Last time we spent most of the time by the seaside so this time I wanted to explore North Laine - an area made up of several streets full of little quirky, kitsch and vintage shops.
After picking up some rock from the Pier of course.
Luckily I have my sister as a tour guide but North Laine isn't too tricky to find. The area is off on the left hand side of the main road when you come out of the train station that leads to the sea. As the sun made an unexpected appearance, we walked down to the sea first to bask in the sunshine and take in the fresh sea air. After walking to the Pier, we walked our way back towards North Laine where I truly began to piss Lucy off by snapping everything and anything that took my fancy, like a trendy barbers:
Our first stop was this funky furniture/homewares shop England at Home, filled to the brim with tonnes of cool and quirky little bits n bobs:
Some shop owners are funny about taking photos of their products (to avoid people stealing their ideas I guess). I didn't want to leave without taking any, so I politely asked if I could take some photos for my blog. The staff were really nice and said it was fine. I only left buying a funny card but if I had it my way this Grumpy Cat cushion would have joined me. Sadly they don't have a store in London but they do ship to the UK so I'd recommend perusing their website.
The rain finally descended upon us which made ducking in and out of the shops a little more fun...for a while until our batteries started running low and we needed a little pick me up. Luckily there are lots of little coffee, tea & cake shops dotted around North Laine and this one took our fancy:
Cloud 9 is a cupcake and icecream shop that has a few tables to sit down and enjoy a cup of tea. It has a very girly decor inside which was right up my street. We were a little put off by the price of a cuppa - £2.00 - but they use Teapigs teabags and you're allowed as many refills as you want.
We were tempted by this colourful delight...
...but thankfully for our waistlines, they only took cash and we only had enough for the tea. It looks incredible though, might have to put in a cheeky request for my birthday!
After wandering around a few more shops, we finally gave into our grumbling bellies and went to a little Italian place called Si Signore, as per Ellie's recommendation.
As Si Signore describes itself on their website it's a caffé ristorante, so there were people there simply to enjoy some hot beverages but we were in the mood for pizza:
I went for the Vegetariana topped with peppers, olives, onions and artichokes. As you can see, they didn't scrimp unlike other places I can think of...(Pizza Express I'm looking at you!). Lucy can't remember the name of the pizza she went for but she covered it in anchovies, a gross habit she gets from my dad:
Even though the pizzas were huge and delicious, it was super cheap - our bill came to less than £20 including drinks. You can actually BYOB but as I was only there for the day and had a train to catch, we thought it best to keep dinner alcohol free. We were served by a funny Italian man (who I assumed runs it) who kept us amused with his cheesy jokes.
After dinner, we finished up in small reggae bar called Riki Tik that had a cocktail happy hour. As it was around 6pm, it was pretty quiet but the Bahama Mama's were the perfect way to round off a lovely day.
I picked up a few little bits of cute homeware which I'll be showing in my next post so make sure to pop back and have a peek!
Have you been shopping around North Laine before? What are your favourite shops?
xx
