During During the first throws of the pandemic, food stores became our connection to the community beyond our front door. Timid and tentative, we'd edge down our street towards the butcher and baker and candlestick maker (poetic licence firmly engaged) in order to fill our fridges, but also to reconnect with a world that had become shut off and distant overnight. Independent corner stores became one of the few public spaces we could inhabit beyond the four walls of our home, the traditional grocery shops once dismissed in place of convenience offering a precious opportunity for human connection.

It was something Stanley Allen and James Dye both noticed. The south London duo, stalwarts of the city's restaurant scene, noticed the change when independent shops became community lynchpins. "We saw suppliers having a hard time, but we also saw a need for people to be able to go out and still enjoy some kind of food and drink experience during the pandemic," Stanley explains.

Inspired, the pair decided to launch their own shop, Gladwell's, which opens next week. A grocery store, deli and off licence on Camberwell Church Street, it will champion small-scale producers based in the capital. Formerly a bank, then a solicitors' office, the building the shop is taking over has been a mainstay of the neighbourhood for generations, albeit one of the grand old ladies that south Londoners scuttle past en route to the bus stop without a second glance. The Gladwell's team are restoring the space, making the most of its fine Edwardian features by maintaining the double-height windows and art nouveau facade.

Importantly, Stanley and James wanted to build on what they saw as a strong community ethos in the area. Weekly grocery boxes will be available for home delivery, with £5 from the sale of each going to the St Giles Trust's Pantry, one of the area's social justice charities.

"If you're going to open a business, you have a responsibility to be part of the community and give back in meaningful ways," Stanley says. "We wanted to do something that wasn't tokenistic. As a food business, helping to combat food poverty and food inequality felt appropriate." They landed on the St Giles Trust after hearing about its pandemic initiative, the Pantry, which works in a similar way to a food bank, but with people being given a choice about what they want to go in and buy, at a subsidised rate. In future, Gladwell's has longer-term ambitions to work with the trust on employment training, weaving the shop into the Camberwell community's fabric.

Stanley sees Camberwell as an overlooked south London district; the quiet crawlspace between the two boisterous neighbourhoods of Brixton and Peckham. To some, it's just a stop on the 436 bus. "Out of all the neighbourhoods in south-east London, it didn't have an independent grocery," he says. "It's such a known destination for food and drink if you want to go out to eat, but it didn't have that place to buy produce."

Gladwell's will stock products from small businesses across London, with an ambition to offer, where possible, hyperlocal goods made - literally - just down the road. Bread, for example, will come from the new FROG Bakery, just around the corner. Cheese and eggs will be provided by the city's Neal's Yard Dairy and Mons Cheesemonger.

You'll find other community projects popping up elsewhere in the old borough, too. Camberwell's residents - a ragtag collation of art students, historic diaspora groups and young professionals - has long fostered establishments and institutions that serve local needs. The South London Gallery, while showcasing internationally renowned art, remains a local space at heart; beloved boozers happily accommodate grizzled regulars beside mulleted art students, offering a sanctuary to all in a city famed for fuelling loneliness. Well-established mom-and-pop-style restaurants - such as Silk Road, which serves up Xinjiang cuisine - are just as popular as the more recent PR-hyped spots nearby. It's common to compare areas of London to villages, but for Camberwell, the metaphor fits. Charming, leafy, and lacking a tube stop, life has a slower pace, and a friendlier face, in this "Ginger Line" neighbourhood.

Where to eat, drink and hang out in Camberwell, London

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