The Best Croissants in Forest Hill (and the South London Bakeries Worth the Journey)
Introduction
Saturday morning in Forest Hill has a particular kind of quiet magic. The overground rattles past, someone is already walking a greyhound down Dartmouth Road, and — if you know where to look — the faint, unmistakeable smell of butter and warm pastry is drifting somewhere nearby. But here's the honest truth about living in SE23: the very best croissants don't always come to you. Sometimes you have to go to them. And in this corner of South London, that's not a hardship at all. Within a few stops or a pleasant cycle ride in any direction, you'll find some of the finest artisan bakeries in the whole city — places making laminated pastries with the kind of obsessive care that puts most French boulangeries to shame. Whether you're planning a weekend breakfast delivery London–style from your sofa or you fancy an actual adventure, this is your guide to the croissants and pastries worth getting out of bed for.
The Best Bakeries Near Forest Hill for Croissants and Pastries
1. Eric's Bakery — East Dulwich
Location: 20 Upland Road, East Dulwich, SE22 9EF | Rating: 4.8 (Google) | Opening Hours: Thurs 8am–5pm; Fri–Sat 9am–3pm
Founded by Helen Evans, former head baker at the celebrated Flor restaurant, Eric's has achieved the kind of neighbourhood bakery status that most independent businesses only dream of. There are queues around the block, and once you've tasted why, you'll stop resenting them entirely. Evans champions UK-grown wheat across her entire range — sourdough porridge bread, seeded rolls, 100% rye tin loaves, focaccia — but it's the pastry counter that'll really stop you in your tracks. Croissants, morning buns, doughnuts, millionaire's shortbread, and wild garlic and cheese scrolls jostle for attention in what is one of the most genuinely exciting bakery cabinets in South London. Named in the Good Food Guide 2026 Top 50 and praised by the Guardian, the Telegraph, and Time Out, this one is non-negotiable.
2. TOAD Bakery — Camberwell
Location: 44 Peckham Road, Camberwell, SE5 8PX | Rating: 4.7 (Google) | Opening Hours: Tue–Sat 8am–3pm
If you are serious about croissants — and at this point in reading this article, you clearly are — TOAD is the pilgrimage worth making. Founded by Rebecca Spaven and Oliver Costello, alumni of Ottolenghi and Fortitude Bakehouse respectively, this open-plan bakery lets you watch the lamination happening in real time, which is either deeply satisfying or a form of delicious torture depending on how hungry you are. Croissants, chocolatines, cinnamon buns, and seasonal danishes are the anchors of a menu that rotates with genuine creativity — think roast pork and cheddar croissants or pumpkin chocolate cake when the season calls for it. Named in the Good Food Guide 2025 Top 50 and seventh in the British Baker Baker's Dozen 2024, TOAD is simply one of the best bakeries in London. Full stop.
3. Bara Cafe — Peckham
Location: 44–46 Choumert Road, Peckham, SE15 4SE | Rating: 4.7 (Google) | Opening Hours: Wed–Fri 8am–4:30pm; Sat 8:30am–4:30pm; Sun 9am–3pm
Opened in February 2026 on a leafy stretch between Rye Lane and Bellenden Road, Bara is the kind of new opening that immediately makes you feel lucky to live in South London. Founded by MasterChef: The Professionals quarter-finalist Cecily Dalladay and former head chef Zoë Heimann, it brings a proudly Welsh soul to Peckham — all bread baked daily in-house using regenerative Wildfarmed flour, and a menu that celebrates produce like Caerphilly cheesesteak and the traditional bara brith. It's walk-ins only, which adds a pleasing sense of occasion. Grab something from the pastry selection, find a spot, and enjoy being in at the start of what will surely become a neighbourhood institution.
4. Irene Bakery — Camberwell
Location: 31–33a Denmark Hill, Camberwell, SE5 8RS | Rating: 4.6 (Google) | Opening Hours: Mon–Fri 8am–5pm; Sat–Sun 9am–5pm
Irene is one of those places that manages to be two very good things at once. By day it's an artisan sourdough bakery and pastry cafe on Denmark Hill, reliably turning out beautiful loaves and morning bakes alongside excellent coffee. By Friday and Saturday evening, it quietly transforms into a natural wine bar, pouring from a carefully chosen selection of organic and biodynamic bottles. The dual identity has made Irene a genuine neighbourhood social hub — the kind of place you pop in for a pastry and end up staying for a glass of something interesting. Championed consistently by South London food writers, it richly deserves its cult status.
5. Chatsworth Bakehouse — Crystal Palace
Location: 120A Anerley Road, Crystal Palace, SE19 2AN | Rating: 4.8 (Google) | Opening Hours: Wed–Fri 12:30pm–4pm; Sat 11am–4pm
The pillar box-red shopfront on Anerley Road has become one of South London's most recognisable bakery landmarks — and the queues stretching down the pavement on a Saturday tell you everything you need to know before you've even tasted anything. Founded by Tom Mathews and Sian Evans as a lockdown project in 2020, Chatsworth Bakehouse now operates a weekly-changing menu that sells out within minutes of going online. Oversized focaccia sandwiches with bold flavour combinations, porridge loaves, marshmallow-frosted cookies, and Basque cheesecake are the kinds of things that make people set alarms. Listed in the Telegraph's Best Bakeries in London 2025 and honoured in British Baker's Baker's Dozen 2026, this is Crystal Palace at its very finest.
6. Ed Baker — Hither Green
Location: 38–40 Campshill Road, Hither Green, SE13 6QT | Rating: 4.8 (Google) | Opening Hours: Fri–Sat 8am–5pm
Ed Baker is one of those quietly extraordinary places that serious food lovers in South London speak about in slightly hushed, proprietary tones — as if they're not entirely sure they want the secret to get out. An artisan bakery and deli in the charming backstreets of Hither Green, it produces heritage grain sourdough loaves and pastries that won five Great Taste Awards in 2023, making it one of the most decorated small bakeries in the whole of South London. The deli counter — stocked with artisan cheeses, charcuterie, and quality provisions alongside their own bakes — makes this a genuinely excellent Saturday morning destination. Worth every step of the journey.
7. Maya's Bakehouse — Tulse Hill
Location: 37 Tulse Hill, SW2 2TJ | Rating: 4.8 (Google) | Opening Hours: Wed–Sat 7:30am–3pm
There is something quietly wonderful about Maya's Bakehouse, which began as a dining-room micro-bakery during the pandemic — owner Maya building a devoted waiting list through weekly Delli drops before finding a permanent home in Tulse Hill in 2023. The bakery is best known for its inventive, seasonally rotating savoury brioche buns: pulled pork with pickled jalapeños, pumpkin and lamb shoulder, cheesy leeks with béchamel and crispy kale. They sell out quickly every weekend, which tells you something. This is the kind of community-rooted, passion-driven baking that makes South London's independent food scene so genuinely special — and Maya's story is as good as anything she bakes.
8. The Dulwich Bakery — West Dulwich
Location: 78 Park Hall Road, West Dulwich, SE21 8BW | Rating: 4.4 (Google) | Opening Hours: Tues–Thurs 7am–3pm; Sat 8am–3pm
There's a reassuring solidity to The Dulwich Bakery, which has been feeding West Dulwich with fresh bread, cakes, and coffee since 2008. More than sixteen years of early mornings, stone-ground organic flour, and properly made sourdough — white, wholemeal, and seeded — alongside freshly baked baguettes, paninis, homemade soups, and pies. In a bakery landscape full of exciting newcomers, the longevity of this place is itself a form of quality signal. Pre-orders on celebration cakes and doughnuts are popular with locals, and the easy, unhurried atmosphere makes it a genuine neighbourhood staple rather than a destination bakery. Sometimes that's exactly what Saturday morning calls for.
What If Getting There Isn't an Option?
Here's the thing about South London's bakery scene: it's extraordinary, and also quite spread out. On a grey February morning when the overground is doing something mysterious and your plans involve staying in your dressing gown until at least ten, the idea of queuing on Anerley Road or cycling to Camberwell can feel considerably less appealing than it did the night before. And that's where the growing world of artisan breakfast delivery London has quietly become rather brilliant. The demand for genuinely good bread and pastries at home — the kind made with heritage grains, proper lamination, and actual skill — has shifted the artisan food landscape in a meaningful way over the last few years.
What's particularly encouraging is that the best of these services have thought carefully about how they operate. The rise of pastry subscription UK models, sustainable food delivery London providers, and zero waste bakery London approaches means that the trade-off between convenience and conscience has largely dissolved. Baked-to-order models eliminate the food waste that plagues traditional retail bakeries. Bike delivery food services cut the carbon footprint significantly. And a well-designed bread subscription London means you never again face a Sunday morning with nothing but a slightly sad supermarket loaf. The weekend breakfast delivery London space has genuinely grown up.
Why We Love Butter & Crust
If the idea of brilliant pastries and sourdough appearing at your door before 9am on a Saturday or Sunday morning sounds like exactly the kind of life upgrade you've been putting off, let us tell you about Butter & Crust. This is not a broad food box or a faceless delivery service — it's a carefully curated weekend breakfast operation that works directly with the best local artisan producers in London to bring genuinely exceptional sourdough, pastries, and breakfast goods to your doorstep by 9am every weekend.
In inner London, deliveries arrive by bicycle — which means lower emissions, happier streets, and your croissants arriving in considerably better shape than they would from the back of a van. Everything comes in recyclable packaging, and because Butter & Crust operates on a baked-to-order model, there is zero food waste. Nothing sits in a display case hoping someone picks it up. It was made for you, specifically, this morning.
The subscription is genuinely flexible — pause it, skip a week, cancel whenever you like. There's no faff and no guilt. Currently covering most of London zones 1–3 (with more areas coming), it's the kind of artisan sourdough London delivery service that actually makes sense as part of a real life. Weekend mornings in Forest Hill just got significantly better.
Find out more and start your subscription at Butter & Crust.
Sources
Eric's Bakery — East Dulwich, SE22 9EF | ericslondon.com
Bara Cafe — Peckham, SE15 4SE | baracafe.com
The Dulwich Bakery — West Dulwich, SE21 8BW | dulwichbakery.com
Ed Baker — Hither Green, SE13 6QT | iamedbaker.com
Maya's Bakehouse — Tulse Hill, SW2 2TJ | mayasbakehouse.square.site
Chatsworth Bakehouse — Crystal Palace, SE19 2AN | chatsworthbakehouse.com
TOAD Bakery — Camberwell, SE5 8PX | toadbakery.com
Irene Bakery — Camberwell, SE5 8RS | irenebakery.co.uk
Editorial sources cited in data:
Good Food Guide Top 50 — 2025, 2026
British Baker Baker's Dozen — 2024, 2026
The Telegraph, Best Bakeries London — 2025
Time Out London — referenced in multiple entries
The Guardian — referenced in Eric's Bakery and TOAD Bakery entries
