A lovely coffee shop. The sort of place you can buy a cup of tea and stay all day, working on a laptop or reading a book, perhaps from their book exchange shelf. Can be quiet, but also attracts various oddballs who can talk loudly and change the ambience. But what else would you expect […]
Platform 9 3/4 of King’s Cross Station is somewhat of a tourist trap for Harry Potter fans. Sitting actually to the right of platform 11, you can queue up to get a photo taken with the disappearing luggage trolley. Thankfully, there’s no charge to take your own photo, but I question if the queue is […]
God only knows how a rusted car made it into the middle of these woods. Burnt out mopeds can also be found, overgrown with greenery in a beautiful way, almost looking like an intentional sculpture park.
[Not at the Pavilion Cafe] On Tuesday 23 August 2022 at 08:50 in the morning at a different cafe nearby, I paid £15.25 for a hipster breakfast of smashed avocado with smoked salmon, eggs and toast. At 09:23 I asked where my breakfast was. They said the receipt printer was broken so they hadn’t started […]
These giant water lilies are so big, you used to be able to sit a child on them. But health and safety regulations say you’re not allowed to do that any more. The giant water lilies can be found at Kew Gardens, which is well worth a visit. The tropical greenhouses like this one are […]
One sunny day, blisteringly hot day actually, I searched for places to cool off in London and found this, the new Elephant Springs. An artificial stream with rock pools and fountains. A wonderful place to cool off, and a brilliant idea by the property developers redeveloping this area in Elephant and Castle because what with […]
The Sky Pool straddles two tower blocks, while families below look up excitedly knowing they could never afford to swim there. The American Embassy is nearby, heavily guarded by armed police. Which I figured was a good idea at the time I visited, because looking up, I couldn’t help imagining how a terrorist with a […]
What I hadn’t expected was the birds singing in chorus and flying through this inside outside space. The whole place under the arches of this geodesic dome reminds me of a sci-fi future depicted in films like Silent Running. One day I popped to the Bupa health clinic in Canary Wharf to get a covid-19 […]
This photo says it all. For more local ways of South London see the Stone Circle. The Ecology Park is nearby and a lovely walk leads there under the road following the path of an old canal. There’s also a water sports centre here. In my experience it’s rarely windy enough for them to actually […]
Despite the name it’s more of a grassy hill with one or two trees but not a forest. Ironically, nearby One Tree Hill, has a lot more than one tree, it is a forest hill. Very confusing. 😖 Update/correction: Although Forest Hill is the nearest Station, turns out I wrote this at Blythe Hill Fields. […]
Occasionally you can have a piss-up at a Brewery here. They sell St. Reatham Lager for £5/pint (2020.) Google them first because they only open once in a blue moon when the beer is brewed. The Mulberry Sour beer is recommended. Sadly I forgot to go back to the Old Mulberry Tree to eat the […]
Scouting for lunch in Peckham I came across this oasis garden of calm. I’d tried next door at a tattoo parlour/food shack that promised on its billboard the ‘best sandwiches in Peckham’. They looked good: hipster Avocado, etc. I almost got one until I took my headphones off and instead of 90’s James I was […]
When I visited Wildcat Wilderness I didn’t find any Lions, Tigers or Panthers, but there were a lot of wild bramble blackberry bushes. I visited in Summer of 2020 when I, and the world, had been hooked on the ‘Tiger King’ documentary on Netflix while stuck at home during covid-19. Well Wildcat Wilderness in South […]
One Tree Hill, despite the name, has at least two trees. Because it’s a woodland. The Oak of Honor at the top of the hill was given that name by Queen Victoria after she had a nice nap under it. Who knew Victoria of the Industrial Age was a tree hugger? Look out for the […]
When I first moved to South London a stranger in a park said hello. I assumed I was getting mugged. Instead they were actually saying hello. After 10 years in North London. Things are a bit different down South London. Later that day I was jogging up Deptford High street in some very uncool lycra […]
From the top of Stave Hill Ecology Park you can see the Canary Wharf skyscrapers peeking out of the undergrowth. I’d far rather be here than there. Stave Hill itself looks like somewhere the Teletubbies would live. There’s an amazing view from the top. You can see the London Eye to the left, the Gherkin […]
A sort of campfire circle picnicking area but without an actual campfire.
Sir Christopher Marlowe, the playwright, was stabbed through the eyeball into the brain in a drunken row with a spy friend over the drinks bill in an illegal tavern. But stabbing in South London isn’t reserved to playwrights and spies, these days everyone’s at it. Marlowe, who wrote Doctor Faustus amongst other masterpieces, is now […]
During the 2020 coronavirus covid-19 pandemic they painted a rainbow on Blackhorse bridge to symbolise hope. About the same time the KFC drive through opposite reopened, which also brought hope or despair depending on your viewpoint. There’s a campaign to open a cycle path under the bridge where the old Grand Surrey Canal used to […]
The Greenwich Meridian Line marks the point where time begins, sort of. The line begins at the Royal Observatory Greenwich which is now a very fine museum. Once I worked at the gate of the museum had to turn away a group of drunk Australians who’d arrived at closing time, around 5pm. “We came half […]
More sky than you’ll find than anywhere else in London. It’s actually on a hill so the ground drops away gradually, creating a feeling of expanse you rarely find in the city. Not a townhouse in sight. The Point is nearby.
Myth has it that there are secret caverns below The Point dug in olden times to hide from the invading Danes. I heard the tunnels extend all the way down to the Thames and were used for smuggling wine by the Navy officers who lived in the picture postcard like cottages up here on the […]
In this statue of Peter The Great, for a tall man, he has an unusually small head. Peter The Great was a Russian Tsar who came to Deptford to study ship building. Like most students, he spent most of the time getting pissed. He brought his mates along for the good times, including a court […]
The Old Mulberry Tree is said to have been planted in 1698 by ‘Peter The Great‘, a Russian Tsar who rumoredly came to Britain 300 years ago undercover and worked as a Royal Dockyard worker in Deptford to learn how to build a Navy. Apparently his disguise wasn’t very good, what with him dressing like […]
The Barbican Centre and surrounds are a cross between some dystopian future and the fun house from the 1980s kids program. Your first challenge is finding your way in. The place is very 3D, it’s a bit of a labyrinth where the lines are blurred between where the theatre arts centre begins and council estate […]
I found a straw man. Truly terrifying. Country bumpkin ways are alive and well in South London. I found it after doing an Uber Eats bicycle delivery nearby of a breakfast sausage bap. [Ad] £15 off your first Uber sausage bap use code eats-5m789 [Ad end] Earlier in the year I cycled up Hilly Fields […]
Update – 2022: It’s now closed. DIY Space for London, despite the name has nothing to do with DIY, or popping down to B&Q to nail some planks of 6 by 4. It is however quite DIY, thrown together, and haphazard. It’s actually a co-op community centre run by volunteers. We went to an open […]
This arts centre is my new favourite mid-week lunch spot. There’s normally some community event going on in the cafe: old people knitting, unemployed people working on their CVs, yummy mummies feeding babies. That sort of wholesome thing that gets you out of your worrisome head for a while, and gives you a warm feeling […]
‘Could this be the most emotional place in London?’ I thought, as piano played while long lost couples embraced each other. Someone had the bright idea of putting a piano at Eurostar International train arrivals in St Pancras Station. Anyone can plonk themselves down and play. The quality is surprisingly good, and the best musicians […]
Imagine a Rastafarian. In a tall turban serving vegan mutton curry. Standing in a shopping centre that feels like one you’d find on a year-off travelling the world… and you are not far off. The Zionly Vegan Restaurant in Peckham is run by the ‘Vegan Rasta’ who wears a variety of colourful turban head wraps. […]
The Queen’s House is a historic museum. In Netflix filming it sometimes doubles-up as a Queen’s House. Please note – this is not the actual queen Elizabeth the 2nd’s house. It’s not queen Elizabeth 1st’s house either, despite it having a massive portrait of her above the mantlepiece. It’s actually some other old crony queen’s […]
Wandering the old town of Riga, Latvia, you feel like there is a quirky restaurant round every corner, and Dzintara Cela taverna fish restaurant is no exception. It was the pinnacle of quirkiness on our Latvian excursion. From the fishbowls on the tables with real fish, to the traditional Latvian music versions of British rock […]
A huge backpacker hostel that looks like Harry Potter’s castle. Which I imagine would be a cheap and pleasant place to stay if you were a French exchange student and a Harry Potter fan. It’s nearish Elephant and Castle Station, if you need somewhere to sleep, before getting woken up early by one of your […]
Nice for a visit, but for God’s sake don’t work there.
There are a few Burgess Parks around the place. So it took a little while to find this, the right one. Presumably the Burgess family were rich aristocrats and owned much of London back in the day, thus parks named after them. Burgess Park off the Old Kent Road is a beautiful spot. Lakes, fountains, […]
Once upon a time libraries were quiet places. Sadly those days are over. God knows how anyone can get any studying, or working done here, least of all read. Over my lunch at Canada Water Library Cafe (1300-1500 15/10/2019) I had three things to contend with: The noise The temperature The smell of sewage that […]
