The Peckham Guide: SE15, Still First With Everything
Multi-storey rooftops, wine bars in car parks, the best new-openings map in the city.
The brief
SE15, still first with everything. Rye Lane has more good food per hundred metres than most of central London, and the rooftops are still the best summer decision in the city.
Where to eat
Kudu for South African fire cooking and the best bread basket in south London. Levan for a neighbourhood bistro that would be a destination anywhere else. Mr Bao for a fast, brilliant Taiwanese dinner. The Begging Bowl for Thai small plates when there are four of you and nobody can agree. Made of Dough and Slap & Pickle for the version of dinner that costs fifteen quid and still gets it right.
Where to drink
Prince of Peckham — a proper pub that put the neighbourhood first and got the neighbourhood back. Then whichever car park or rooftop is open, because in Peckham that changes and it is meant to.
The move
Eat on Rye Lane, drink up high, walk down through Bellenden Road at midnight when it's quiet and everything smells of somebody's kitchen.
One rule
Peckham rewards showing up early on a summer weeknight. By Friday everyone in London has had the same idea.