London Calling!

Kat Popiel, marketing maestro and recent Brooklyn transplant, gives us the backdoor tour of the streets of Londontown by bike!

Thanks to GIANT for partnering with Theme to give away a great Suede Coasting Bicycle to our lucky contest winner!

Brief bio, occupation: I like to think of myself as a creature of many trades – a writer, producer, traveller, dreamer and idea catcher. I was born in London, proud to be part Filipino, part Polish and have just made New York my home.

How long you’ve lived in your city: 10 years

Eat & Drink

Favorite high-end restaurant:

Yuatacha, 15 Broadwick Street, London W1F 0DL, SOHO.
The midas touch of Alan Yau has married luxury Asian design with impeccable lessons to the British palate.  Downstairs you are lost to a dazzling array of dim sum specialties and spoilt upstairs with 150 varieties of tea and a delicate display of Japanese pastries.

Favourite café:

Bar Italia, 22 Frith Street, London W1D 4RP, SOHO.
Bar Italia is open 24 hours, serves the best coffees and is my hideout after hitting Gaz’s Rockin Blues where I’ve just engaged in ska dancing and a few tequilas.  Only to be eaten att 3am, they make incredible breaded chicken escalope on toasted ciabattas. In the middle of London’s advertising, film and fashion houses, by day, it’s also where all the fabulous people promenade.

Read

Best bookstore:

Books for Cooks, 4 Blenheim Crescent, Notting Hill, W11 1NN, Notting Hill.
Just off Portobello Road, the back of this treasure of a store boasts a café where an multitude dishes are ‘tested’ out by the chefs from over 8,000 of the cookbooks which they have on their shelves.  A gastronomic secret garden, be prepared to be surprised, you never know what you will be served.

Best magazine stand:

Magma, 8 Earlham Street, London WC2H 9RY, SOHO.
Magma is part design library and purveyor of obscure magazines from across the globe.  It’s small and you’ll bump backsides with much of Central St. Martin’s future talents. There’s also a juice stand just outside that has unusual but healthy concoctions.

Shop

Best boutiques:

Beyond the Valley, 2 Newburgh Street, W1F 7RD, SOHO.
A platform for new designers from the arts and fashion schools London proudly boasts, they sell cult brands of jewellery, prints, lamps, dresses, even wallpaper and oversized Post It pads.  A staple to London’s shopping diet, there is forever new discoveries to find and they throw fun parties in cool little venues across the city.

Supra, 249 Portobello Road, London W11 1LT, Notting Hill.
The pride of West London, the Supra family have been involved with the best of sneakers brands and fine streetwear threads for over a decade, remaining as one of the pillars of independent boutiques left in London.  The women’s collection boasts Pam, Something Else, Tatty Devine, amidst other coveted labels.  They also always have cute boys who work in there!

Sightsee

Favorite outdoor space:

Primrose Hill, Camden, London NW3 3NA, Northwest London.
Sundays in Fall, it’s all about walking in your Wellington boots around Primrose Hill where the horizon features a panoramic London complete with modern architecture and rolling hills.  It’s so romantic and reminds me why London is so special.

Only a local does or knows about:

Pub crawls around neighbourhoods is what keeps the city alive.  The Engineer in Kentish Town cooks up a delicious roast (what the Brits die for on Sundays, complete with a pint of Guiness in the winter).  Ride a red double decker bus east to The Seabright Arms, a tiny pub off Hackney Road where old cockney couples play bingo on Sundays.  You’ll hear all the stories about London’s East End before the trendy mullets and fancy cars moved in.

The Engineer, 65 Gloucestor Avenue London NW1 8JH.

The Seabright Arms, 34 Coate Street, London E2 9AG.

Best events in each season

Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA.
Somerset House is an 18th century palace and the setting for ice skating during Christmas season and outdoor film screenings and concerts when the skies turn blue.  I always take that moment to realise how lucky I am when I turn around and see history staring me in the face.

Tips

How would you spend a day off in your city?

Walking from Old Compton Street in the heart of the West End I would walk through Soho, up to Regents Street, down to The ICA on Pall Mall and eventually over the bridge to the South Bank.  I would watch old movies at The National Film Theatre, ending with a drink on by the Thames River with friends.  The London skyline happens right here; the London Eye, Millennium Dome, Big Ben, St. Paul’s Cathedral…it’s the gem of the city.

Anything else you want to mention?

Market culture in Britain is still about tradition and community. Broadway Market is off the beaten track of the creative epicentre of Shoreditch.  Steps away is the outdoor lido of London Fields and the Hackney Flower Market, where every Sunday for a few hours only, you can feel like Eliza Doolitte from My Fair Lady and walk home laden with bunches of wild roses and jungle foliage.  It’s also where the salt of the earth of London’s East Enders are with a colourful fanfare of farmers produce, taffy, British meats and delicacies from across Europe.

Broadway Market, 41 Broadway Market, SOHO.

Columbia Road Flower Market, London E2 7RG, SOHO.

To check out another city tour by bike, click here for Eagle Rock, California with the baddest chick on wheels, Kubo!