Streatham area guide

Streatham High Road (the A23), all 1.8 miles of it, has been classed as the UK's worst high street and its most polluted; in fact it's more accurate to call it the most quintessentially 'London' high street. Along its length are specialist food shops and community meeting hubs serving a plethora of different nationalities – Brazilian, Somali, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Asian. Attractive cafés are beginning to intervene amongst the otherwise faceless shops, and there's a farmers' market at Streatham Green. Down at the southern end of Streatham High Road, where things are relatively green and pleasant, there's Streatham Common, the spankingly rebuilt Ice Arena (with pool attached), and the Hideaway jazz club.