Sadly London Fields and Parliament Hill Fields Lido are to close again; the Hoxton Beach London Fields cafe will close but we will hope Parliament Hill Fields Lido café will stay open like in the Autumn lockdown. We also hope we will be able to do takeaways from Queens Park and Highgate though our popular alcoholic mulled drinks must stop (apple juice can continue of course). All takeaway alcohol sales are now banned, but you can still buy our lovely wines beers and ciders online for home delivery. We will reinstate online ordering tomorrow Tuesday 5 January.

Hoxton Beach cafés at London Fields Lido and Parliament Hill Fields Lido will both stay open, as they are not affected by the closure of indoor gyms. The Clissold Leisure Centre will now close but our café there has remained closed since the start of the pandemic in March. Our café in Chatsworth Road E5 Dorée will stay open for takeaway as will the kiosk in Nags Head Market.

The new exhibition at Parliament Hill Fields Lido café is of work by Matthews Meadows. As well as fine art, Matthew has kindly helped Hoxton Beach with some amazing images over the years including our logo (derived from a film star card he found in Lahore and a label for the French soft drink La Mortuacienne). This exhibition is a mixture of prints (£190) abstract collages (£180-£220) and Life collages (£210-£230). The papier maché masks are an experiment carried out during lockdown and sadly are not for sale. Sales enquiries to hoxtonhome@gmail.com

One unlikely victim of Covid-19 has been the small unripe mangoes imported by wholesale businesses mainly of Indian origin. There have been fewer flights to India, Kenya and the South American countries that produce them. But we have found nine boxes in a Western International Market wholesaler so we can restart production and get the tasty sauce back on our market stalls and into jars as a Christmas treat. Amba is eaten with falafel in Iraq, Syria and Israel, but really looks like an Indian pickle. It seems to have travelled from India to Iraq either through the Jewish communities in both countries or because both Iraq (‘Mesopatamia’) and India were under British control. Here is an Israeli view. Our version includes nigella seeds and mustard seeds and has a loyal following.

This is to apologise to customer who are understandably eager to get their hands on our great-value Christmas burgundy offer. The wine is safely tucked up in London City Bond’s spanking new warehouse in Barton-under-Needwood in Staffordshire. But because this is our first attempt at importing wine we didn’t to begin with supply the correct paperwork. However it will shortly be being logged in and out again. So sorry for the wait!