Meet Sean’s Loaf, Cricklewood’s little big rise

Sean Chambers never really meant to start a professional bakery – he just wanted to make sourdough for his friends and neighbours around Cricklewood. “My intention was to just bake ten, maybe 15 loaves a week, and then maybe, depending on how it went, grow things slowly over the next few years,” says Chambers.

This was early 2020 and Chambers, a chef with 20 years’ experience, had a day job and was making his sourdoughs one at a time in his kitchen. But then the pandemic happened and he was furloughed along with his wife Megan Chambers, who’s a pastry chef. “We needed something to fill the time, so we focused in on the baking.”

From there, things escalated quickly in the Cricklewood kitchen. “There’s no more room in my house anymore. I’ve got big fridges and machines for mixing dough. My house has turned into a bakery!” Chambers laughs, describing how his kids, who are nine and six years old, are doing lockdown school in the middle of everything – this is a real family business. If you remember back to last March, bread loomed large in our collective experience during spring 2020. “There was a time I was finding it hard to get hold of flour. My flour supplier couldn’t keep up! They were not prepared for that kind of sudden demand.”

Sean’s Loaf, now Cricklewood’s very own micro-bakery, is a lockdown success story: “It really accelerated things for us,” says Chambers. “During the first lockdown I started baking three times a week, making three different breads. We also have croissants and pastries, baguettes and things like that.” He personally delivers to Cricklewood locals every Wednesday and Saturday.

Chambers has lived in North West London most of his life, growing up in West Hampstead and Kilburn. “I’ve lived in and around Cricklewood for a long time now, and I’m very familiar with the area.” He points out that there are barely any bakeries around here, meaning Sean’s Loaf has had a warm welcome. “People have received us nicely. It’s been good especially this past year, as people have been so isolated. We’re a small bakery, and I think people are really trying to keep their community afloat.” 

Chambers hopes he and his wife can keep Sean’s Loaf going in the future: “I think I’d rather continue with the bakery than go back to my old job. It’s grown so much!” That probably means getting a bigger oven. “I’ve got the biggest oven that I can get to run off domestic power; next step is a proper bakers’ oven.” His own kitchen is running at maximum capacity: “Right now, I’m making between 150 and 170 loaves a week.”

Some of the bread goes to wholesale customers, and Chambers expects this to increase again once restaurants are able to open up. Until then, orders from individuals around Cricklewood are underpinning the business: “I’ve had some of my customers from the very start now, and I’m delivering to them once or twice a week. They are lovely people who’ve given me some consistency in my baking.”

Chambers’ sourdough lasts a long time – longer than certain high-street bakery chains, he notes – and this is because of the extra care he pays to the leaven. Basically, Chambers lets things sit for longer: “That means there’s plenty of microbes that will help preserve the bread. I can get about a week out of one of my loaves. By the end, it needs to be toasted, but it’s still a fresh loaf.” Chambers gets up so early it’s basically still the night before to make those loaves; this is something he cares about a lot: “I do enjoy baking bread. It’s quite a powerful feeling, going through that process of mixing the dough, baking the dough, and then you go out and deliver the bread and you get to meet everyone who will eat it. They are some amazing people.”

Sean’s Loaf takes orders online and delivers locally in Cricklewood.