Never less than entertaining, and through its most frantic phases genuinely fascinating, this was a 'proper' London derby.
Fulham, lacking in both confidence and success on their travels for much of the last year, found themselves battered and outplayed for much of the first half-an-hour, took the lead, pondered riding their luck for 15 minutes, got pegged back and then hung on.
If it sounds simple, the reality was considerably more engrossing, as chances were created all over the place, and missed, saved and squandered with reckless abandon.
Dennis Rommedahl had done his best to set the home side off to a flying start, clipping a left-footed effort against the foot of Mark Crossley's post after just eight minutes, having been played into space by Danny Murphy.
Man of the moment, Darren Bent, saw a pair of chances skid the wrong side of an upright, before Rommedahl again went within a foot of the opener, all before the first 20 minutes of the game had been completed. And then, as Charlton looked to build further on a dominant start, Fulham showed a glorious lack of regard for the run of play and stole a splendid goal.
Steed Malbranque swept onto Claus Jensen's quickly-taken free-kick, hurtled down the right flank and pulled back a cross which Collins John launched past Stephan Andersen with a perfectly judged right-foot volley. Their lack of confidence was all too clear however, in the way they reacted to the unexpected lead.
Unsure whether to stretch out and look for a second, or sit tight and try to hold on to their advantage, they settled for a halfway house which left them looking vulnerable.
Murphy saw a chance slide inches wide just before the break, and then, two minutes after, made no mistake when the Fulham defence allowed a cross from Chris Powell to bounce all the way across the area.
Taking aim from 15 yards, Murphy buried the ball beyond Crossley to remind the watching Tord Grip of his qualities. For all their subsequent pressure though, and there was plenty of it, Charlton could not conjure the chance they needed to claim the result they needed to return to second place in the Premiership.