Exploring

When I returned from my holiday, I decided that exploring my local patch was a top priority and I have been busy keeping a mental list of suitable South East London Adventures. Over the bank holiday I had a perfect long weekend pottering around and ticking a few things off my list.

I started off at The Deptford Project. In an old railway yard, it is a cafe in a 1960s converted train carriage. Apparently the site was London's first suburban railway station dating from 1836 but now it is part of a larger regeneration plan for the area with a small craft market (and I think it will also get an art gallery in the future).

I was expecting it to be über-trendy and not really my scene but I thought the train cafe was simply fabulous, I absolutely loved it. The whole place was bright and shiny with lovely airy interior and decking area with palm trees, and a toilet in a shed that was homage to Elvis! But it was the interior that I loved most; there were locally made lampshades, tea cups used as sugar bowls, brown sauce in unlabelled bottles and amazing seats.

The stools had different messages that were cheekily inviting people to sit down and the sofa was kitschly covered in collaged tea towels. I would love to try this at home if I discover a sofa on freecycle and have a surfeit of tea towels.

Its really worth a visit if you are in the area, the breakfasts were really tasty (but they also do really good cakes and salads) and they source ingredients locally with their own free-range chickens and sustainable coffee. They have recently launched a new craft market (they are on the look out for more stallholders) and they are using the space for different projects, when we visited it was local city farm including piglets and pygmy goats. (I do love a goat, I spent a lot of time at Woolfest this year making friends with them.)

Also on our travels we visited Arch materials (next to the Arch Gallery) which was a lovely shop selling all manner of oil pastels and art paper. 

Next stop was The Laban Centre for contemporary dance, which was designed by the same people as the Tate Modern/Bankside power station renovation. It is a lovely building which I had long admired from the train, so it was nice to see in person. I have earmarked the cafe as a spot for a future trip, as it looked like it was doing a roaring trade in soup and sandwiches. I particularly liked the geometric grassy hillocks outside.

We then walked into Greenwich (checking out local libraries, swimming pools and cycling shops) and then walked back up Royal Hill where discovered some excellent local shops. Royal Hill is home to the Greenwich Union pub (the tap of the local Meantime brewery), which serves excellent fruit beers. However I also discovered a row of shops I'd never noticed before including florists, cheese shop, butchers and fishmongers. The Creaky Shed, the fantastically named greengrocers had the most fantastic display outside and I'll definitely be cycling down here to buy food from them in the future.

Finally, we had an afternoon cuppa at the Royal Teas which is small but vibrant. (Apparently there has been some recent controversy so they can't serve the vegetarian food they used to.) Good stop for tea and cake with community noticeboard and the papers. The bird clock, in particular, caught my eye — I think it is a decal with clock face overlaid.

It was really nice discovering how Deptford and Greenwich linked together and find new places that are close to my house. The Royal Teas and Creaky Shed were also members of the wedge card which reminded me that I should join up to support local shops and traders.

Comments

[Jane]

Oh Lara what fun! That looks brilliant! I don't know that bit of London at all, really, but the more I find out, the more I like :) I am especially keen on the name of the Creaky Shed - I wouldn't be able to resist stopping there far too often!

I'm really sorry I never got back to your email before - my life's been thrown into some quantity of turmoil recently but I'm slowly getting back to normality, hurrah! Are you going to a knitting group at all? I'm thinking that I need to find one! Would be lovely lovely to catch up soon anyway, hope you continue settling into life on your new bit of turf!

[abby]

thanks for sharing the south east adventures. some great ideas for me to explore next weekend!

[Sharon]

Where have you moved to? I'll be moving to Deptford next month!

[emmms]

You've been to all my favourite places! Depford is lovely.