Big Support for Small Businesses
KATY - Saturday 21st March
It’s fairly obvious that this new landscape is having a massive impact on everybody. At times the biggest difference is the mindset required to endure the changing and sometimes alarming information that is being thrown at us, or indeed the lack of information being given. I’ve tried to make home a nice place - I’ve upped my game on cleaning & organising and this seems to be helping to keep me calm. We’ve also found ways to share the space and I’m discouraging myself from behaving like this is a holiday. All in all it’s okay - I’m reading more, listening to new music and returning to home cooking sessions. In some ways it’s quite nice.
It’s also, as Pete noted, not always so different from normal times. Ryan and I have quite a regular weekend routine involving eggs for breakfast, a walk around the block and then often a pub. I really love my neighbourhood and it’s great to use the weekend finding new corners of it. On Saturday we found ourselves falling into a familiar rhythm. In this vain I wanted to take the time to give a shout out to small businesses in my area. As the days pass it’s clear that these are the guys taking the hit whilst often keeping us all together. It’s amazing to see them responding to daily announces without too much fuss. It’s also uplifting talking to them - a lot of shops are saying this has been a great time for sales and that they really want to keep going, not just financially but also because they understand the importance of staying together right now. It was very telling for me this week - my local mega store was empty and depressing but as soon as I’ve gone local and small it is completely different. It is these guys who have the fresh food, a friendly word and who are having to evolve.
A note on precautions: No-where was sit in, we were sensible in regards to touching things, avoiding queues, washing hands and not hoarding.
So, back to the main event. Below is a visual tour of a few of the small businesses we went to on our loop of New Cross, Deptford & Brockley.
We started up the road from our home with an oat flat white in Mughead and then continued the half mile to Deptford. We took a quick detour to check in on W H Wellbeloved to find some eggs (we failed). Then it was a lovely meander through beautiful streets to enjoy the blossom that is coming out for the start of Spring. The main event was in Brockley - Broca for pastries & small bites (we just about resisted) and Brockley Brewery which is normally a brilliant weekend joint for a sit in beer but is now operating a take-away option only. Note on these guys - they’re doing free delivery if you live 1.5 miles away from them, and that is mega. A quick walk over the train tracks took us to our final destination which is a small scale bottle shop called Water into Beer. I picked up a Small Beer (which is both a brand and a reference to having a sub 2.5 abv content) & another low alcohol bottle of Kombucha-beer (quite intrigued), Ryan got a peanut butter stout & another oatmeal porter. We then headed back to our flat and an afternoon of cooking & enjoying the beautiful & sunny view across London.
A few other amazing local shops that are open for business
The Word Bookshop - a brilliant curated bookshop
Green Onions & Spotty Vinyl Record - health food and vinyl, very SE14
Red Lion Coffee - nice coffee & sandwiches
London Velo - for your bike repairs & lunchtime food needs
Salthouse Bottles - cracking bottle shop run by experts
Winemakers Deptford - brilliant restaurant (outside of this) & now offering home delivery for wine.
Marcella - Top notch restaurant, who fingers crossed might be delivering
Do you guys have any local places that are holding fort & serving the community? I’d love to hear the success stories and give space to celebrate small businesses right now.
Photo credits & rights to Ryan Kelly & Katy Cakebread
