London is full of little nationality clusters, and the eastern end of Lavender Hill is very much a French one! It’s been helped by the Wix French and bilingual school (a pioneering initiative that’s been running for over a decade), a pair of French / bilingual nurseries, a bilingual English/French stream at the Shaftesbury Park school, and of course ready access to the Lycee in South Kensington…

What was of course missing was a French cafe – which is why we’re pleased to see newly opened French cafe, the Baguette Deli on Lavender Hill. They specialise in fresh baguette sandwiches made to order in the kitchen at the back, and as you would expect they also offer Croques of all descriptions (Monsieur, madame, nordique, mushroom rarebit, quatre fromages), as well as fresh pressed juices and the usual range of coffees.

There are a few tables inside and out (helped by the pavement here being very wide), all well spaced out – and a small assortment of French treats for sale. All well presented and the owner (who has lived in the neighbourhood for many years) are cheerful and clearly very enthusiastic about this new venture. A welcome new arrival to Lavender Hill and the Baguette Deli looks set to do well.

This is the latest in a string of cafe openings on this part of Lavender Hill – and follows the launch of now-very-successful cafe & bakery SweetSmile, who are now also running a hot food menu and are licensed; 2Love who opened their popular second local branch on the end of the street nearer Clapham Junction, Il Molino, who continue to do a brisk trade in coffees, cakes and salads and deli food, and Sendero, one of the first cafes we ever wrote about who have done so well they have also opened a second local branch – in addition to a well established branch of Caffe Nero and of course Maiolica Cafe on Wandsworth Road who despite now focussing primarily on food, still make a good coffee!