Just around the corner from Bermondsey food mecca Maltby Street, under a series of railway arches, sits the head office and cavernous maturing rooms of Neal’s Yard Dairy. The Victorian brickwork of these caverns, we discovered during our recent morning with the team, creates the perfect environment for the final ripening of the several tonnes of cheese Neal’s Yard send to shops and restaurants in London and all over the world each week.

Started in 1979 by Randolph Hodgson, at a time when the UK’s culture for cheese making had all but disappeared - factory cheese production having taken over from labour intensive artisan methods during the two world wars - his mission was to bring back these lost recipes and skills and create an entirely new platform to showcase British cheese.

We’ve worked with Neal’s Yard since we opened eight years ago, but it had been a while since we’d been to see the Druid Street maturing rooms and be reminded what a labour of love the cheeses they produce are; both at the maturing stage and on the farms who they work so closely with.

Randolph and his team invest a huge amount of time with their cheese makers, working with each of them individually to create the perfect environment to allow each cheese to reach optimum condition before it’s ready to sell. For some like Innes the goat’s cheese can be ready in just two weeks, where as for Montgomery’s cheddar that process takes over 12 months. Each cheese is constantly monitored for flavour, colour and texture change and once at the maturing rooms turned and others washed and brushed every day till they are brought to full ripeness.

This unique relationship with farms means that Neal’s Yard get the pick of each dairies young cheeses to take forward and sell. So, when buying their cheeses you are guaranteeing a level of quality you won’t find very easily elsewhere.

We like to eat Neal’s Yard Dairy cheeses in many ways, but one of our favourites is Kirkham’s Lancashire with St. John Bakery eccles cakes, or why not try pieces of Harborne Blue and toasted walnuts in a salad of bitter leaves.

Neal’s Yard Dairy cheeses are available to buy at both our Primrose Hill and Hampstead shops.