A street once known as the poorest shopping streets in all London, yet Deptford High Street is now back on the rise with new vibes and life!
One thing we are good at when traveling is finding awesome low key places like Deptford High Street! One of the advantages of long term travel is the chance to live and do the every day life the locals live when traveling to our destinations. We get to soak in the culture while make new friends around the world as we go. We did of course see and explore the usual tourist spots in London like the London Eye, Tower Bridge, and others, but this blog right here is about the places you will more then likely never ever visit unless you got lost or you ventured outside of London's city center. When hearing and reading about the streets past, you almost want to think, its go at your own risk type of adventure. Yet we tell ourselves, "let's die saying, we can't believe we did that! And not say I wish we could of!" So we will continue to venture into neighborhoods away from the heavy tourism spots to really learn about its people and way of life around the world.
Now you're going to want to keep reading to see what is hidden in this street with a dark past which is now home to food markets, bars, fast food and bazar clothing stores. Deptford High street has had a very rough past and without getting too deep in its history, it was once considered one of the poorest streets in one of the poorest neighborhoods in London. It has gone through many transformations over the years, and at one point in time it had toilets installed in the middle of the street back in the early 1900's. You can find history dating as far back as the 1500's that involves the story of Christopher Marlowe, the famous poet who was killed in this neighborhood apparently for complaining about his bar tab.
This street literally has lots of diversity in culture jammed into a quarter mile street. Take a stroll up and down the street and you will come across super markets, bazar clothing stores, coffee shops, fish markets, discount markets, bars, a library, and even a fine baroque church, and lots of Vietnamese restaurants! Literally everything! On Sundays you can catch the farmers market and the new redeveloped food market that just opened, hidden behind the old street buildings and is now called the Deptford Market Yard. You would never imagine such cool spots when first venturing into the neighborhood, definitely on a sharp rise. We were told the street goes through changes really fast with new cool hipster joints or markets popping up quickly. We never seen a street with so much diversity packed into a single street, not even in NYC, this street has it all.
One of our stops through the street was Isla Ray. The minute you walk in to this place and see the tropical retro look, art work, cool decor, and couches to lounge and relax, there is no better place to have a drink or a few beers from the their local craft selection. With music daily, we were lucky enough to be there for a hip hop night during the week. If hungry they have brunch and small appetizers, try their delicious home made bread and hummus.
Remember if you have time while in London and want a break from the heavy tourism and want to see the real London life, try venturing off into Londons outskirts where the true cool spots are!
Big John's Biltong Bar comes to life in the late afternoon
The only advice I can give you is to be prepared to be out of your comfort zone and act like you been there with some simple self awareness. In other words don't venture out flashing your iPhone on selfie sticks posing for pics everywhere putting a tourist target on your back! Just walk with some swagger and be chill and you will blend right in!
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