Chatsworth Bakehouse

Focaccia sandwiches, slices and two small ovens

The focaccia sandwich is what Chatsworth Bakehouse is for. Thick dimpled wedges with a golden crust, sturdy enough to hold a full build without collapsing, filled from a sandwich list that changes weekly on a British-meets-Italian logic borrowed from family cooking. Named drops have included the Kimchi Faceplant and Only the Bravas, and one tuna version paired a creamy basil and garlic aioli with tangy balsamic shallots.

Everything else comes out of the same two small ovens, which is remarkable given the range: Roman-style pizza slices, loaves, breads, cakes, buns, cookies and desserts. Specific bakes have included Guinness cakes, maritozzi, cacio e pepe milk buns, holiday mince pies, a rich vegan brownie and a loaf the bakery describes as bigger than its own head. The style is house-led rather than classic French, with savoury bakes and sturdy breads sharing racks with the sweet things.

A red shopfront and the queue that belongs to it

The bakery started as a lockdown micro-bakery in a flat and became bricks and mortar without losing that scale. It now runs two nearby sites in the Crystal Palace and Anerley corner of South London, one a walk-in bakery and the other handling collections and slices, and that split is the only reason a shop this small can meet the demand it gets.

The candy-red frontage is narrow, there is one wooden bench outside, and the queue often forms as the doors open. This is not a room to work in for an afternoon. It is a swift bakery run: arrive, take what is there, and go. Sandwich drops sell out very quickly, so what is available shapes the order more than what you planned.

Start with focaccia, then take a slice or a loaf

Order the focaccia sandwich first, whichever one is on that week. The craft is most legible there, in the contrast between a crisp golden crust and an open, fluffy crumb, and in how the aioli, pickles, slaw or shallots are balanced against it rather than piled on. Whatever is left at the counter is the honest answer to what to order.

After that, a Roman-style pizza slice or a loaf to take home. The reputation rests on repeatable strengths rather than novelty: bread, pizza, a rotating sandwich list and sweet things good enough to pull people from across London to a small red shopfront. If the vegan brownie or a cacio e pepe milk bun is in the case, add it.