Bluffer’s here again! We’ve already helped out Lovestruckers looking for love (and other things) in north London so it only seems fair to cover the rest of the capital too. This week it’s the turn of south London. Once where all things banned from the city limits were forced to rough it, and cabbies refused to venture, ‘Sarf’ London has been up and coming for a while (although what part of London isn’t…)
SO WHERE SHOULD I SUGGEST?
Brixton Village – a covered market which has become a haven for foodies and indeed anyone who likes to feel like they’re in the right place according to TimeOut – is the obvious choice. But if you’re trying to go to one of more popular venues (Franco Manca, Honest Burger or Seven) you’re guaranteed to be asked to wait for longer than your small talk will hold out. Unless you go to the BYOB restaurant Happy Dumplings, of course, but no-frills Chinese food isn’t that date-appropriate. For first dates, you’re better off trying somewhere less crowded and less full of monosodium glutamate.
Cable Cafe in Oval is great bet. The cafe-bar has an eclectic menu, offering pale ale, Campari and Tunnock’s tea takes, and an equally higgledy-piggledy approach to interior design. On Tuesdays they have a live music night which is nearly always jazz-themed and nearly always great.
The Peckham Pelican is also a good date location – dimmed lighting, craft beer and pizza. If the date goes sour after this combination you’ve only got yourself to blame… Although its location – 92 Peckham Road, that’s the road which connects Camberwell with Peckham – is somewhat remote so make sure you Googlemap your route beforehand. Getting lost in South London is not an aphrodisiac.
WHAT ABOUT DAYTIME DATING? 
Suggest Brockwell Park and Lido for sunny days in summer or the Horniman Museum for the (more ubiquitous) rainy days in summer. The Lido is a classic example of 1930s art deco architecture and has a perfectly respectably cafe (there’s also The Prince Regent pub across the road) and the Horniman Museum, which is worthy of a Wes Anderson film set, is south London’s less stressful answer to the Natural History Museum.
MAXIMUM BLUFFING VALUE
South London borough Bromley is the largest London borough, measuring 58 square miles. So if you know that London’s population density is 12,331 per sq mile (which you do now) then technically there are 715,198 people living in Bromley. This isn’t strictly true as Croydon is London’s most populous borough with a still impressive 363,000 residents. But either way, maybe there will be a queue at Happy Dumplings…
DO SAY ‘South is the new east.’
DON’T SAY ‘The Southbank is as far south as I go.’
