Best Bakeries in Newcastle City Centre

Newcastle gave the country the sausage roll it actually eats, and it is also a city where you can buy a stottie, a griddle scone, a kettle-boiled bagel and a Chinese custard tart inside a fifteen-minute walk. Several of those come from the same building.

This guide stays in the centre. If you want somewhere to sit with a flat white rather than a loaf to carry home, the coffee shops guide and the breakfast and brunch guide cover that ground instead.

Pink Lane Bakery

Pink Lane Bakery has been on the narrow lane beside Central Station since 2012, and it is the most straightforward answer to "where do I buy good bread in town". The counter runs sourdough alongside pastries, cakes, sausage rolls, pies, pasties and sandwiches, and it takes orders for celebration and wedding cakes. It opens Monday to Saturday, eight until four. One point of confusion worth clearing up: it is a separate business from Pink Lane Coffee further along the same street.

Best for: The default city centre bread shop, two minutes from the station concourse.

Pure Knead

Pure Knead on the Dean Street slope works its dough for 48 hours using nothing but flour, water and salt, with no additives or improvers, and the crust is the argument for the extra time. It began in 2015 as a stall on Tynemouth Market before taking shops in Whitley Bay, Newcastle and Gosforth, and has since been picked out by The Times among the best bakeries in Britain. Dean Street is steep and short, so it makes a natural halfway stop between Grey Street and the Quayside.

Best for: The serious sourdough, and a good excuse to walk down to the river.

The French Oven

The French Oven at unit 27 in the Grainger Market Arcade is the bakery most people mean when they talk about the market's food revival. The range straddles two traditions on purpose: croissants, patisserie and sourdough on one side, stotties and griddle scones on the other, with spelt loaves, pies and filled paninis in between. It was voted the best bakery in England and Wales in 2014 and has kept the queue ever since. Market hours apply, Monday to Saturday.

Best for: Stotties and croissants from the same counter, which is very Newcastle.

Pet Lamb Patisserie

Pet Lamb Patisserie is a few units along at 19 in the Arcade, run by Katie and Kay, and it is sweet-only: cupcakes, cookie pies, blondies and brownies, baked on site and made to order for birthdays. The brownies are what the reviews are about, particularly the salted caramel and the Biscoff. Check the hours first, because they are the tightest on this list: closed Monday, a short Tuesday afternoon, then Wednesday to Saturday until four.

Best for: Brownies, and worth a look at the board of bespoke cake work.

King Baby Bagels

King Baby Bagels occupies units 5 and 6 in Alley 1 of the Grainger Market and does its bagels properly: hand rolled, kettle boiled, then baked. Fillings run to maple bacon, smoked salmon and mortadella, with vegan options, and there is now a second counter inside the Fenwick Food Hall. It opens from 8.30am Tuesday to Saturday and shuts at four with the rest of the market.

Best for: Lunch rather than a loaf, and the best bread-based sandwich in the market.

Kalimera Greek Bakery

Kalimera Greek Bakery opened on Nelson Street, the short street running off Grainger Street beside the market, as a second site after its original Gosforth bakery. The counter is Greek pastries and pies, baklava and sandwiches, with Greek coffee to go with them. It is one of very few bakeries in the centre open seven days and into the evening, which makes it useful once the market has shut.

Best for: Open late and open Sundays, which almost nothing else here manages.

Mason + Rye

Mason + Rye is Fenwick's own bakery inside the food hall on Northumberland Street, baking everything on site: patisserie, cookies, cakes, sandwiches and salads, with coffee and fresh juice. A glazed section lets you watch the pastry chefs work, which is a better reason to detour than it sounds, and it folds easily into a shopping trip.

Best for: The most polished patisserie counter in the centre.

Bread Point and Jasmine Bakery House

Two Chinese bakeries sit on the streets around Stowell Street and both are worth knowing. Bread Point at 13 Low Friar Street mixes Asian and European baking, so pork buns and custard tarts share the counter with more familiar bakes, and it does pho and bubble tea if you sit in. Jasmine Bakery House on Fenkle Street has traded since 1994 and sells Chinese breads, buns and cakes alongside a hot menu of noodles and stir fries.

Best for: Custard tarts and pork buns, five minutes from Grainger Street.

Greggs, and why it counts here

It would be odd to write about bakeries in Newcastle and leave out the one the city exported to everywhere else. Greggs was founded here in 1939, is still headquartered in Newcastle, and has around a dozen shops inside NE1 alone. The Grainger Street branch at 73 to 75 is the most useful of them for anyone walking between Central Station and Monument, and it opens earlier than anything else here. Sausage roll, steak bake, no pretence about what it is.

Best for: Early doors, cheap, and a genuine piece of Newcastle business history.

Practical notes

The Grainger Market holds three of the bakeries above and is closed all day Sunday, with traders shutting around four the rest of the week, so a circuit there is a weekday or Saturday job. Kalimera is the reliable Sunday option. For one walk taking in most of the list, start at Pink Lane, cut up Grainger Street into the market for the French Oven, Pet Lamb and King Baby, then drop down Dean Street to Pure Knead.

Know a Newcastle city centre bakery that belongs on this list? Get in touch via our contact page.