This London coffee walk from 2014 visits three favourites near my Hatton Garden workplace: Department of Coffee and Social Affairs, Prufrock Coffee and Workshop Coffee Co. Published on 29 August 2014, the film combines coffee stops with a quick walk through Farringdon, Leather Lane and Clerkenwell.

The choices are personal, with no ranking between them. As I explain in the voiceover, I wanted coffee within easy reach of work. A cup should provide a lift without requiring an exhausting journey to find it.

A London coffee walk along Leather Lane

Starting from Farringdon, the film moves briskly through the surrounding streets. The first stop is Department of Coffee and Social Affairs on Leather Lane. Its dark shopfront and pavement board give way to an interior of exposed brick, food at the counter and a bright red espresso machine.

The camera pauses on the La Marzocco machine before returning outside with a patterned takeaway cup. Market stalls and people moving along Leather Lane turn the journey between cafés into part of the film.

Prufrock Coffee, the second stop

Next comes Prufrock, described in the narration as just along Leather Lane on the opposite side of the road. An illustrated detail introduces the café before a close view of black coffee. Soon we are back among the stalls with another cup in hand.

In the voiceover, I mention the strong reputations of these cafés. The film records my favourites at the time; its original title’s reference to the best coffee shops expresses that enthusiasm. The pleasure here is the small local route, with three different stops close enough to combine into a walk.

Workshop Coffee and an iPhone experiment

The final leg heads around the corner and up Clerkenwell Road towards Workshop Coffee Co. During that walk, the narration explains the reason for making the film: trying Instagram’s then-new Hyperlapse app.

This was my second attempt with Hyperlapse. The first had recorded the London Eye rotating and people wandering through Trafalgar Square. For this film, I wanted to use the technique to tell a short story, linking three favourite coffee shops rather than recording a single moving scene.

The entire film was created on an iPhone. Hyperlapse supplied the smooth time-lapse sequences, while iMovie handled the edit, music and voiceover. The rapid street sections carry us between slower views of coffee, signs and café details.

Workshop is the third and final stop. Its lettering appears near the end, followed by a close view of a filled sandwich and a final coffee against a Farringdon roundel. That closing image brings the little circuit back to its starting point.

Watch the original London coffee walk

This archive film preserves the cafés and streets as they appeared in 2014. It also captures an early experiment in making a complete short film on a phone. For more visits from the Roberts London archive, explore our food, cafés and hospitality articles.