Thames towns and tea pots

On Sunday we took a lovely, long stroll in the London sunshine. Starting from Putney Bridge we set off on the Thames Walk towards Richmond.

En route, whilst dodging muddy puddles and crazy cyclists we saw lovely views…

As well as amazing buildings, such as the old Harrods Furniture Depositary.

An amazing building which has now been turned in to flats. Pretty cool if you ask us.

We didn’t quite manage to get to Richmond. Home time was sadly approaching so once we reached Barnes we re-evaluated our life choices and decided to instead have a browse around the area and head back home.

None of us had been to Barnes before – it’s a lovely place, peaceful, well connected with an ‘outside-London-village’ vibe.

As we went up the high street we noticed a local Deli which was closing down and had a 25% sale. Never ones to dismiss discount cheeses and chutneys we skipped over to see what goodies we could find. The Deli is called The Duck Pond Deli and it’s lovely, but sadly once we got chatting to the owner we found out that after 13 months of business they’ve had to pack up and leave due to a decrease in footfall. It’s not just them which has been hit bad – the local bakery’s, craftsman and independent businesses have, or are, noticing the lack of custom. Even Italian chain Strada which took pride of place on the corner of the main road overlooking the Thames, sadly, closed overnight.

It’s such a shame to hear that in such a well-kept and affluent area that these businesses which pride themselves on fresh and local produce are now struggling.

The Duck Pond Deli has it’s final days this week and will officially close on Sunday. It’s a lovely shop which sells oils, breads, jams, pickles and our favourite, Devon Farm Chilli Jam – of which we treated ourselves to a couple of jars of! It’s definitely worth going down this weekend to support and take advantage of the sale – even if you’re not a local of the area, why not have a day like we did and work your way there on the Thames Walk?

We finished our scout of Barnes by popping in to one of the charity shops. We’ve been wanting to get a teapot for a while so as soon as we saw this little bad boy we couldn’t resist!

 

It’s a Goblin Teasmade teapot – minus the machine – so we imagine it’s from the 60s or 70s. A perfect addition to our retro coffee set, don’t you think?

Time to put it to use!
David & Mark x