The best ice-cream shops in London still serving in lockdown

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Ice Cream Union
Locations: 166 Pavilion Road, Chelsea, London SW1X 0AW and Unit 1 Discovery Business Park, St James's Road, Bermondsey, London SE16 4RA
Available for home delivery via Deliveroo.



Ice Cream Union has been delighting Londoners for years with a vast array of flavours, often produced with homemade or hand-selected ingredients. You might have bought a cone from one of its ice-cream bikes in the past, or a tub served directly from the warehouse close to Maltby Street. Last year marked the opening of Ice Cream Union’s first proper parlour on Pavilion Street in Chelsea.

Among its rotating flavours – of which there are over 50 in total – are several which use house-made nut pastes, while others boast hand-selected Sicilian blood oranges and homemade honeycomb among the listed ingredients. If you like yours alcoholic, try one of the limited-edition sorbet flavours, such as Aperol spritz, champagne or Pimms (yes, really).

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Gelupo
Location: 7 Archer Street, Soho, London W1D 7AU
Available for pick-up and home delivery. Order via the website.



In the eyes of many London foodies, including Culture Whisper’s food editor, the best gelati in town come by way of Gelupo, a gelateria owned by the team behind acclaimed Italian restaurant Bocca di Lupo. Expect exquisite flavours and limited-edition scoops showcasing flavours from various provinces of Italy. The parlour is currently operating a takeaway service, while the team are also delivering tubs by hand. You'll want to order in advance, though; at the time of writing, the next delivery slot is four days away.

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Snowflake
Locations: Marble Arch, Soho, Oxford Street, Bayswater, South Kensington and Westfield
Available for pick-up and home delivery via Deliveroo and Uber Eats – Marble Arch and South Kensington only.



If it's a seriously luxurious scoop you're after, Snowflake is the way to go. In 2018 the Selfridges branch released the Billionaire Soft Serve (yours for a crippling £99), which weighed nearly 400g and came complete with a Flake wrapped in gold leaf. Thankfully, other items on the menu aren't quite as extravagant. Our personal favourites are the white chocolate and rose water, and the Hot Fudge Snowdrift (caramel, chocolate and vanilla with fudge and honeycomb, smothered in chocolate and topped with hot fudge sauce).

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Ruby Violet
Locations: 118 Fortess Road, Tufnell Park, London NW5 2HL and Midland Goods Shed, 3 Wharf Road, King's Cross, London N1C 4BZ
Available for home delivery from both locations. Order via the website or Deliveroo.



This ice-cream parlour with locations in Tufnell Park and King's Cross serves handmade sorbets and gelati in high-brow flavours like pistachio, rosewater and masala chai. It’s all very yummy mummy, but heavenly all the same. There's a £15 minimum for orders, which must be placed by 5pm the day before the requested delivery date. Deliveries are made on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday afternoons.

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Four Winters
Location: 103 Gloucester Road, South Kensington, London SW7 4SS
Available for home delivery on Deliveroo and Uber Eats.



International ice-cream parlour Four Winters has just one UK outpost, on London's Gloucester Road. The offering here is far from your usual scoop, though. Four Winters freezes its ice cream with liquid nitrogen, resulting in a deliciously smooth texture, free of tiny bits of air or ice. Capturing the season's best ingredients, Four Winters creates interesting twists on our favourite flavours, such as Spicy Mango, Pineapple and Blue Violet.

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Nardulli
Location: 29 The Pavement, Clapham, London SW4 0JE
Available for pick-up and home delivery via Deliveroo.



This cutesy neighbourhood ice-cream parlour perched on the edge of Clapham Common often has a (socially distancing) crowd outside its doors. Keeping things traditional with genuine Italian ice cream, Nardulli has a friendly, family atmosphere and a wide variety of flavours sold in cones, cups or – for those looking for something a little more hearty – on crêpes or accompanying cakes.

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Oddono's
Locations: Hampstead, South Kensington, Battersea, East Dulwich and Chiswick
Available for pick-up or home delivery via Uber Eats.



'Life’s too short to eat bad ice cream' say the folk at Oddono’s Italian ice-cream parlour. We couldn’t agree more and thankfully, the gelati served here are among the absolute best. Whether you try the South Kensington flagship, or drop by one of the other four branches, no flavour will disappoint, but we have a special soft spot for the pistachio.

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Badiani
Locations: Chelsea, Mayfair and Notting Hill
Available for pick-up and home delivery via Deliveroo.



Founded in Florence in 1932, the Badiani brand now boasts three glossy ice-cream parlours in London and a further (temporarily closed) outlet at Italian food market Mercato Metropolitano in Elephant and Castle. These high-quality gelatos are silky-smooth and laced with further enticing ingredients. There are over 100 flavours to choose from, plus fruity gelato glasses and chocolate-coated gelato cookies.

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Udderlicious
Locations: 187 Upper Street Islington, London N1 1RQ and 24 Earlham Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9LN
Available for pick-up and home delivery via Deliveroo.



The Udderlicious ice cream is, we’re pretty sure, made by wizards. Made fresh by smiley wife-and-husband duo, this Islington institution has a tempting pastel-coloured selection of gelatos. Bored of vanilla? Udderlicious’s flavour combinations are a foodie's delight. The strawberry and basil sorbet is like a mouthful of summer and, for all its cool creaminess, the apple crumble summons warm and cosy thoughts of home cooking. And, if you don't like what you see on the menu, play a hand in picking next month's flavours by voting for potential batches online.

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La Grotta Ices
Location: 5 Voyager Estate South, Spa Road, Bermondsey, London SE16 4RP
Available for pick-up from The General Store and Leila's Shop.



Kitty Travers’s hand-made flavours are nothing if not wholesome: made with organic milk and strictly seasonal fruits, these are ice creams coaxed from her ex-greengrocers shop in north Lambeth. To feel virtuous as you indulge, try peaches, crème fraîche and tarragon, or apricot and chamomile sorbet. Ordinarily, Travers sells at Spa Terminus on selected days but her ice creams can be bought by the tub all year round from Leila's Shop on Calvert Avenue or the General Store on Bellenden Road. And, if Kitty's top-notch ices leave you keen to learn the craft yourself, you can buy the La Grotta Ices book online.

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Ice Kitchen
Location: Available online and in select stores including (Ocado, EAT, Harvey Nichols and Harrods)
Available for home delivery via Deliveroo.



We'd be hard pressed to name anything more desirable right now than frozen alcoholic juice on a stick. While ordinarily available from Ocado, Harvey Nichols and Harrods, you can currently order Ice Kitchen's delicious frozen dreamsicles on Deliveroo if you live near Battersea, Whitechapel, Crouch End or Swiss Cottage. And if you want to try making your own at home, take inspiration from Ice Kitchen's book: Poptails: 50 Sensationally Intoxicating Cocktail Lollies, which is available to order now.

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