Situated on a street which is home to a scummy street market selling stolen toilet paper and knock off household products with old immigrants and market people yelling at each other and groups of Eastern European and Asian kids hanging out in intimidating groups cutting school is Alfies Antiques Market. A vast cavern of Antique [...]

A Chelsea institution and a perfect place for celebrity spotting. Every walk of life comes here from supermodels to actors to tourists, to rich locals and down and outs. It’s a pretty standard London cafe, a bit dowdy but charming as it hasn’t changed since the sixties with the usual stodgy caff food. A few [...]

This place is ridiculous but it’s been here forever which shows it’s not a gimmick, they’re serious. Every inch of the wall space is adorned with framed picture after framed picture of Princess Diana. For no obvious reason the proprietors of Cafe Diana are such huge fans of HRH as to dedicate their business to [...]

“Do you want that on a baguette or Ukrainian rye bread?”
“Why rye today I think”
“And how do you like your coffee?”
“Black as a moonless night”
“That’s pretty black”
With walls lined with a collection of honey’s, marmalades and chutney’s as well as various novelty gifts this really is a small village shop from a long gone age. [...]

You’d be forgiven for thinking that either of these places are cheap, as everything, be it animal trophies, Victorian taxidermy, bevelled antique mirrors, old school science lab work benches, old poison bottles, old fashioned wooden clothes mannequins or stacks of rusty tins are just casually thrown in. Well they are but I imagine that’s because [...]

Aside from The Everyman in Hampstead, I have never known comfort like this. Plush leather armchairs and footstools with cream coloured walls, red velvet-like recesses and golden trimmings and a bar where you can forget the usual packaged and processed fat food and expect Mediterranean snacks such as olives and crudités, stuffed quail eggs and [...]

What was once originally a brothel is now one of London’s longest standing quaint cinema’s, with ornate paneled walls, heavily coffered ceiling of Edwardian plasterwork, red velvet chairs and double love seats that are comfortable enough to fall asleep in (I did once, to the Royal Tennenbaums, I hate Wes Andersen, what was I thinking?) [...]

In an area where a new health food shop or over priced store selling baby clothes pops up every 10 minutes, I initially didn’t give Samson Miro a look in as it was always empty with only a couple of people sitting at a long wooden table who would stare at you when you’d peer [...]

I don’t go out to bars all that much, I usually only get as far as dinner then decide I’m done socialising and head home. Trailer Happiness isn’t somewhere I come often but if I was to recommend a good bar (which I am) then this would be it. Think South Pacific tiki hut mixed [...]

I love this little shop, it’s full of weird, colourful stuff, it could be the official outfitters for Central Saint Martins fashion students as most of the stock is totally over the top but makes the shop look good. Of course the only way to atone for being a little overdressed is by being always [...]

Named after Princess Margaret, who, when she got married, became Margaret Armstrong-Jones, they used to come here for dinner a lot. You wouldn’t know it from the name but Maggie Jones is so so French in appearance anyway, and if you’ve read many of my reviews you may have picked up that I have [...]

Bumpkin is a relaxed restaurant attracting two types of clientele, both predominantly women: 1. Notting Hill locals who if they don’t begin life as one breed (privileged) end up one breed when they get married, give up their jobs and move to Notting Hill. You will see them in pairs excitedly leaning towards each other [...]

When anyone asks me a good place to eat out in west London, without exception I will suggest Osteria Basilico. The reasons are threefold: 1. the food is Italian, delicious, varied and well priced; 2. the upstairs has the great advantage that in summer they open the huge windows giving the impression of al fresco [...]

Someone told me once that there was an island in the Thames down by Twickenham only accessible by footbridge where there were art studios to rent. I soon discovered that many of these ‘art studios’ were in fact dilapidated old boats hauled up onto dry land and abandoned left sitting at a jaunty angle, it’s [...]

When I asked if I could take a photograph I got a grunted reply of “urgh people are always asking us that” , the main reason anyone comes here is for the “super elevated gillie” platforms with 9-inch heels and 4-inch platforms from Vivienne Westwood’s 1993 fall-winter Anglomania collection that Naomi Campbell fell over in, [...]