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My visit to Walthamstow last weekend wouldn't have been complete without a visit to  Wood St Coffee , a coffee roastery and café at Blackhorse Workshop , a short walk north of Blackhorse Road Tube. Originally based at Wood Street Market, the coffee company has been at its current location since 2014. Blackhorse Workshop is a wood and metal workshop, which runs various courses for the public. I can barely create recognisable latte art, so metal- and woodwork are way outside of my skill set, but I was happy to partake in all of Wood St Coffee's coffee delights. The entrance is through Sutherland Path, which you can access from Blackhorse Lane or Sutherland Road. As you would expect, the building has a modern industrial appearance, like the rest of Blackhorse Workshop. There is lots of seating at the benches outside the coffee shop. On a warm but grey Sunday afternoon, it was fairly quiet, other than the calming sound of tweeting birds from the trees along one side. Inside, the ...

If you look at my map of London speciality coffee shops , you'll notice that there's a bias towards central and south-east London. But I've been trying to expand my horizons and hop on my bike or the Tube to visit more coffee spots further north and west of my Bermondsey home. One such outing was to  Bühler and Co  in Walthamstow last weekend, where I was able to sample both the coffee and the brunch. Several people, including a helpful reader, have recommended Bühler and Co to me and I took the opportunity of a free Sunday to catch up over brunch with a friend who lives in the area. From Walthamstow Central Tube, it's a ten-minute walk to the café's Chingford Road location. The grey shopfront contrast with the front window's bright neon colours, and it's just as colourful inside. The peachy walls matched my choice of brunch dish (spoiler alert!), and the walls feature artwork, which is for sale. There are a few tables in the front room, with some good socia...

On Swallow Street, just off Regent Street's curving tail is a Danish-influenced haven of speciality coffee,  Hagen Espresso Bar . The name calls back to Copenhagen, where the concept was born; both have roots in the Old Norse word  hǫfn , which, appropriately enough, means 'haven'. I first heard about Hagen when I came across their Chelsea espresso bar on the King's Road (there's a third shop in South Ken), but I'm rarely in that neighbourhood, especially during the hours of coffee. But while hunting coffee one quiet Sunday morning last summer, I followed the directions on an A-board into Swallow Street, a pedestrianised street lined with eateries, most of which now have extended covered outdoor seating, which you can see in the photo below. Hagen was ahead of the game, and even on that first visit, there were several comfortable seats and low tables placed in front of Hagen's olive green awning. I've been back to Hagen several times now, and although it...

It's mean more than four years since I first visited Red Lion Coffee Co. in New Cross , and now Chris McKie and the team have opened a second coffee shop at the base of The Scalpel in the heart of the City of London. It's been open a little while and although it's a fairly recent discovery for me, I've already visited a couple of times. I have Red Lion to thank (indirectly) for my brilliant speciality coffee tour of Wellington, New Zealand , from Tim, AKA CoffeeLater . He found my blog post about the New Cross café while hunting for good Kiwi coffee in London. He got in touch when he discovered I was in Wellington, and the rest, as they say, is history. While the original Red Lion is in a residential area and in close proximity to Goldsmiths, University of London, the second shop is very well placed for City workers, and with opening hours to match (currently 7 am to 3 pm on weekdays). I have to rush to walk there and back on a lunch break, but it's a quick cycle f...

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. A few doors down from Queens...