Last weekend I spent a lovely evening in the rose garden of one of the parks by London Bridge - my old stomping ground for six years before I moved to Paris, and still one of my favourite areas of London. I've watched the gentrification of Bermondsey Street with delight since I moved there in 2007, from my first night in the neighbourhood sitting in The Garrison to use their wifi, to watching restaurants like Jose, Zucca and Antico pop up, countless drinks in my old local Village East, playing tennis and having dozens of picnics in the park, numerous brunches in Borough Market, the annual dog show, watching a lot of the Olympics on the huge screens next to Tower Bridge, dining in the restaurants along the Southbank and at the wonderful Tapas Brindisa, watching The Shard sprout up from the ground, staring at the skyline from the roof of my old apartment... I may have moved north of the river, but I still have plenty of love for SE1.
My brother and sister-in-law still live in the area and my Daddy was visiting for the weekend so we all spent a couple of hours at dusk playing boules, frisbee and throwing a ball around with a couple of bottles of wine until it got dark. It was one of those warm, balmy summer evenings I know I'll be thinking of in winter.
