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.
Stoke Newington doesn’t need to try. It’s not gunning to be the next big thing, it just got on with being one of London’s nicest neighbourhoods while everyone was busy talking about Dalston. Church Street runs the length of it doing all the work – bakeries, wine bars, a park at one end which is ideal for a stroll and to look at all the cute pups. Bring an appetite and don’t plan past lunch, the day will sort itself out.
Vibe: Neighbourhoody, unhurried, good bakeries everywhere
Area: Church Street / Clissold Park
Best for: First dates that need low stakes / long-term couples wanting an easy Sunday
Budget: £-££
Length: 6-8 hours
The Morning Thing
The Spence
Start here. It’s on Church Street with its bright orange facade doing absolutely nothing subtle, and there’s usually a queue outside whatever day you turn up, which tells you everything you need to know. Five types of sourdough, excellent pastries, and a bacon and egg brioche roll that is the only choice for breakfast if you’re going to be walking around for eight hours. Get it and take it into the park – Clissold is literally next door and that’s not a coincidence, it’s a system.
Price Point: £
The Park Bit
Clissold Park
Big enough to walk in properly, small enough that you’re never lost, which is the exact right size for a park on a date. There’s a deer enclosure plus a walled garden that’s doing its best impression of somewhere much further from London, all clipped hedges and quiet benches. There’s also a lake with ducks doing duck things, a café if you need a top-up, and enough open grass that you can have a proper sit down.
Price Point: Free
The Afternoon Thing
Church Street wander
Back down to the main strip for the point of the visit. Church Street is short – fifteen minutes end to end if you don’t stop – but it’s dense with things to meander for. There’s Church Street Bookshop for browsing, a couple of good vintage and homeware spots for pretending you’re furnishing a flat you don’t have, and enough delis and specialist shops that you’ll end up carrying a bag of things you didn’t plan to buy – a jar of something, a bottle of something else.
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Price Point: £-££
Jolene
Natural wine and proper baking under one roof, which sounds like it shouldn’t work and does. It’s a bakery by day that turns into a wine bar by evening, so depending on your timing you can catch it doing either. Come for the sourdough and the pastries stacked behind the counter, stay for a glass of something orange that the staff will happily talk you through if you ask. It’s small, it’s a bit of a squeeze on weekends, tables are close together and the room is buzzy. Issa vibe.
Price Point: ££
If It Goes Well
Abney Park Cemetery
Round the corner and unlike anywhere else nearby – a Victorian cemetery that’s gone wild, ivy over headstones, trees grown up through paths that used to be straight. It’s overgrown, atmospheric, peaceful rather than morbid. Not a conventional date move on paper, but it works better than it sounds, especially with the light going gold in the late afternoon and almost nobody else around. Ten minutes in and you’ll see why people keep coming back.
Price Point: Free
Wrap-Up
Rubedo
The kind of place you walk past for months before getting round to trying, then immediately regret not going sooner. It’s Italian-inspired in the way that actually matters – good ingredients, not much done to them, everything tasting exactly as it should. The menu changes regularly so you’re better off asking what’s on than planning around something you saw online. Natural wines, a room that’s easy to stay in, and the sort of service that doesn’t make you feel like you’re being moved along. Book ahead – it’s small.
Price Point: ££
Bonus Round
The Rose and Crown
A proper old boozer with a garden that’s earned its reputation the honest way – not styled, not Instagrammed within an inch of its life, just a decent outdoor space that gets the evening sun and fills up with regulars who clearly know each other. No table booking, no fuss, just a decent pint and somewhere to sit if the day’s not done yet. If you’re still going by this point, this is where it ends.
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.
