Curiosity got the better of us when we discovered that Putney has a food establishment with the lowest possible hygiene rating – a zero out of five, meaning “urgent improvement necessary.” So we decided to pay HMS Londis at the entry to the Ackroydon Estate a visit to see what a zero-rated shop actually looks like.
From the outside, the small corner shop looks perfectly ordinary. Located at the entry to the Ackroydon Estate, it’s the kind of local convenience store that serves as a vital community hub for residents, and there’s nothing immediately alarming about its appearance. The familiar green and red HMS Londis branding sits above a standard shopfront, and you’d walk past without a second thought.
But here’s where it gets interesting – and where we hit our first surprise. Despite food hygiene ratings being legally required to be displayed prominently where customers can see them before entering, there was no certificate visible anywhere outside or near the entrance. No green sticker proudly showing a 5 — or in this case a 0 out of 5 — no apologetic notice explaining improvements, and certainly no warning about the dire rating awarded last year.
Inside the Shop
Stepping inside reveals a typical small convenience store layout – shelves lined with everyday essentials, drinks fridges humming along one wall, and the usual mix of newspapers, snacks, and household items you’d expect. It’s clean, tidy, and unremarkable in most respects.
But then you notice the food counters.
Along one wall sit the unmistakable “Bake & Bite” branded hot food display units – the kind you’d normally find filled with sausage rolls, pastries, and other grab-and-go heated snacks. Except these ones are completely empty, their glass doors closed, and clearly switched off. The heating elements are cold, the display lights are dark, and there’s not a hot snack in sight.
Instead, the counter space has been repurposed for packaged goods – crisps, biscuits, and other shelf-stable items that require no food preparation whatsoever. It’s a clever workaround, though one that raises obvious questions about what exactly went wrong with the hot food operation.
A quick look behind the turned-off hot food machines is not particularly appetising. Sealed packages are left strewn about, the floor is broken up and unclean and the back leads to a dark and dank storage room.
The Plot Thickens
The equipment is all still there – the professional-looking hot food cabinets, the serving areas, even the sneeze guards. Everything you’d need to run a proper hot food service, just… not running. It’s like walking into a restaurant where all the kitchen equipment has been unplugged and the dining room converted into a bookshop.
Speaking to the staff (who were perfectly pleasant), it becomes clear the business simply decided to step away from food preparation entirely. No more hot food, no more fresh preparation, just packaged goods that come pre-made from suppliers. Problem solved, presumably.
A Practical Solution
It’s a pragmatic approach. Faced with a zero hygiene rating – which typically indicates serious issues with food safety management – rather than battle through improvement processes, inspections, and potential closure orders, this branch of Londis simply opted out of the food game altogether.
We should note at this point that of the other six Londis outlets in Wandsworth Borough, four have a 4 rating, and two have a 5 rating, so the problems appear to have been confined to the Ackroydon Estate branch.
But in a purely practical sense, one way to ensure you never get another poor hygiene rating is don’t prepare any food to be rated. The empty hot food counters serve as a visible reminder that the shop is not in the best shape.
For local residents and those entering the Ackroydon Estate, it means losing a convenient source of hot snacks, although there is also a Best One next door that sells sandwiches. The shop continues to serve the community as a convenience store, just without the convenience of hot food. And somewhere in Wandsworth Council’s files, HMS Londis probably represents a successful case study in creative problem-solving – even if it’s not quite the improvement story they were hoping for.
In case you’re wondering, no we did not buy any food from the cabinet. We did get a bottled drink and a packaged snack bar though.
