The best baked goods to try in Forest Hill

The best baked goods to try in Forest Hill

The Best Baked Goods to Try in Forest Hill

There's a particular kind of Saturday morning that South Londoners know well. You're up earlier than you planned, the light is doing something lovely through the kitchen window, and the thought of a genuinely good pastry — properly laminated, still faintly warm — is the only thing getting you out of the house. Forest Hill sits at a brilliant crossroads of some of the capital's most exciting independent bakeries, from East Dulwich to Crystal Palace, Hither Green to Camberwell. Whether you're after a sourdough loaf that actually makes you think about flour, or a brioche bun that'll ruin all future brioche buns for you, this corner of South London is quietly extraordinary. And if you're serious about your weekend breakfast delivery London, you're in exactly the right part of the city.

The Best Bakeries Near Forest Hill Worth Travelling For

1. Eric's Bakery

East Dulwich, SE22 9EF | Rating: 4.8 | Thurs: 8am–5pm; Fri–Sat: 9am–3am

Founded by Helen Evans — formerly head baker at the lauded Flor restaurant — Eric's is the kind of neighbourhood bakery that quietly raises everyone's standards. Evans works almost exclusively with UK-grown wheat, and you can taste the conviction in every loaf: the sourdough porridge bread is nutty and deeply flavoured, the 100% rye tin loaf has a satisfying heft to it, and the focaccia is soft, pillowy, and generously oiled. The pastry counter is equally serious — morning buns, wild garlic and cheese scrolls, millionaire's shortbread — and the queues down Upland Road on a Saturday morning are as reliable as the bakes themselves. Named in the Good Food Guide 2026 Top 50 and celebrated in the Guardian, the Telegraph, and Time Out, Eric's is as close to perfect as a neighbourhood bakery gets.

Visit Eric's Bakery

2. Bara Cafe

Peckham, SE15 4SE | Rating: 4.7 | Wed–Fri: 8am–4:30pm; Sat: 8:30am–4:30pm; Sun: 9am–3pm

Opened in February 2026, Bara arrived on Choumert Road like a very welcome announcement. Founded by MasterChef: The Professionals quarter-finalist Cecily Dalladay and former head chef Zoë Heimann, this walk-ins-only café bakes all its bread — focaccia, sesame rolls, sourdough — fresh each morning using regenerative Wildfarmed flour. The Welsh influence gives the menu its distinctive character: bara brith sits alongside a Caerphilly cheesesteak and leek bubble and squeak that would make any Welsh grandmother proud. It's only been open five minutes but already feels like a Peckham institution. Featured in Time Out, Hot Dinners, and Southwark News, this one is worth the early alarm.

Visit Bara Cafe

3. The Dulwich Bakery

West Dulwich, SE21 8BW | Rating: 4.4 | Tues–Thurs: 7am–3pm; Sat: 8am–3pm

Sixteen years in a competitive market is a meaningful achievement, and The Dulwich Bakery has earned every one of them. Trading since 2008 on Park Hall Road, this is the bakery locals reach for when they want the reassurance of consistency — stone-ground organic flour in every loaf, a range of white, wholemeal, and seeded sourdoughs, freshly baked baguettes, and a decent panini counter. The celebration cakes and pre-order doughnuts have built their own following. It doesn't chase trends, and it doesn't need to.

Visit The Dulwich Bakery

4. Ed Baker

Hither Green, SE13 6QT | Rating: 4.8 | Fri–Sat: 8am–5pm

If there's a more decorated small bakery in South London, it's keeping very quiet. Ed Baker's heritage grain sourdoughs won five Great Taste Awards in 2023 — a genuinely remarkable achievement for an independent — and one bite of the bread explains exactly why. The loaves have the kind of complexity that comes from choosing your grain with the same care as a winemaker choosing their grapes. The bakery doubles as a deli stocking artisan cheeses and charcuterie, so you can build a near-perfect lunch while you're there. It's only open two days a week, which makes it feel all the more special.

Visit Ed Baker

5. Maya's Bakehouse

Tulse Hill, SW2 2TJ | Rating: 4.8 | Wed–Sat: 7:30am–3pm

Maya's story is one of those pandemic chapters that actually ended well. Owner Maya started baking from her dining room during lockdown, built a waiting list through weekly Delli drops, and opened a permanent Tulse Hill shop in 2023. The savoury brioche buns are the main event — rotating seasonal fillings like pulled pork with pickled jalapeños, pumpkin and lamb shoulder, or cheesy leeks with béchamel and crispy kale — and they sell out at a pace that will test your commitment to a lie-in. Get there early, full stop.

Visit Maya's Bakehouse

6. Chatsworth Bakehouse

Crystal Palace, SE19 2AN | Rating: 4.8 | Wed–Fri: 12:30pm–4pm; Sat: 11am–4pm

Tom Mathews and Sian Evans started Chatsworth as a lockdown project in 2020 and have since turned their pillar box-red shopfront on Anerley Road into one of the most talked-about bakeries in South London. The weekly-changing menu — focaccia sandwiches packed with serious flavour, porridge loaves, marshmallow-frosted cookies, and the kind of Basque cheesecake that makes you immediately want a second slice — goes online and sells out within minutes. Named in the British Baker Baker's Dozen 2026 and the Telegraph's Best Bakeries in London 2025, this is a cult following that was entirely earned.

Visit Chatsworth Bakehouse

7. TOAD Bakery

Camberwell, SE5 8PX | Rating: 4.7 | Tue–Sat: 8am–3pm

Rebecca Spaven and Oliver Costello — alumni of Ottolenghi and Fortitude Bakehouse — opened TOAD with an open-plan kitchen so you can watch the lamination happening in real time, which either deepens your appreciation or makes you question whether you've been eating croissants correctly your whole life (possibly both). The pastry work here is immaculate: croissants, cinnamon buns, chocolatines, and seasonal danishes all sit alongside sourdough loaves made from UK-grown, sustainably farmed grain. Specials like roast pork and cheddar croissants or pumpkin chocolate cake keep regulars coming back to see what's new. Good Food Guide 2025 Top 50 and British Baker Baker's Dozen 2024 — entirely warranted.

Visit TOAD Bakery

8. Irene Bakery

Camberwell, SE5 8RS | Rating: 4.6 | Mon–Fri: 8am–5pm; Sat–Sun: 9am–5pm

Irene has cracked something that most hospitality businesses only dream about: a space that works brilliantly at 8am and again at 8pm. By day it's a proper artisan bakery — freshly baked sourdough, pastries, excellent sandwiches, good coffee — and by Friday and Saturday evenings it becomes a natural wine bar with a carefully chosen selection of organic and biodynamic bottles. The dual identity has made it a Denmark Hill institution, and the kind of place you find yourself recommending to everyone you know in South London.

Visit Irene Bakery

What If Getting There Isn't Always an Option?

Even in a neighbourhood as well-served as Forest Hill and its surrounding villages, the honest truth is that the best bakeries keep short hours, sell out fast, and reward the dedicated. A 9am Saturday morning queue is a pleasure when the sun is out and you're in no rush. On the grey Sundays — or when you're working from home and the commute to East Dulwich simply isn't happening — the appeal of having something genuinely exceptional delivered to your door has become rather compelling. The demand for quality artisan breakfast delivery has grown significantly in recent years, and it's not hard to understand why: people who have discovered the difference that heritage grain, proper fermentation, and skilled baking makes aren't willing to go back to supermarket bread just because they're busy.

What's changed alongside that appetite is the expectation of how it arrives. The best bread subscription London services now operate on bicycle delivery in inner zones, use recyclable or reusable packaging, and bake to order rather than producing surplus that ends up unsold. The zero waste bakery London model — make exactly what's been ordered, nothing more — is a more thoughtful approach to food than the industry default, and it produces fresher results into the bargain. A pastry subscription UK that works this way isn't a compromise on quality; it's often the opposite.

Butter & Crust: Artisan Baking, Delivered to Your Door

If this list has made you hungry and the Saturday morning logistics feel like a lot of effort, Butter & Crust was built precisely for that feeling. We work with the finest local artisan producers in London to bring sourdough, pastries, and breakfast goods directly to your door by 9am every weekend — so the croissant is still worth eating by the time you get to it, which is the only croissant that counts.

In inner London we deliver by bicycle, because it's better for the city and it keeps the bread in better shape than a van rattling over speed bumps. Everything arrives in recyclable packaging, and because we bake strictly to order, there's no surplus, no waste, and no compromises on freshness — a genuinely sustainable food delivery London approach that we think the food deserves. Our flexible subscription means you can pause, skip, or cancel whenever life gets in the way, with no awkward phone calls required. We currently cover most of zones 1–3 and we're expanding — so if you've been quietly hoping we'd reach your postcode, the chances are we either already do or we will soon.

Think of us as the next best thing to living around the corner from every bakery on this list. A bread subscription London that brings the artisan sourdough London experience directly to your Saturday morning, without the queue.

Find out more and start your subscription at butterandcrust.com

Sources

Editorial sources:

  • Good Food Guide — Top 50 Bakeries (2025, 2026)
  • The Telegraph — Best Bakeries in London (2025)
  • Time Out London — Bakery coverage (2024–2026)
  • The Guardian — Bakery features (2024–2025)
  • British Baker — Baker's Dozen (2024, 2026)
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