The cake walk

Discover the best restaurants, pubs, bars and things to do in SW4 Bars and pubs in Clapham Loft Happily for SW4’s discerning drinkers, this first-floor bar is still missed by the party-hunting 20-year-olds who trawl Clapham High Street. The Loft’s savvy management has created an attractive bar from these spacious, slightly industrial surroundings, black chairs adding accents to the sturdy wooden flooring. Of the 30-odd cocktails, house mixes such as the Blueberry & Cranberry Collins (home-made blueberry gin, grapes, cranberry juice and soda water) and the Wonderfizz (Whitley Neill gin, pomegranate juice and home-made grenadine) stand out; other inventions include the Holy Stone Roller, with cranberry-infused bourbon, sarsparilla cordial and calvados. Bottled beers include imports such as Brahma, Paulaner and Brooklyn Lager, plus brews from Greenwich’s fast-expanding Meantime; tables around the corner accommodate diners tucking into a variety of gastropub-esque dishes. Bobbin In a quiet residential street not far from Clapham Common, Bobbin is an appealing neighbourhood gastropub. It has a changing rota of proper ales (perhaps St Austell Tribute or something from Sambrooks), good wines by the glass, a cosy front room, and an airy conservatory at the rear. The menu’s the main focus, with typical gastropub dishes done well. Our ribeye steak (£17.50) was well-hung, tender and grilled correctly rare as requested; the chips were of the chunky, skin-on type, and the salsa verde adde

Bars and pubs near Deptford Amersham Arms The nexus of south-east London's live music scene, the Amersham Arms brings together the character (and prices) of a trad pub with a souped-up soundsystem and 3am licence, a 300-capacity performance area, an upstairs arts space and a walled garden for smokers. From the same stable as Camden's ultra-fashionable Lock Tavern, the Amersham Arms's roster is dominated by London's hippest promoters, bands and beat-makers (Adventures in the Beetroot Field, Skull Juice, Rob Da Bank and The Teenagers to name a few) plus comedy from the likes of BBC3's We Are Klang. All that plus the best-value Sunday roasts in town. Forget the east, head south. Big Red Quite how a No. 30 double decker ended up in Deptford is anyone’s guess – Toto, we’re not in Hackney anymore – but it seems to be having fun in its new location and new role as a pizzeria. Under the long concrete curve of an elevated section of the DLR, and with an unloveable portion of Deptford Creek tucked mercifully out of sight, it’s a surprisingly convivial spot, in part due to the boss who, despite coming across as a little otherworldly, is very friendly and thoroughly content with his eccentric operation. What of the comestibles? Drinks, served off a short blackboard list from a small booth by the entrance, run from a too heavily limed mojito (£5) via a couple of wines to some Meantime beers, while the food, produced in a small kitchen beside the bus, is pizza and a few salads. We tucked