The late night bagel stores of Brick Lane, east London

One of the best places to be in East London after an evening enjoying an ample selection of the finest ales has to be Brick Lane, home of the freshly baked beigel.

Two competing bagel businesses stand mere metres apart, and for reasons lost in time, both shun how the rest of the world spells ‘bagel’ and stick to their eccentric ‘beigel’ nomenclature.

The Beigel Bake is probably my favourite of the two, offering traditional Jewish style bagels with fillings such as hot salt beef with mustard, chopped herring, and cream cheese and salmon.

There’s also pastries and sweets and white, rye and black bread. The store says it produces over 7,000 bagels a day, and according to Wikipedia claims to be the oldest bagel shop in London. [—]

The nearby Beigel Shop’s sign counters this claim, boldly asserting that it is the “first and best “beigel shop in Britain. The shop offers a wider varieties of bagels and fillings, some ruddy marvellous cakes as well as pies and pasties. 

Both shops are open 24 hours a day offering tasty, cheap food –  and they’re usually some very lively street life to be found outside.

Here’s some photos from a recent visit:

Read more: Night at the Brick Lane Beigel Bakery

Beigel Bake (white sign)
159 Brick Lane, Spitalfields, London E1 6SB
London
020 7729 0616

Beigel Shop
155 Brick Lane, Spitalfields
London
(yellow sign)

[Google Maps]

Related posts:

Human League live in Brick Lane A Brick Lane curry Derelict shops, Toynbee Street, Spitalfields, London E1 In photos: Street art and graffiti of Shoreditch and Brick Lane, East London In praise of Beigel Bake, Brick Lane, London E1 A walk around Brick Lane, East End In photos: London’s Camden Lock late at night, taken on the remarkable Huawei P30 phone Store Street Espresso opens up in Continental Stores in Tavistock Place, London