South-East London – All our local tips

Located on Clapham High Street, Breads Etcetera is the perfect place to go on a lazy weekend for breakfast or lunch.

Bread Etcetera originated from the same named bakery in Stockwell, however due to the success of their organic sourdough bread they opened the Clapham café in 2006 – allowing customers to sample all their artisan treats over a few hours. And trust me, the treats are plentiful.

This cosy little café is mostly famous for the DIY breakfast, where for £2.50 you can help yourself to an unlimited amount of sourdough bread, ranging from walnut to olive and herb bread and a delicious variety of jams and spreads.Each table is fitted out with its own toaster, which only adds to the charm of this place.

For those that want their breakfasts cooked for them, they serve a great selection of breakfasts and light lunches, sourcing their high quality produce from only a selected few suppliers.

The Cumberland Sausages are a must and the Triple Chocolate and Brazil Nut Brownies are definitely worth a mention too. Furthermore, the coffee is brilliant, which isn’t always the case in some of the more traditional London cafés.

The reputation of this quaint little eatery has spread so come the weekend there often is a line of hungry Clapham folk eagerly awaiting for the doors to open at 10:00. Fortunately, this place is open all day allowing you enough time to stroll down for brunch or lunch.

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Breads Etcetera | Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Snacks | DIY breakfast £ 2.50
127 Clapham High Street | South-East | +442077203601
Mon 10:00 – 14:00 (takeout only), Tue – Sat 10:00 – 19:00, Sun 10:00 – 16:00

Greenwich Park is the home of the Prime Meridian Line. It is where GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) starts and thus, poetically, where time begins. The Prime Meridian Line used to be a line drawn on the earth (not around the globe though as I would imagine) but now, it is represented by a green laser beam. This line can be seen clearly in the night sky.

The park also hosts the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory. As it sits on top of a hill, the place is perfect for sky watchers and star gazers. But apart from science, Greenwich Park also offers spaces for sport, dining (including picnics) and simply relaxing.

For the London 2012 Summer Olympics, Greenwich Park will be the venue of the Equestrian and Modern Pentathlon events.

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Greenwich Park | Relaxing, Snacks
Greenwich | South-East
06:00 – 18:00 daily

The Amersham Arms’ tag line is ’slightly new movements in public houses’, and it’s not far wrong. Situated right in the centre of the buzzing New Cross/Camberwell area home to so many Goldsmiths-bound trustafarians, the Arms is a oasis of indie, fags and drainpipes in an otherwise towny part of town. It’s almost a humorous juxtaposition to behemoth of mediocrity The Venue, sat right across the one-way.

So the Boho invasion reaches the south-east. All the better pickings for the public. For as the Arms may be awash with bawdy indie preachers, it is also bursting with underground musical talent and some rip-roaring club nights, spearheaded by the inimitable Adventures in the Beetroot Field. Drinks are decently priced, the music is cranked up to eleven and the people are, for all their avarice and pride, a friendly bunch with not much more than a vintage hankie up their sleeves. Not to be outdone as a pub either, the Arms offers a smelly smorgasbord of cheeses and upmarket snacks to those who need a bit of energy between art classes.

So if Camden’s too crack-addled and Shoreditch is becoming a bore, get on the train to New Cross and drink yourself merry to the best punky pop London can muster. You might even come back south of the river one day.

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The Amersham Arms | Bars, Music
338 New Cross Road | South-East | +442084691499
12:00 – late (check listings) daily

Walking into The Beehive is like crossing a time portal. The smell of good coffee beckons you and at the threshold, you are transported back to swinging 60s London. The Beehive offers the “Fantastic Four” in Greenwich – a cafe, record shop, vintage clothing shop and a collectibles shop.

Oli Vintage & Retro is a delight for both bargain hunters and vintage aficionados. Long, leather overcoats sell from £50 and the Twiggy dresses are tagged from £18. They also sell bags, gloves and jewelry to complete your look.

The Beehive also houses Calneva, which offers collectible items for hobbyists and homemakers. You can find quirky tools from the 50s/60s like a wind-up shaver and a manual ice crusher. Spice up your kitchen with tins having bold and retro designs. Calneva is also one of the few places where you could buy a good working brownie camera!

As you snoop about the shops, you’ll find yourself tapping your fingers or foot to funky music. This groove is provided by Casbah Records where they sell both vinyl and CDs. Genres span from rock n’ roll, soul and funk.

The perfect finish, of course, is a nice cup of Java coffee from the London Roasters Coffee. You can either sit quie

tly or have a nice chat with the friendly staff.

It is almost disappointing when you step outside to find that it is the year 2009. The Beehive indeed offers a nostalgic journey to the time when London was really swinging!

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The Beehive | Coffee & tea, Shopping
320-322 Creek Road | South-East | +442088581964
Tue – Fri 10:30 – 18:00, Sat – Sun 10:30 – 18:30

Sandwiched between the rough and ready southern suburbs of Deptford and Charlton, and a stone’s throw away from glamourous neighbour Greenwich, Blackheath is one of London’s largely untapped tourist treasures. There’s quality nosh-a-plenty, enough bars to carry a debauched night from beginning to hazy end, and there’s the book shop at the top of the high street.

The Bookshop on the Heath is one of those delightfully staccato establishments, stepping straight out of a Conan Doyle novel. Looking across to the picturesque Black Heath and its playboy accoutrements, the shop is as good a snapshot of Victorian London as you’re likely to get this side of Soho. Step inside, however, and you’ll be catapulted further back in time into Britain’s glorious literary past.

Wodehouse, James, Pinter, Pratchett – everywhere a dog-eared second hand gem to be bought for less than a Covent Garden cappuccino. Also worth mentioning are the Ian Fleming first editions, as are the fantastic collection of reference books and maps, many dating hundreds of years past. If old magazines or football programmes are your cup of tea, then you’ll be in your element rummaging through the myriad decks on display.

So take a look round Blackheath, enjoy football on the green and Fosters in the bar – but make sure you take home one of Britain’s best known books, too.

Photo: Blackheath Bugle

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The Bookshop on the Heath | Relaxing, Shopping
74 Tranquil Vale | South-East | +442088524786
Mon – Fri 09:30 – 16:30, Sat 10:00 – 18:00

No building in history may have had as bad press as the Millennium Dome – sorry – the O2. But look at it without reeling at all those taxpayers’ pennies and you’ve got to admit – it’s a hell of a sight. London’s most maligned tourist site may be a white elephant, but it’s no lame duck nowadays thanks to the revamp O2 and pals have given it in the last few years.

Name a gastro-pub or popular restaurant chain and it’s here. Name a generic public entertainment facility and it’s here. What’s not to like? Well, everything I suppose – but there are some huge draws to the dome.

Firstly, at night it’s a great fit-inducing menagerie of LEDS, neon and modernism in extremis which at the very least is worth a short ‘ooh’ or ‘ahh’ to the beholder. Secondly, once inside the cavernous dutch cap (and trust me it is HUGE), you can spend a veritably wholesome evening at comparably little expensive when you look at central London’s myriad overpriced, underachieving tourist traps.

Thirdly and waywardly most importantly is its new-found status as London’s premier uber-gig venue. I recently went on a whim, without ticket to see Tennessee’s tremendous Kings of Leon. No chance? No way. £25 on the door – which, as any big gig lover will tell you – is a fair bit under the asking price. And oddly, for a place as big as this, the atmosphere was every bit as tremendous.

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The O2 | Bars, Cinemas, Coffee & tea, Music, Restaurants | Free
Peninsula Square | South-East
Mon – Sat till 23:00, Sun til 22:00

Located south east of central London and perched on the Thames is Greenwich, a village like area of London which is rich in British maritime history. Whilst Greenwich is now more synonymous for its pubs, restaurants, markets and of course the meridian line, evidence of its maritime history can be seen everywhere you look.

Come the weekend, Greenwich is flooded with Londoners and tourists alike, so at some point refuge and a glass of wine is needed! And to offer you that protection is the Trafalgar pub, which is tucked away along the river and located on the Greenwich Maritime World Heritage Site.

The Trafalgar, built in 1837 and bursting with history was also famously one of Charles Dickens’ favourite watering holes.  And despite being over 170 years old,  it has maintained its Victorian charm, with wooden floors, cosy fire places and large bay windows facing out onto the river, making a perfect hiding place on a dark and cold London winter’s day.

The Trafalgar also has a small but charming restaurant and the main pub serves up all the usual favourites including their specialty – fish and chips.

So next time you’re in Greenwich be sure you stop off at the Trafalgar to really get a feel of Greenwich’s past.

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The Trafalgar | Bars, Relaxing, Snacks | Mains £ 13.00
Park Row | South-East | +442088582909
Mon – Thu 12:00 – 23:00, Fri- Sat 12:00 – 00:00, Sun 12:00 – 22:30