It may seem an unhelpful clich\u00e9 to say that in the battle of the London compass points, East has it better than West when it comes to specialty coffee. It may seem an even more unhelpful clich\u00e9 to say that clich\u00e9s become clich\u00e9s for a reason. It might be most helpful to say that somewhere between those two statements lies the truth about coffee in West London.<\/p>\n
The reality is that as the Sprudge guide to East London details<\/a>, the flowering of speciality in the city was mostly focussed on its E postcodes. The most foundational roasters and cafes began there, and as drinkers of and at them made moves of their own, they tended to congregate around there, too. It\u2019s important to remember that all of this was still not even 15 years ago, and that the diffusion into Central London\u2019s bustle was always going to be quicker than the more residential areas of West London.<\/p>\n But as one can find bad coffee anywhere, one can find excellent coffee anywhere too, and a surfeit of shops\u2014some on busy shopping thoroughfares, others firmly embedded on residential streets\u2014are ensuring that any modern coffee drinker wanting to understand where London\u2019s at in 2022 simply must go West.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A post shared by LIFT (@liftcoffeelondon)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n