PLACE — Regency Café
Regency Café — London's Great Art Deco Greasy Spoon
Open since 1946, closed for a year and a half, and back exactly as it was under new ownership.
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Edit No.25 — London at 7am
Richmond Park, BLOK Clapton, Padel Social Club Earl's Court, Billingsgate Market, London Fields Lido and Regency Café.
London has two versions of itself, and most people only ever see one.
Edit No.25 is about the other one — the hour before the city gets going. Richmond Park at first light, when the deer are moving and the Terrace view is empty. BLOK Clapton, a 6:30am session in a Victorian tram depot left as found. Padel Social Club in Earl's Court, glass courts open at 6am rather than booked solid at six in the evening. Billingsgate, the country's largest inland fish market, trading from four and packing away by seven. London Fields Lido, a heated 50-metre pool open from 6:30 and only still here because local swimmers fought for it. And Regency Café in Pimlico, open since 1946, back after eighteen months dark, serving breakfast from seven.
In this edit
MOVEMENT — London Fields Lido
London Fields Lido — Saved by the People Who Swam In It
Heated to 25°C, open from 6:30am, and only here because a local campaign refused to let it stay closed.
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PLACE — Billingsgate Market
Billingsgate Market — Winding Down by 7
25,000 tonnes of fish a year, open to the public from four in the morning, and largely finished trading by the time most of London sits down to breakfast.
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MOVEMENT — Padel Social Club
Padel Social Club, Earl's Court — Courts From 6am
Glass-walled courts open from six in the morning, with a sauna and cold plunge waiting for whoever's still standing afterwards.
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PLACE — Richmond Park, London
Richmond Park at Dawn — In for the Deer, Out for the View
Cambrian Gate before the park properly wakes, and a walk that ends at the only view in England protected by its own Act of Parliament.
Read →Each article in this edit is experienced first-hand and written independently. All Vitae Lifestyle articles are archived under Lifestyle and can be read out of sequence.
Questions about this edit
What is Edit No.25 about?
London at 7am — places in and around the city that are materially better in the hour before it gets going. It opens with a dawn walk through Richmond Park, entering at Cambrian Gate and finishing on the Terrace at Richmond Hill.
What time does Regency Café open?
7am, Monday to Saturday, closing mid-afternoon, and shut on Sundays. You order at the counter first and take a table afterwards — your name is called across the room when the food is ready.
Did Regency Café change when it reopened?
By all appearances, no. It closed in 2024 for around eighteen months and reopened under Fevzi and Zafer Gungor with the art deco frontage, tiled interior, photographs, ordering system and menu kept as they were. Reviews since reopening have stayed strong.
Why walk Richmond Park at dawn rather than later?
Deer are crepuscular — most active at dawn and dusk. By mid-morning the park's 630 red and fallow deer are largely resting, and the open ground is busy with visitors. At first light the ground is empty and the animals are moving.
What is protected about the view from Richmond Hill?
It is the only view in England protected by its own Act of Parliament — the Richmond, Petersham and Ham Open Spaces Act of 1902, passed to prevent development on the Thames riverbanks below. Turner and Reynolds both painted it.
What is King Henry's Mound?
The highest point in Richmond Park, with a telescope trained through a gap deliberately kept clear in the tree line towards St Paul's Cathedral, twelve miles away — a protected sightline maintained across central London.
What is BLOK Clapton?
A London fitness studio in a converted Victorian tram depot on Upper Clapton Road, opened in 2017 as BLOK's first site by Ed Stanbury, Reema Stanbury and Max Oppenheim. Vaulted ceilings, cast iron pillars, exposed brick and tramlines in the floor were retained rather than covered over.
What is the BLOKSTRENGTH class?
A compound strength class organised into structured sets of barbell, dumbbell and bodyweight work, often split by muscle group. Rest periods are tight and timed, and the instructor corrects form throughout rather than simply counting reps.
What time does Padel Social Club Earl's Court open?
6am Monday to Friday, 7am at weekends, closing at 11pm daily. It is the brand's debut site at Empress Place, Earl's Court, with a sauna and cold plunge in the clubhouse and bookings through the Playtomic app.
What time does Billingsgate Market open?
4am, Tuesday to Saturday, closing around 8am–8.30am. The busiest and best-stocked window is 5–6am, with some traders packing up from around 6.30am and end-of-trading bargains around 7am.
Is Billingsgate Market open to the public?
Yes. It is a wholesale market primarily serving fishmongers and restaurants, but members of the public are welcome to walk the floor and buy directly from stalls. Under-12s are not permitted on the market floor.
What time does London Fields Lido open?
6:30am, seven days a week, all year round, closing at 9pm. The 50-metre outdoor pool is heated to around 25°C through the winter and is now floodlit on darker mornings.
Why is London Fields Lido significant?
A pool has stood on the site since 1930, but it spent years closed and only reopened in 2006 after a sustained local campaign. It closed again in April 2017 for a tiling fault and returned that December — two closures, two returns.