London larder: General Store SE15

It’s the store you want to go home to. On a Sunday morning in August, the doors opened to the smell of freshly ground coffee, weekend pastries, and fresh produce - red currants from Peckham, giant fennel and tiger courgettes, plump tomatoes and fragrant and sweet apricots. The larder was brimming with the best of British, lovingly chosen and displayed,

It was only in March this year that Merlin and Genevieve opened the General Store, reinventing the concept of the local grocer with their enthusiasm and passion. Champions of local food artisans, they stock London favourites like England Preserves, Clerkenwell’s Workshop Coffee Company (ground to order), British Summer Honey from the London Honey Company, Moxon’s smoked mackerel and local Hackney girl, Lillie O’Brien’s jams (London Borough of Jam). Other take home provisions include organic olive oil sold by the litre, pork and fennel salami from Gloucestershire, and the General Store’s own granola made with oats, pumpkin seeds, almonds, sunflower seeds, and maple syrup.  

In all a perfect neighbour, General Store is what every good grocer should be - the heart of its community.  

Address: 174 Bellenden Road, SE15 4BW.
Tel. 0207 642 2129
Opening times: Wednesday – Sunday. Closed Monday – Tuesday.