Quince Bakery Founder Launches Clementine Café Campaign in Islington 2026

Key Points

• Crowdfunding Campaign Launched: Anna Higham, the founder and baker behind Islington’s highly acclaimed Quince Bakery, has officially launched a crowdfunding initiative to finance a new all-day dining café called Clementine.
• Strategic Location: The new establishment is slated to open directly across the street from the original Quince Bakery site on Newington Green Road in North London.
• Expanded Menu Offerings: Clementine intends to transition into an all-day operation, serving breakfast, brunch, and lunch. The menu will highlight traditional items such as tattie scones, savory pies, sweet buns, porridge, seasonal soups, toasties, and classic scones accompanied by jam and cream.
• Rapid Critical Acclaim: Opened in early 2024, Quince Bakery secured notable accolades within its first months, including the Muddy Stilettos award for ‘Best Local Food / Drink Producer’ and a placement on La Liste’s global guide of top bakeries.
• B2B Supply Success: Beyond retail success, Higham’s enterprise acts as the primary bread supplier to Oula, an establishment recently named the best coffee shop in London, further solidifying the bakery’s local supply chain footprint.

Islington (North London News) May 30, 2026 – Quince Bakery, the critically acclaimed North London bakery founded by baker Anna Higham, has officially initiated a public crowdfunding campaign to fund the expansion of her business footprint via a new all-day café named Clementine. Located directly across the street from the original Quince site on Newington Green Road, the proposed venue represents an expansion from traditional takeaway counter service into a sit-down breakfast, brunch, and lunch destination. The development follows a period of rapid commercial growth and industry accolades for Higham’s maiden independent venture, which commenced operations in early 2024.

What Are the Expansion Plans for Quince Bakery’s New Venue?

The planned expansion via Clementine seeks to address the operational limitations of the original Quince Bakery by introducing dedicated dining space.

According to operational outlines detailed by Higham, the secondary location will function as an all-day café designed to transition smoothly between morning and afternoon service.

The physical proximity—directly opposing the existing shopfront—is strategically intended to centralize administrative and production logistics between the two units.

While the existing bakery relies heavily on a high-turnover takeaway model for its artisanal sourdough loaves, baguettes, and sweet pastries, Clementine will introduce a sit-down infrastructure. This structural shift allows for an expanded culinary program that requires immediate assembly and hot service capabilities.

What Will Be Included on the Clementine All-Day Menu?

The culinary direction for Clementine, as outlined by Higham, builds upon the British heritage baking philosophy that defined her initial site, whilst expanding into hot kitchen provisions. The menu is structured around accessible, comforting breakfast and lunch items, incorporating regional British and Irish influences.

Key menu components confirmed for the launch include:

• Breakfast and Brunch Staples: Traditional tattie scones (potato scones), house-made porridge variations, and signature sweet buns.
• Midday and Lunch Provisions: A rotating selection of savory pies, hearty seasonal soups, and specialized toasties utilizing the parent bakery’s sourdough bread.
• Afternoon Tea Offerings: Classic British scones served traditionally with clotted cream and house-made fruit jams.

What Critical and Commercial Success Has Quince Bakery Achieved Since Opening?

The decision to expand within eighteen months of initial launch stems from the significant commercial traction and industry recognition Quince Bakery has generated since its debut in early 2024. Within its opening quarter, the shop established a consistent customer base in the N1 postal district, frequently characterized by morning queues on Newington Green Road.

In addition to neighborhood retail success, the business secured immediate validation from industry awarding bodies. The establishment won the regional Muddy Stilettos award in the category of

“Best Local Food / Drink Producer.”

Shortly thereafter, the bakery achieved international recognition by being included in La Liste, an prestigious global aggregation guide that ranks the world’s finest restaurants, hotels, and pastry shops based on thousands of media reviews, guidebooks, and customer ratings.

Furthermore, Higham’s product has extended its reach beyond her own retail counter. Quince Bakery operates a successful business-to-business (B2B) wholesale arm, notably supplying its signature crusty baguettes and artisanal loaves to Oula, an independent hospitality venue that was recently designated as the best coffee shop in London.

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How Will the Crowdfunding Campaign Financed by the Public Function?

To facilitate the build-out and kitchen installation for Clementine, Higham has turned to public equity or reward-based crowdfunding, a model increasingly utilized by independent food and beverage operators in the United Kingdom to bypass traditional institutional lenders.

The crowdfunding campaign allows members of the local community and the wider gastronomic public to contribute capital directly to the venture. In exchange for financial backing, projects of this nature typically offer tiered rewards ranging from future dining credits and exclusive merchandise to private masterclasses with the baker.

The funds raised via this public drive are designated for internal renovations, commercial kitchen fit-outs, and initial staffing overheads required to scale operations across both sides of Newington Green Road.

What Is the Background of This Particular Development?

To understand the trajectory of Quince Bakery and its upcoming sister site, Clementine, it is essential to examine the professional background of its founder and the broader economic shifts in London’s artisanal baking sector.

Founder Anna Higham entered the independent bakery market with an established reputation within the upper echelons of British pastry. Prior to launching Quince Bakery in early 2024, Higham served as the head pastry chef at some of London’s most respected dining institutions, including Lyle’s in Shoreditch and Flor in Borough Market.

Her work at these venues centered around an ingredient-led approach, prioritizing stoneground heritage grains, seasonal British fruits, and traditional, slow-fermentation techniques. Her 2022 book, The Last Bite: A Whole New Approach to Making Desserts, further established her authority on hyper-seasonal pastry.

When Higham launched Quince Bakery in the N1 neighborhood, she did so during a broader post-pandemic resurgence in high-street artisanal food shops.

Despite challenging economic indicators for the wider hospitality industry—including rising energy costs, ingredient inflation, and business rate pressures—independent bakeries focusing on premium, high-quality staples have demonstrated notable economic resilience.

Consumers have increasingly redirected discretionary spend toward accessible daily luxuries, such as high-grade sourdough loaves and specialty pastries.

The expansion into Clementine represents a natural evolution of a successful culinary brand. By capturing the sit-down lunch and brunch market, Higham is diversifying her revenue streams, reducing sole reliance on takeaway morning trade, and optimizing her existing supply chain by utilizing Quince’s surplus production capacity to fuel the kitchen across the street.

What Is the Prediction for How This Development Will Affect the Local Audience?

The establishment of Clementine is poised to significantly impact three distinct segments of the local audience: residents of the Islington/Newington Green neighborhood, the local independent business ecosystem, and the consumer base of the original Quince Bakery.

The introduction of an all-day dining café will directly address a demographic demand within the N1 area for sit-down, high-quality daytime dining options. While the original Quince Bakery successfully captured the morning takeaway market, its physical footprint offered little comfort for extended stays. Clementine will provide a communal space for remote workers, families, and weekend diners.

Furthermore, by distributing foot traffic across both sides of Newington Green Road, the expansion is predicted to reduce queue wait times at the original bakery counter during peak weekend hours, improving overall consumer efficiency.

For the Local Property and Business Ecosystem

The opening of a secondary site by an award-winning local operator acts as an economic anchor for the Newington Green commercial corridor. Successful independent ventures draw foot traffic from outside the immediate borough, which generates positive spillover economic benefits for neighboring retail shops and dry cleaners.

The move also signals confidence in the local commercial real estate market, potentially encouraging further investment from independent operators looking to establish roots in North London.

From an employment perspective, the launch of an all-day café creates new local jobs across front-of-house hospitality and back-of-house kitchen roles. For agricultural and dairy suppliers within the Quince supply network, Clementine’s expanded lunch menu will mean increased volume orders for regional British produce, reinforcing short-supply-chain logistics and supporting small-scale UK producers.