The Date Edit is back. Ready-made date plans for queer women (and allies) who want a brilliant day out without the faff of planning one. Consider this your shortcut.
Bermondsey doesn’t try. That’s the thing about it. It’s got Borough Market at one end doing its slightly overwhelming Saturday morning thing, a street of genuinely good bars and restaurants running south, and a stretch of railway arches near Maltby Street that have been quietly hosting some of the best food and wine in London for years while other areas get the attention. It’s walkable in a way that actually means walkable, not “bring comfortable shoes and suffer.” Wear something you’d be fine sitting outside in if the weather makes a surprise appearance.
Vibe: Relaxed, food-focused, unpretentious in a way that costs money
Area: Borough Market / Bermondsey Street / Maltby Street
Best for: First dates / second dates / long-term couples who forgot how to leave the house
Budget: ££-£££
Length: 8-10 hours
The Morning Thing
Monmouth Coffee, Borough Market
There are better arguments to have than which coffee shop to start a date at, but Monmouth ends most of them. It’s in a railway arch, the queues move faster than they look, and they’ve been doing this long enough that everything about it is exactly right. Get a filter, get a pastry, stand outside with it. The market is already doing its thing around you and you don’t need to be inside it yet.
Price Point: £
The Market Bit
Borough Market
Yes, everyone goes to Borough Market. That’s because it’s genuinely excellent and the alternatives don’t really exist. Go on Saturday morning before it peaks, work your way through it, eat at least two things you didn’t plan to eat. The cheese counter at Neal’s Yard. The salt beef bagels at Monty’s. The olive situation at the back. This is not a structured activity, it’s a wander with money, and it works.
Price Point: £-££
The Afternoon Thing
Maltby Street Market
Five minutes from Borough and about 30% less chaotic. The arches along Maltby Street run on Saturdays and Sundays and have a slightly more local, slightly less tourist energy. Fern + Roby does very good coffee and food. The Rabot 1745 chocolate bar is there if you want to spend twenty minutes smelling things and pretending you’re both into cacao origins. The point is to slow down, not rush, and end up somewhere with a glass of something before you’ve decided what’s for dinner.
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Price Point: ££
Padella
Fresh pasta, reasonable prices, and a queue that looks worse than it is. Padella has been one of the best value meals in London since it opened and hasn’t put a foot wrong since. The pici cacio e pepe is the one – order it, don’t overthink it. Get there early or expect to wait outside with a drink from somewhere nearby, which honestly isn’t the worst way to spend twenty minutes. Cash in hand on the Borough Market end of things, this is exactly where a good date day should land.
Price Point: ££
If It Goes Well
Bermondsey Street itself
Walk it. The whole street is about ten minutes end to end and contains a good bookshop, the Fashion and Textile Museum (free on some days, worth a look even if fashion isn’t your thing, the architecture alone), a handful of good-looking shops, and several restaurants you’ll want to note down for next time. This is the bit of the day where you realise you’ve been talking for three hours and haven’t looked at your phone.
Price Point: Free
Wrap-Up
Bar Tozino
A jamón bar in an arch that is exactly what that sounds like and better than you’re imagining. The wine is Iberian, the service is warm, the lighting is low in the specific way that makes everyone look like the best version of themselves. It gets busy, it gets noisy, and both of those things are fine. This is where the day tips into evening without you noticing.
Price Point: ££
Bonus Round
The Woolpack
A pub on Bermondsey Street that is a pub in the right way – no craft beer theatre, no bookable tables, just a properly good local with a terrace out back. If the day hasn’t finished yet, it finishes here. If you’re heading on somewhere, one drink first. Always one drink first.
Price Point: £
See you next time for the next instalment of The Date Edit.
Nonchalant x
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Babs heads up Logistics and Product here at Nonchalant Magazine.
