Neighbours have reported the sight of a new coffee shop opening opposite the swimming pool.
Good to see at this section of Dartmouth Road as we have lost Archie Parker and Aga’s Little Deli.
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Great news!
Both Archie Parker and Aga’s were great for lunches, as well as cakes and shopping for cool bits and pieces. I do hope that this place includes a (savoury) food offering as well as coffee at that end of Dartmouth Road.
Does anyone know if it is taking both frontages there (It was sort of two shops before IIRC)?
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They’ve taken the whole thing, looks great from the outside!
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I’ll let the landlord of this shop know about this forum, he might be able to come and add some updates 
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I think Adam that owns Twist Studios is the owner of this new coffee shop and all coffees are only £2 this week
ETA Soft launch this week, Wednesday (yesterday) till Saturday - opening times this week 6.30am till 1pm
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I popped in here this morning for a quick coffee. What a lovely and spacious place! SO many of our shops are quite crowded, but this place has quite a few tables and feels really open and inviting. They’ve definitely spent money on the equipment too.
I had a lovely decaf Flat White, but sadly they’d had a run on pastries so had to miss out trying these. No lunch option that I could see.
When I was there around 11:30 all tables were busy, so hopefully a good sign!
Great new addition to Dartmouth Road, especially if you’re coming in from the Kirkdale end
If you do end up sitting in any coffee shop in Dartmouth Road, I advise you to read The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by TS Eliot.
The poem caught my attention this morning with this line:
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons
I can’t reproduce the whole poem here because it is still in copyright in the UK but the Poetry Foundation in America have permission to publish it online so you can read it there.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock
The significance being that Eliot taught an evening class just a stones throw away in Sydenham School, and all this a short distance of time after the publication of Prufrock and Other Observations, his debut collection of poetry was published.
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Walked past this morning and see that Forest & Grind are also open in the evenings on Thursday / Friday / Saturday and apparently serve beer & wine - has anyone tried the range on offer?
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May I introduce Mary ‘Lilian’ Share, (who had later styled herself as Lilian) a daughter of George Wade Share.
George, an “unsuccessful businessman”, moved from Peckham to Forest Hill. That is probably where Mary was brought up, she was slim, blond and clever, and “always intended to marry money”. At 18 she married Harold Harmsworth aged 25 in 1893.
She had already been on my radar of local history research, and also as part of my interest in Ian Fleming (Ann Fleming was previously married to Esmond Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere and so Ann was Lilian’s daughter-in-law).
So I am astonished and delighted to discover that Mary Lilian, Lady Rothermere had financially supported Eliot’s The Criterion (magazine) even though she later withdrew support after experiencing differences over artistic direction.
This will of course have a significant feed into the validation of a poetry trail.
( see Poetry Metres — poetry trail )