Strolling Primrose Hill

One of our New Year's Resolutions was to explore 'Free' London and, because of having a toddler, consequently it's parks. Last Monday we did Hampstead Heath and today's turn was Primrose Hill. It's always been a favourite of mine from spending many a Summer's evening drinking wine, having picnics to my weekly pilgrimage to Triyoga (note to self get yourself back to doing yoga!). I love the relaxed prettiness of the 'village' from the enticing shops to its sweet cafes and gorgeous restaurants. In fact two of my all time favourite restaurants Lemonia and Odette's reside in Primrose Hill. Of course The Engineer was always one of the reasons for going there, though I'm a lucky girl that it's been resurrected closer to home, the Hampshire Hog in Hammersmith. Wonder if they get quite as many celebrities as in their previous home. It's always good to do some celebrity spotting round there. Alas I had no luck today, they must have all been at home taking shelter from the cold wind. 





If you don't know Primrose Hill you really must. It's the perfect London village, colourful, very boho and yet terribly exclusive. Gorgeous boutiques line the main road through the village, Regent's Park Road, including one of my favourites Graham and Green, there is the fabulous Primrose Hill Bookshop, a great wholefood shop, a fruit and veg shop, as well the gorgeous Anna which has a 50% off sale at the moment. However, feeling rather penniless after Christmas I galloped past the shop without taking a peek.







 The hill itself is a whopping 78 metres high which we didn't climb today, Madam Toddler was having a little meltdown after realising she couldn't or more importantly Mummy wasn't tall enough to get her to the top of the big climbing frame at the Primrose Hill playground.  Instead off we went to give her the hummus sandwich I'd left in the car. Determined to at least get ourselves a coffee, we walked up to the village. My favourite Lanka was heaving and so was pretty much everywhere else so we settled for the Cachao Toy Cafe, which has a great terrace but sadly was a disappointment. I must say the staff were delightful and other people's  food looked great, so I'm guessing it is because they only had two waiters and every table was full. Nevertheless, it was unforgivable that we were kept waiting for about 10 minutes for our order to be taken. Then another wait of 15 minutes for 2 lattes and a brownie. Our irritation was further compounded by the coffees arriving lukewarm with the brownie that had clearly been sitting around for a few days. We didn't complain as were up against the Nap o'clock and the husband had booked a hair cut at the nearby Mowgli, but if there's one thing that irritates me is lukewarm coffee. That'll teach me to be more patient in future and wait for the tried and tested. Boo...





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