London Souvenirs Worth Packing (and One You Can’t)

Every trip deserves a few good London souvenirs, and mine are a slightly odd bunch. Something you eat, something you tap, something you dunk, and two little kitchen oddities I didn’t know I needed. Here is what made it into my suitcase (and what very much did not).

My Favourite London Souvenirs

1. Jellied eels

Let’s get the weird one out of the way. Jellied eels are East End history in a bowl. The eel is chopped, simmered and left to set in its own jelly, then eaten at old pie and mash shops like M. Manze, which has been serving London since 1902. You cannot pack them (Australian biosecurity would have words, and so would my suitcase), so this is a souvenir you carry home in your memory. Splash on the chilli vinegar and be brave. I grew up around stinky tofu, so a little jelly was never going to scare me.

2. Oyster card

The most practical of all London souvenirs lives in your wallet for years. Yes, you can just tap your phone on the Tube now. But there is something about that little blue card that says “I have been to London.” Mine sits next to my myki like a tiny passport stamp. Leave a bit of credit on it, and it doubles as a promise to come back.

3. Cookies and tea

The classic, and the one everyone back home actually wants. Grab a tin of tea from Fortnum & Mason or the Twinings shop on the Strand (trading on the same spot since 1706), then pair it with shortbread or a tin of fancy biscuits. Tins are the trick. They survive the flight, they look gift-worthy, and they make an excellent pen holder afterwards. Just tick yes on the food declaration at Melbourne Airport. It is easier than the guilt.

4. Pie birds

If jellied eels sent you to a pie and mash shop, a pie bird is the souvenir that follows you home. This little ceramic bird sits in the middle of a pie with its beak poking through the crust, letting the steam escape so the filling doesn’t bubble over and the pastry stays crisp. Most are shaped like blackbirds, a cheeky nod to the old “four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie” nursery rhyme. It is small, light and fits in a sock for the flight. Even if you never bake a single pie, it looks very charming on a kitchen shelf.

5. Ice cream sporks

Half spoon, half fork, entirely unnecessary and completely adorable. Ice cream sporks are the kind of souvenir you didn’t plan to buy, then use every single day. They’re tiny, cheap and impossible to break in your luggage, which makes them perfect for gifting in bulk. Mine now live in the cutlery drawer, and dessert at home feels a little more like a summer afternoon in London.

None of my London souvenirs are particularly fancy. One I couldn’t even bring home, one is a plastic card, and two live in a kitchen drawer. But that is the thing about the best London souvenirs. They aren’t really about what you buy. They are about the moment you bought it, the shop you wandered into and the version of you who was there. Every time a pie bird pokes through a crust or a spork digs into a tub of ice cream at home, London comes back for a second. And if that isn’t the whole point of a souvenir, I don’t know what is.

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