I seem to find myself walking through the paint-coated Leake Street graffiti tunnel at least once a week lately to meet a different friend for what can certainly compete as London’s best hot Spanish-style chocolate at Scootercaffe. (If you know somewhere that beats it, leave it in the comments! Paul, I know, is awesome, but it’s a chain, so it doesn’t count. Because I said so.)
In a city with hundreds of cafes, I really shouldn’t keep going back, but it’s a place I return to time and again. I can’t help it. There’s just something about the dim basement with it’s haphazardly strung white lights that crisscross the ceiling and its stripped brick walls and 1920’s music. It has quirky, cluttered decor, trinkets of retro-fabulousness. It has live music. It has a garden that you can enter by climbing through a window. It has free wi-fi. It has VHS movie nights. It has candlelight. It has board games. It has cocktails. And, most importantly, it has cats.
You can find this little heaven of a cafe on 132 Lower Marsh, Lambeth, London SE1 7AE. But keep it a little bit hush hush. I still want to be able to find a seat next time I go.
Now your turn. Tell me about your favourite cafes in London please!
Little London Observationist 
Cats make all the difference. 🙂
I couldn’t agree more!
Appaws, appaws ! So right. Hmm, I’m wondering if things have moved on, ( up ), at this sweet place since I used to tinker in and out during visits to my post-op hubby, in St.Thomas’ Hospital way, way, back in January 2007. I meant to take him, ( the man with the impressive new scar ), back, to taste the superbness and soak up the atmosphere of quirky welcome once he was on his great big feet. BUT: he demurred a little bit because of the “scooter versus proper ‘bike thing”, as he’s a two-wheels snob on the quiet.
Thank you, LLO, for pricking me to visit again. Although we now live in deepest southeast London, instead of Covent Garden, ( !!! long, sad story ), we still try to make sojourns to town to swan about for culture days.
Aw, definitely you should make a point of going back. I doubt you’ll be disappointed. Thanks for stopping by the blog and taking a minute to leave a nice comment. Do let me know if you get a chance to go!
Morning; I/we will indeed do dat ! Hot chocolate is the stuff ! Although we”re now marooned on the slopes of Shooters Hill, gazing wistfully back at the skyline of London’s centre, we are not totally without goodies here;
The new Black Vanilla cafes in Blackheath, and now in Greenwich, ( not a chain, not a chain ! ), serve delightful hot smooth chocolate, and tempt terribly with jollops of gelato joy.
No cats yet :o(
Reblogged this on Arrancat's Blog and commented:
As a hot chocolate lover, this little insight is priceless:)
Amazing – dying to go there, for the cats above the coffee!
Oh wow, I’m dying to go there now; more for the cats than the coffee!
I wonder if it’s anything like this Cat Cafe in Tokyo, Japan.
Nah, totally different vibe. And not THAT many cats 🙂
Sent from my iPhone
I do agree ; a quirkily funny video to look at as a piece of furry fantasy, but all I kept thinking was; ” leave those cats alone ! ” In the real world, I would be unwilling to visit, or remain in, such a silly situation. Cats must be gazed upon, and people are tolerable to them as comfort-providers.
Which is how it should be.
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