Toad Bakery designed to "avoid the bottleneck of choice paralysis" between pastries

Carpenter Nick Tudor has crafted an elongated, curved counter for the second branch of the popular Toad Bakery in southeast London, in response to its regular winding queues.

Toad Bakery is the brainchild of Rebecca Spaven and Oliver Costello, who opened their first site in Camberwell in 2022.

Now, the duo has unveiled a second, larger bakery in nearby Deptford, with utilitarian interiors conceived by Tudor to cater for the anticipated hour-long queues that Toad is known for.

The carpenter constructed a bespoke floor to ceiling structure from slabs of sweet chestnut felled close to his Essex workshop, and fitted it with five slanted racks for displaying loaves of the bakery’s signature slow-fermented bread.

Tudor designed the custom shelving to echo the catering speed racks that are used for storing pastries at Toad’s Camberwell branch.

A curved, stainless steel counter was positioned next to the timber structure, which stretches to the bakery’s entrance and was fabricated by local metalworker James Williamson.

Tudor explained that the glass-fronted counter, filled with three levels of freshly baked goods, was designed to provide a window shopping experience for people waiting in the queue before finally selecting and paying for their pastries at the till.

“The form offers a little more time between the customer and the produce to avoid the bottleneck of choice paralysis,” he told Dezeen.

Behind the counter, the open-plan kitchen houses industrial spiral mixers and other baking utensils, all purposefully on display to connect customers to Toad’s activities.

The carpenter also left the bespoke furniture he created for the bakery largely untouched, to celebrate the various pencil and chalk lines left behind from timber production, as well as grade markings on the stainless steel.

“Rather than hiding the working parts behind a polished facade, I wanted to celebrate the activity of the bakery,” said Tudor.

“It’s hard to value something when you haven’t seen the effort taken to produce it,” he continued. “I think Toad’s popularity comes from bringing those two activities back together.”

As well as Toad’s first branch, Tudor said that his original inspiration for the interior came from an unlikely source – a 15th-century, illuminated manuscript depicting figures building the biblical Noah’s Ark.

“Rather than celebrating the completed object, it celebrates people working together to construct a timber frame; cutting timber, lifting beams and making something collectively,” reflected Tudor.

“In lieu of a detailed visual proposal, I showed Rebecca and Oliver the image and half-jokingly told them I wanted to build them an ark. Which they really graciously and surprisingly accepted.”

Across the globe in South Korea, architecture studio Sosokki Anac recently designed a bakery with monolithic brick volumes intended to evoke “the ruins of an undiscovered ancient civilisation”. Another recent bakery in Spain was conceived by design firm Issern Sera with immersive, cavernous walls.

The photography is by Jody Evans.

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