Well we couldn’t have timed it any better; we sold out of our very last Independent London Store Guide on our last day before closing for Christmas, and we opened again in January with a delivery of Issue 3.

For those unfamiliar with this publication, Independent London is exactly what it says, your guide to the best independent shops and cafes in London, and is almost exactly like having a particularly knowledgeable and erudite friend telling you where to go and what to see. And who handily fits in your pocket.

Issue 3 also sees an expansion into more food and drink, with additions such as The Kenton pub, and a family butchers in still-to-be-gentrified Well Street, as well as coffee roasters, fishmongers, brewers and a particularly mouth-watering Chocolaterie in Peckham. 

As 2011 saw the opening of a vast East London shopping megalopolis to mirror its counterpart in the West, and the arrival into Shoreditch of ‘brands’ disguised by shipping containers, the start of 2012 seems as good a time as any to remind everyone of the need ( and the pleasure ) of shopping small, shopping local, and shopping independent.