If they gave out ‘Buyer’ awards then Tomo (the buyer here) would win it. God they have so much great, great stuff, it’s expensive but so worth it. They were the first stockists in London of Cheap Monday jeans, or so I hear from The Captain. Now The Captain is NOT one of the beautiful [...]

Now Pogo Café is a full on no frills vegan cafe and is where I come when I don’t want to feel like I’m in London. It’s the sort of cafe you’d find somewhere uber-liberal like Eugene, Oregon. On the other hand you could find it extremely irritating if you were the type to take [...]

Now here is a collection of weird shit. So taxidermy and monkey skulls I get, but Labrador’s testicles in jars? It’s hard not to like it here, I mean there aren’t many places where you hear the staff shout, “the ocelot fur coats are in the kid’s coffin under the mortuary table in the back [...]

Le Grenier appears to be the official retailer of 70’s Crockery. Full sets of brown and orange tea cups, sugar pots and tea jars interspersed with eclectic jewellery, retro furniture, exciting knick knacks and old record players in suitcases which are so pretentious it makes me want to throw up. This shop probably survives in [...]

There is nothing I love more than taking a Third World theme and throwing a shit load of money at it thereby creating the ideal place for posh kids to hold their birthday parties all the while discussing their current holier-than-thou missions with the red cross, UN or whatever. The theme is in the title [...]

Hackney Wick is clearly on the up and the Hackney Pearl is definitely a symbol of that. Oh don’t worry the area still looks like a deserted wasteland only fit for amateur fashion shoots, but salvaged Formica tables, school chairs and copies of the observer are a slap across the face reminder of where we’re [...]

Easily my favourite ‘junk shop’ in London. Beedell Coram is stocked full of Victorian paintings, taxidermy, antique furniture, books, postcards and old medicine jars all lovingly displayed with no order or thought to presentation whatsoever. When she’s not drunk in the Golden Hart pub next door this is where ?????* collects her miniature tea sets, [...]

One of the last remnants of the pre-gentrified Broadway market, F. Cooke dates back to the days before the street was thick with Cypressa vans delivering organic goods. When I politely ask if I may take a photo, I get an obvious “aye roll along” with a weary sigh and a “what’s it for?” “My [...]

This was the first so-called ‘gastro pub’ in London started by one of the Eyre brothers. That is the main reason I like it. It looks much the same as all other gastro pubs but being one large room with the bar along one wall and lacking any nooks and crannies it somewhat lacks an [...]

A night out with Drage is one of my favourite ways to spend an evening. He’s the perfect male, just effeminate enough to not only cite but tell the difference between good jeans and lesbian jeans, yet you wouldn’t catch him standing in front of a mirror, feet turned slightly inwards pulling at the corners [...]

You might think that there wasn’t much in Hackney Wick and that’s because there isn’t apart from a lot of unemployed people who call themselves artists. Anyway for months i’d been going to a fairly nasty cafe as there wasn’t anywhere else. Then a great little place opened up, eclectic and quirky, like sitting [...]

Unless you live there or have a particular fondness for pound shops or Argos then it’s unlikely you will find yourself on Walthamstow High Street. However if you do feel like a trip out east or you just wake up there then Rio Café and Ricco’s opposite are the places to go. A friend took [...]

The best thing about this place is the fact that you would never know it was here unless you knew it was here. Part of a school and hidden behind a tall brick wall, you have to ring a buzzer to get in (the buzzer list includes the likes of….. who are also located in [...]

A quirky little Moroccan bar on Brick Lane with tiny ornate tables, beautiful and well though out wall hangings and elaborate chairs with hookah pipes taking up every corner. They specialise in tea with a few light bites. However don’t think about bringing your laptop or getting too settled as it’s not especially comfortable and [...]

Cay Tre is Vietnamese food for white people. If you want something more authentic you are better off with any of the 101 Vietnamese restaurants on Kingsland Road. However if like me you are scared of food poisoning then ‘Cay Tre’ is for you. Of all the inexpensive Vietnamese restaurants I have been to in [...]