The light is going and we can all feel it. Golden hour now arrives somewhere around five and the vitamin D deficit is already circling. London does outdoor drinking in enormous volume, though very little of it comes with a kitchen worth the detour. These four manage the sun without dropping the standard.
So before the clocks go back and we all move indoors until March, these are my picks for spending what daylight is left. Gardens, terraces and railway arches that still catch the sun at the right angle, attached to kitchens and bars I would turn up to in the rain anyway.
Pippins
Walk through the Templeton Garden hotel in Earl’s Court and out the back into a walled garden most people never find the entrance to. Hedges pruned to the inch, gravel underfoot, and each table set apart under its own canopy, filtering through just enough light. Children run about. Nobody minds. Grilled mackerel arrives blistered, the line-caught bass crudo in thin cold slices, wagyu tartare with a perfect yolk on top, and the salads do real work alongside them. The bar is where the money should go. Sprout, the bar alongside it, collaborates with local suppliers and events and innovates relentlessly, and the market stall menu is the section to read twice: signature serves built from whatever turned up on London market stalls that week. Tell the bartender what you usually drink, then let them ignore it.
pippinsrestaurant.com | @pippinsrestaurant | Templeton Garden, 1-15 Templeton Place, London SW5 9NB
Tower House
A Victorian house on Bridge Street in Richmond with a clock tower on the roof and a terrace that starts at the street and finishes out over the river. Plants do most of the work overhead, trained into canopies above the sofas, with palms and candelabras filling the gaps between. It drops in stages, so you can pick your level of sun by how much of the afternoon is left, and half of Richmond walks past below and beside you. Food arrives as a seasonal spread leaning Mediterranean, and the catch of the day is the order: whole, on the bone, straight off the open fire, skin blistered where it sat closest to the flames. Wine and cocktails. Sun dropping behind the river, glass in hand, decent company opposite.
thisistowerhouse.com | @thisistowerhouse | 11 Bridge Street, Richmond, TW9 1 TQ
Umbrella Cider House
Under the railway arches in Bethnal Green, sun comes through the open front and lands on the benches, which fill from early afternoon. Cider is the reason to be here: a cold apple and rhubarb, then a Paloma straight off the tap, with the house ginger beer waiting for anyone who wants a proper kick. Darts, a pool table, an open mic band giving it everything. Groups arrive for one and quietly cancel the rest of the day.
theumbrellaproject.co.uk | @umbrellalondon | Unit 1, Birkbeck Street, London E2 0EL
Shiro
Broadgate Circle catches the late afternoon and Shiro puts tables out on the ring for it. Edomae sushi served plainly, crystal sushi wrapped in something transparent, and rock shrimp tempura, hot and crisp, with a spicy garlic mayonnaise carrying enough heat to keep you drinking. Order the seafood fried rice with scallop, crab and sea urchin, then the matcha tiramisu as the light drops behind the towers.
shirosushi.co.uk | @shirosushilondon | 100 Broadgate, London EC2M 2QS
The clocks go back on 25 October, which leaves three more weekends of usable light. Book the outside tables now, because everyone in London has read the same forecast, and whoever leaves it until the day will be sitting indoors next to the toilets.
