'Village' Life

So, on Saturday my lovely housemate Katie & I decided to explore Bermondsey 'Village' aka Bermondsey Street. I did scoff at the thought of anywhere that close to London Bridge being referred to as a village but, once there in the afternoon sunshine, it did seem surprisingly village-like and extremely quiet for central London. Bermondsey Street is gentrified to the max, lot's of trendy delis, independent vintage shops (aka ridiculously expensive), converted warehouses and a very well dressed crowd all with ridiculously tiny dogs.

Our first stop was Coffee @ Bermondsey Street

A ridiculously trendy (but not too East London pretentious) independent coffee shop whose lights made of Starbucks cups are a very unsubtle dig at the coffee giants. Uber-cool decor, tables made of lego, framed posters of 80s legends (A retro youthful Phil Schofield was our personal favourite) all add to the relaxed, trendy vibe. We didn't actually try the coffee but it looked good, and if it was anything like our Carmel Frappe's then you'll be onto a winner. It's a great place to escape the madness of Borough market (a mere 7 minute walk away) and chill with a good book.
A place that did look very nice (& was very busy so surely a good sign) was the Garrison gastropub http://www.thegarrison.co.uk/ the Sunday cinema club is enticing enough to encourage a visit.
Our whole reason for visiting Bermondsey Street was so we could visit the London Museum of Fashion & Textiles. Founded by the pink-haired legendary fashion designer Zandra Rhodes at an entrance fee of £7 I would say our expectations we're quite high.

A beautifully curated space, consisting were two exhibitions one on the designers of Timney-Fowler and the other on the 60s photography Justin de Villeneuve. Both lovely exhibitions, but for the price we were expecting more. They needed another exhibition to justify the price and with plenty of brilliant free museums in London when your paying an entry fee you do expect more. However, the museum shop was very cool, lots of nice fashion related and quirky cute designer gifts.  http://www.ftmlondon.org/

So next time your around London Bridge/ Borough market way and fancy a taste of village life, I thoroughly recommend a wonder down Bermondsey Street, but not necessarily the fashion museum I'm afraid.

Also, on a local South-West London note next time your in Earlsfield (and who isn't) treat yourself to a trip to Belle Amie.

This place is girl heaven, a gorgeous cafe cum shabby chic homeware shop.  Mixing beautiful Cath Kidston style homeware furniture & homeware accessories with very reasonably priced coffees and cakes, plus freshly made baguettes, tarts & a full breakfast menu.  Its such a lovely place to spend an afternoon gossiping and stuffing ones face with cake.