North London natives Wolf Alice always return to their Seven Sisters and Holloway Roads roots. “We haven’t really left it. We always come back to it,” the rock band tells Apple Maps. Here, they share some of their favorite spots in the area.
LessTheo: “I literally just walked through Markfield Park about 20 minutes ago! It’s a small green space that’s just adjacent to the canal that runs all the way through East London. It’s just on the other side of the area where we came up with the beginnings of The Clearing in a studio. On Sundays you can watch the Colombian football league, and they do a huge, amazing cookout. There’s like a huge family vibe, and everyone’s drinking beers. It’s really an underrated park in London.”
Theo: “We had a little studio space near Markfield Park where we worked on music. It’s in an industrial area and there aren’t that many places to get coffee or eat, so we went to Leo’s Acropolis a lot. It’s a loosely Greek-inspired restaurant, and the owner makes it kind of feel like you are on the beach, but you’re actually in a car park. What to order? You can’t! Leo chooses what you eat! He’s probably not even called Leo, but let him do his thing.”
Ellie: “We’ve stayed very local to the street where we’ve had our rehearsal rooms for the past years. This is a great pub in the area. They do karaoke on the weekends, and it’s relatively cheap booze for London. There are a lot of different creative types and young people. And it’s got a karaoke machine with, like, a mad selection in there. I’m so crap at karaoke. Like, I get really stressed out about it.”
Joel: “The Lamb is known for having very good musicians play traditional Irish music. It’s a bit like how our new album was inspired by people playing songs that don’t require necessarily a stage or loads of instruments, but like someone just singing a song in a room, maybe with an acoustic guitar, or you know, like watching people play music casually.”
Theo: “I went there today, actually! I love how we’re living by our Guide! This is just a good, underrated vintage shop that’s been there for a while, that you can get a good bargain at, which is not easy in London because there’s a big spectrum of overpriced vintage. It’s on Holloway Road. It’s just got a couple of good, cheap bits of clothes. I got a white Wrangler jacket here today that was a little bit too small for me, but I thought it’d be quite cool.”
Theo: “[Hampstead Heath in London] is probably our best green space. It’s really nice. There’s an iconic bandstand there where kids gather. It’s like a North London kind of thing. It popped up in some of our music maybe at some point. I’ve had some of my most formative teenage experiences in that bandstand!”
Joel: “When I recommend one thing to a friend who maybe was traveling and wants somewhere fun to go, Hawley Arms will be on top of my list. We’ve celebrated so many good things there, and they’ve always been very kind to us. And we’ve got, like, our vinyls on the wall. It has a lot of music history, you know? Amy Winehouse was always there and things like that. I’m really romantic about that pub. Our Mercury Award is still behind the bar next to the nuts!”
Theo: “Guitar shops can be quite formidable places for some reason. I’ve always felt a bit anxious going, but here they make you feel really welcome. I’ve bought basses from them. I actually bought a bass for the new era of touring we’re doing. Reasonable prices, nice people. It’s got the guitars on the first floor, and pedals and then bass stuff downstairs. The whole street is legendary; the Pistols made ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’ here. And one of my best friends won an air guitar competition on
Theo: “I love this place so much. I actually wrote a song about it. It’s a tiny bit of green with a seven-a-side football pitch. I’ve gone there because I’m lucky enough to tour and have a bit of a weird schedule. There’s an app called Footy Addicts, which exists in London, and it’s a pickup game, so you can play and you meet people that you’ve never met before and you just play football with them.”
Ellie: “We first played together as the four of us at the Sebright Arms, which is still functioning and still going. It’s great. You can watch great bands there. And I also like the The Shacklewell Arms, which is nearby. They’ve still got live music all the time. Green Note in Camden plays more kind of folk music and stuff, and acoustic shows. And that’s next door to the Dublin Castle. We are playing there as well and for the first time to celebrate the new album.”