Forget the flagship stores of Oxford Street. Ignore the fashionable designer goods of Sloane Square. Rule out Camden or Kensington markets. Dismiss Covent Garden. For the best shopping in London, head to Deptford.
Where, you may ask, is Deptford? It is in southeast London, also known as 'social death'. Actually, it is only 10 minutes by rail from London Bridge, but few Londoners or tourists know that.
Deptford is famous for not being famous, although it does boast the opening location for Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
It has a nondescript, unfashionable image; its Victorian terraces populated by Londoners forced out of more gentrified realms such as nearby Greenwich - a place where you can buy a flat for under GBP200,000 ($3 million).
More visitors may arrive, however, after a study proved that Deptford is the most diverse place to shop. Its formula,
D = C+B+M, says that shopping is best when diversity is highest. Thus, diversity (D) equals a wide choice of businesses suited to various spending patterns (C), plus the availability of everyday basics (B), added to a mix of shops (M) selling everyday goods.
Indeed, the lack of chain stores is refreshing. Shops include countless independent cafes, family bakers, fishmongers and 11 independent butchers yet to be forced out by the giant supermarkets.
