For me, it’s Yonder, a bouldering and yoga facility off Blackhorse Road. It’s really welcoming and has its own cafe/bar and actively supports queer and women-led climbing.
It’s such a nice environment to hang out in, and has loads of gym equipment too, at a fraction of local gym prices.
Your turn.
There’s a cafe in Eltham called Bob’s Your Uncle which has barely been there for any time at all and has already accidentally become a social hub. My mum has made a couple of pals in solo lunches there, I’ve befriended the owner, and A met a couple nice frenchies in there too.
My local libraries, they helped me in my most difficult years when i needed a quiet, warm safe place to escape to. I love libraries 
Oops didn’t mean to reply xylo
Im glad you did and I’m thankful for it
Stone Mini Market.
Bottle shop, zero waste food refills, a cafe and bar. The couple who run it are brilliant
ah yes this place is awesome!
Barbican: local cinema, library, theatre, art gallery, cafe, restaurant, emergency toilet, indoor garden, free workspace, outdoor chill-out area, music venue, laundrette, tube station and maze all under one roof.
I’m very blessed in my corner of South East London
Round here we have: community centre in a church that does yoga classes etc., community cafe with a big pizza oven, community gardens.
First time I’ve lived somewhere where I know the locals and chat about stuff the council is doing etc.
There’s this place I go Friday lunchtimes…
The community saunas in Hackney Wick. Lovely place to have sweaty chats with people.
The local library. It does a free craft table for kids on Saturday mornings. Lots of coloured paper, googly eyes, stickers and whatever else is needed. It must take the staff a fair while to get everything cut into shapes etc every week.
My girls absolutely love it and I’ve noticed it getting a lot busier over the past couple of months so the word must be spreading.
The Barbican must easily be one of the coolest places in the world
The big log we would travel to sit on and get stoned
Rockaway Park, which is a…. arts hub, I guess? It’s in a disused quarry just outside Bristol, home to various creative people, an ace vegan cafe, a community garden, various workshops, a recording studio, a gig space, lots of exciting Mad Max type sculpture and more. The people behind it came out of the anarcho / free festival scene and that ethos is baked into it. It’s just an excellent place to wander round for an hour and remind yourself that the rest of life doesn’t have to be a capitalist hellhole.
Oh that’s great. My partners mum is in Eltham and somewhere decent just to meet up with friends and various groups she’s in isn’t always easy.
Honestly I struggle to think of anywhere that isn’t a pub and, now I’ve stopped drinking, that’s a little bit sad.
(I think part of this is that whenever I’ve got found nice community-type things in the past, I’ve always ended up Getting Involved and then it’s quickly gone from “a nice place that I enjoy being in” to “another fucking obligation”. I just want somewhere I don’t have to be on-call to fix anyone’s laptop or the goddamn projector again)
Sorry that turned into more of a rant, this should be a nice thread for nice places, carry on.
We had a little forest clearing. Just used to call it “the place”. Wonder if it is still there.
they shut my favourite one down last year (arthouse cinema, been going 40 years, great internal bar/cafe, recognised everyone who worked there and a bunch of the other regulars) and still actually mourning it tbh
Didn’t know you were that old tbh.
