The Spence Bakery

You know a bakery is great when the line is out the door.
And the line is always out the door here.
it’s a tiny shop, but my god, everything they make is delicious and giant and so tasty and well priced. It’s such an easy win.
Come for the English Muffins. Come for the Cococnut Bread. Come for the sour dough bread. Come for the desserts and sandwiches they make in house. Just come, it’s one not to be missed.

Meh! Over-​rated.
Too expensive for what it is. You can get better food for less money elsewhere on Church Street. And you can get better coffee practically anywhere in the country so long as you avoid Little Chefs and workmans cafes…
It’s a prime case of the Emperors New Clothes with this place.

Great place for breakfast, a quick snack or to buy bread and pastries. Delicious produce. Slightly dear but definitely the best in town. You can also buy fresh yeast from here for your own homemade bakes. Make sure you’re up early, the best bits run out quickly. Only wish they had more tables !

My favorite place to have a coffee on Stoke Newington Church Street.

I’s «A-​OK» for lovely loaves of bread and amazing, smaller-​portioned date scones (90p), but for espresso drinks, it’s not so «A-​OK». I’d ordered an espresso, as I often do, and, sadly, this one was as bitter as chewed-​up aspirin – not a flavor I enjoy. Chicas: tamp the espresso evenly, don’t pull the shot too long, and make sure both porta-​filters and groups are clean. :)

Am I the only person who doesn’t really like the Spence’s bread? I have found the white and the wholemeal loaves to be quite doughy and uneven in texture. I sometimes think people just go here for the bread cos it’s a local baker and clearly there aren’t as many of those as in days gone by. I like the smell of the bread baking when I walk by but I’m afraid it isn’t to my taste.

Great Great Great ‘The Best ’ Local bakery.
Get there early for warm fresh made bread.

Early (ish) morning weekend jaunts to the Spence for a freshly baked loaf and a bag of croissants is a lovely N16 ritual.
I can’t fault the bread (although I’d like it if there was a pure sourdough loaf on offer). Stocks run low after midday though, so you do have to get there early.
They don’t take cards, which is slightly annoying (you can run up a fairly large bill easily here — and Church Street doesn’t have a single real ATM). My main complaint is that they keep monkeying around with the chorizo roll recipe. A few recipe changes ago, this was the most delicious baked item in all of London. To go to the Spence to discover they’d sold out would ruin your whole day (and actually some of their other savoury filled items are a bit horrid). But now they seem to keep messing about with what goes into the roll and it’s not what it was.
Oh — and locals don’t need to be told this, but the Spence is a child hater’s worst nightmare. Even if there are four absurdly large buggies taking up all the space already, some nitwit will still try to wheel Olly and Maisie in… Argh!

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers circa 1978. The bird (had to look this up and it’s Brooke Adams) survives the night after getting separated from Donald Sutherland. She finds him the following morning but he’s been turned so points to her and squeals a high-​pitched squeal to alert the other alien doppelgangers to someone who is not one-​of-​us.
This is the closest approximation to what it feels like to go in to The Spence.
I saw an old giffer hassled into making a cake choice by one of the staff. The poor bloke had probably inadvertently wandered in looking for a cup o’ tea and slice o’ cake like his mam used to make during rationing but had the misfortune of meeting one of (*) the surly assistants.
(n.b. * — have yet to meet otherwise)
Bad coffee, half-​decent cakes, good bread, really good savoury pastries.
But every time you shop here, you feel a little part of you die, deep inside

Mmmmm… Cake!
Also when I have a sandwich out I want to tell you exactly whats going in it, egg mayo, a little lettuce and a few slices of cucumber — no tomato, no onion, no rolling of the eyes when I ask for extra black pepper. Sandwiches are easy to make but hard to do well. These chaps really listen — I think i’m going to ask them to set up a sandwich making school!
Oh and if you fancy a coffee the stuff here is pretty guuuuud!

I’m a fan of a good loaf and always prepared to dig deep into my pockets to scrape together the coins to pay for one. Better still when they come for free though, hmm? So eyes lit up when, while settling myself onto the picnic blanket beside a friend in Clissold Park I spied a Spence Bakery bag. The wholemeal, mixed seed loaf had until then gone unnoticed or forgotten by the over excited (and slightly blue from the cold) gaggle. The moment I set about carving myself an elegant slice all attentions were on me and I felt a pang of regret at not having been more discreet. But share and share alike, outcame the tupperware boxes of cheese and little pots of pitted olives and a feast was had by all. All thanks to the foresight and imagination of Esther who’d brought the bread. And thanks to Spence Bakery who baked it of course. At Spence’s everything is freshly baked on the premises daily. Look at the board on the wall to see that day’s choice of bread and look over the modest but salivatingly delicious selection of pastries with which to treat yourself. You can sit in and have a coffee or wander the few paces across the road to the Spence Café to enjoy their baked delights in house there. It’s not hard to miss, follow the smell of freshly baked bread and join the hoards of rosy cheeked Stokes (waht do we call ouselves en masse?) and be satisfied in the knowledge that you’re onto a good thing.

I have often wondered what the world would be like through the eyes of someone on the Atkins diet. I mean yeah, you might be able to wear short shorts without the fear of arrest but as far as I am concerned, a world without carbs is no world at all. I’m wheat intolerant too but I don’t care, I love bread and no one will ever stop me from eating it .
My favourite place in the world to get bread and bread products is the Spence Bakery on Church Street. It’s actually one of the reasons I moved to Stoke Newington. That and having just returned from Argentina (where they serve a huge basket of bread with every single meal) I had no money and have moved in with my lovely sister.
I digress, the bread here makes Hovis multi seed wholemeal look like soy loaf. They have fig, honey and raisin loaf, seriously. My sister, having never dabbled with anything harder than Lemsip calls it ‘crack’ with a hollow, craven expression only usually seen on the face of a bonafide druggie. The carrot bread is another favourite and the chocolate chip brioche is ridiculously good. You can either eat in or take out, but the former option is dangerous and could result in bread overdose. The staff are wholesome, hearty, bread making pillars of the community and are often up preparing my breakfast when I get home from all the crazy raves I go to.

Something about the Spence Bakery from the outside feels very French. I’m not sure if it’s the customers all lined up against the window sipping coffee or the stream of people walking out clutching freshly made bread but the impression I always got was that this was another fancy-​pants French boulangerie.
How wrong I was! This is a British baker as British as British can be. You won’t get any silly French delicate tarts here, this place has proper cream buns. Instead of croissants, Spence Bakery offers sausage rolls. Delicious sausage rolls I might add. Prices are very reasonable and the food is always fresh. The only downside is that if you want to sit in with a hot drink the only seats in this café face out the window. This is fine if you like to people watch but I always feel like I’m the one being stared at. Nonetheless a very nice bakery and a great local resource.

The Spence has a perfect location on the charming strip of Stoke Newington Church Street. There is no lack of places to get a coffee on this street, there is however a lack of places to get a decent coffee. Spence’s coffee is one of the defining factors that set Spence apart from the rest. It is not amazing but the milk consistent enough, and the shot is tasty enough to make it very enjoyable.
Of course there are more reasons why you should give this place some of your time. Firstly, the time you spend in there will make you happy. Secondly, the selection of food is very appropriate to the wholesome experience. Finally, the window seating and outdoor seating allows you to observe one of the nicest streets in London.

I often pop in here on my way to work to pick up a morning pastry or one of their famously delicious sausage rolls but this café is also a great place to spend a Sunday morning reading the papers and working your way through the cake counter. A real Stoke Newington institution, everything is freshly baked (the smells as you walk past are dangerously mouth-​watering). The loaves are delicious and wholesome and come in a variety of sizes and flavours. My only complaint is that it can be somewhat overrun with buggies full of snotty children running wild. However that’s easily avoided by taking away if it all seems too much to bear on a Sunday head.

The Spence has one of those wonderful street corner locations, where if you’re walking by, you get the aroma of fresh coffee and baking bread, and if inside then you can feel like you’re in a fishbowl. Not really, but its great to sit on one of their stools with a coffee and a fresh tart or cake and watch the world walk by. Their lemon tarts and chocolate brownies are both favorites.
The bakery makes a variety of fresh bread every day, and is very popular with local residents. The wholegrain loaf and some of the more popular baked products will be gone by the afternoon. A fresh bakery is so rare to find in London — the Spence offers affordable and fresh bread that is a local treat.