For this year’s London Design Festival, Studio Toogood, founded by interior designer Faye Toogood, turned its attention to local artisans, specifically those that produce, make, sell – and exist – in urban areas.

Called The Back Room, the installation took place in the studio’s canal-side base in Islington, which was opened up for the festival, and helped to launch the design studio’s new furniture collection, Batch, which includes stools, chairs and tables – all produced through small-scale manufacturing.

To underline the importance of local production – and give LDF visitors a much-needed break and bite to eat – Studio Toogood invited Italian food designers Arabeschi di Latte to host a daily lunchtime feast based on the traditional ploughman’s, except with a twist: all food had been sourced from within London’s famous M25 ring-road. A tall order, perhaps, but with so many local, craft food producers having opened in London in the past year or so, the idea was both possible and timely.

The M25 Luncheon featured Neal’s Yard cheeses (matured in Bermondsey), Hansen & Lydersen salmon (cured in Stoke Newington) and bread by The Flour Station (with flour sourced within 10 miles of West Hendon). Drinks were refreshing and often had unexpected ingredients, the most unusual of which was water that had been flavoured using well-cooked toast.

The installation and accompanying food helped to underline the growing interest in small-scale, local, artisan manufacturing in our post-industrial era. Despite our globalised, industrialised economy – and perhaps because of it – more makers and designers are now opting to produce goods themselves on a small, localised scale.