Moving tale of bakery

A kosher bakery has shut up shop at the north London premises it occupied for close on 50 years.

But Parkway Patisserie - which closed its main Finchley branch last Friday - hopes to be back in business at a nearby site by the end of the week.

Parkway served its first customer the day after Pesach in 1967.

In 2013, plans to close the bakery for the site to be part of a housing, office and library development prompted a "save our shop" petition which attracted more than 1,000 signatures. But after negotiations with the landlord, the bakery finally agreed to vacate.

The Finchley branch - focusing on central European recipes and known for its cheesecake and cream pastries - has also supplied Parkway's Wembley and Golders Green branches.

Bakery director Rabbi Herschel Gluck, whose parents, Nata and Avraham, founded Parkway, said that "after 50 years, moving premises isn't easy. The new premises are not ideal but it will enable us to continue trading.

"Most people consider the bakery an institution. It's a very special part of Jewish life in the neighbourhood and beyond. When there was a threat that the patisserie would close, people were literally in tears."