One of the few places selling palatable coffee in Clapham
Visitors to London from New Zealand are often struck by an interesting paradox. Thinking they are visiting one of the world’s great cultural centres, they assume there will be ready access to good coffee in interesting surroundings. The shock of discovering that most so-called ‘cafés’ sell coffee that even the Lagonda Tearooms in Ashburton would be ashamed of takes a little time to overcome. You quickly place on your internal map the landmark cafés who have an idea what they’re doing and you very quickly discover how important a good coffee can be in a day when you stand in some of their inevitable queues. Fortunately, close to where I live, there is the Black Lab, which serves my needs nicely. Like tonight, after the gym, there they were – noting that I’d just made it at 5pm as they were about to close. It is London, after all.