Gay Camberwell

by Layla

Roz and I spent the bank holiday weekend at the Edinburgh festival fringe (5 shows: Jack Whitehall, Big Breakfast sketch show, No Child, some random Monty Python-esque sketch show, and NewsRevue) and my brother's wedding but decided to jump on the train early to enjoy a bank holiday afternoon back in sunny Camberwell.

Our first stop was the brand new Burgess Park cafe. As you may know, the lovely Chumleigh Gardens cafe closed this weekend and has been replaced with a brand new, shiny cafe in a slightly different location. As intrepid gastronomes, we sought it out.

The new cafe has been resited to incorporate some of the ugliest views in the park. Essentially it looks out over Albany Road and some ugly housing estates in the background. In the foreground is the new children's play park. This is already a massive disappointment after the beautiful surroundings of the Islamic Garden in the old cafe. But this cafe caters to a different demographic - the family with children. The cafe itself, apart from being an unsightly fluorescent green, seems very nice, with a good menu, reasonable prices, and breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea options. It has indoor (green) and outdoor seating. The food was good - fresh and tasty, though alas Roz's baked potato and beans, and my three cheese and caramelised onion quiche were both lukewarm. They were accompanied by a nice fresh salad and claim locally sourced produce. Of course they also claim to be 'London's premier park cafe' and 'South London's premier cafe' on their menu... Apart from the loss of the lovely setting, I also object to my cup of tea in the park being turned into a frolicking child show. Sitting outside, you are obliged to watch a million children running in and out of the fountains and dancing around the sandpit. Which is presumably fantastic if you have a child: a very handy and civilised new entertainment venue. But for those who don't envision a perfect afternoon as sipping tea to the sight of prancing children, we have lost a much-loved venue in the park... Hopefully they will expand the seating to go round the side for those who want to look out over greenery rather than children, cars and tower blocks... 

After our lunch we took a deep breath and strapped on our roller skates - a feat as we have not tried roller skating for such a long time that neither of us could remember how to do so. Nor could we really skate at all. But we had an entertaining time staggering up and down the pathway in the park as locals gave us encouraging grins. 

And so onward to Safa, whose service was disappointing but food delicious. As we ate, we peered at the new Chinese restaurant across the road which looks as though it is on the brink of opening. And then to the moment we had been anticipating: the New Gallery London had a private view tonight. This new gallery/bar/cafe/social space is owned by the same people who own Bar Story in Peckham, and on its first night tonight was already populated by a glitter of fashionable art students. I was intrigued to note, ladies and gentlemen, that according to the art students of Camberwell, the moustache is back... We had bottled beer (£3 each) and sampled their vine leaves and olives (free) while peering at art. It's a bright, industrial-looking white space that is clearly not quite finished, but this is going to be a major Camberwell destination and a great place to drink and look at art. On the other hand, the bright young things started to make us feel less so... and we headed off home to bed.