East, west, home is best… Here’s my favourite haunts in my beloved Stokey.
1) Nook
Covetable cookware and home accessories. Reader, I succumbed to the tea towel. I just couldn’t stop myself.
2) Abney Park Cemetery
Not as spooky as it sounds, this gorgeous nature reserve is a little green haven where the city and traffic fades into the distance and all around is green.
3) N16 flowers
Plants and cut flowers galore, run by a lovely lady who always says hello as I pass by. We buy our Christmas tree here every year, and Mr LoveRichCashPoor proposed by the Christmas tree!
4) Meat N16
Upmarket butcher run by former meat buyer at Harvey Nichols. Okay, so LoveRichCashPoor has only bought bacon and posh ketchup from here, it being slightly beyond our budget – but it was the best bacon sandwich of our lives.
Stunning home accessories and designer fabrics.
6) Homa
When we first moved here, this stunning townhouse was a grimy bar and pizzeria. The owners of Homa have transformed it beyond recognition, the interior is to die for and the food is fabulous.
7) Stoke Newington Green Fruit & Vegetables
I used to have to cycle down to Newington Green to visit this superlative grocer. Now we have our very own branch. It sells everything fruit and veg under the sun, and is extremely reasonably priced.
8) Cobbled Yard
Antiques, curios and vintage furniture – we’ve picked up some gems from here: an old chest, we use as a coffee table, my bedside console and some old printing blocks I have hanging in the hallway. I now have my eye firmly on a Chesterfield.
It’s as if someone has delved into my mind and created a shop from what they found, there’s gorgeous stationary, lovely kitchenware (I really, really want the porcelain measuring cups and spoons I saw in there yesterday) and all sorts of cool bits and pieces.
10) Rasa
South Indian vegetarian curries and delectable dosas. Mmmmh!
I’ve just realised that restricting myself to 10 just isn’t feasible, to be continued…
LoveRichCashPoor 