Save our Chelsea Buns from the foreign invaders, pleads minister

A LONDON MP is spearheading a campaign to save the Chelsea Bun from being driven to extinction by competition from foreign imports such as the French pain aux raisins and the Portuguese pastel de nata.

- Jonathan Prynn

Greg Hands, who represents, of course, Chelsea & Fulham and is Minister for London, says the teatime favourite, once on display in virtually every bakery window in the capital, is becoming increasingly hard to find.

The bun is one of London’s oldest culinary treats, tracing its roots back to the early 18th century, when it was said to have been first baked at a property later known as the Chelsea Bun House, near where Royal Hospital Road runs today, which was popular with Hanoverian royalty. According to legend, an estimated 50,000 queued to buy them on one Good Friday such was the popularity of a delight written about by Jonathan Swift, Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll.