5 Best London Cheese Shops for Americans
To be clear, there are no wrong cheese shops to visit in London. England has a rich dairy history, bringing iconic cheese to the world such as Cheddar, Stilton, and Double Gloucester — famed not only for flavor but for the annual sport of rolling it down the hill. London’s cheese mongers celebrate its local curds and more; as a center of global trade, there’s just about nothing you can’t find in the English capitol.
Wherever you’re staying when you visit London, there’s bound to be a local shop nearby to pop into for a chat and a taste. But if you’re looking for some real cheese tourism — a sense of history, importance, singularity, or eye-popping selection — these are the best 5 cheese shops in London for Americans to check out.
Neal’s Yard Dairy
17 Short’s Garden, Covent Garden
55 Palliser Road, Baron’s Court
8 Park Street, Southwark (Borough Market)
107 Essex Rd., Islington
Arch 10, Apollo Business Park, Bermondsey
Named for the picturesque courtyard which it occupies in London’s Covent Garden, Neal’s Yard Dairy has been a cheese purveyor mainstay in London since 1979. It was born of a partnership between an activist/entrepreneur and a food scientist in an effort to bring more of the UK’s and Ireland’s artisanal, and frequently raw milk cheeses to the city.
Neal’s Yard now also acts as a producer/affineur, having had a hand in bringing cheeses to market such as Lincolnshire Poacher, Stichelton, and Baron Bigod. Many shops now exist around London, one one of the largest near Borough Market—a cheese destination in its own right—but the charming, pocket-sized stop in Covent Garden is worthy of paying your respects, and affords some adorable photo ops in the surrounding courtyard.
Paxton & Whitfield
93 Jermyn St.
Paxton & Whitfield photo credit Pamela Vachon
Situated between Westminster and Soho, there’s little chance that your visit to London won’t have you wandering down Picadilly at some point. Equidistant from Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square, Paxton & Whitfield, London’s oldest purveyor of cheese since 1742, is well-positioned for a visit.
What’s more, it might speak specifically to travelers whose tourism may best be summarized by the notion of a “Crown Crawl.” Paxton & Whitfield is one of just a handful of businesses that is honored with a Royal Warrant of Appointment, meaning that they are a vetted supplier to the royal household. Even if you don’t care about any of that, the shop is impressive on its own merit, featuring over 100 cheeses of mostly UK and Irish origin, stacked alluringly in geometric towers. You might not be able to bring it back as a souvenir, but the mini, clothbound Cheddar Pounder is about as twee as normally hefty Cheddar can aspire to.
Effectively on the same block, London’s Fortnum & Mason is also a food-lovers destination (with its own Royal Warrant.) There’s a modest cheese counter, but the real reason to go is for a deep dive into other English mainstays such as tea and biscuits.
Chiswick Cheese Market cheese seller photo credit Pamela Vachon
It’s not a cheese shop, per se, because it’s every cheese shop, all at once, on a street in a borough that’s literally named “cheese farm.” If that’s not reason enough to book a flight to London, I don’t know what is. Taking over several blocks of the High Road, (that’s “Main Street” in American) every third Sunday of the month, Chiswick Cheese Market brings together dozens of cheesemakers, cheese retailers, cheesemongers, and sellers of cheese-friendly accompaniments for an all-out, monthly cheese bazaar. (Here’s a link to Google Flights, in case that’s helpful.)
Even if you’re not looking to buy much, given that you’re traveling, the market features an education component, a seller of used cheese books, hot cheese stalls offering sandwiches, raclette, etc., and Buttercup, the market’s highly Instagrammable, bovine mascot.
La Fromagerie care of la Fromagerie
Perhaps your travels across the Atlantic are taking you to a number of cheese-producing countries. If not, London still has a spot for you—several spots actually—for a taste of Europe’s finest. La Fromagerie, with three locations spread throughout the city, is a love letter to the best cheese of Europe. Its founder, Patricia Michelson, fell in love with the stuff, as many cheese personalities before and since have, in Switzerland. Beginning in Highbury with a shop and cheese café, all of La Fromagerie’s locations are places to browse the cases, or sit for a plate, a class, or a cheese board workshop.
Among its nearly 150 cheese selections, the UK and Ireland are still very well represented, but so are France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium…you get the idea. (In a similar vein, Jumi Cheese, with three locations including Borough Market, is your London destination for all things Swiss cheese.)
La Fauxmagerie
45-47 Parkway, Camden
La Fauxmagerie photo credit Pamela Vachon
If it wasn’t apparent from the built-in pun in its name, La Fauxmagerie is a cheesemonger dedicated to plant-based cheese, the UK’s first. Should it be a destination for American travelers interested in cheese tourism? It absolutely should. I speak from experience. Vegan cheese has come a long way since the sad grocery store shreds that those following a plant-based lifestyle had to resort to for their pizzas and nachos.
Located in Camden, an extremely cool neighborhood to visit for any reason, La Fauxmagerie also offers a vegan cheese cafe on weekends in their cellar, a perfect introduction into plant-based cheeses that doesn’t rely on purchasing whole chunks and figuring it out at home. It’s somewhere to take your vegan friends to in London, somewhere to go get a true taste of what artisanal plant-based cheese can aspire to, or just to have a great cheese spread in a stylish location, full stop.