St. JOHN Bakery Arch Donut Shop: Weekend Custard Doughnuts

St. JOHN's Bakery Arch, at 72 Druid Street, London SE1 2HQ, is a donut shop in the plainest sense: a railway arch in Bermondsey where the bakers of the Michelin-starred St. JOHN restaurant fry the doughnuts and bake the sourdough, then open the shutters to sell them. It trades only three days a week, Friday 8am to 4pm, Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday 9am to 4pm, and there is nowhere to sit.

St. JOHN began in October 1994, when Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver opened their restaurant in a former smokehouse on St. John Street in Smithfield. Its nose-to-tail cooking became famous, and so did its bread, which other restaurants started to buy. The bakery outgrew Smithfield, then outgrew a second home at St. JOHN Bread and Wine in Spitalfields, and in 2010 it moved into this 100-foot railway arch in Bermondsey.

That history explains the slightly odd geography of the St. JOHN bakery business. Bread and Wine opened in 2003 opposite Spitalfields Market as a bakery where customers could pick up loaves, but the small plates and wine took over and it became a restaurant, so the bakers waited another seven years for a room of their own. Bermondsey was the answer, and the arch still supplies the group's restaurants as well as its own hatch.

The restaurant's own history says the arch made baking sourdough and doughnuts a serious operation, and that on weekends the team opened the shutters to sell breads and doughnuts to the public from a trestle table. Maltby Street Market grew up around that habit a few years later. The pastry side of the business owes much to Justin Gellatly, St. JOHN's baker, who co-wrote the dessert-focused book Beyond Nose to Tail with Henderson in 2007.

The doughnut people cross London for is the vanilla custard: a deep, sugar-rolled ball of yeasted dough, split and filled to bursting with thick vanilla custard. It is rich enough that most people need a napkin and a minute to themselves. St. JOHN sells it through a handful of shops as well, such as the Hop Burns & Black off-licences, but buying it here means getting it from the arch where it was fried that morning.

Do not leave with only doughnuts. The arch is first a bread bakery, and the sourdough loaves are the reason the business moved here. A loaf with a doughnut is the classic weekend purchase. The restaurant's own team describes its doughnuts as pillows of joy, which is fair, but the honest advice is that one per person is plenty, since the filling is heavy and they do not keep well.

Because the arch opens only three days a week, the crowd concentrates on Saturday and Sunday mornings, when Maltby Street Market is running just around the corner. Doughnuts are made in batches, so an early visit gives the best choice and the shortest line. Friday is the quiet day, opening an hour earlier at 8am, and is the smartest option if you can manage a weekday morning in Bermondsey.

If you arrive to find the shutters down, or it is Monday to Thursday, go to St. JOHN Borough Corner at Borough High Street, about fifteen minutes' walk west. It opens Monday to Saturday 8am to 6pm and Sunday 10am to 5pm, so it is the weekday fallback for the same bakery's breads and pastries. St. JOHN Bread and Wine, opposite Spitalfields Market, is the sit-down option if you want a doughnut with lunch.

This is a hatch at a working bakery, not a cafe. There are no tables and no reservations, so plan to eat standing on Druid Street or carry your bag to the market. The phone number on St. JOHN's website, is the group's central line rather than a line into the bakery, and the contact email is info@stjohnrestaurant.com. Bring your own tote if you plan to buy loaves as well as doughnuts.

Custard doughnuts are the most fragile thing St. JOHN sells. They are best eaten within a few hours, and should be kept flat and cool if you are taking them on the train. Guests with egg, dairy or gluten allergies should note that the custard doughnut contains all three, and that the arch is a shared bakery handling flour throughout.

The arch sits in the middle of one of London's best weekend food walks. Maltby Street Market, on the narrow Ropewalk lane under the railway viaduct, is a couple of minutes away and fills with food stalls on Saturdays and Sundays. Walk north and Druid Street brings you towards Tower Bridge and the Thames in about ten minutes, where you can cross to the Tower of London or follow the river path west past HMS Belfast.

London Bridge station, served by the Jubilee and Northern lines and mainline trains, is about ten minutes' walk from the arch, and Bermondsey station on the Jubilee line is similar in the other direction. A practical route is London Bridge, doughnut at the arch, Maltby Street for lunch, then Tower Bridge on the way back, around two hours with stops.

The weekend line is a cross-section of food-minded London: locals collecting their sourdough for the week, market regulars on their way to Ropewalk, and visitors who read about the custard doughnut and planned their Saturday around it. The quiet rule is to know your order before you reach the front, since the hatch moves quickly and there is no menu board to linger over.

Address: St. JOHN Bakery Arch, 72 Druid Street, London SE1 2HQ. Hours: Friday 8am to 4pm, Saturday 9am to 5pm, Sunday 9am to 4pm, closed Monday to Thursday. JOHN central line). Nearest stations: London Bridge and Bermondsey. No seating and no bookings. Weekday alternative: St. JOHN Borough Corner, open Monday to Saturday 8am to 6pm and Sunday 10am to 5pm.