If you are wandering around Wapping, or passing just through whilst walking the Thames Path, and you fancy a little light refreshment, can I suggest that you drop into the Turks Head Café.
Located within a former pub it is clean, bright and comfortable, having counters and stools around the perimeter, tables in the middle and even a couple of sofas tucked in a corner. I called in on Saturday afternoon and indulged in an excellent full breakfast and a very decent cup of coffee but there was a large selection of other items on the menu. There is a small outside area overlooking Wapping Gardens and the staff were very friendly. What more could you ask?
The building itself was formerly and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Turks Head pub. A Taylor Walker house which, after a period of dereliction, was purchased by a local community who set up a charitable trust to restore the building and then let out the café space on the ground floor and some studio spaces on the upper floor. The rents raised from these go towards community projects.
The TurksHead Cafe can be found at 1 Green Bank (previously Bird St) on the corner with Tench St. It can be accessed from Wapping High St via Scandrett St, which is between the Town of Ramsgate pub and Wapping Police Station.
Scandrett St is also the location of the former St John school. Now converted for residential use, the building has a very fine pair of Blue Coat figures over the doorway.
There are some wonderful old photographs of Wapping on the Idea Store web site (the Turks Head can be seen just beyond S John's Church in the 1938 photograph). It is also worth checking the rest of the sites Digital Gallery for pics throughout Tower Hamlets
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