Pizza’s one of the few foods that somehow never goes out of style – and we’ve got four new pizzerias on the way. First up is Common Pizza, who have just opened by the basketball courts in Clapham Common. Their speciality is New York style pizzas and deep-pan Detroit pies, with both on-site and takeaway on offer. A two-for-one happy hour is running daily from 4-6pm, and conscious of their outdoors location, if you order a main to eat on site and it rains, they’ll offer a free drink. Opening offers include half price mains, with details at @commonpizzauk.

Last year this was Megan’s terrace – a place we wrote about quite a few times in 2021 as they took over what had previously been a notoriously hard-to-let unit in the middle of Clapham Common. Before Megan’s it had gone through a lot of tenants, mainly because it was too small: there wasn’t enough indoor space to host a proper kitchen while also having enough seating to make a profit, the complicated laws that decide what can be built on Common land meant an extension was out of the question, and the somewhat isolated location meant it hardly saw any winter trade.

Megan’s took a completely different (and quite clever) approach, making the entire building in to a much larger kitchen, with all the seating outside. It wasn’t straightforward to do: they still only traded in the summer, and we understand they had nightmares with the power supply, which just wasn’t powerful enough for a modern kitchen (so needed a generator to be on site for more than a year) – but overall it worked pretty well, and the sizeable investment by Megan’s also made what had been a bit of an eyesore, in to something more worthy of this high visibility location.

Common Pizza have stuck with this model. As our photos show they’re taking more or less the same approach of a mainly outdoor venue, but have done a fair bit of redesign of the space and the seating area, mainly to make it all a bit lower-maintenance and simpler to run; it works on a mainly walk-in basis but they do take bookings for larger groups.

It’s a pretty decent location, if you can make this outdoor-focussed approach work, right next to the ever-busy skate park and the refurbished Basketball courts. Megan’s was very busy in the summers; going by the crowds on site so far it looks like Common Pizza has pulled in the numbers.

Next up – as we noted a few weeks ago, Corecore Pizzeria have been trading locally for the last two years from a ‘delivery only’ base at the nearby business centre on Ingate Place, and have a strong local following. So strong that they’ve made the big jump to running their very own restaurant, at 40 Queenstown Road – with lots of seating, as well as takeaway, and delivery. And after a few weeks of work to fit everything out and get the kitchen (and above all the pizza oven) up and running, they’re now open!

Corecore’s core product is very much the traditional Neapolitan pizza, with the sides and extras you might expect. Their previous Ingate Place Pizzeria was consistently popular – and also got a solid ‘5 out of 5’ hygiene rating from the Food Standards Agency – and the new location has had excellent reviews so far as well. Do visit – you’ll of course be doing your bit to support a local business as it takes a big step up in scale and ambition – but above all, you’ll be in for an excellent pizza!

Meanwhile back in January we wrote about part of the Party Superstore at Clapham Junction potentially becoming a restaurant, and while details were very vague at the time, a bit of detective work (looking at who the planning agents had worked for before, and tracing a few company links) led us to suspect it would become a branch of Rudy’s Pizza. And sure enough it is – as more detailed plans have now been submitted.

Rudy’s Pizza are a medium-sized chain specialising in Neapolitan pizza. They opened their first pizzeria in Ancoats in Manchester in 2015, and have been expanding rapidly to the point where they have thirty branches, including seven in London, and sold over two million pizzas a year. Their core product is classic Italian pizzas made with fresh dough in a Neapolitan-style base with a variety of toppings, including vegan and vegetarian options.  Their new Clapham Junction branch will take over half of the Party & Celebrate store, making fairly minor changes to the shopfront as shown below; as we understand it our famous Party Superstore will squeeze things in a bit and carry on as usual in the remaining space.

The plans, which have now gone live after a delay while the applicants assembled all the necessary planning details, will see small changes to the building including a skylight on the rear flat roof, new extraction , and using some of the pavement at the front for customer seating. Most of the ground floor is taken up by the kitchen and pizza oven, with the basement opened up as the main internal seating area. The plans are not especially controversial – but there are concerns that the conversion of increasing number of shops to food & drink is eroding the overall viability of Clapham Junction town centre, and that the narrow and somewhat slopey pavement doesn’t have the width for more outdoor seating. If you want to see and comment on the details, search for application 2024/4363 at wandsworth.gov.uk/planning.

Now we said Rudy’s are an expanding chain, and it turns out this isn’t the only branch they’re opening locally – as another is already being fitted out next to Clapham Common station. This one will be rather smaller, and will take over the shopfront shown below. The Clapham Common branch has been through a few planning challenges over the last year as Rudy’s tried to make the small and awkwardly-shaped premises larger with an extension at the back, but saw the first plans rejected; an updated approach has now been given the green light.

Rudy’s Clapham Common will be located at 15 The Pavement, and will also be serving up fresh Neapolitan pizza daily. There’s no opening date yet, but work is well underway.

Of course no mention of Neapolitan pizzeria would be complete without a nod to consistent local favourite Pizzeria Pellone, who have been trading in their surprisingly small restaurant at 42 Lavender Hill since 2019 – and who see people travel from far and wide to get quality pizzas.

Corecore Pizza are open at 40 Queenstown Road, London, 020 7871 6897 (instagram). Common Pizza are open at the Junction of Long Road & Rookery Road (by the skate park & basketball courts), Clapham Common SW4 9DD (menu / instagram). Rudy’s Clapham Junction location will be at 270 Lavender Hill, subject to planning, and their Clapham Common is at 15 the Pavement SW4 0HY and looks set to open in a month or so (web). We post from time to time on developments in and around the Lavender Hill area of Battersea, London – if you found this of interest you may want to see our other recent posts on retail and on food and drink in the area, or to sign up to receive new posts by email. And if you’ve got tips or insights on any of the areas we cover – get in touch and let us know!