And then, on Chatsworth Road, there’s a thriving Sunday market which combines the inevitable demands of middle-class gentrification with longer standing bookies, ethnic grocers and massage parlours. It’s a similar vibe, in fact, to Queen’s Crescent’s Saturday market, but with added hipster, despite a still diverse Turkish, Asian and Afro-Caribbean community.
We took an alfresco table at a pavement café (Venetia’s, as it happens) and engaged in some people-watching: dreads, day glo, Afros, turn-ups, beards. A colourful parade, for sure. We smiled at a mother in lace gloves with dyed orange hair mooching along with her studenty son. There were kids doing eighties, others firmly early nineties.
It’s probably worth adding that this sort of thing is actually all over Camden Lock and the lower ground floor at the Stables market, should you bother to fight the tourist mobs and hunt it out. But here it feels fresh. And yet it’s worth remembering that modern-day street market culture pretty much started back in Camden Town.
After lunch (see below) we ambled around Chatsworth’s vintage shops, interiors boutiques (try Sanderson Sweeting Antiques at No 22, or Furnish at No 7) and the like; and then past sand-blasted terraces – pebble-dashing is being removed like it’s the law – towards lovely Clapton Square.
Just beyond? Why, the St John-at-Hackney churchyard, declared “full” in 1859, a tranquil space with notable tombs like that of the Loddiges, who opened the world-famous nursery in 1816 nearby. This held the largest collection of trees in Britain (he was also – fact fans – the first person to grow wisteria in England). And here really is the historical heart of this area, a religious site dating back to 1292; although, to be fair, much of the church dates back to 1797.
Eating
But our top tip is Shane’s on Chatsworth. Expect the usual modern British fare, and indeed we couldn’t fault an onglet when it did arrive – medium rare, pink, tender. Good chips. Zesty side salad. A small point? Bearnaise a bit too buttery and cloying. At £13.50 it was priced correctly too. Service was inevitably relaxed, Antipodean, friendly: the waitress even popped to the hardware shop to buy our Jack Russell a bowl for her water. And we sipped on a good-value carafe of house red (£7.50).
Five to Try
A gem of a bookshop with shelves stacked high with must-have tomes on the Lower Clapton Road – known as murder mile in the 1980s – but now lined coffee shops and a famous late-night bar, Biddle-Bros. 70 Lower Clapton Road
The Clapton Hart
A sprawling boozer in the “rough luxe” peeling Venetian palazzo vein – taking over what was once a Victorian hotel – and, whilst quite quiet for a Sunday on our visit, seemed democratic and welcoming. 231 Lower Clapton Rd
Lumiere
Cocktails, cakes, juices, dancing, imaginative opening hours. If it’s shut, try and go again. 88 Chatsworth Road
This underrated corner was restored in 2005. Regard that splendid Georgian architecture! Admire the juxtaposition with the busy road!
Shop on the Square
A lovely little gift shop right on leafy Clapton Square selling mugs, bags, cards, the usual. The soundtrack is always nice, and it makes a nice potter after a stop at the next-door Dreyfus Café and bakery. 72 Clapton Square
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