If you walk the length of East End Road in East Finchley, you will pass a pharmacy, a greasy spoon, a barber, a stationery shop, a vet, a laundrette, a newsagent, a butcher, a pub and an Indian takeaway restaurant. And, as of December, you will pass the street’s first independent coffee shop. It would be an anomaly if it weren’t for its like-minded neighbour, Margot, a sourdough bakery that opened six doors down in 2016.
Finch was launched quietly at the end of last year by actor Jenny Rainsford with a simple aim: to serve a good flat white and serve the community. “I never had any intention to set up a cafe,” she says. But life has a way of imitating art.
Rainsford is known for playing Boo in the hit TV series Fleabag, written by and starring her close friend Phoebe Waller-Bridge. In the show, Boo and Waller-Bridge’s characters are best friends who own a guinea pig-themed cafe together – a detail Rainsford lightly references at Finch by selling toy guinea pigs as well as more typical merch (T-shirts, tote bags, ceramic mugs and speciality coffee), plus pastries and flowers.
It is Rainsford’s hope that sales will support the main purpose of the cafe: to be a community space for young people from local schools and the surrounding areas. It’s a cause close to her heart as her father, who died in May 2025, was a headteacher who dedicated his career to improving exam results – and pupils’ lives – at some of the most challenging schools in the city. “He would work to completely turn around these intense schools with resident police officers,” Rainsford says.
In February she’s launching an after-hours community program, helping young people develop soft skills, as well as getting them work experience. “We’re just finalising our inaugural workshop series based on what people are asking for. There’ll be a Lego club where kids build something and present what they’ve made. We’re going to do Darwin Hour, where all geeks are welcome to come and talk about what they’re experts in. We’re going to have a house-plant hospital, and mindfulness for kids.”
Crucially, in its first year Rainsford says the cafe will train up 40 young people as baristas using the cafe’s coffee machine, which is named Fleabag and Boo, because Rainsford and Waller-Bridge split its cost.
Rainsford’s mission is clear: “I want to provide an access route to good things for the people who have the least access to good things. I want it to be a positivity shop.”
Finch
132 East End Road, N2 0SP
Hours:
Mon to Fri 7.30am–4pm
Sat 8am–4pm
Sun 8.30am–2pm
