Bermondsey

In Bermondsey the river is close. There are small canals for Thames flooding, WHARFs (ware house at river front) and balconies from one building to another. The narrow streets look really nice between the tall buildings. Bermondsey Street more towards south is a hip street with hipsters, nice cafés, art galleries etc. There is also a large number of amazing microbreweries in Bermondsey. This is probably the closest area to the city centre that can be described as cool.


Museums:

• Design Museum features weird furniture and other design in its permanent collection. There is also a changing exhibition. I remember at least punk exhibition and one with high-heel shoes.

Art:

• White Cube has changing exhibitions in modern art. It's a fairly small venue, but the quality of the exhibitions is usually really high. 

Cafés:

• Funnily named Fuckoffee is a nicely decorated café with organic coffee and delicious looking sandwitches. This place predates Bermondsey's hipster invasion. 

 Drinking:

• Bermondsey has quite a lot of nice little pubs. The Rose is a beautiful wood panelled small pub with chandeliers in the ceiling and great beers on tap.  The rye pale ale is absolutely delicious.
  
• The Woolpack is one of the nice and cozy pubs at the heart of Bermondsey. It has decorative tile mosaic walls. Upstairs room has a great divine painting in the ceiling.
•  The Miller is a place for hipsters. The paintings on the walls, the innovative lamp structures, and the music is all very hip. They have really good selection of beers on tap and upstairs music venue has shows from great small scale bands!
• Anspach & Hobday is a small microbrewery with tasty range of beers from porters to IPAs and brown ales. The taproom is open on weekends only. 
• The Bermondsey Arts Club is an art deco cocktail bar set in an old public lavatory. It seems that this is becoming a thing around London.  

Eating:

• The Garrison Public House is a gastropub with good English/modern European food, great beers and cozy atmosphere with candles and rustic interiors.

Markets:

• Maltby Street Market is one of the most interesting food markets in London. They have a variety of food stalls and bars hidden in a back alley between a large building and the railway lines. this is an excellent place to spend your weekend eating and drinking yourself silly.

 Areas around Bermondsey: Borough, Rotherhithe