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How do you define cool? To many people it’s subjective, apart from the things that will always be indisputably cool, such as being in a band, or smoking*. Despite its subjectivity, one London neighbourhood has been crowned as definitely cool, according to the Sunday Times.
Newington Green, an northeast London enclave filled with aesthetically pleasing bakeries, award-winning restaurants and that controversial statue of Mary Wollstonecraft, has been named the second coolest neighbourhood in the entire UK.
In the article, the Sunday Times lauded Newington Green for its selection of restos beloved by celebs like Harry Styles (Perilla), top tier date night spots (Cadet) and viral bakeries (Jolene, we’re looking at you). There was also an honourable shout out to System, a listening bar inside the hipster butchers Stella’s. Sadly, System hosted its last knees-up at the end of January this year, but Stella’s the butchers lives on.
We’ll take the Sunday Times list with a pinch of salt. Also in their rankings of the top ten coolest neighbourhoods in the UK was er… Clapham, the most decidedly uncool area of London.
As a counter, we’d also like to offer Time Out’s list of the Coolest Neighbourhoods in the World for your consideration. We named King’s Cross the coolest area in London in 2024, so make of these lists what you will.
You can check out the Sunday Times’ list in full (behind a paywall) here or read Time Out’s UK-wide summary here.
*Obviously, we don’t think smoking is cool.
Listen to Time Out’s brilliant podcast ‘Love Thy Neighbourhood’: the newest episode with Noomi Rapace in Portobello is out now.
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