Inspired by Dave Eggers’ projects in the USA such as the Pirate Store in San Francisco and Superhero store in Brooklyn, The Monster Supplies Store in Hoxton is home to the Ministry of Stories: A volunteer run organization, founded by Nick Hornby, to help young people with creative writing of all kinds through workshops and free mentoring sessions. The store is the “Purveyor of quality goods for monsters of every kind” with fascinating bottles and tins containing everything from eyeballs to Zadie Smith’s short story Mortal Terror.

The best Sunday walks.

Apricity uses hyper-seasonal, sustainable produce from small-scale farmers and locally foraged ingredients, with a zero-waste approach to cooking.

Paul Rothe n Son has been there 120 years, bang in the middle of town. Hard to find a proper old-school deli in central London nowadays, n none more proper than this place. Great jacket potatoes, soup, sandwiches. It looks the part too. And the service is always great. Try and avoid the lunch queue.

One of those rarely found shops that inspires one to craft and creativity. A huge selection of high quality papers to print and draw on, to cut, fold, glue or just wrap presents with.