Egypt In London
Last Updated on 11th September 2025
London has long been fascinated with Ancient Egypt. From Victorian obsessions with mummies and tombs to modern Egyptian cafés and cultural centres, echoes of Egypt are woven into the fabric of the capital. In this post, I’ll be tracing the Nile through London; discovering ancient artefacts in world-class museums, seeking out obelisks and sphinxes hidden in plain sight, and, of course, sampling delicious Egyptian cuisine, without needing a passport.
Whether it’s a lunchtime koshari or a quiet moment beside Cleopatra’s Needle on the Thames, this journey through “Egypt in London” is a chance to reflect on the layers of history, migration, and fascination that link these two very different places.
Taste the Flavours of Egypt
Egyptian food is full or heart, built on humble ingredients, rich spices, and recipes passed down through generations. In London, the Egyptian community may be small compared to other diaspora groups, but its culinary influence is growing steadily, one koshari bowl and basbousa slice at a time.
Many Egyptian immigrants came to the UK in the 20th century for work, education, or refuge, and over time have built vibrant micro-communities, particularly around areas like Edgware Road and Kensington. Today, Egyptian-owned cafés, restaurants, and bakeries can be found across the city, serving everything from Cairo street food classics to modern fusion bites.
This part of my journey through “Egypt in London” was easily the tastiest. Here’s where I went, what I ate, and what I’d go back for in a heartbeat.
Koshari Street
📍56 St. Martin’s Lane, WC2N 4EA and 60b Cannon Street EC4N 6LY
🍴Koshari bowls and wraps
🌱Vegetarian and vegan options available
💰$$
Koshari Street is where my London journey into international cuisine really began. Before the pandemic, this cosy Egyptian street food café was my go-to Friday treat, and to my delight, it’s still going strong!
Founded in 2012 by Cairo-born chef Seif El Sobky, Korshari Street specialises in its namesake dish; koshari, Egypt’s beloved national dish. It’s the ultimate comfort bowl; lentils, rice, chickpeas, pasta, tangy tomato sauce, crispy onions, and a blend of warm spices. There are variations on the menu, including wraps, but I always return to the classic bowl, It’s filling, flavourful, and full of heart.
Wowshee
📍Berwick Street Market, W1F 8ST – open Mon-Sat 11:30am – 2:30pm
🍴Tameya (falafel) pita pockets
🌱Vegetarian and vegan options available
💰$$
Wow indeed! Wowshee is the brainchild of Ahmed El Shimi, a Londoner with Egyptian roots who set out to celebrate his heritage through bold, modern street food. At the heart of Wowshee’s menu is tameya, Egypt’s take on falafel, made with green fava beans instead of chickpeas.
Their signature tameya is served in a fluffy pita pocket with creamy hummus and crisp salad; simple, satisfying, and packed with flavour. But the real standout? A clever twist on the Scotch Egg; a soft-boiled egg wrapped in a tameya shell. It’s vegetarian-friendly, golden-fried and absolutely delicious.
Based in Berwick Street Market, Wowshee makes a great casual lunch stop while exploring central London or after visiting the Egyptian collection in the British Museum.
Dendara Bakery
📍43 Kensington Church Street, W8 4BA
🍴Egyptian baked goods (basbousa, ma’amoul) and hawawshi (Egyptian meat pie)
🌱Vegetarian and vegan options available
💰$$
If you’re after dessert with an Egyptian twist, look no further than Dendara. This ethical, free-from bakery was founded by Salma, a Belgian-Egyptian baker on a mission to create treats that nourish both body and soul. Everything here is gluten-free, dairy-free, and free from refined sugars baked goods; without compromising on flavour.
While Dendara offers a variety of globally inspired cakes, tarts, and cookies, it’s the Egyptian touches that caught my eye. I had my heart set on trying the hawawshi (a spiced Egyptian meat pie), but as a vegetarian, I opted instead for a slice of roasted root vegetable tart with chilli orange glaze and thyme. Savoury, warming, and beautifully balanced.
For dessert, I couldn’t resist the orange rosemary basbousa – a classic Egyptian semolina cake. I brought an extra slice for a colleague, and we both agreed; it was absolutely delicious.
Other Egyptian Eateries to Try in London
Restaurants
If you’re hungry for more, here are some other Egyptian restaurants around London worth checking out, ranging from casual canteens to buzzy late-night favourites:
- Ali Baba (Camden) – A no-frills, family-run spot offering traditional Egyptian comfort food. Generous portions, great prices, and a proper local feel.
- Al Basha (Kensington) – Stylish interiors with a broad menu of Egyptian and Middle Eastern dishes.
- Cleopatra Restaurant (Paddington) – Casual, colourful, and serving everything from molokhia to grilled meats and koshari.
- Koshary El Tahrir (Edgware Road) – The London outpost of the iconic Cairo chain.
- Shishawi (Edgware Road) – Open late and full of buzz. A popular pick for shawarma, ful medames, and mint tea with friends.
- Afandena Restaurant (Chelsea) – A friendly, down-to-earth restaurant serving Egyptian staples like mahshi, molokhia, and grilled aubergines.
Street Food & Market Stalls
For something more casual or on-the-go, London has a couple of great Egyptian street food stalls tucked into local markets:
- Yalla Egypt (Kingston Market, KT1 1JS) – A cheerful and authentic food stall bringing the flavours of Cairo to Kingston. Expect koshari, falafel, and warming stews.
- Taste of Egypt (Petticoat Lane Market, E1 7JF) – Located in one of London’s oldest street markets this small but mighty stall offers quick bites like ful medames, falafel wraps, and sweets treats.
Immerse Yourself in Egyptian Culture
From cookery classes to film screenings and music festivals, London offers a surprising number of way to connect with contemporary Egyptian culture. Here are just a few of the organisations and events that celebrate Egypt’s rich artistic and cultural life:
SAFAR Film Festival
Founded in 2012, the SAFAR Film Festival is the UK’s only festival dedicated to Arab cinema, with films from Egypt regularly featured in its programme. It’s an annual event hold across multiple venues in London and other UK cities. Keep an eye on their website for details of the 2026 festival.
Migrateful
Migrateful is a brilliant charity offering cookery classes led by refugees and migrant chefs, including Chef Amro, who was born in Damietta, Egypt. His classes are a chance to learn hands-on Egyptian recipes (often vegetarian friendly) while hearing the personal stories behind the dishes. Book early, Amro’s classes are popular.
The Arab British Centre
The Arab British Centre promotes Arabic arts and culture in the UK through talks, exhibitions, and creative workshops. While not exclusively Egyptian, many of their London-based events and courses explore Egypt’s cultural heritage, literature, and design. Check their events page for what’s on.
MARSM
MARSM is a London-based event producer, bringing Arabic musical talent to audiences across Europe. They’ve hosted a wide range of Egyptian artists such as Cairokee, Ruby, and Massar Egbari. Expect everything from intimate gigs to high-energy club nights. Check their website for upcoming gigs, festivals, and club nights.
Step Into History and Culture
London’s fascination with Ancient Egypt runs deeps, etched into its museums, monuments, and even street names. From world-famous collections to quiet university archives, the city holds some of the most significant Egyptian artefacts outside Egypt itself.
However, it’s important to acknowledge the ongoing controversy surrounding many of these collections. Egyptian authorities have requested the repatriation of key artefacts, including the Rosetta Stone. While some UK museums have begun returning looted or contested items, others have been slower to act, arguing that housing these pieces abroad makes them accessible to millions of global visitors. It’s also worth noting that the export to antiquities from Egypt is now illegal, so most Egyptian collections in UK museums are historically static, no longer growing.
The museums featured below are free to enter, thanks to UK government policy. They are also registered charities, with core missions centred on education, preservation, and public access. If you visit and can afford to, please consider making a donation to support their work.
Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology
📍UCL, Malet Place, WC1E 6BT
🕰️ Tuesday – Friday: 1pm – 5pm. Saturday 11am – 5pm. Closed Sunday & Monday.
🎟️ Free entry
You might expect me to start with the British Museum, but no, the Petrie Museum is the one to be seen in. I favour it over the British Museum simply because it’s off the beaten tourist track. You can take your time here. There’s rarely a tour group in sight, and it’s one of the few places in London where you study ancient objects in near silence. Personally, I find the Petrie collection far more engaging.
The Petrie Museum is a university museum, founded in 1892 as a teaching resource for the Department of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at University College London. It was established thanks to the pioneering work of Amelia Edwards, who donated her personal collection to UCL, and William Flinders Petrie, whose many excavations across Egypt and Sudan significantly expanded the collection.
Today, the museum houses over 80,000 artefacts, making it the largest and most significant collections of Egyptian and Sudan archaeology in the world.
British Museum
📍Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG
🕰️ Daily: 10am – 5pm. Late opening until 8:30pm on Friday.
🎟️ Free entry – with some paid exhibitions and events (check website for more details)
The British Museum boasts the largest and most comprehensive collection of Egyptian antiquities outside of Cairo. There are seven Egyptian galleries in total. On the ground floor, Room 4, is the grand sculpture gallery, home to the colossal statues and, of course, the famous Rosetta Stone. Upstairs, six additional galleries explore life and death in Ancient Egypt, including a fascinating selection of the museum’s collection of over 140 mummies.
Egyptian antiquities have been apart of the British Museum since its foundation in 1753, when collector Sir Hans Sloane donated 160 objects. The Rosetta Stone arrived in 1803, after being seized from Napoleon by British soldiers during the Battle of the Nile. Since the, the collection has grown steadily through excavations and acquisitions.
While you can explore at your own pace, I chose to take an out-of hours guided tour – Life and Death of in Ancient Egypt. If you want a quiet view of the Rosetta Stone, the Introduction to Ancient Egypt tour covers that. When I saw the crowds pouring in right at 10am, I was very glad I’d paid the £36 for the crowd-free access. We were a small group of 12, and our guide was incredibly knowledgeable. Best of all? My new understanding of Egyptian burial practices came in handy when I later visited the Petrie.
Sir John Soane’s Museum
📍13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2A 3BP
🕰️ Wednesday to Sunday: 10am – 5pm. Closed Monday & Tuesday, but open Bank Holidays.
🎟️ Free entry
This is my favourite London museum. It’s small, wonderfully eccentric, and absolutely crammed, floor to ceiling, with oddities and curiosities from the personal collection of Sir John Soane, a Georgian neo-classical architect.
You’ll find all kinds of bits and bobs tucked into its atmospheric rooms, and part of the fun is never quite knowing what you’ll stumble across next. But the undisputed star of the collection is the alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I.
Soane purchased it in 1817, after the British Museum turned it down, deeming the £2,000 price tag too steep. Soane, thrilled with his acquisition, threw three days of celebrations to mark the occasion.
Seti I, who reined from around 1290 to 1279 BC, was one Egypt’s great military rulers. His sarcophagus is covered in hieroglyphs from the Book of the Gates, a funerary text guiding the deceased pharaoh through the underworld to the afterlife. Along the base lies an image of Nut, the sky goddess, whose role was to guide and protect the dead.
If you’re keen to explore the wider influence of Egypt on British art and design, the museum will host the Egypt: Influencing British Design 1775 – 2025 exhibition running from 8 October 2025 to 18 January 2026. Entry is free.
Horniman Museum
📍100 London Road, SE23 3PQ
🕰️ Daily 10am – 5.30pm
🎟️ Free entry
While smaller in scale than the Petrie or British Museum collections, the Horniman Museum holds over 2000 Egyptian artefacts, some of which are on display in the museum’s excellent World Gallery.
The museum was founded by Frederick Horniman (1835 – 1906), a Victorian tea trader and avid collector fascinated by world cultures. His interest in Egypt deepened after a tour of Karnak, led by none other than Howard Carter, the discoverer of Tutankhamen’s Tomb. Following the visit, Horniman acquired and was gifted a number of Egyptian relics, which now form the basis of the museum’s collection.
Egypt Exploration Society
Founded in 1882 by pioneering writer and traveller Amelia Edwards (yes, the same Amelia behind the Petrie Museum), the Egypt Exploration Society was established to support and promote the preservation of Egyptian cultural heritage.
Working closely with the Egyptian government, the society funds archaeological research, conservation projects, and educational initiatives. They also host a range of talks, courses, and events exploring Egypt’s rich history, archaeology, and culture of Egypt, many of which are open to the public.
Historical Landmarks and Architecture
Egyptian Revival architecture can be found on tucked into streets and structures all over London. Obelisks began appearing in the 17th century, mostly as decorative features on buildings, and by the 18th century, they had become popular in cemeteries as commemorative monuments. Soon after, pyramid-shaped mausoleums started to emerge too.
The style truly gained momentum following Napoleon’s defeat by the British in Egypt in 1798, when Egyptian antiquities became ready available for British architects to study, as result they began incorporating Egyptian motifs more deliberately into their work. From the early 1800s, Egyptian-style features could be seen on everything from industrial buildings and suspension bridges to cemetery entrances and churches.
By the late 19th century, the style had largely faded, but in 1922, the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter triggered a dramatic revival. Egyptian motifs swept back into fashion, this time adorning cinemas, department stores, and factories with bold Art Deco flair.
Here are some of London’s most iconic Egyptian landmarks and examples of Egyptian Revival architecture.
Crystal Palace Park Sphinx
📍Thicket Road, SE19. The Sphinxes are located by the top entrance on Crystal Palace Park Road.
🕰️ Varies according to sunset, check their website for times
🎟️ Free entry
You’ll find these sphinxes in Crystal Palace Park, where three pairs flank the steps of the old Italian Terraces; the only remaining fragments of the original Crystal Palace. The palace itself was first built in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851, then dismantled and relocated to Sydenham in 1854.
The sphinxes are modelled after the Great Sphinx of Tanis, carved from red granite and now held in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Their vivid terracotta colouring is a recent restoration, returning them to something closer to their original Victorian red.
Egyptian Avenue, Highgate Cemetery
📍Swain’s Lane, N6. Egyptian Avenue is on the west side.
🕰️ March to October 10am – 5pm. November to February 10am – 4pm.
🎟️ Day ticket £10. Guided tour £8, your purchase automatically includes a £10 day ticket.
The Victorians weren’t just fascinated by Egyptian antiquities in life, they were equally captivated by them in death. Egyptian influence can be seen in cemeteries across London, where obelisks and pyramid-shaped mausoleums dot the landscape. But the most striking example is Egyptian Avenue in Highgate Cemetery.
Reaching the gates of Egyptian Avenue felt like stepping into an Indiana Jones movie. As you approach the imposing stone entrance, you are flanked by two guardian obelisks, leading you toward a shadowy passage. On either side of the entrance stand two lotus bud columns, which once supported an Egyptian-inspired cornice. The entire design is said to have been inspired by the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly (now sadly demolished), which itself was modelled after the temples of Thebes.
I visited as part of the Highlights Tour, which I highly recommend. It offers a fantastic insight into the cemetery’s history, architecture, and famous residents. Best of all, the ticket includes a day pass, so you can explore freely at your own pace afterwards.
Cleopatra’s Needle
Cleopatra’s Needle is one of a pair of obelisks originally erected at the Caesareum of Alexandria and dating back to 1450 BC, during the reign of Thutmose III. Despite the name, it has no direct connection to Cleopatra VII, it was already over a thousand years old by her time.
In 1819, the obelisk was gifted to Britain by Mohammed Ali, then ruler of Egypt and Sudan, as a diplomatic gesture in honour of British victories over Napoleon. However, it remained in Alexandria for decades, until 1877, when anatomist and dermatologist Sir William James Erasmus Wilson personally sponsored its transport to London.
It was finally erected in 1878 on the Victoria Embankment of the Thames, where it still stands today, flanked by two stylised, faux-Egyptian bronze sphinxes.
Looked closely and you’ll spot other Egyptian-inspired details along the embankment; from carved lotus motifs to the buxom winged sphinxes on the arms of nearby benches.
Sekhmet at Sotheby’s, New Bond Street W1A
High above the entrance to Sotheby’s on New Bond Street, you’ll find a statue of the ancient Egyptian goddess, Sekhmet, dating from around 1390-1352 BC, during the reign of Amenhoptep III.
In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet was a powerful and complex figure, goddess of war and healing, known for lioness form. She was believed to have formed the desert with her fiery breath, led pharaohs into battle, and protected them with divine ferocity.
How this ancient statue came to rest above the door of London’s most prestigious auction house remains a bit of a mystery, there’s no official explanation. But its presence there feels oddly fitting; a fierce guardian presiding over the high-stakes world of art and antiquities.
Carreras Cigarette Factory (Greater London House), Hampstead Road NW1
The old Carreras Cigarette Factory is one of the finest surviving examples of Egyptian revival architecture in London. Built between 1926 and 1928, it was described at the time as a “copy of Temple of Bubastis”, honouring the cat-headed goddess Bastet; a fitting tribute for a company whose logo featured a black cat.
After the factory closed in 1959, the building was sold and converted into office space. Sadly, much of its dramatic Egyptian façade was stripped away during this time. Fortunately, in 1996, new owners restored its original splendour, reviving its striking columns, colourful detailing, and iconic feline statues.
The Carlton Cinema, Essex Road N1
Opened in 1930 and designed by architect George Coles, the Carlton Cinema in Islington is the only surviving Egyptian-style cinema London. Its striking façade and interior columns are inspired by the architecture of Amarna, the short-lived capital city built under pharaoh Akhenaten.
Although the building now serves as a church, its original Egyptian-themed design has been remarkably well preserved. Film historian Nigel Smith has been granted permission to lead guided tours of the cinema, offering a rare change to step inside this unique architectural time capsule. Visit his website for dates and booking details.
Shop the Culture
London offers a few spots where you can shop Egyptian food, crafts, and cultural curiosities.
Edgware Road (Marble Arch to Maida Vale)
Often referred to as “Little Cairo” or “Little Beirut”, this lively stretch of Edgware Road is home to a vibrant Arabic diaspora, including many Egyptian-owned shops and restaurants. You’ll find bakeries, sweet shops, halal butchers, and supermarkets stocked with Egyptian pantry staples like dukkah, pickled vegetables, date syrup, and more.
Greenfields
📍25 Crawford St, London W1H
A well-stocked Egyptian supermarket just a short walk from Edgware Road. Greenfield sells a wide range of imported Egyptian goods, perfect for when you’re inspired to recreate koshari, molokhia, or just fancy some authentic snacks and sweets.
Egyptomania
📍Stables Market, Camden, NW1
Tucked away in Camden Market, Egyptomania sells everything from Egyptian jewellery and papyrus art to shisha pipes and souvenirs. It’s a bit touristy but fun if you’re in the mood for a colourful browse.
Final Thoughts
Even after all this, I know I’ve only just began to scratch the surface of Egypt in London. I had no idea just how deeply Egyptian influence runs through the city, from its architecture and cemeteries to the remarkable antiquities on display in its museums. And beyond my old favourite, Koshari Street, I hadn’t realised I was surrounded by so many other Egyptian eateries, each with its own story to tell.
Every bit of research has led me to new places to explore, new stories to uncover, and new flavours to try. It’s opened up an entirely new journey for me, a desire to discover London’s diaspora beyond the plate, to see how culture lives and breathes across the city. And that’s the beauty of London, it’s full of hidden layers, just waiting to be explored.
If there’s somewhere I’ve missed or a hidden gem you think I should visit, please leave a comment; I’d love to hear your suggestions and continue the journey.
Happy exploring!
L x 🩴
