The Peckham Rye loaf, created by Fergus Jackson of Brick House Bakery, has been chosen as the winner of the Londoner’s Loaf.

The ex-advertiser turned baker, who has been running his East Dulwich-based bakery for five months with partner Sharmin, was awarded the title for his maslin, rye and wheat, sourdough loaf at the first Real Bread Festival today (5 October) at London’s Southbank Centre.

Jackson told British Baker: "I’m slightly amazed because we are a relatively new bakery and so I am really chuffed to have won this award. Brick House is based just off Peckham Rye Common, which is where the name for the loaf came from, and it’s a 20% rye flour sourdough which gets retarded over night to a get a really nice, long and slow rise. That works really well for the flavour of the rye."

He added that the Peckham Rye is the bakery’s signature loaf, which he claims his customers like the most from its range of breads.

Brick House produces a small variety of breads - six in total - and makes around 400 loaves each week for local shops, cafés and a weekly stall at Herne Hill Market. Jackson started his training at the San Francisco Bakery Institute in the US, and has also worked at E5 Bakehouse in East London, before setting up his own business.

Chris Young, co-ordinator for the Real Bread Campaign, said: "Fergus and his Peckham Rye loaf won simply on taste; it was local people who voted, and the three judges went through the final 10 loaves and it was the one that they thought was a damn, fine loaf."

Judges’s comments included Lucas Hollweg from The Sunday Times Style magazine, who said the winning loaf was "pretty much perfect bread in all sorts of ways", while Victoria Stewart, food editor at The London Evening Standard, said it "delivered on everything its looks promised".

The Londoner’s Loaf competition, launched in June, was a collaboration between The Jellied Eel magazine and the Real Bread Campaign to find the best additive-free loaf from a London bakery.

YouTube link: http://youtu.be/S7h7o3KUGqU