A coffee with the dog in East London, from Hackney Wick to Highams Park

A flat white with the dog at your feet is one of the best ways to start a morning in East London. These cafés run from a working roastery in Hackney Wick to a lakeside café in Highams Park. We've grouped them by area so you can pair your coffee with a good walk.

Hackney Wick

The Wick is all canals, old warehouses and dog walkers, which makes it an easy place to start.

Bad Coffee

Bad Coffee is a specialty coffee roastery with an espresso bar inside it, at Oslo House on Prince Edward Road, and it's about as dog friendly as a café gets. Dogs are welcome throughout indoors, the staff love dogs, it's a quiet spot, there's outdoor seating and it's accessible. It calls its look the "anti-aesthetic": yellow doors, yellow floors and yellow counters in an industrial space that is still a working roastery, built up by the owner, Mandi, and her team. They have been roasting since 2022, with an espresso blend, seasonal single origins from countries including Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Colombia, and a sugarcane-process decaf, so you can pick up a bag of beans on the way out.

The Milk Float

Also in the Wick, The Milk Float is a floating bar on Sweetwater Mooring off White Post Lane, with a cosy indoor cabin and a flame-heated roof terrace looking out over the water. It's a bar first, with Five Points craft beer on tap and a cocktail menu, but it also does coffee, teas, craft soft drinks and mocktails, and there's outdoor seating. Food comes from Padron (tacos, rice bowls and loaded fries, with vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options), and there's ice cream and vegan sorbet from Ice Cream Union.

You can see every dog-friendly café in Hackney on its listing page.

Mile End and Victoria Park

Two green spaces with good coffee at their heart, so the dog gets a proper walk in.

Blue Daisy

Blue Daisy is a cake and coffee trailer in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, on Southern Grove in Mile End, and it has an enclosed garden. It's a female-run business started by a baker called Emily with a converted Chinese tuktuk she bought off eBay. Expect homemade bakes and specialty coffee roasted by La Tostadora in Bethnal Green. The house speciality is a naturally caffeine-free chicory coffee made from the ground roots of the chicory plant, also known as the blue daisy, which is where the name comes from.

The Hub Cafe

The Hub sits in the middle of Victoria Park, next to the children's playground, the skate park and the pools play area. Dogs are welcome indoors, there are water bowls down, the staff love dogs, and there's seating inside and out. It's run by two local mums and serves healthy homemade food, grab-and-go options, Italian coffee, cakes and pastries, across breakfast, brunch, lunch and afternoon tea, with vegan and gluten-free dishes. Afterwards the whole park is on the doorstep for a run.

Stratford and East Village

Signorelli, a family-run, community-led Italo-English bakery, has three sites close together here, all serving Italian coffee and their own bakes.

Signorelli East Village

The original Signorelli is at 7 Victory Parade. The bakers say they work with respect for food, tradition and the seasons and waste nothing, and the menu runs on a once-it's-gone-it's-gone basis. Come before noon for the full range of pastries. By the afternoon they have usually sold out, and sandwiches, biscuits and cakes take over.

Bakehouse by Signorelli

The Bakehouse is on Fortunes Walk in East Village. Signorelli was started by husband and wife Alberto and Rebecca, who began by selling home bakes and catering events, and today a team of bakers and pastry chefs makes everything on the counter.

Signorelli Stratford Cross

The Stratford Cross branch is at 15 Endeavour Square. Look out for the layer cakes, including passion fruit and white chocolate, and chocolate and berry, plus Signorelli's own branded cupcakes and biscuits.

For more around here, here's every dog-friendly café in Newham.

Walthamstow and Highams Park

Further out, and well worth the trip.

HUCKS

Hucks is a coffee-and-music café at 81 Grove Road in Walthamstow, with outdoor seating, so there's room for the dog to settle beside you. The drinks list covers flat whites, lattes, cappuccinos, Americanos, espresso and macchiatos, all with a choice of milk, plus hot chocolate and chai latte, and the café says it only buys from suppliers it's proud to work with. Next door is a soundproofed studio space used for rehearsals, recording sessions and gigs.

Humphry's Cafe

Humphry's is a community café inside The Highams Park on Henry's Avenue, with views over Highams Park Lake, which makes it a good place to stop after a walk round the water. The building started life as a Second World War air raid station and later became a community hall. After it had stood empty for about eight years, the Highams Park Planning Group took it on. The menus change daily, with hot and cold food, cakes, ice cream, tea and coffee, and the counter sells doggy treats alongside local produce and eco-friendly duck food. There's also a free pétanque terrain and a full-size ping pong table you can hire for free.

Making a morning of it

• Walk first, coffee second. Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park and the lake at Highams Park all have a café right there, so a tired dog can settle under the table while you drink.
• Water. The Hub Cafe has bowls out. Elsewhere, a collapsible bowl and a bottle in your bag will do the job.
• Nervous dogs. Bad Coffee and The Hub Cafe are both quiet venues, and an earlier visit usually means fewer people around.
• Keep the lead short in a busy room or a queue at the counter, and especially at The Hub, where the playground is right next door.
• Pastry timing. If you're heading to Signorelli East Village, get there before noon for the full range.