MALTBY STREET MARKET & BREAKFAST AT ST JOHN BAKERY ROOM

This week I’m happy to be hosting one of my favourite London bloggers, Giulia from Mondomulia. Her blog is about two things I really love, namely food and travel, and I always find inspiration in her photography and baking skills. Giulia is sharing a great food market off the tourist radar and reveals where to find the most gorgeous-looking doughnuts in London. Let’s discover these amazing new foodie spots through her lens!

For any tourist visiting London for the first time, Borough Market is an unmissable stop. The food market near the Southbank and London Bridge is one of the largest and oldest food markets in London, selling a large variety of foods from all over the world. It’s also incredibly busy as tourists visit en masse everyday, so it can be a bit tricky to move through the crowd and buying lunch from the street food stalls requires a lot of queuing.

If you are looking for an gastronomic experience off the beaten tracks, join London’s foodies at the Maltby Street Market instead! Opened in the summer of 2010, the unconventional market is set on Ropewalk, a pedestrian lane by the side of the railway arches in Bermondsey that connect central London to the suburbs. Edgier, smaller and lesser known than nearby Borough Market, Maltby Street offers high quality food groceries as well as many places to sit down for a drink or a meal. Over the years it’s become a popular destination for a Saturday morning wander, visiting antiques shops, buying groceries and having breakfast or apero with friends. Several traders have set up stalls here or even grown into proper restaurants housed under a railway arch. Ropewalk is now busy during the week and in the evenings, but for the real experience visit on Saturday morning between 10-13:00. Food offerings include pulled pork burgers with peri peri sauce from African Volcano, Reubens sandwiches from Monty’s Deli, smoked salmon from Hansen & Lydersen, drinks from small-batch London gin distillers Little Bird Gin, tapas and charcuterie from Tozino and much more.

My first stop is always St John Bakery, to buy one of their famous custard cream doughnuts before they sell out! Accessible from the other side of the arches at Druid Street, the bakery predominantly sells sourdough bread, doughnuts, Eccles cakes and madeleines. St John also have two restaurants in East London and are renowned for their Old Spot bacon sandwich (the perfect hangover cure after a night out in London)! Now you can try this dish at Maltby Street Market, since the opening of St John Bakery Room a few months ago. An extension to the Druid Street bakery stall, St John Bakery Room is a proper, sit-in space where you can relax over a menu drawn from across the St John repertoire. Breakfast is served with English tea or lightroasted coffee, while in the evening the restaurants serves dinner accompanied by a great selection of wines. And of course, they have doughnuts, so what’s not to like?

St John Bakery Room doesn’t take reservations, so for general enquiries please call them or follow them on Twitter for regular updates.

INFO

Address: 72 Druid Street, SE1 2HQ London, UK

Telephone: +44 20 72375999

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