Put Your Hands Together

There’s plenty to celebrate in leafy Clapham, including its historical links to the abolitionist movement

- Carla Passino

Clapham High Street is the bustling heart of a leafy London village renowned for innovation and reinvention

SW4 LITTLE BLACK BOOK

M. Moen & Sons One of London’s best butchers, says Winkworth’s agent Brad Slade (24, The Pavement)

Clapham Books An independent shop that did ‘brilliant things’ during the lockdown, according to Alyson Wilson of the Clapham Society (26, The Pavement)

Trinity Adam Byatt’s Michelin-starred venue has repeatedly been named as one of London’s best restaurants (4, The Polygon)

The Windmill The inspiration for the Pontefract Arms in The End of the Affair, this pub is a favorite of estate agent Charlie Syson of Chestertons (Clapham Common South Side)

MANY corners of London have evolved over time, but Clapham has changed its location as much as its nature. At first, the village centered on the long-lost manor house at Turret Grove—home, among others, to Henry Atkins, James I’s Court physician, who could afford it after the King recompensed him lavishly for helping an infant Charles I recover from illness in 1604—and the church in Rectory Grove, rebuilt in 1815 as the forward-thinking St Paul’s, where a wildlife garden supports many invertebrate species, including bees from local hives (honey is sold on Friday mornings).