Barnaby

Barnaby is a London chocolate maker with a shop on Upper St Martin's Lane in Covent Garden, known for handmade chocolate bars built around the idea of a personal gift. Every bar is wrapped with a printed story loop carrying a message, and customers can choose from more than 200 messages for birthdays, anniversaries, thank-yous and congratulations or create their own.

The founders describe themselves as chefs first, and the brand grew out of childhood memories of a daily 20p Curly-Wurly on the Tube home. Rather than copy the past, Barnaby takes the flavours people already love and reworks them with better ingredients and small-batch production. Covent Garden is one of three London shops, alongside Mount Street in Mayfair and Charing Cross Road, and the business also serves the corporate gifting market.

The chocolate shop Covent Garden gift-hunters need

The core product is the handmade chocolate bar, offered as ready-made selections and as personalised bars carrying a customer's own names and words. Bars are displayed by the dozen on the counter, and staff will help match a message to an occasion. The online store offers tracked delivery with free shipping above a set order value, so a gift can be sent as well as carried home.

What to expect on a visit

The shop keeps late hours, opening at 10am daily and closing at 10pm on Sundays and Mondays and 11pm from Tuesday to Saturday, which suits a stop after the theatre. It sits close to the theatres around St Martin's Lane and the other gift shops of Covent Garden, and pairs well with Neal's Yard Dairy on Shorts Gardens for a food hamper.