GAIL's Bakery Kensington Arcade

You're wandering through Kensington Arcade, that Victorian shopping passage that feels properly London, when the smell of fresh-baked bread pulls you in. GAIL's does the fundamentals brilliantly: naturally leavened sourdough that's got real tang, buttery croissants that shatter the right way, and a rotating selection of seasonal pastries that change depending on what they're experimenting with that week. The counter's always moving, a mix of people grabbing breakfast before work and those who've made the pilgrimage specifically for the bread. It's unpretentious—you order, you pay, you leave happy—but there's genuine craft happening here, the kind that makes you realise how much ordinary bakeries have been cutting corners.