughgirl" lifestyle, and Vogue officially crowning sourdough the "hottest accessory of 2026", artisanal baking is on the rise. Now Claridge's, the five-star establishment, is in the mix. This month it opened what is being hailed as London's chicest new boulangerie – an outpost located on Mayfair's Brook Mews headed by Richard Hart, king of the sourdough.

Hart, who is both baker and chef, co-founded the Copenhagen bakery Hart Bageri with fellow chef (and co-owner of the three-Michelin star restaurant Noma) René Redzepi in 2018 – a venture that now has multiple stores across Copenhagen city, and is considered one of the best bakeries in the world. 

Hart is dedicated to producing the perfect bake, which he says might only be achieved twice a year. His perfectionism is perhaps down to his training as a chef. He began his career in fine dining at London's Michelin-starred Maze under Jason Atherton and at Bistrotheque (Carl Clarke), before moving to California for Ubuntu (Jeremy Fox) and Della Fattoria, where he eventually took over as head baker at the iconic Tartine in San Francisco. It was here that he discovered his love of sourdough, dedicating his life to “baking the elusive perfect loaf”.

His menu at Claridge's Bakery is based on traditional British favourites: Bloomers and Granary Loaves, Jammy Dodger and Custard Tarts, Belgian Buns and Iced Fingers, as well as his own sourdough bread. “Opening Claridge’s Bakery feels like the moment when all the work, the recipes, and the ideas finally meet the people they’re meant for,” he says of the collaboration.

There is a new appetite for the craft. Quality artisanal bakery goods are in high demand, with the global market, valued at around $55bn to $89bn in 2024, expected to reach upper estimates of around $141bn by 2032. The renaissance of baking has created a new kind of gourmand go-to, the upscale bakery: independent purveyors of the perfect crust, the flakiest pastry and hybrid crazes from the “croffle” (a croissant-waffle),  to the "mookie" (muffin-cookie).

London has had its fair share of new openings. Mayfair club owner and entrepreneur Robin Birley launched his Birley Bakery with Vincent Zanardi, the former executive pastry chef at his club 5 Hertford Street, in Chelsea Green in 2022, having already successfully opened a chain of upmarket sandwich shops during the 1980s. Birley Bakery is expanding; it opened a New York outpost, its first in the US, at the end of last year. 

It all goes to show there is dough in bread...