A short guide to Earlsfield for people who have just moved here
Where the good bread is, which way to walk on a Sunday, and what to do with a toddler at four o'clock on a wet afternoon.
Earlsfield is the bit of SW18 that people pass through on the way to somewhere better known, which is exactly why the people who live here like it.
If you have just moved in, here is the short version.
Get your bearings
The station is the middle of everything. Fifteen minutes to Waterloo, four minutes’ walk from this pub, and the reason the neighbourhood exists in its current shape at all.
North of the station is Wandsworth, the river and the shopping centre. South is Tooting, which has the market and the best food for a mile in any direction. East, over the railway, is Wandsworth Common. West, down the hill, is King George’s Park and the Wandle.
The two walks
The common, on a Sunday. Cross the railway and keep going east. Wandsworth Common is big enough to lose an afternoon on, and there is a café by the lake for when someone small stops walking.
The Wandle Trail, any time. Pick it up in King George’s Park and follow the river north. It comes out at the Thames in about forty minutes, past mill sites, allotments and a surprising number of herons. It is flat, it is signposted, and it is the single most underrated thing about living here.
When it rains
Which it will. The honest options for a wet Tuesday at four o’clock with a toddler and no plan are: the library, the swimming pool, or a pub that does not mind.
We intend to be the third one. Prams fit. There is space at the back. Children are welcome until nine, dogs are welcome on the ground floor all day, and nobody is going to hurry you along because you have only bought one coffee and a babyccino.
Things worth knowing
- The bin day is Tuesday. You will forget this twice.
- Garratt Lane is spelled with an a. Half the internet gets this wrong and it is worth being the person who does not.
- The 44 goes to Tooting and the 270 goes to Mitcham. Both are more useful than they look on the map.
- If you need a plumber, ask in the pub. This is not a joke; it is the actual best method and always has been.
Welcome to SW18.
The Grosvenor Arms
The house
Posts written by whoever happened to be behind the bar, on the pass or in the cellar that week. We sign them off collectively because that is usually how they get written.
