Wild GooseBakery

Wild Goose Bakery occupies a railway arch on Station Road, run by husband-and-wife team Kirstin Kinloch-Steyn and Vernon Steyn since 2014. Vernon has worked at Browns Hotel and under chef Mark Hix, while Kirstin trained at one of London's cookery schools before the pair began baking together, building a menu around South African flavours from Vernon's own upbringing. Koeksister doughnuts, melk tarts and bobotie hand pies sit among the bestsellers alongside the daily sourdough, and the bakery has run single-use-plastic-free since it opened. A second, smaller outpost trades in Leytonstone, but the Forest Gate arch remains the original site and the working bakery behind both shops. Loaves are baked fresh on site each morning rather than delivered in from elsewhere, and the counter also takes pre-orders for bespoke cakes.