Pollen Bakery

Hannah Calvert and Chris Kelly started proving sourdough at home in 2011, opened a shop in a railway arch under Piccadilly station in 2016, and outgrew it within two years — the 2018 move took them to Cotton Field Wharf on the New Islington marina, where the queue now forms along the water. A pastry kitchen followed at KAMPUS in June 2022, disclosed here as the second site. The bread built the name and the laminated pastry spends the goodwill; Ancoats has become Manchester's eating district and Pollen was among the first proofs that it could be.