If you're partial to a perfectly brewed pourover coffee, there's never been a better time to visit London. One of the newer additions to the city's specialty coffee scene is Calico Coffee, a beautiful café in the Waterloo neighbourhood. I've visited several times since it opened in December, drawn back by the well-curated coffee menu, welcoming staff and peaceful design.
I first came across Scenery Coffee when I enjoyed one of their particularly delicious Colombian coffees at Loam in Brighton earlier this month. When I found out that Scenery's café–roastery is much closer to home, in London's Borough neighbourhood, it didn't take me long to pay them a visit. With a wide selection of great coffees served in an airy and spacious café, it was well worth the lunchtime walk.
With signs of spring finally arriving in London, it's the perfect time to share some of my favourite coffee discoveries from the past few wintry weeks. Whether you're looking for standout London cafes to visit or great specialty coffee to brew at home, this round-up will keep you well-caffeinated.
These days, I mostly work from home, but once a week I head into the office in East Croydon. Until recently, there hasn't been much in the way of specialty coffee to discover on my lunch breaks, so I was excited when a new coffee shop opened earlier this month. After a couple of visits to TAO Cafe, I'm happy to report that it's a wonderful addition to the neighbourhood.
Bermondsey is, without doubt, one of London's best neighbourhoods for foodies. Yes, I'm biased: I've lived in the area since 2012 (it was one of the reasons I moved here). It's home to Maltby Street Market, which draws huge crowds every weekend, and Spa Terminus, where you can hop between the railway arches, tasting and shopping for everything from kimchi to comté. There's a reason why it earned the nickname 'London's larder'. But if you're looking for a restaurant, bar or coffee shop, look no further than Bermondsey Street. And if you're looking for a guide to the best places to eat on Bermondsey Street, read on! (Scroll to the end for a handy map.)
Since I moved back to London 15 years ago, I have spent a lot of time eating my way around the city's increasingly diverse and impressive restaurant scene. To help me keep track — and for when friends and family asked for recommendations — I started jotting down my favourites in a Moleskine City notebook, which eventually evolved into a Google Sheet and then a blog post in 2016. An update was long overdue and here it is: my 50 favourite restaurants in London.
I've been spending more time in and around Elephant & Castle since I moved house earlier this year and although there are plenty of great eateries in the area, there aren't a lot of speciality coffee options. So, I was pleased to come across a new location of Old Spike — the Peckham-based coffee shop and roastery — mere steps from Elephant & Castle Tube on one of my lunchtime walks.
Since I moved house in the summer, I often walk past the Bricklayers Arms, a former roundabout with a flyover, which connects the Old and New Kent Roads. It's a historically important location — it was a key stopping point on the pilgrimage route out of London, way back when — but isn't exactly a major point of interest these days. So, I was excited when I saw a sign just across the road announcing the impending arrival of Presse Books: a café, bookshop and arts venue.
If you've been following me on Instagram, you may have seen that I've recently moved house — this is also why I've been posting less frequently over the past few months. My new home is pretty close to where I used to live, but during the search, I also ventured out into the SW postcodes more often than usual. Of course, house-hunting is much better when caffeinated and luckily, there were plenty of great speciality coffee shops to visit, including the following three, listed from north to south.
The past two years have been among the most challenging for hospitality businesses, including specialty coffee shops, in London, and around the world. Keeping a specialty coffee shop in business in London is difficult even in normal times, let alone during a global pandemic, which has felt like a game of snakes and ladders with constant changes of rules, snap lockdowns and general uncertainty. Unfortunately, some coffee shops have had to close permanently (please come back, Black Swan Yard!), but it's been encouraging to see how many new — and often exciting — cafes have opened in London in the past couple of years.
One of my all-time favourite meals in London was the first time my friends and I visited the original Pedler on Peckham Rye. We were there for the neighbourhood eatery's soft launch in 2014, and with 50% off food and five of us present, we got to make that wonderful order: "We'll take one of everything." As predicted, we all returned regularly, celebrating birthdays, babies and boozy brunches, usually featuring a Little Bird gin cocktail (they're owned by the same people). But although the restaurant was beautifully designed, it could feel crowded even in the beforetimes, and unfortunately, after one lockdown too many, Pedler closed its doors for good.
Luckily, however, it has now reopened as Pedler Good Fortune in a new location on Queens Road, still in Peckham but a mile northeast. The delicious food, great décor and excellent service remain the same, but when I visited one evening last week, there were some exciting changes too.
UPDATE: Lantern Coffee has now closed permanently.
While working from home during the past year and a bit, I have sought solace in my lunch-break strolls around Bermondsey and Borough, often stopping for food or coffee. Bermondsey has an abundance of specialty coffee shops (I have an updated neighbourhood guide in the works; there's always my south-east London guide in the meantime), and two roasters — Monmouth and Watch House — are based here (Pact too, although you can't normally visit). One of my regular lunchtime haunts was Black Swan Yard, but upsettingly, it was recently shut down by the landlord with almost no notice. I hope they'll be back but in the meantime, I found myself on Mill Street, down by the Thames, where I happened upon Lantern Coffee.
The window seats at the original White Mulberries cafe may have one of the best views of all the coffee shops in London, especially when the yachts in the St Katharine Docks marina glint in the sunshine. London's speciality coffee scene has changed a lot since my 2014 write-up, but the coffee, all-day breakfast and sweet treats at White Mulberries are still great. White Mulberries' second location, in Hay's Galleria in London Bridge, is even closer to my Bermondsey home.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, Black Swan Yard is now closed permanently.
Most of my Caffeine Chronicles reviews are about speciality coffee shops I've discovered recently. Not so with Black Swan Yard Coffee, which is one of the closest coffee shops to my home and one that I've visited even more frequently while working from home during lockdown. Somehow, though, writing about the Bermondsey coffee spot has always eluded me, even as it's changed and adapted over the months and years, so I thought it was high time for a post.
I've been quite quiet on the blogging front of late, mainly because as you will have seen if you follow me on Twitter, I'm starting a new job in a new industry this week, and it's been a hectic few weeks handing over and signing off. But I had a few free days this week, which gave me time to visit Good as Gold, a new speciality coffee shop in beautiful Brockley, south-east London.
While the UK remains in lockdown, I have still been able to seize small moments of joy by getting a takeaway coffee while on my allotted daily exercise. Last week, my walk-of-the-day took me to Nine Elms where I was able to visit the closest of District's three Aussie-inspired cafes; the other two locations are in Parsons Green and Mayfair. Unsurprisingly, I've missed travelling a great deal over the past year, so it was nice to take the opportunity to visit a small piece of Australia rather closer to home.
And so here we are, inching closer to the end of what has been an exceptionally challenging year. Despite everything, I know I'm very lucky to have remained healthy and in work (busier than ever, in fact, as I work for a science journal) throughout, but it's been such a difficult year for the hospitality industry, as coffee shops and eateries have had to adapt and then adapt some more in the face of constant change. Many places have already closed permanently or may have to do so in the coming months, with devastating consequences for the staff and on our changing neighbourhoods. It's more important than ever to continue to support local businesses, especially those you really care about, wherever possible — and, of course, wherever safe. Do check establishments' websites and/or social media to find out the latest information on opening hours and restrictions.
As part of my end-of-year round-ups, I usually highlight some of my favourite coffee and food favourites. This year is no exception, but as I only made one international trip before travel was shut down, I've rejigged the categories accordingly. As always, I've only included places I visited for the first time this year. Without further ado, here are some of my coffee and food favourites of 2020.
Coffee
1. Best new London coffee shop
It's challenging to open a new coffee shop in London and keep it running even in normal times, let alone in the middle of a pandemic with constantly changing guidelines and legal regulations. In recognition of this, I created a new category this year for new openings in London. And of all the new speciality coffee shops I've visited, Saint Nine Coffee in Bankside may well be my favourite and is close enough for me to pop out for a lunchtime coffee while working from home. I've always had a very warm welcome from Laith, Ashley and Zoe, and they serve great espresso-based coffee from Assembly and Round Hill Roastery. The centrepiece of the small coffee bar is the stunning mural by Gabe Sapienza that wraps all the way up one wall onto the ceiling. If you're in the Southwark area, do stop by for a coffee and to say hi.
UPDATE. This Lane Eight cafe is permanently closed but you can still find them at Clapham Common.
As the likelihood of London moving into tier 3 status increased over the weekend, on Sunday I took the opportunity to enjoy one last experience of drinking coffee in a coffee shop — for now, of course. On the agenda was Lane Eight Coffee in East Dulwich. Although I'm often in Peckham, its westerly neighbour is a longer walk from Bermondsey and Dog Kennel Hill is a bit steep on a Brompton! It was my last free day after a week of annual leave, though, and despite the inclement weather I enjoyed the walk.
Without doubt, 2020 has been an exceptionally challenging year for independent coffee shops and other small businesses in the hospitality industry, but the COVID-19 pandemic was one of factors that drove the opening of NOLA, a new speciality coffee shop on Rye Lane in Peckham. Owners Josephine and Anthony also form the band Oh Wonder. They created NOLA as a neighbourhood coffee shop that brings together things they love about coffee shops they've visited around the world, and that offers much-needed calm, respite and great coffee to the local community in uncertain times.
Things could be much worse, but I've had a tough few months, with work busier than ever — I work for a scientific journal so it's been non-stop COVID-19 research. And unfortunately, all of the six holidays that I had booked this year happened to fall during times when London and its UK were under more restrictive COVID-19 measures. My last hope of getting a proper break was the two weeks I had booked in November, initially to go to Thailand, then I thought I might manage Italy, before eventually booking a last-minute trip to Athens, with a family trip to Devon as a back-up. My 'plan C' was to use my annual leave to visit lots of coffee shops and restaurants in London — I really feel for everyone working in the hospitality industry at the moment, and want to continue to show my support. And then, of course, the 'not-a-lockdown' second lockdown put paid even to that.
