Where the oldest Italian family tradition in Liverpool
meets the warmth of bread baked fresh every morning.
The street where The Italian Club Bakery stands today was first laid out in the 1720s — decades before the United States existed as a nation. Duke Street formed the commercial spine of a city that was rapidly becoming one of the most important ports on earth, fuelled by the opening of the Old Dock in 1709 and the relentless expansion of Atlantic trade.
Merchants lived here, above their businesses. The buildings of Duke Street and its surrounding lanes — including the very streets where Newington was formed — housed the people who moved goods, culture and ambition across the world. This was not a peripheral address. It was the centre of everything.
"In the 18th century, the merchants lived in Duke Street, above their businesses."
The Ropewalks district — where ropes for Liverpool's vast merchant fleet were manufactured in the long narrow streets crossing Duke Street — gave the area its name and its identity. An industrial, purposeful, alive quarter of the city. The same streets where Italian families would arrive a century later, bringing with them olive oil, music, bread and the oldest culinary traditions in Europe.
In 1852, Liverpool's first public library opened on Duke Street. By the mid-19th century, the area had become home to the city's Chinatown — a district where the world arrived and stayed. Duke Street was never a quiet street. It was always a place where cultures layered, settled and left their mark on the stones.
The Italian presence in Liverpool did not begin with a single family. It began with an entire village. From the 1860s onwards, families from the mountain commune of Picinisco — deep in the Apennines of Lazio — began arriving in Liverpool, following the chain migration of relatives and neighbours who had come before them.
They arrived with almost nothing. They carried skills — mosaic laying, ice cream making, the preparation of pasta, the tradition of bread baked at home every morning. Liverpool was known as the gateway to the new world, and some stayed only long enough to save for the onward journey. But many stayed permanently. The food, the warmth of the welcome, the community they built — it held them here.
Italian craftsmen laid the mosaic floors in Liverpool's civic buildings. Italian ice cream carts became a fixture on Victorian streets. And Italian family restaurants — modest, generous, built on the philosophy that food is an act of love — began to appear in the streets around Duke Street, Bold Street and the Ropewalks.
The Crolla family — whose descendants today operate The Italian Club Bakery — trace their roots directly to Picinisco. The same mountain village that sent Liverpool its first Italian community in the 19th century. This is not a coincidence. It is a continuous thread of over 150 years — from the first Italian families to arrive in this city, to the bread baked fresh every morning on Newington today.
Tucked into Newington — a lane that runs quietly off Bold Street, one of Liverpool's most historic commercial arteries — The Italian Club Bakery operates on a principle that has not changed since the first Italian bakers arrived in this city: everything made by hand, from scratch, on the premises, every day.
The sourdough. The Pane di semola Pugliese — the traditional semolina bread from Maurizio Pellegrini's native region. The Bavarian loaves. The focaccia. The pastries, the meringues, the cakes that regulars describe as arriving in a kind of stunned silence before the first bite. None of this is manufactured elsewhere and delivered. It is made here, in this space, with the same devotion to process that has defined Italian artisan baking for centuries.
The Italian Club Bakery is not merely a café. It is the continuation of a cultural practice — the daily ritual of bread-making as an act of care — carried from a mountain village in Southern Italy to a Victorian lane in the heart of Liverpool, and kept alive by three generations of the same family.
Little gem of a bakery tucked away on Newington just off Bold Street — the most delicious handmade pastries and cakes all made from scratch on the premises, great coffee, friendly welcoming staff and THE best sourdough in town.
Amazing cakes, lovely friendly staff. We especially loved the viennesi — literally so light they melt in your mouth. Great prices as well. Will definitely return!
The best! Wonderful customer service. The best focaccia and the meringues are stunning. This place is second to none.
"Born from the love of good food, fine wine and family —The Italian Club Family — Our Story
it's been quite a journey."
The Old Town Liverpool methodology identifies locations where historical accumulation, architectural continuity and human presence converge to create a distinctive experiential field — what quantum physics calls a measurable impact on human perception and emotional state.
The Italian Club Bakery occupies a space that meets every criterion. The building sits within a district that has been continuously inhabited and commercially active since the 1720s. The family operating it carries roots from communities that have been present in this city for over 150 years. The practice — bread made by hand, every morning — connects the present directly to centuries of European artisan tradition.
This is not marketing language. It is the recognition that some places are genuinely different from others — and that visitors who arrive here with that knowledge experience something more than a café.
The building occupies a district laid out in the 1720s — over 300 years of continuous urban presence, architectural memory and commercial activity concentrated in a single block.
150+ years of Italian community presence in Liverpool, rooted in the same villages as the Crolla-Pellegrini family. A living continuation of the city's oldest immigrant tradition.
The act of hand-making bread every morning creates a repeated human intention — a daily reactivation of purpose in the same physical space. This is one of the oldest resonance patterns in human culture.
Regular visitors describe the bakery as a place where they feel "naturally welcome." That quality of atmosphere is not accidental. It is the result of accumulated human care, repeated daily, in the same space.
The Italian Club Bakery is an OldTown Premium Founding Partner — the first venue in the programme to receive full heritage documentation, premium content production and international tourism distribution.
This certification positions the bakery within our network of international tourism partners across Brazil, the United States, Portugal and Europe — distributing its story, its heritage profile and its unique atmosphere to visitors who seek meaning, context and authenticity in the places they choose.
"Your venue is now officially recognised as a Strategic Energy Location within the Old Town Liverpool Project."
Old Town Liverpool · Decaprio Digital Marketing LtdYour venue is now officially recognised as a Strategic
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