Flock and Herd

In recent years, the increase in meat-free lifestyles and consumer mindfulness has meant independent butcheries have had to up their game. Opened on Bellenden Road in 2012 by Charlie Shaw, formerly of Ginger Pig, Flock and Herd is no different: the team prepare whole free-range animals on-site, producing a number of items including porchetta and bacon alongside their sausages - ensuring that nothing is wasted.

Flock and Herd source its animals from some of the best farms across the UK and are the only butchery in London to supply lamb from Devon’s Otter Valley Farm.

"‘Wild garlic is just coming back into season," says butcher and general manager Lyle Wheeler. "For spring, we’ll start using it in our spiced pork and gluten-free sausages."

Flock and Herd, 155 Bellenden Road, SE15 4DH 

The Framing Room

At his bespoke framing shop just south of Peckham Rye, Jacob Everett and his two-strong team produce around 40 frames a week.

Clients range from individuals walking in off the street to the William Morris Gallery and Tate Britain – for whom they’ve produced large-scale frames for works by some of the great pre-Raphaelites such as Edward Burne-Jones. Everett grew up in nearby New Cross and says Peckham is a special place to start a company because of the friendly and lively dynamic between all of the local businesses.

"A lot of my schoolmates have started their own small businesses in the area and we all support and help each other out." says Everett. 

The Framing Room, Unit 1, 1A Philip Walk, SE15 3NH

Steamer

Qin He and her husband moved to London around 13 years ago from south China. They both worked in Chinatown making dumplings and dim sum before starting their own business, Steamer, four years ago. The Chinese street-food kiosk, located between Peckham Rye Station and Rye Lane, serves Chinese BBQ pork buns and prawn stir-fry noodles among other popular dishes which people queue up seven days a week for. 

"We’re looking to change our menu soon to include more sushi and cold dishes,’ says Qin He. ‘We want to start serving more salads with ingredients like black fungus, seaweed and cucumber."

Steamer, 8 Rye Lane, SE15 4RY

Alpha Shadows

Alpha Shadows likes doing things its own way. The store is hidden away on the first floor of Peckham’s Bussey Building and, for customers who don’t know it’s there, it can be pretty hard to find.

Inside there’s an oasis of clothing brands from South Korea and the US, but most are from Japan, including Eastlogue, Niuhans and Fujito. "Around 90% of our brands are Japanese," says founder Tom Piercy, "some of which you almost definitely won’t see anywhere else outside of Japan. While I don’t exclusively look for hard-to-find brands, they definitely appeal to customers."

When Piercy founded the store in 2015, he wanted to make it as different as possible from other independent fashion retailers. "Because the store is in Peckham, which for some people living north of the river is out of the way, the product has to be a bit special to make people want to come here."

Alpha Shadows is the only place in London to stock Norbit by Hiroshi Nozawa. "Soon we’ll have one of the brand’s fishing jackets in stock," says Piercy. "It has oversized pockets and is mixed with quite a technical type of nylon. It’s a really modern take on heritage." 

Alpha Shadows, C1, Bussey Building, 133 Copeland Road, SE15 3SN

Made of Dough

After a two-year pop-up residency in the shipping containers that make up Pop Brixton, Made of Dough opened its first bricks and mortar spot on Bellenden Road in 2015.

Interiors are airy, with a stylish marble bar. "We took over a pizza restaurant that wasn’t working and persuaded the owners to let us take the site off them but keep the equipment," says Ed Sandeman, who is one of three founders. "None of us were chefs," he goes on. "But I’m second-generation Spanish, and one of the other founders is second-generation Italian. We simply thought, if we combined the kinds of food we love from our upbringing and made one perfect thing, it would be pizza."

Made of Dough’s signature pizzas are made with a simple lean dough recipe using a 60-hour fermentation process and topped with the best produce, which is often sourced locally. "The people round here like to support local business," says Sandeman, "so we try to stick to that ethos ourselves."

"Over spring, we’ll be making more of our special pizzas with potato and Italian pork and fennel sausage, which we get from Flock and Herd, directly across the road."

Made of Dough, 182 Bellenden Road, SE15 4BW