I’ve lived both North and South of the river and can honestly say that I love it down South. I live in Tooting where it’s cheap, cheerful, and most importantly unpretentious. Some of my North London friends are a bit reluctant to journey South as they seem to think there’s not much going on, but they’d be wrong. For really nice, friendly, quirky pubs I’d go to The Antelope and The Selkirk in Tooting Broadway and the Balham Bowls Club in Balham. Don’t worry it’s not actually a working Bowls club anymore! For a lovely restaurant that’s affordable but still a bit special then Fish in a Tie in Clapham is great, although there aren’t many vegetarian dishes but speaking as a veggie, the cosey atmosphere makes up for that. And of course Tooting has some of the best Indian restaurants around. Who needs Brick Lane when you have Tooting? For art you can go to the lovely Dulwhich Picture gallery. And for museums/days out then the Horniman museum is brilliant, especially if you have kids, but even if you don’t. It’s a lovely, free museum in gorgeous grounds which would be nice to have a picnic in if summer ever arrives! Speaking of which, that’s another brilliant thing about South London - the parks and green spaces. There are loads of them, and when the sun did occasionally shine last year Tooting Common was full of people walking dogs, jogging, having picnics, sunbathing, playing rounders. It was just gorgeous. If you’re a fan of live arts then South London has loads of gems. For theatre there is the BAC which has some of the best devised and experiemental theatre in London, the Oval Theatre for innovative, cutting edge often urban stuff, Polka Theatre for children and families to name a few. If you love comedy then there’s the brilliant club Banana Cabaret at the Bedford in Balham, or (one of the friendliest gigs I’ve been to) Comedy at the Kirk in Tooting, or in the summer Wimbledon Studios often plays host to some great up and coming comedians who are trying out material in preparation for the Edinburgh Fringe. So that’s pubs, restaurants, museums, comedy, theatre and loads of green spaces. London at it’s very best in my opinion. I was doing some stuff online the other day and I came across a homepage covering chemical skin peel. Before I go on I would like to say that this is something I have never even chew over before this moment, but following a little more investigation, I can’t help but want to try it. Any thoughts?
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