A - Z Challenge 2024 - C is for Cafes

This year I'm blogging about my local area.  

My area?  Highams Park which is in the borough of Waltham Forest in North East London, (UK) a little known place that nestles between Chingford and Woodford that most people only come to if they have a specific reason to - if not we usually get bypassed.  Suits us.

Having lived in Forest Gate in East London for 36 years (and for my husband 65 years!) moving was a big deal for us.  But we've been in Highams Park since September 2020 so I feel I know enough about it now to fill out 26 posts! 

We've only moved just over 5 miles but we didn't know this area at all before moving here.  Although of course we did have a good look around when looking for a house and there were a number of things we wanted on our check list.

Cafés were on our list and there are quite a few of them within walking distance:

Mood Lift Café is the nearest to us and we've been a couple of times and it's been good.  It has a nice atmosphere and gets good reviews.

The Station Café is a few doors down and here you can get any combination of English breakfast items you could possible imagine plus a host of other choices.  

It's had a refresh outside recently and the sign is a bit more tasteful in my opinion - no pictures of food.  It's good value for money but not my favourite place.

Highams Lounge is opposite the station and as well as serving café food they also serve pizzas.  I haven't tried here yet but it seems popular.

Karya is right in the centre of the town and arrived after us.  It calls itself a Bistro and it does have an alcohol licence.  We've been a few times and the food and coffee are good.  Couldn't find a photo though.  It doesn't look much from the outside but the inside is welcoming and if you get a table by one of the windows you can watch the world, and the trains go by.

Just around the corner from Karya there are 2 more places to enjoy a coffee and food:

Coco Café

I've not tried this one but I think Hubby has and had no complaints.

Biba & Wren

This was under different management when we first came to Highams Park but it has remained a café that also has an alcohol licence and as well as being a nice café during the day they have regular evening events too.  It's good and, although it has the customary seating out front on the street, it also has a nice garden area with seating at the rear.

Across the railway line there are 2 more cafés:

Corner Café - named because of its location!  Small but well used.

Just across the road from the Corner Café is another nice small café, Indulge, which I have been to.  The only problem I had with it is they do not have toilet facilities - it's a stone's throw from the big supermarket which has toilets and apparently the café gets around the need to provide facilities because of that.  It might only be a stone's throw but it's up an escalator so not my idea of convenient.

As you can see we have lots of choice when it comes to getting a cup of coffee (or tea) but if you're looking for a well known store chain the only one is Costa which is in the supermarket venue.

You can probably tell from my lack of knowledge of some of these venues that I'm not one for going out for a coffee regularly.  Possibly because I'm actually a tea drinker.  I'm not a fan of bubble tea though and it's rumoured that one of the hairdressing salons that recently closed will be a bubble tea shop when it's been refurbished.  We will have to wait and see!