Newens: The OriginalMaids of Honour

Newens has sold Maids of Honour tarts from 288 Kew Road since 1850, when Robert Newens moved the family bakery to its present site; the curd-cheese pastry recipe is said to trace back to Tudor Richmond Palace, where Henry VIII reportedly kept it under lock. A German bomb destroyed the original Victorian bakery and ovens during the Second World War, and the shop was rebuilt afterwards with the Mock Tudor frontage that still stands on Kew Road. The single premises combines bakery, shop and dining room, with tarts baked on-site to the historic recipe alongside scones, cakes and light lunches served at marble-topped tables. Now in its fifth generation of family ownership, the business trades from this one address only, with no branch elsewhere.