or: how i learned to stop worrying and not ENTIRELY, ALWAYS hate living in london. a vague semblance of a life in places since moving down here. (my full, but less rambly London places list is on foursquare here)

• the OG nice part of london is hampstead heath, which provided the first opportunities to breathe when i first moved here, and which is pretty damn romantic and beautiful whichever way you look at it. i mostly mean the ponds, of course. go and get mugged in broad daylight by getting your picnic from highgate first, if you like.
• thank god for pizza union, cheap and cheerful and always good. the calabrese is the best.
• speaking of good, cheap, cheerful food, roti king is the classic. i have never heard evidence of anyone getting through the huge queue and getting a table, so best to go in the summer when you can get takeaway and sit in the little square near drummond street, i reckon. get a tin of ipa from euston sainsbury's to go with it.
• on a different tangent, speaking of pizza, homeslice is literally breath-taking (i really did gasp when i saw the size of the pizzas) and very fun and tasty. good for a date, but definitely not a first one. (messy!)
• take yourself out for a romantic lunch date at padella and walk round borough market while you're waiting for a table.
• spinach and agushi at exmouth market - i DIE. the veggie box is one of the most delicious things i have ever tasted and was my birthday lunch. something has to be good for you to want to sit outside and eat eat it on a drizzly november day.
• i had never tried gozleme before moving to london. the place i mostly go to eat them is a cafe opposite EartH in stoke newington that has a huge sign outside saying 'gozleme'. they are £3.50 for a spinach and cheese one to eat in the cafe, and make a warm, filling, spectacularly cheap meal. i also tried turkish eggs for the first time at goodcup in nunhead and fell wildly in love. good old wanky brunch cafes.
• london has a great proliferation of pubs-with-clubs-in-the-backroom, which i LOVE. i like the shacklewell arms in dalston, the lexington in islington and, my favourite, the amersham arms in new cross. new cross is more or less manchester-on-thames, and is therefore, really, the only acceptable part of london.
• free monday night comedy at the bill murray is a good laff. i also saw josie long there, who was so good she actually made me have a cathartic little weep as well as making me laugh.
• £5 films at peckhamplex!!
• for walks, i highly recommend this book which has some great ones, although the commentary can occasionally be toe-curling, particularly on gentrification. so far i've thoroughly enjoyed the stoke newington walk and a beautiful walk through ladbroke grove.
• though imo the sexiest part of central london to walk through is the area around angel. mmmmmmm those georgian houses. (stop at the aforementioned spinach and agushi for lunch.) there are some quite good charity shops around there too!
• best charity shopping so far has been in lewisham which knocked it out of the park with a day of lucky finds. i also like the ones around holloway and archway. and i have just moved near deptford junk market which swells my heart with joy. go to isla ray afterwards for a veggie breakfast. (maybe the best all-round veggie breakfast i've had? the beans are extra extra good.)
• when i would go on the occasional day trip to london with my family, my mum showed me around foyles and neal's yard, and teen me was OVERCOME with the glamour of it all. if you're visiting, definitely go there. go to liberty too. sometimes i go to liberty in my lunch break just to browse, and i stop into & other stories too to put on nice hand cream. amazingly i haven't made it to foyles at lunchtime yet, possibly because i hear quite enough about books these days as it is.
• the markets, other than the ponds at hampstead heath, were the first thing i really loved about london and that you just don't get elsewhere in the country. i love the roman road market and the ridley road market and even berwick street market, which still has a hint of glamour about it.
• guess who has, for reasons i'm sure you couldn't possibly guess, been walking around a lot in my local area lately! to be honest one positive of lockdown has been getting to know my new area a lot faster than i probably would have. i have loved walking around one tree hill, frendsbury gardens (don't forget to say hi to the tadpoles) and streets upon streets of very glamorous old victorian houses on telegraph hill.
• it's only just in london but i really liked swimming in the lake in beckenham place park. it was the summer and i went with a group of friends (which was in itself a novelty in august 2020) and blue dragonflies were darting over our heads.
• more london bodies of water: the beautiful shadwell basin on a hot hot day. swimming is not allowed, but people have been known to escape the heat by jumping into the cool deep water from the side of the basin, carefree and shrieking, sky endlessly blue above, tower blocks crowned with lush green trees. people have also been known to sunbathe on the pontoon, feet dangling in the water, eyelids warm and yellow. i couldn't possibly tell you which people though, as swimming is not allowed...
• take the tube to kingsbury, grab a delicious vada pav or cheese paratha, walk and eat your lunch in fryent country park, look at some insane architecture while you're there if you like