My absolute favourite places are the ones that pop up in the middle of nowhere, little places dreamed up by people who have for years fantasised about owning a café and then manage to far outshine the bigger budget more centrally located ones. Violet is one of these places, a simple little cafe with a [...]

Until I discovered Petersham Nurseries “Let’s go to Kew Gardens” were 5 words I wasn’t keen on hearing. Kew Gardens is hugely over-rated and expensive. If you’re looking for a nice day out in the park then Richmond Park is a better idea the best part being afternoon tea or lunch at nearby Petersham Nurseries. [...]

Now I know I said I wouldn’t mention parks and the only reason I mention Hampstead Heath is because I got lost there the other day trying to find Kenwood House with Drage who wouldn’t admit he had no idea where he was going. Well I decided that on a sunny day it’s worth getting [...]

Often, I find the best way to ease into a conversation with someone you have just met is to talk about things you both hate – talking about something you both love inevitably can lead to who likes it more or who liked it first. With Sketch love and hate swing dramatically depending on whom [...]

On a sunny day I will tear myself away from a busy schedule of staring out the window and take a stroll through Victoria Park to a bourgeois little tea room in Lauriston village, find myself a good spot by the window and select a large piece of some kind of pie and a cup [...]

Situated on Hampstead High Street, this little Hungarian patisserie has the most delectable cakes you can imagine, page after page the menu will tempt you with outrageously delicious things to clog you arteries. It reminds me of when I was in Romania and my friend and I would visit every bakery choosing the most absurd [...]

Hidden at the back of ‘Vintage Heaven’, a vintage china shop on Columbia Road, is the perfect English tearoom. Then again that is the ‘look’ they’re going for; ‘a perfect English tea room’. They serve good tea and coffee and have a selection of the most delicious cakes (the best stodgy Victoria sponge cake I’ve [...]

Situated inside the Heals store, Meals at Heals is so wrong yet so right with a description that can only start with “Once upon a time…”. It resembles something out of a fairytale. It has a pastel colour scheme and tables that look like they have icing dripping off them. It’s very Scandinavian, a fact [...]

Alexa Chung claims to love the strawberry tarts here at Maison Bertaux, although we know it’s unlikely she would ever eat a strawberry tart, that’s the kind of crap celebrities say in weekend supplements. If you go here when the rest of Soho ISN’T and you manage to get a little tiny table with a [...]

Perhaps a bit out of the way, but if you’re in London on a sunny day then it’s worth a trip up to Primrose Hill for a cup of tea and a cupcake. Half 50′s tea room half old fashioned sweet shop, the American retro furniture and cabinet of cakes including cupcakes of every kind, [...]