So Walthamstow is not somewhere you would usually find me, it’s ‘hold on to your bag country’ as my friend would put it, but I was lured over by the promise of popcorn, a 110″ ‘home cinema’ and the ‘The Good the Bad and the Ugly’ (we ended up watching Sex in the City the movie but whatever). However it turns out Walthamstow has a lot to offer, and locals are very proud of it. Apart from having multiples of every single chain shop that has ever been around, the kind of area that has 3 Argos’ within minutes of each other (they have a lot of Elizabeth Duke jewelry to supply) it has a few gems of it’s own starting with the Rio Cafe (see below). This place immediately made it to my top ten cafes. Walthamstow high street is one giant Pound Shop, there are literally hundreds of them, interspersed with carpet shops and greasy spoon cafes, (it’s also host to Europe’s longest market, selling the same crap all the shops sell). It feels like a high street of a decrepit old seaside resort.
Nestled amongst the rubbish though is one the quirkiest little cafes I have ever come across. Its an eclectic mix of 50’s Americana, Arabic music, delicious meze food and Moroccan and Polish locals sitting outside drinking espressos and smoking rollies with stained teeth and fingers. I was peeing myself with excitement over the place, it is one of my greatest finds to date.
And it just gets better, opposite they have a another cafe, equally quirky in a Parisian coffee bar meets Moroccan hookah lounge kind of way specialising in all kinds of coffee.
Both have adjoining out door seating areas which feel like a small palazzo in Rome not ‘Vomit-up-a-lamp-post-after-a-Tuesday-night-after-the-bingo”, which is what generally springs to mind seeing the area. Walthamstow also plays host to the one of the greatest pie and mash shops ‘L Manze’ which is probably the most beautiful, with its original store front and stunning art deco interior.
Walthamstow village is also really nice, with a few shops and places to eat, a local butcher and bakery, (well posh deli actually) that kind of thing and a cute little cafe I was pleasantly surprised by the place.
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