RAPHA LONDON

Coffee, snacks and clothing for discerning urban customers

“Always visit when in London. The coffee and the cheese sandwich are both amazing”

Geordie Paul

“Good cycling gear, excellent quality coffee!”

Stefanos T

“I love this place, free coffee for members and wall-to-wall cycling”

Peter B

Cycling is different on Planet London. Partly that’s the busy, growing, and often excellent, network of segregated cycle paths, whisking you past all those sights; partly it’s status, where bike-commuting is associated with premium jobs.

And cycle-cafes don’t come more premium than this. Rapha, known for its high-end cycle clothing, also has a coffee shop in central London near Piccadilly – or rather, ‘Clubhouse’, being HQ of its Club’s London chapter, one of its chain across various world cities.

As you’d expect, it’s a spotless, stylish place: grilled gourmet £6 croissants, £2 cans of water, overnight porridge with berries, artisan coffee. Decor is classy, with the inevitable big screens showing bike races, and shelves of racing magazines to browse, full of quality writing and cinematic photography. And Rapha’s ownbranding extends beyond the magazines, to the toiletries in the hotel-quality loos.

The clientele is the sort of laptop-toting, cosmopolitan professional you’d expect too, maybe having a business meeting in their third language. They’re joined by a stream of well-clad riders with discreetly top-name road bikes or deluxe town models, parked safely inside the shop – central London isn’t a place to leave your machine outside. The adjoining shop has tempting racks of the brand’s epic clothing. rapha.cc

SIGNATURE DISH

Overnight oats £4

SHOWSTOPPER

Serrano and cheese grilled croissant £6

I’M A COFFEE SNOB, HOW’S THEIR FLAT WHITE?

Top-hotel quality, £3.20

KEY STRAVA SEGMENT

Embankment, 1160 yards, average grade 0%, elevation gain 0ft, 1,471,931 attempts by 126,244 people

KOM

Marcus Burghardt 1.02, 07/07/2014

QOM

Debbie Harrison 1.21, 09/12/2019