Of course, the most familiar image to us all is now the gutted Party Superstore – which Love Clapham has frequented for many a fancy dress party – ablaze.

Other shops were smashed, looted and destroyed in a disgusting abuse of our local area. Clapham High Street was largely unaffected, although Blockbuster near Clapham North has had its windows smashed, and property destroyed and stolen. Love Clapham witnessed a gang of 20 or so hooded youths lurking behind KFC at around 11pm – they may have been entirely innocent, but last night was not the night to be hanging around in gangs.

Riot police eventually turn up en masse captured in this resident’s video:

No one involved had any intentions of delivering a political of social message, they just wanted to enjoy themselves by destroying people’s livelihoods. It was disturbing to watch on television, and terrifying for some of our residents stuck in the thick of the violence. Personally, the worst image for me was that of the young girls in the attack laughing at their friends tearing a TV off the wall in Ladbrokes. Such a depressingly pathetic display of ignorance and stupidity.

But the local community has come together in a tear jerking response as residents supported those affected today with broom in hand to clean up. Something to be proud of. Take care Clappers.

Read more on the following websites:

• Clapham Junction riots: A timeline of the violence and looting, images, write up and videos [Metro]
• Clapham Junction riots in pictures [BBC]
• London riots: Clapham broom picture goes viral as Londoners defy looters [Metro]
• Boris Johnson being heckled in Clapham Junction [Guardian]
• Clapham Junction write up [Telegraph]
• Boris Johnson criticised on Clapham Junction visit [Mirror]
• Clapham riot clean-up brings 400 volunteers [BBC]

If you live in the Clapham South / Abbeville Road area you may have heard that Sainsbury’s would like to open a new local store on Abbeville Road itself amongst the local shops. It will go in the large retail space that used to be Dexters restaurant (where you could amazingly buy a full English breakfast with the works, tea, coffee and a fruit just for about £8 – no wonder it went under!) This development is proving to be fairly controversial, dividing residents right down the middle. Some want to keep the road local shops only, while others welcome the idea of an affordable local supermarket. No doubt the supermarket will get its way regardless – but what do you think? Interestingly, the even more controversial betting shop that opened on Abbeville Road has now closed, after only a couple of years of poor trade.

Address: Big Squid, UNIT 2F Clapham North Arts Centre, 26-32 Voltaire Road, Clapham SW4 6DH
Phone: 020 7627 0700
Mobile: 07950 252 548
Email: info@bigsquid.co.uk

Big Squid organises dive travel throughout the UK and abroad and has an active dive club that meets at the Bread and Roses pub on Clapham Manor street on the first Tuesday of the month ( free to join ). They have regular Sunday evening pool nights at Clapham Leisure Centre on Sunday evenings at 19.30-21.30.

GAIL’s bakery fights back against corporate, packaged bread with natural ingredients and locally baked, tasty bread full of flavour and quality ingredients.

Address: GAIL’s Bakery, 64 Northcote Road, SW11 6QL
Telephone: (coming soon)

Northcote Road market is the prime example of why the Clapham lifestyle is one of the best in London. Where else can you find super-sexy people, buy a globe, a second hand wet suit and a decent lunch? It’s a bizarre bubble of a place born out of its disproportionately young residents with disproportionately high levels of disposable income. They expect quaint and quality in uber fashionable portions. The result is a fabulous and unique market with trinkets, produce and market stall owners you’d expect to find in Harrods. This is a high class market at surprisingly reasonable prices. 

An event, not just a market

Love Clapham probably hasn’t paid enough attention to Northcote Road’s market recently, yet on the weekend it draws in the crowds in their droves. Strolling across Clapham Common to Northcote Road is idyllic on a summer Saturday, especially when you know what’s waiting when you get there. Unlike shopping chores, visiting Northcote Road feels like entertainment.

So what’s the appeal? We’ve picked a number of highlights to remind local residents of what’s on their doorstep and to encourage people that haven’t been to go. It isn’t just about the stalls though, it’s the atmosphere that makes it an enjoyable place to spend a couple of hours.

Food, glorious food!

Food. That’s what gets Love Clapham to walk the mile or so from Clapham North to Northcote Road on a weekend. Trade has definitely picked up on Northcote Road and the kind of stalls you’ll find are similar, if far fewer, to those you’d expect in Borough Market.

Whether it’s an immediate snack or ingredients for a later meal, you won’t be disappointed. One of the largest stalls sells fresh pizza, pastries and bageuttes. All of which is delicious, reasonably priced and served by friendly faces. Love Clapham bought a generous slice of ham and mushroom pizza for around £3.

Northcote Road market has something for everyone

On top of the bakery stall you’ll come across a fish monger and vegetable stalls as well as local art, clothes, antiques, flowers and more. Everything is sourced as locally as possible and the quality is greater than the local chain supermarkets.

Of course, all around the market you have cafes, restaurants and shops to pop into as well. This combination of local shops and market compliments one another and helps make sure you don’t leave without something you need.

Find your own sparkly gem of a bargain

Eat Me Cakes is the prime example of something for everyone, and our personal favourite. It has such a range of vividly coloured muffins and cup cakes it will please even the most discerning cake eater clubs (of which Love Clapham is a guilty metaphorical member).

The stall owner told us that Will Self recently wrote about the cake stall asking what it must be like in the world of someone that runs it. Considering the stall resembles a treasure trove of a cupboard on wheels Love Clapham can’t help but ponder the same question. Fairy dust adorns the homemade muffs and icing with fresh fruit and candy. At £1.50 for a large, Starbucks should be grovelling in shame. Delish!

Northcote Road market runs every Monday to Saturday at 9.00am – 5.00pm and while you’re not stall hopping, you can enjoy the cafes, bars and restaurants that sandwich it in. Visit the Northcote Road website for more information.

If you run a Clapham food shop or market that isn’t listed here, please send us an email and we will add it.

Local Clapham food shops

Recipease, Jamie Oliver shop (Clapham Junction)

Recipease, the latest food venture by celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver, is a shop on Clapham Junction’s main high street, St. John’s Road. It opened in late 2008 and has a beautiful interior like a giant country kitchen. Interestingly, it is a shop that doubles as a live cooking venue to practice and be shown how to cook certain dishes like curry and home made pizza. There’s a small selection of ready meals prepared to Jamie Oliver’s recipes plus wines and utensils. None of this comes cheap, but it’s expensive because of the quality, and it really shows when you look around that a great amount of detail and attention went into the shop.

OK, I admit it, in the grand scheme of things this is hardly news. But in the world of Clapham High Street this is a front page headline! The Boots pharmacy store on Clapham High Street opens next Wednesday, 3rd June at 8.30am. That’s correct early birds, you can even pop in for a nose around before work if you’re that interested. Boots has obviously done its research and has stuck a massive “BEAUTY” label above the doorway to attract Clappers who like to look their best around the streets of Clapham.

Walking past today I have to admit that as far as Boots stores go, this looks pretty swish. Boots of course replaces the slightly tired looking Woolworths that sadly closed down along with the rest of the chain earlier in the year.

Work seems to still be going strong with the store itself as people were still stacking shelves this evening (yeah, I’m really working this news story for all its worth). Love Clapham loves its food, so we were delighted to see that on top of the pharmaceutical bits n’bobs lining shelves, it will also have a large area for snacks. Boots were on a TV show recently that proved they have the healthiest sandwiches on the high street, plus they’re yummy. Good news there.

Superdrug on the otherhand, just a few doors down, must be quaking in their boots (bad-a-bing!) with their arch rivals opening with a bigger, sharper looking shop. Having said that, they seem to live happily with each other down the road in Clapham Junction. There’s hope yet Superdrug!

Interestingly, at least to Love Clapham, Boots is a major chain and during our interview with Christopher Wellbelove, the Mayor of Lambeth, last week there is a move amongst some of the Clapham community to ensure there are less of these compared to local shops. As it does replace another high street store we’re assuming Boots will get off lightly.

It seems like all we’re doing at the moment is telling you about Clapham building developments, but they’re just so darn interesting! This time, it’s plans to replace an old office block  with a state of the art hotel with restaurant. Sounds like a good plan.

It would replace the office block with the Job Centre in opposite PCS at 155 Falcon Road. That’s the corner you turn into if you’re driving to the Boots, Lidl and Asda super stores.

The hotel would have a contemporary design and includes 132 bedrooms, conference facilities, a restaurant and another space for a shop to use. Here at Love Clapham HQ it all sounds too good to be true and would bring some much needed life to quite a dull part of Clapham Junction.

According to Property Week, the director of the company behind the plans said: “The project will replace an indifferent and depressing 70s office block with an iconic new building that will make a major economic and architectural contribution to the regeneration of Clapham Junction Town Centre. We want to see this project up and running to provide much needed hotel facilities in this perfect green travel location before the 2012 Olympics.”

Source: Property Week

Update: Clapham Junction Hotel Development

First Connect Computers, opposite Clapham North tube station on Clapham High Street, has been in touch to offer everyone a 15% discount off of any of their computer and laptop repair services. To get the discount, all you have to do is join the newsletter on their website.

According to their website, First Connect Computers specialises in laptop and computer repairs and they offer free quotations and fixed upfront prices. From broken laptop screens to virus removal and data recovery, they say they can fix just about any computer problem. 

So, if you’re having computer issues and require help in a hurry, hop over to their website - www.firstconnect.co.uk – sign-up, and make use of the discount when you visit them. The shop details are below.

First Connect Computers
6 Clapham High Street
London
SW4 7UT

Phone: 020 7720 7142

If you do, you should have already or shortly will receive a small leaflet explaining how Love Clapham can help you. This site is run by local residents and we want to support our local shops, cafes, bars and restaurants as much as possible. To do that, we want to start compiling all local special offers in our Clapham Offers forum.

It’s totally free for you to use this, and we’ll start pointing as many people in Clapham to this page as possible. Also, if you have any news or upcoming events you’d like to shout about, email us on we@loveclapham.com and the best stories will be written up as an article like this one.

Love Clapham is only a few weeks old, but already has a small and loyal following that is continuing to grow. Help us stay informed and we’ll help tell everyone in Clapham about you! The only favour we’d ask for is that you tell people about this site.

Love Clapham thought it was a real shame the day Woolworths packed up shop and left Clapham High Street. It was always going to be a battle of the big brands to take over the prime location and the one that won was Boots. Quite exciting news to have such a well known and successful High Street name. With Superdrug and a couple of independent chemists, Clappers are going to be spoilt for beauty products. Boots opens in June.

There are various shops sprinkled all over Clapham, with five main shopping areas to be aware of (although some are so close to each other, they’re practically the same place). This page explains each shopping area in Clapham and what they contain.

• Clapham High Street
• Clapham Old Town
• Clapham Junction
• Northcote Road (and Lavender Hill)
• Abbeville Road (and Clapham South)

Clapham High Street

Clapham High Street is marked by a bizarrely fronted Sainsbury’s supermarket. It’s not often a supermarket leaves a lasting impression, but this futuristic looking facade certainly does. Love it or hate it, it’s one of the main landmarks on Clapham High Street, and its biggest shop.

On top of two further supermarkets in the form of a Tesco Metro and Sainsbury’s Local, Clapham High Street has some decent shops on it including an excellent florist, book shop and card shop. Other than that, there’s a tiny amount of known high street shops like Superdrug and the high street is pretty much unremarkable as a shopping street.

Clapham Old Town is actually so close though, with its boutique shops, that it may as well be the same place – around the corner at the west end of the high street. All is not lost for Clapham High Street, however. It’s primary draw is its plethora of cafes, restaurants, bars, pubs and clubs.

Esca, Breads Etc, Brewers, Revolution, Infernos, The Clapham North, The Falcon and the brilliant, if expensive, Clapham Picture House Cinema are havens for socialites. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays can feel like an exclusive holiday resort in the summer months with people spilling out onto the streets.

Back to top

Clapham Old Town

Literally around the corner from the West end of Clapham High Street is the old market part of Clapham, Clapham Old Town. It’s immediately obvious that this area of Clapham is old because the buildings are grander, the shops are more boutique and everything feels like a little market town outside of London.

There aren’t hundreds of things to do here, but you can experience some of the best local shops, cafes and pubs. Notably, a fantastic local butcher is situated here, surrounded by trendy little gift and clothes shops. A couple of good shops that stock furniture, flowers and other household items with style are worth a look too.

Obviously, you couldn’t and wouldn’t want to spend an entire day here, but it compliments the High Street well and is a particularly good place to while away a quiet afternoon.

Back to top

Clapham Junction

Clapham Junction, proudly home to the busiest overground train station in Britain, may initially appear like a busy and off-putting part of Clapham, but give it a chance. It is home to Clapham’s big stores like Debenhams, TK Maxx, Lidl, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Asda, JD Sports, Currys, Waterstones, Jessops and a warehouse sized Boots. To name but a handful.

It also houses Jamie Oliver’s Recipease shop, like a giant kitchen that sells things! Clapham Junction is locally famous for the amount of charity shops it has too, which is many – and they’re all ace. There are a few cafes, restaurants and bars, but to experience the social part of Clapham Junction, you need to head to the south end of the High Street and the crossroads to Lavender Hill and Northcote Road for Yummy Mummy land (aka a great place to socialise, relax and shop).

Back to top

Northcote Road (and Lavender Hill)

Married? Just about to start a family? Then move near Northcote Road, everyone else does! Who can blame them, with its lovely surrounding houses, closeness to the trains and its overwhelming array of high quality restaurants, cafes, boutique shops and high end DIY stores. It’s perfectly equipped for young professional parents seeking a little bit of luxury in between the hard slog of raising a family and managing work life.

People that live near or enjoy going to Northcote Road will understand its quaint appeal. Like everywhere in Clapham, when the sun comes out, so do the people with Northcote road bustling on the weekend. This is largely thanks to an incredible weekend market with top notch snacks, meals, cakes, flowers, art and more – this isn’t your ordinary market.

On top of all of this there are some fantastic little cafes and restaurants to be found here, The Bread and Soldiers being a notable cafe. A bar called Babel sets the tone for other watering holes along the road with its classy atmosphere and excellent drinks.

Back to top

Abbeville Road (and Clapham South)

Abbeville Road and the surrounding area of Clapham South is as close to suburbia as you are going to get in Clapham. Abbeville Road must be the most sought after area of Clapham, with its quaint village life feel (its nickname is Abbeville village).

Shop wise, Abbeville Road has a couple of excellent villagey shops including Treohans which seems to stock everything you could ever possibly need – I’ve bought picture hooks, water colour paints, DVDs and jam from here. It’s all good quality too.

You’ll also find an antiques shop, a high-tech TV centre, pet shop, cafes, gift shops, the excellent Abbeville pub and our pick of the bunch, Cook. Cook is a shop that sells frozen homemade ready meals. Only marginally more expensive than a supermarket ready meal, Cook’s meals are well worth the money and one of the best things about Abbeville. You’ll also find some known names like Starbucks and Pizza Express strangely tucked away here.

We have to mention Clapham South and the area around the tube station. Right next to Clapham South tube is a Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury Local, a medium sized Tesco and best yet, a florist and fresh fish monger. Clapham South and the Abbeville Road area really does have it all without the busy London crowds. Fancy living here? There are plenty of estate agents to help you out.

Back to top