Making a Crust

An Oral History of London's Bakers and Bakeries

2026 marks the 360th anniversary of the Great Fire of London which started in a bakers in Pudding Lane. This project will focus on the heritage of baking and its impact on London and vice versa. Baking history in London is shaped by a blend of deep-rooted, centuries-old traditions and rapid post-war modernisation and immigration. It highlights the evolution of multi-generational, and multi- cultural bakeries in London. This project will document the shift from traditional, labour-intensive, overnight baking methods to more modern, community-focused, environmental and social practices and a recent rise of smaller craft and artisan bakeries.

The project will focus on other key heritage sites in the history of baking in London, notably some of the London's oldest running bakeries as well as some of the newest.

We will also explore the heritage of the Worshipful Company of bakers which is London's second oldest guild dating back to 1155. We will look at how it has been responsible for regulating the trade from that time up to the present, working with their archivist and historians as well as their liverymen who will talk about their own work.

For this project The Bakers Company and The National Bakery School are teaming up with oral history specialists digital-works. to explore this history from the perspective of bakers themselves. Oral history interviews will be recorded for the project with the full interviews given to the Bakers Company and Bishopsgate Institute. These interviews will also be filmed to create a documentary film.

This website will host all 20 plus oral history interviews with bakers about their working lives as well as a documentary film, photos and any ephemera we gather in the course of the project. We will also be putting up some shorter films documenting some of the bakers using skills, some new, others handed down over generations.

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This project has been made possible with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and The Bakers Company.