Toad Bakery
Rebecca Spaven and Oliver Costello bake a cornbread croissant at Toad on Peckham Road, buttery layers wrapped around polenta, corn, cheddar and jalapeno, and Time Out named it the best croissant in London in June 2026 (Time Out).
Why go
Spaven came up through Bread By Bike, Fortitude Bakehouse and The Snapery on the bread side, and Costello spent four years in Ottolenghi's delis and production bakery after talking his way into a pastry job at Hawksmoor (Restaurant). They ran a pop-up in Loughborough Junction, then opened the shop opposite the South London Gallery in 2022 (The Nudge). It opened as Frog Bakery, and Adam Handling's restaurant The Frog sent a cease and desist over the name, so Frog became Toad (Time Out).
Costello was a graphic designer before he was a pastry chef, and the counter shows it: a few staples stay, the chocolatines, the cinnamon buns and the sweet and savory danishes, and the rest of the trays change week to week, with collab bakes like a cacio e pepe croissant made with Forza Wine (The Nudge). The bread underneath is long-fermented sourdough from sustainably farmed grain, and the filter coffee is Catalyst (Broadsheet). The shop took London Bakery of the Year at the 2025 National Bakery Awards and returned to the Good Food Guide's Britain's 50 Best Bakeries in 2026 (Time Out).
A second, larger bakery opened at St Paul's House on Deptford High Street on 8 July 2026, a former rectory at the entrance to Deptford Market Yards with an open kitchen, and most of the production moved there (Hot Dinners).
Order this / avoid
- Order: the cornbread croissant, which Alice Saville called
a perfect croissant on the outside, no funny business, but the gorgeously buttery layers are wrapped around rich, meltingly cheesy cornbread
1. The saffron and vanilla teacake, egg-rich and built on the Cornish bun. The yuzu Jaffa cake. The Japanese curry pastry if Millie Lagares' bake is on the tray, and a loaf of the sourdough to take home. - Avoid: midday on a Saturday. The line runs down Peckham Road and the vegan bakes sell out first, so a weekday morning is the plan. There is no room to sit beyond a few stools on the pavement.
What locals & experts say
- Nieves Barragán Mohacho, chef-owner of Sabor and Chef of the Year at the 2026 National Restaurant Awards, asked for a bakery:
TOAD in Peckham. You must try Millie Lagares' Japanese curry pastry if it's available - filled with beef curry, melting cheese, pickled daikon and carrot flowers in a croissant basket. So good.
6 - Mike Davies, chef-director of The Camberwell Arms, a few streets away:
Best bakery: Toad. All of their pastries absolutely delicious.
7 - Patrick Williams, co-founder of Kudu in Peckham:
Best bakery: the Frog Bakery in Camberwell, now called the Toad. Absolutely banging.
8 - Hannah Drye, owner of Dough Hands:
Best bakery: Toad. They do this posh Jaffa cake. It's like yuzu gel and dark chocolate.
9 - Ali Bodily, owner of Alby's in Camberwell:
Best bakery: Toad. They set up at the same time as we set up. Queues all the way down the road.
10 - George Brown and Faddy Velmi of Cutie Pies, writing up their own neighborhood in 2023:
Toad's creativity in the field is refreshing and despite the cost of butter soaring to almost crisis levels, they never skimp. In a conversation with the lovely owners, Rebecca and Oliver, they admitted that butter was their chief expenditure after staffing costs and it shows. Their Hawaiian spin on a Danish with ham hock and pineapple has been a firm favourite. RIP Frog, long live Toad.
11 - Millie Tsukagoshi Lagares, one of Time Out's Best Young Chefs in London for 2025, who has baked a collab pastry here herself:
They make the best pain au chocolat – it's the perfect amount of dark chocolate and it's so big and really airy. It's the size of an iPad.
She adds a caveat:The best croissant in London is actually at Jolene
.5 - Alice Saville, Time Out, October 2023, four stars out of five, on the queue and the price:
lining up to pay nearly a fiver for a croissant is a faintly nuts thing to do. And it is! But pastry nirvana requires investment, and your time and money will be amply, deliciously rewarded by the golden, immaculately laminated wares produced by bakers and owners Rebecca Spaven and Oliver Costello.
1 - Daisy Meager, The Infatuation, July 2022, on how the week runs:
During the week, the queue is full of locals picking up their daily bread and come Saturday, people linger a little longer, scanning the trays for slow-braised goat bear claw pastries, and choosing sandwiches to take to nearby Lucas Gardens.
15
Good to know
- Where: 44 Peckham Road SE5 8PX, opposite the South London Gallery, on the Camberwell side of the line with Peckham.
- Timing: Tuesday to Saturday, from the morning until mid afternoon, and closed Sunday and Monday. The trays thin out as the day goes on, so the earlier the better.
- Booking: none. It is a counter in a doorway and the queue is the system.
- What it costs: a croissant ran close to five pounds in October 2023 (Time Out). I haven't found a newer price list.
- Coffee: Catalyst filter at Camberwell; the Deptford bakery has the espresso machine (Broadsheet).
- The second bakery: Toad Deptford, St Paul's House, Deptford High Street SE8 4BX, open seven days a week since 8 July 2026, with the kitchen in view (Hot Dinners).
- Hygiene: Food Standards Agency rating 5, Southwark, inspected 9 July 2024, with hygiene, structure and management each scored 5 on the register's scale, where 0 is the best mark. FHRSID 1501717. The Deptford shop is on the register at 125 Deptford High Street and is awaiting its first inspection.16
Verdict
should-visit — Go for the cornbread croissant, and go on a weekday morning, because the Saturday line runs down Peckham Road. Rebecca Spaven and Oliver Costello laminate the pastry Time Out calls the best croissant in London, the National Bakery Awards named the shop London's bakery of the year in 2025, and the specials change week to week, so the second visit is a different counter. It is a takeaway window with a few stools on the pavement, which makes it a stop on a morning and never the meal.