Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Gourmet Emporiums &
Specialty Shops
20
Paxton & Whitfield/Neal's Yard Dairy
A Spot of Cheese, Please
London, England
Forty years ago, Monty Python made hilar-
ious comedy with a sketch set in a
completely clueless English cheese shop.
These days, however, Great Britain's great
cheese-making tradition has bounced
back from near-extinction—and that
renaissance has at least in part been
spurred on by London's two finest cheese
purveyors, Paxton & Whitfield and Neal's
Yard Dairy.
There's no question which of the two
has the more venerable pedigree—
Pax-
ton & Whitfield,
at 93 Jermyn St. (
&
44/
20/7930 0259;
www.paxtonandwhitifled.
co.uk) has been around since 1797, and in
its current premises for more than a cen-
tury. The gold-lettered black storefront
looks like something out of Dickens, or a
Beatrix Potter watercolor, with its large-
paned vitrine stacked high with substan-
tial cheeses and hams. On prominent
display is the crest of its Royal Warrant as
cheesemonger to the queen; Winston
Churchill himself praised this refined little
venue in St. James as the only place where
a gentleman (or his gentleman's gentle-
man) should buy his cheese, although its
proximity to Jermyn Street haberdashers
may have swung Churchill's vote. But
there's no disputing the store's depth in
both English and French cheeses—ask the
knowledgeable counterman to cut you a
wedge of well-aged Stilton, creamy Brie
des Meaux, a supple Camembert, or a
hearty farmhouse Cheddar, accompanied
perhaps by oatcakes and a bottle of P&W's
own real ale. P&W also has suitably dis-
creet-looking branches in Stratford-Upon-
Avon (13 Wood St.) and in Bath (1 John
St.)—not coincidentally two other towns
with plenty of Ye Olde England tourist
appeal.
By comparison,
Neal's Yard Dairy,
at
17 Shorts Garden, Covent Garden (
&
44/
20/7240 5700;
www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk)
is an upstart, and yet many British foodies
would give it the nod as London's best
cheese shop. Founded in 1979, it quickly
became a player in Britain's nascent whole
Neal's Yard in Covent Garden sells artisanal
cheeses from throughout the UK and Ireland.
