Ricco’s, E17 7LD

Ricco's coffee shop is one of my favourite places in Walthamstow. They have great strong coffee and the decor is a fantastically bonkers mix of Viennese coffee house with North African accents, plus a modern East End/East European vibe.

Located near the bottom of the High Street, I use this coffee shop as an excuse to barrel my way through the market on a Saturday. You won’t find it on Google Maps but head for the ‘SAM 99p’ shop and it’s almost next door. 

Their coffee is strong, like an after dinner coffee which coats your mouth with a smokey flavour. Soya milk was available on my most recent visit, and it was £2 for a soya latte. Bargain. They have a selection of croissants and cakes - carrot cake and chocolate chip muffins were on offer but sadly, not homemade.

Ricco’s has wooden decor throughout – a long bar with grape vines in the paneling  mirrors behind the bar and gold coffee urn– though not actually used for brewing. However, the old fashioned cash register is still used and makes a noisy ring when they cash up your bill. Mock Louis XV chairs, with luminous yellow, pink and green reupholstering dominate the front of the coffee shop, with sofas in the back. 

With all that wood paneling it could be dark and dingy, but the mirrors bring in the light from the floor to ceiling windows at the entrance. Moroccan lamps hang in the windows and in the back. Ricco’s isn't open in the evenings, but I wish it was, so I could see the room lit with spangly coloured glass.

It’s a cheery place, but easy to sit and read a book too. They usually have music on the radio, one person making coffee, and one offering table service.

They have 3 high chairs available, stacked in the back, a few toys and children’s books to keep little ones entertained whilst their parents watch the market traffic outside.

Opening hours seem to be a little haphazard. I usually trot down there on Saturday or Sunday, but they’re not consistently open on Sundays.

Accessibility... level entrance, enough space for wheelchair user to sit at a table inside but probably not enough for a turning circle. Toilet available, but not accessible.

Popular with... Saturday market-goers, parents with children, groups of men who chat freely with the staff, people watchers. 

Wood Street Coffee, E17 3HX

Wood Street Indoor Market is full of independent traders displaying their passion and selling it. There are vintage clothes shops, record stores, medal and war memorabilia, the chair man, antiques, and soap! The enthusiasm that they all have for their products and for making Wood Street a better place, means the Indoor Market is a lovely friendly welcoming place. It’s designed for poking around and finding a gem.  

And both Wood Street Coffee and Aura Rosa Cakes are real gems. They’re worth walking 20 minutes from Walthamstow Central for – in fact, I’ve been telling half the office to come to e17 on a Sunday just for a piece of cake.

Wood Street Coffee is run by Clare and Gareth and they’re starting small and building their business from scratch. Their desire to deliver good quality products, with a smile, means they have the capacity to create a great independent coffee shop. They’ve got a great, simple brand for their new venture, and their presence is helping give the market more of an identity.

I visited with a good friend, and we sat outside in the windy sunshine, feeling glam in our sunglasses, sipping a flat white (£2.20) and a cappuccino (£2.20), on retro furniture supplied by The Chair Man – a Wood Street upcycler. It's quieter than other Walthamstow venues, a consequence of being slightly further from central Walthamstow, and being a Sunday. We visited after lunch at Cafe Bonito and I think it’s much busier in the morning.

The Climpsons and Sons coffee was mellow and light – not as strong as I’d expected but had definite depth and body. I was over the moon that they had soya milk and for no extra charge. With such little storage space, I’ve learned to manage my expectations and cope with real milk. Decaf is also available – they’re very accommodating folks!  

The mellowness of the coffee was really refreshing with the rich, rich, chocolate cake I had from Aura Rosa Cakes. (Wood Street Coffee does have their own cake suppliers, but by 3pm, there was nothing left!) The cake stall is another recent addition, currently a pop up stall that will soon occupy one of the shops. It was being painted white and pink as we shopped! Jason and Gio were happy to chat to us about the cake and their business plans, their excitement was infectious.

They had a full range of cakes, meringues, cupcakes and crème brulee. We chose a chocolate cake and a cheesecake.  

The Chockaberry cake (£3.50 a slice) was three layers of light chocolate sponge soaked in rum, with raspberry cream and covered with chocolate ganache, topped with a raspberry macaroon and fresh raspberries. The macaroon was a raspberry explosion – such a strong flavour it tasted like bakewell tart – a delicious extra treat.

My friend had Amaretto cheesecake topped with caramelised peaches (£3.50 a slice), which had a subtle but distinctive flavour of amaretto, rich and creamy.   

The combination of new coffee and cake stalls has made Wood Street Market a Sunday destination, bringing in customers that probably didn't visit as regularly as before. The only downside of visiting on Sundays is that not all the shops are open, which makes it a less fruitful trip. I had been hoping to pick up some raspberry vodka from the Gin Palace, Mother's Ruin, but I will have to go back on another occastion. Let’s hope their customer base grows and they’re able to open all weekend very soon.  

A full directory of the Wood Street Indoor Market is online. 

Accessibility... Wood Street Market is wheelchair accessible, though it would be impossible to enter most of the shops. All the shops have full windows and I’m sure all owners would happily bring things out to view. Wood Street Coffee is right by the entrance on Marlowe Road, with a concrete ramp and enough space to move around inside. Cafe Aura Rosa is the first shop by one of the two entrances on Wood Street. No toilets available.  

Popular with... the e17 Twitterati, local residents and hipsters from Hackney, caters for everyone.

William Morris Gallery Tea Room, E17 4PP

I am always proud of introducing the William Morris Gallery (Forest Road) to friends when they visit Walthamstow. It’s an easy way of getting them to understand e17’s cultural credentials, especially since winning Museum of the Year.

The addition of a Tea Room as part of the 2012 refurbishment has helped deliver a huge transformation for visitors of the Gallery and Lloyd Park. I love the Gallery, but I wouldn’t go anywhere near as frequently were it not for the coffee, and being able to sit with the sunshine streaming through the windows, looking at the cute white bunny border on the floor to ceiling windows.

The Tea Room is glass-walled and glass-roofed and when the skylights aren’t propped open, it’s like sitting in a greenhouse. There is bench seating in the centre, where large groups can congregate and there is small table seating around the outside – the large green bucket chairs seem to be especially designed with a William Morris pattern.

The copious seating is great, but when the cafe is full, it does make it a squeeze to get round with a tray of drinks. There are also a few tables outside on a small terrace, overlooking the park. One slight downside of the layout is that their bins and the trolley used for clearing tables are in the cafe itself, rather than hidden in the kitchen - where there obviously isn’t space.

The coffee has a good flavour and it’s fair-trade, I think it's Columbian. 

They provide decaf and soya milk at no extra charge and a wide variety of herbal tea and soft drinks. Friends who have visited with me love the Fentimans bottles on offer – Rose Lemonade, Dandelion and Burdock and the Mandarin and Seville Jigger. Water is freely available in jugs on a side table.

They also provide a good selection of hot and cold sandwiches, salads and a few hot meals such as a few pies (meat and vegetarian) and jacket potatoes. Prices range from around £4 for a panini and around £6 for pie/potato. A great lunch place.

Half eaten (sorry!) chicken, rocket and basil pesto panini.  

The Tea Room is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 10am – 4.30pm. Generally, I find on sunny Sunday afternoons that it is rammed to the gunnels with families (makes things rather loud) but I have also found it quiet with only a few tables occupied.

There is usually at least 3 staff working, so service is quick and they clear tables quickly too.

Accessibility... The Tea Room (and the Gallery) is accessible to wheelchair users and there is an accessible toilet. There are also baby changing facilities and they have 3 or 4 high chairs stacked in the corner for use.

Popular with... families and children, cooing grandmothers and their pals, and quiet art lovers like me.

Costa Coffee, E17 7JR

The principle behind this blog is to support independent coffee shops so that our local area thrives. But I have to blog about the Costa Coffee in The Mall, because for me, it's about the  beginning of life in Walthamstow and I’m not really blogging about the coffee.

I bought my first flat when I moved to Walthamstow in 2009. I’d been living in Stoke Newington (sound familiar?) for four years and my landlord decided to sell the beautiful period 2 bedroom house I was living in, just off Church Street, with my Canadian housemate. She decided to move back to Canada, I decided it was finally time to buy.

As a first time buyer, I didn’t know what I was looking for. I had my list of desirable features but I didn’t know what I would compromise on, so I looked at 42 properties before I put in an offer – bonkers! I suspect the estate agents were incredibly fed up!

Buying on my own meant that the emotional support and practical advice I needed, came from my parents. They also think I’m mad, for living such an urban place when I grew in the New Forest. Whenever my Mum visits her standard question seems to be ‘If you could live anywhere, where would it be?’

Once I’d put in an offer, I needed their help with a second viewing. They drove to London and I hopped on the tube from Seven Sisters.

I remember walking through the automatic doors at the entrance to The Mall from the Town Square Gardens and peering around the corner, and seeing them both stood by the counter with cups in their hand, chatting. It was so reassuring and I suddenly felt like Walthamstow was somewhere I could really live. That this would be my life – being present in London with urban amenities and cultural milk and escaping to them in the country, for the green relaxation, peace and quiet.

So now when I walk past the Costa, I remember that day. Sometimes fleetingly as I’m rushing through, sometimes not so fleetingly.

I’ve probably only been there once or twice in the last four years. When I switched to soya milk a year ago, Costa became my chain of choice over Cafe Nero (when no independent is available of course!), because Nero charge extra for soya. I zipped in to this store recently on the way to catching a bus and ordered a medium soya latte (£2.40). I was incredibly impressed by how clean and tidy it was, much more so than branches in central London. It was also well staffed with polite, smiling people.

Accessibility... the bonus with large chains is that they are much more obliged to invest in physically accessible stores. This store is flat throughout, some thoroughfares are a bit tight as they have a lot of tables and chairs. Toilets, including accessible, are available in the mall.

Popular with... shoppers, parents with buggies, and reminiscing young women.