vegan

How has veganism changed

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I know a lot of people enjoy celebrating their vegan anniversary because the milestone can be an exciting time to pat yourself on the back and take stock of how far you’ve come.

It feels good to feel good!

It can also be an opportunity to look back on how much has changed for vegan consumers in the time since you decided to be totally plant-based.

I don’t actually recall the date I went vegan, even though it did happen overnight and on a specific date in 1999 (I think!). All I know is that is was about twenty years ago.

Left: Just vegan Right: Old vegan

My home at the time was in Chiswick, London. Josh and I lived in a one-bedroom apartment with my sister and her partner. Yes, Josh and I had the lounge room as our bedroom.

The following extract from my book Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give a Sh!t tells of my vegan awakening in this flat:

I could very well have travelled through life indefinitely thinking I was the height of compassion if it wasn’t for one pesky little invention known as the World Wide Web.
Josh and I invested in some painfully slow dial up Internet connection and it was a revelation. The Internet was the late nineties version of that chicken truck pulling up beside me in western Sydney, but this time I was being awakened to my culpability in the suffering of egg laying birds and milk producing cows. Via rudimentary chat groups and early versions of forums, I started to be exposed to people who opted out of relying on any and all animal- derived products.
I was so reliant on milk and cheese at the time I went into shut down. Wasn’t it enough to not eat the animals? Surely I was to be applauded for my commitment to animal welfare? Then I discovered that many wines
are treated with animal products like egg whites, milk protein or fish products to get rid of some of the leftover solids. This sent me into a complete tailspin. There I was thinking nobody loved animals more than I, while cows were being forcibly impregnated in order for me to guzzle their milk. Cows need to be pregnant or new mothers for their bodies to produce milk and as we know, mammals don’t get pregnant on their own. The discovery that dairy cows went through pregnancy repeatedly for my milk was confronting. Chickens, even those advertised as cage free, were wildly mistreated in shocking conditions for my occasional egg habit including my desire for albumen, or egg-white clarified red wine.
There must have been a few weeks of this information dripping through to me during which I still consumed dairy and sipped wine from the corner store. I needed to be slapped into a different state of understanding.
I needed to truly understand the role I was playing in animal exploitation.
Enter my sister, Monique.
Monique and her partner Drew were living with us in London. They were both carnivorous without waiver and it wasn’t just on one occasion I walked into the shared kitchen to discover my sister wrist deep inside a chicken carcass. The relationship I had back then with my sister was tumultuous and she would try to catch me out on any perceived flaw, real or imagined. She got a good one to ride me on with my hypocrisy surrounding animals. The day Monique sneered at me and called me a hypocrite, for saying I loved animals while refusing to give up wine from the corner shop, plays back like it was yesterday.
In a rare instance of calmness and clarity, I told my sister she was absolutely right. I could no longer drink non-vegan wine, eat dairy-containing food or buy clothing made with animal products. I went vegan that very second and have never stopped being vegan.
When people ask me for advice on how to go and stay vegan, I often retell the story of my sister pushing me into a corner. That was my defining moment and I tell people theirs will arrive. It takes knowing the facts, knowing your part and feeling it is the right thing to do in your heart. Once the pieces fall into place and you have a clear understanding of your role in reducing animal suffering, choosing vegan becomes an epiphany. It’s the right thing to do and you do it. The clarity or the logic or the unavoidability of what you have come to understand puts you on a path of lifelong compassion and it’s a fabulous feeling.

So, that is the story of how I went vegan. But what was the vegan landscape in London like twenty years ago?

I really can’t recall any vegan restaurants, although there must have been a few. We certainly didn’t have the vegan networks and online social media groups to spread news of the best places to eat. It was all very much real life experience and word of mouth.

Going out for lunch meant a packet of pita bread and a tub of hummus from the Co-op. Seriously. Co-operative Supermarkets were about the only place that clearly labeled vegan products back in 1999.

When I decided I would not drink beer or wine anymore unless I was sure it was vegan, I often just went without. If vegan alcohol searching database Barnivore existed back then, I certainly didn’t know about it. Smart phones didn’t exist and I didn’t even own a cellphone!

There was not one mainstream restaurant that had vegan options. If you wanted to eat something in a High Street eatery, you would have to ask your server to speak to the kitchen and explain what vegan meant. It just wasn’t a process that many of us wanted to go through again and again (although many did as an act of activism).

I cooked at home for every single meal.

I can honestly say I used to be a better and more enthusiastic cook back in the day. We had tofu preparation down to a fine art and I didn’t even know what seitan was or how to make it for the first few years of my vegan adventure. Jackfruit? Nope. Didn’t know about it. My meat alternative most used? Chickpeas.

For special occasions we might break out a nut roast.

My memory is a bit hazy but I recall there only being one not-very-nice soya milk in Sainsbury’s that was sweetened with apple juice.

A few years into my veganism saw things getting slightly better.

Holland & Barrett near my house was the ONLY place to get Redwood (now known as VBites) vegan turkey and beef roasts. If you wanted one for the weekend, you had to familiarise yourself with their delivery times because these products were scarce and flew off the shelves.

I would sometimes run to the store in order to get in before the other local vegans.

There was no vegan cheese to speak of or at least none worth speaking of, that’s for sure.

An early memory involves me going along to the vegan festival in Red Lion Square. It was like another planet and it felt as though every single vegan in London was there. It was at one of these early events where I first tasted seitan. I was so confused!

Vegetarian Shoes was the only place to get kinder footwear and the styles were quite limited. It wouldn’t be unusual to show up to a vegan event and half the attendees were wearing the same boot style!

When it came to personal care products, Co-operative Supermarkets were the first ports of call due to their anti-testing stance and clear labelling.

I do remember it being tough to be vegan twenty years ago, but it was also a time of simple and clear choices. We were inventive, resourceful, and made do with what we had because we believed in reducing the demand for animal-derived food and products. Just the basics.

Even though I have dedicated my life ever since then to championing the vegan message, I would never have thought today’s vegan-friendly landscape was possible in my lifetime.

The excruciatingly-slow progress we made over those two decades has been completely swamped in just two years or so. Vegan stuff is absolutely everywhere in comparison to when I first made the switch. Heck, I even work on vegan cruises!

I hoped to see this sort of availability, but never believed I’d live to see it.

Honestly.

I’d love to hear your memories of what it was like when you took the vegan leap.

A private message from FGV

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The following is a personal message I wrote to my Patreon supporters today to explain my recent absence from the site.

Patreon is a way for people to financially support the FGV platform and the work it does to champion independent vegan business, support human rights, and help improve outcomes for non-human animals.

If you would like to pledge a monthly amount to keep my blog and social media platforms alive, you can at my Patreon page.

Now for the letter…


Hello everyone.

This post is both an apology and an explanation.

I have been missing in action on Patreon for about half a year and I owe you an explanation.

The past six to eight months of my life have been some of the most difficult and I’ve only just come out the other side.

One of the biggest changes and challenges I faced was the end of my relationship with Josh. Actually, we are still best friends and we love and support each other unequivocally but the period of transformation where we changed our relationship to a friendship took a huge toll on me and my mental health.

I lived with extreme depression and found myself accessing weekly therapy here in Mexico City. My therapist was so very kind and helpful. I honestly don’t know what I would have done without the support.

Having been in such a co-dependent relationship for 20 years, I was just incapable of even the most mundane life tasks on my own. I lost track of how many times I would just lock myself in my room and cry. Minutes were hours and hours were days and days were weeks.

The whole emotional and mental struggle was one of the most gruelling fights of my life. I’m still living with depression daily but have a hold on it at the moment.

It was during this period when I also discovered that I was NOT living with a medical condition that it was thought I was living with for decades. This is an extremely convoluted story, very private, and almost unbelievable so expect to see me write more about it in the future. For now, all I can say is that the experience broke me down to nothing and I’ve been building myself back up from scratch.

It pushed me into a type of depression and mental breakdown that I had never believed would happen to me and it felt like I would never recover.

It was also tough to say goodbye to Hackney Downs Vegan Market and Vegan Beer Fest UK events during this time. Neither of these ventures were financially viable any longer but making the decision to end them all hit me hard.

They never made a lot of money but losing even that tiny amount of income triggered my anxiety and depression.

Having exited a 20 year relationship in which Josh and I cared for each other in all aspects including financial, I felt beyond vulnerable. I had no job security, no savings, and no future financial plans. I was scared and lonely. The thought of growing old with no money is not pleasant. I went from being 50% responsible for my rent, bills, and food expenses to 100% responsible and the change has been a big adjustment.

All I could manage was to keep my blog alive in order to help independent vegan businesses and manage the FGV section of the weekly Venn Street Market for a small amount of income and to support those traders. I also had my monthly Vegan Life Magazine column to write each month.

I physically and mentally couldn’t keep up with anything else, and sadly that meant Patreon postings.

I loved giving weekly news updates and sharing content on here, but when there were weeks I couldn’t get out of bed that meant that some things got lost.

I’m am forever grateful for the support you have all given me on here. It makes me emotional to know you have stayed by my side when you had no idea why I wasn’t sharing content.

The money from your pledges has kept my head above water during the darkest times of my life and you have been a huge part in keeping the FGV platform alive.

I still get a thrill out of helping promote independent vegan businesses and the blog and social media platforms do make a huge impact. It is your support that has allowed me to keep all of this alive during my breakdown.

And I’m still here.

I’m still blogging all the time. I’m still promoting my events and events run by others. I’m still answering reader questions every day.

I’m still FGV and I’m still fighting for human and non-human animals.

Going forward, I need to make some changes to how this Patreon platform rewards you for your support. I’d love to know what you would like to see in return for your pledge. Feel free to respond here or send me a private message.

My idea is to keep the blog and the market running (your support helps with this) but also start sharing more personal writing on here. This would include vegan and non-vegan specific topics.

I never went away but I’m back here in a big way… and I couldn’t have done it without you.

I have exciting plans for the future and it would mean a lot to me for you to be by my side. A second and third book are being planned, while next year sees me taking on a huge adventure by curating a vegan cruise for LGBT people and their friends/family.

I am helping launch vegan events in Mexico City and have just curated an FGV food section for the Mighty Hoopla and Cross The Tracks festivals in London. It is still full steam ahead!

I have a new boyfriend in my life who has been the most wonderful support I could have hoped for. Gil is kind and loving and handsome. He has come into my life at the perfect time and means the world to me. My friends have also stayed in touch to make sure I was still surviving and I’ll never forget their love and support.

I know it is all a lot to take in so I’ll leave it there and hope to hear from you all soon.

Lots of love.

Sean/FGV

Vegan fashion police

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This article was originally written by me for Vegan Life Magazine. My column appears each month and you can find out about subscribing online here.

When faced with penning this column, I was slightly unsure of what I could say on the subject of vegan fashion. I’m not celebrated for my sense of style and I’ve been known to wear the same second-hand jeans for a decade.

But after a bit of reflection it became clear.

Fashion shouldn’t simply be about what it does for us personally. In addition to helping us get through the day and making us feel stylish, we need to consider what fashion does to animals and the planet.

There are many reasons why people decide against buying and wearing footwear, clothing, and accessories made from animals.

Of course the number one driver when it comes to dressing vegan is a desire to not contribute to animal suffering. For as long as there have been people not wanting to exploit animals, there have been attempts at dressing more kindly.

There are obvious materials to avoid when you start dressing with compassion such as leather and fur, but it sometimes takes a bit more convincing when it comes to wool. Even though they are not killed directly for their wool, sheep experience ongoing hardship such as exposure to extreme heat and cold while the practice of muelsing sees chunks of flesh being cut from them while alive and awake.

Pleather shoes, plastic skirts, acrylic cardigans, and PVC jackets started to find a following with compassionate fashionistas after initially launching as inexpensive alternatives. Just like we have accidentally vegan food, we have a lot of vegan-friendly fabrics that just happen to be that way.

There was a huge surge in the popularity of leather and fur alternatives in the 1980s and 90s as many celebrities took the cause to heart. Perhaps you remember anti-fur advertisements such as the series featuring rock band The Go-Gos brandishing the slogan ‘We’d rather Go-Go naked than wear fur’?

Purposively-vegan fashion brands started to emerge around this time including Vegetarian Shoes which commenced operations almost 30 years ago and Ethical Wares which came to be around 1993.

More recent high profile footwear and fashion brands include Will’s Vegan Shoes from London and VAUTE fashion label of New York City.

An important part of shopping for vegan fashion is understanding that not all animal-free materials are good for the planet or the people handling them.

Of course the fallout from leather is atrocious as it needs to be drenched in chemicals to stop it decomposing (a reminder that leather is dead animals!) and these chemicals are washed off into waterways therefore creating immeasurable environmental damage, however some alternatives can do their share of long-lasting harm as well. PVC has been used as a leather alternative for decades but we don’t currently have records to show how long this material takes to break down.

But where there is a problem, there is a more vegan-friendly solution.
Lefrik is an all-vegan bag and accessories fashion label using recycled plastic bottles to create fabric. The use of recycled PET fabric from plastic bottles saves 90% of water consumption and has a 75% lower carbon footprint than regular polyester. This fashion initiative is helping to keep plastic waste from landfills and oceans, as well as lessen CO2 emissions.

Other animal-friendly materials finding a home in the world of fashion include hemp, bamboo, pineapple fibre and cork. Many inventive designers are also repurposing and up-cycling vintage fabrics to help lessen the demand for animal skins and furs.

Steve Madden and Skechers now allow customers to search their online footwear catalogues using the ‘vegan’ category, while Reebok is going a step further to create a shoe made from organic cotton uppers and rubbery soles concocted from milled corn.

This mainstreaming of ethical and vegan products has been powered by compassionate fashion pioneers such as Angela Corcoran and James Beal of London ethical boutique and shoe store, The Third Estate.

Angela and James sell ethical vegan fashion to compassionate shoppers all over the planet via their online store and are a treasured local business with their shop front in North London.

I approached the duo to find out what advice they have for people looking to make better fashion choices for animals, workers, and the environment and they were both adamant when saying that there is no such thing as an inexpensive ethical product. If consumers are not paying very much for something, someone else is paying in other ways. A pair of shoes might be animal free, but if they are low-priced that undoubtedly means workers are being paid poorly.

The Third Estate is on the frontline of tackling all of the ethical dilemmas thrown up by fashion. The business promotes labels that put animals, workers, and the planet at the centre of all they do by using animal alternatives, paying fair wages, and working to strict environmental guidelines.

Angela reminded me of that old adage that less is more when it comes to fashion, but maybe in a different sense than the quote was first intended.

She said, “We should buy less fashion and we should think carefully about what we do buy. We can look fabulous and make kinder choices for animals, factory workers, and the planet at the same time.”

Sounds perfect to me. Kinder choices will never go out of style.

Vegan cafe in Norfolk market town

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The market town of Harleston in Norfolk has a new vegan café and it looks sensational!

Hungry Cat Vegan Cafe is a brand new vegan café/deli in Harleston and they are bringing vibrant, colourful, and delicious food to the local population.

The irresistible menu contains wraps, burgers, toasties, panini, smoothies, teas, coffees, cakes as well as take home treats such as cheeses, meats, chocolates, sour cream, cooking cream and whipping cream.

Visitors can fill up on alcoholic drinks including wines and beers in addition to unique super food lattes.

The café is making a name for itself thanks to its savoury plates including scrambled tofu on toast, mushrooms on toast, and the stunning mezze platters. The specials board showcases a rotating menu with standouts including beetroot salad with hummus, pasta, vegetable bake, lasagne, and sweet potato with lentil bake… and don’t forget the sausage rolls and pies.


Of course everything is 100% vegan.

Razz from Hungry Cat sent me some details to make it easier for you to visit:

OPENING TIMES – Tuesday until Friday 9am – 4:30pm. Saturday 9am – 4pm. Sunday 9am – 3pm. Closed on Mondays.

PARKING AND LOCATION – Harleston has a lot of free parking, the closest to the café is at the East of England Co-op supermarket behind them. Take the first road on the left after the café and drive directly into the East of England Co-op. You will only have a two minute walk to the cafe. Hungry Cat is at 25 The Thoroughfare, Harleston IP20 9AS. Click here to see the exact location thanks to Google Maps.

You can follow Hungry Cat on Facebook and Instagram.

Vegan Beer Fest UK says goodbye

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London Vegan Beer Fest was created back in 2013 because the UK capital didn’t have a lot of large scale socialising events targeted just at vegans. Actually, outside of events such as VegfestUK and the Animal Aid Fayre, there weren’t many ways I can recall to celebrate with a vegan beer in your hand.

Following on from a visit to the original Los Angeles Vegan Beer Festival (created and run by Nic Adler and Quarrygirl), I was inspired to create something similar for London that was completely plant-based and focussed around beer.

It started as a small garden party in Bethnal Green for 200 people and over the next six years grew into one of London’s biggest annual vegan parties, welcoming thousands of revellers.

In addition, Vegan Beer Fest UK events were launched in Manchester, Glasgow, Sheffield, and Coventry.

But here we are in 2019 and the vegan landscape has changed drastically. No longer is a moderately-sized vegan event with curated food, beer, and wine offerings such a unique occurrence.

Just as Hackney Downs Vegan Market found itself unwanted due to the mainstreaming of veganism, Vegan Beer Fest UK events started to feel a bit superfluous in the current climate.

People can buy vegan beer in every single shop, supermarket, and pub in the country while High Street restaurants have made veganism more than normal and common. Large scale music festivals are even showcasing entire vegan food and drink sections.

Josh and I are extremely proud of the events we put together and hosted over the past six years and are sad to be wrapping them up, but it is important to be realistic about how the climate for these types of events has changed.

Vegan Beer Fest UK events are not planned for 2019. Who knows? Maybe you will see them return in a different format in the future.

Josh and I would like to personally thank a number of people who helped make these events fun and valuable community happenings over the past half decade.

Much love to the businesses, breweries, and food traders who traded with our events around the UK. Some of you travelled great distances to be a part of these special days and all of you worked tirelessly to prove that veganism does not mean something substandard.

We have eternal gratitude to our host venues. Thank you for taking a chance on us and giving our little vegan beer events safe and special homes over the years.

I can’t express how important the people are who helped us stage and run the events. Some of you were paid and some of you helped simply out of the goodness of your hearts. All of you understood the value these events added to our community. Thank you.

Follow Your Heart has been associated with our events for several years and this California company specialising in vegan cheeses and salad dressings (including the legendary Vegenaise) made our events possible financially. If you saw some of the margins we were running on most years, you wouldn’t underestimate the importance of Follow Your Heart‘s support. We send all of our love and gratitude to them. They are a big company that truly cares.

I send personal and heartfelt thanks to my dear friend Ricardo who has worked on the event design and posters for several years. He is an extremely talented designer and helped us forge a unique personality for Vegan Beer Fest UK events. His ideas will live on in the hundreds of t-shirts and tote bags bought by attendees during the last few years.

These events would have been impossible without all of the wonderful people who attended each year. Thank you for supporting us and for partying alongside us. You drank beer, you devoured street food, and you helped us raise approximately £1,000 for our featured charity Isla Urbana (securing clean and safe water for people in Mexico) through our Charioke rooms at the beer events. We couldn’t drag people away from those amazing charity karaoke sessions!

Lastly, I want to state just how grateful I am to Josh for the support he showed my initial idea of launching a beer festival. In addition, he needs to be thanked for the ridiculous amount of work he put into making these events happen each year. There were early mornings, long days, car journeys from one end of the UK to the other to meet deadlines, karaoke hosting duties, clean ups, stall building tasks, door and ticket collecting duties, and probably about two dozen more jobs that I can’t recall.

Honestly, running these events on our own was emotionally and physically challenging like few experiences I’ve had.

Josh did them all alongside me because he believed, as I did, that we were making special places for people to feel celebrated in their vegan lifestyle.

Vegan Beer Fest UK events were our way of helping to improve outcomes for non-human animals by making people feel good about their compassionate choices.

I look to the future with memories of these events firmly and fondly in my heart.

Free vegan ice cream in London

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Dappa is a vegan soft serve ice cream company currently taking London by storm.

Not only have they announced a fabulous Summer residency in the capital, but they are giving away 100 free ice creams on Saturday April 20, 2019 t0 celebrate.

The residency kicks off this weekend inside Sourced Market, which is located inside St Pancras Station. They start serving from midday and will be there each week until the end of Summer from Tuesday through Sunday.

To celebrate their opening, they are giving their Instagram followers a chance to nab a free ice cream.

All of the details on how to claim your ice cream are contained in this Instagram post.

Get on over there to register but remember to be early on the day.

If the whole free ice cream extravaganza is too much for you but you wanna stay updated with Dappa, follow them on Instagram.

Vegan in Seville

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Guest post by Mirel.

I hadn’t chosen to visit Seville for the food, but a quick Google told me that some gems awaited me in this tiny but perfectly formed city.

We stayed at the Hotel Fernando III on a bed-and-breakfast basis. Vegan breakfast options were pretty decent; a huge selection of breads, jams, dairy-free margarine spread, cereal, soya milk (already out on the buffet table), three types of juice, nuts, seeds and fresh fruit was all available. From the hot options the baked beans, fried tomatoes and breakfast potatoes were suitable for vegans too.

Directly opposite our hotel was a charming tapas bar called La Bartola. It had good reviews on HappyCow and it was in an incredibly convenient location so we decided to check it out. They had a small but interesting menu with all vegan items clearly marked and knowledgeable staff on hand to provide extra information if needed.

We had the aubergine bruschetta and the sushi, which was battered and deep fried. It sounded like sacrilege at first, but one taste was all the convincing we needed! It was utterly delicious with a crisp outer but still fresh and zingy in the middle. The baked aubergine on the bruschetta had been roasted to perfection before being topped with fresh tomatoes and rocket. It was something I could easily eat every day!

The old town is tiny and very compact so there isn’t much need for public transport, it’s best explored on foot. As we walked down one little road we stumbled upon a lovely little smoothie bar called Milk Away. They sell lots of healthy options like porridge, fruit pots, salad bowls and so on but we had a giant smoothie each. You can choose any combination from the dizzying selection of options they have or pick one of their suggested blends.

While strolling around, we saw vegan options being proudly offered in so many places, sadly we didn’t have time to try them all.

Our final stop was at Bar Alfalfa. A good friend of mine had recommended that we visit this place during our trip, this was the only recommendation we had. It lived up to our expectations with some truly special options packed full of flavour. We had the red pesto bruschetta, pumpkin soup and seeded red pepper hummus with toasted breads. I know nobody can go wrong with hummus but this one definitely surpassed expectations. They told us that the pesto was made from scratch on the premises and the bruschetta was generously topped with toasted pine nuts. The soup was the perfect consistency and came topped with a few extra vegetables.

Black Cat has a second London venue

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The team behind Black Cat, Hackney’s oldest and arguably finest vegan café, have taken over the kitchen at Roadtrip & The Workshop.

Although London can luckily claim a few vegan pubs, this is the first time a bar, and a late night one at that, is catering a fully plant-based menu. (FGV note: I might argue that Karamel in Wood Green is the first)


The aim is to offer approachable vegan food to the multifaceted clientele of the Old Street location, from gig-goers to the followers of sports on the big screens to those looking for a meal to go with their night out in Shoreditch.

Black Cat will be serving up “tapas without borders”, a menu combining vegan versions of traditionally Mediterranean dishes with hints from other parts of the world.

The menu has been tested and served at their Hackney premises, and some have even been served at benefit gigs, music venues, gatherings, and special events.

Regulars to Black Cat need not be disappointed on their first jaunt to Roadtrip & The Workshop: Black Cat’s burgers will be also available and new dishes will appear weekly on the specials board.

Prices range from £3 for freshly-cut chips to £8.50 for the delicious cashew buttermilk corn-crusted seitan burger. The small sharing plates average around £6.

This will be the first vegan residency at Roadtrip & The Workshop, and the venue has gone to great lengths to ensure that diners can not only eat plant-based foods, but that the drinks menu matches the ethics behind the food!

All wine and beers behind the bar are vegan, as is most of the cocktail menu, which is clearly labelled while the venue works with existing suppliers and brands to clarify and find alternatives for its full back-bar of spirits and liqueurs.

Black Cat’s head chef, Nacho, commented: “We’re delighted to be able to bring our food to Old Street, and the whole team are excited to reach as many people as possible to highlight how going out eating vegan is affordable, easy, and most importantly, it can be enjoyed by anyone!”

Carla, who manages the café with Nacho, added: “We’ve been on the lookout for a second site for Black Cat, and when Paul from Roadtrip & The Workshop got in touch, we knew this was the perfect place to bring our tapas menu to. We are super excited and thankful for this opportunity given to us by the venue.”

Both Black Cat venues will be open simultaneously and can be booked for large parties, birthdays, or other celebrations.

Follow Black Cat on Instagram.

Photos used in this post were taken by Al Overdrive.

Eating vegan in Hammersmith

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Vegan food is everywhere in London.

I don’t simply mean there is a lot more than there used to be. I mean there is vegan food ALL OVER THE PLACE.

Take my recent walk through of the Hammersmith Broadway centre. The shopping plaza is overflowing with vegan food options.

Your plant-based cuisine options inside the centre include:

  • Coco di Mama is a London-based chain featuring Italian food and coffee. You can grab delicious comfort food including lasagne
  • Leon is showing us just how spectacular a non-vegan chain can cater for vegans and their new burger is sensational
  • Pret is still making vegan options a priority
  • Wasabi has some stunning vegan sushi, salad and soup options
  • Pulse Juice Bar is a kiosk overflowing with vegan toasted sandwich options, as well as salad and soup to go
  • Crosstown have a kiosk near the front entrance of the centre and always have about five vegan donut flavours

This list isn’t even close to everything vegan in the centre, which also houses a Tesco that has a huge selection of the Wicked Kitchen range of ready meals and sandwiches.

A vegan food revolution inside the Hammersmith Broadway centre is underway and is indicative of what’s happening all over London and the UK.

How are the vegan options in your local shopping centre?

Zero waste market returns for London

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Following a successful launch in 2018, London’s first plant-based, zero waste market is back! This is a not-for-profit initiative with all profits going to Animal Equality, a leading animal protection organisation.

Dedicated to all things eco, Zero Mkt is a one-stop shop with over 40 stallholders. You can purchase bulk grains and fresh produce, upcycled accessories, soaps, candles, cosmetics, vintage clothing and much, much more – all under one roof!

And you get to enjoy tasty vegan food and drink as you browse.

There will also be free workshops taking place throughout the day, including a cooking demo from plant-based, zero waste chef Max La Manna; a talk from Humane Society International (UK) about the environmental impacts of animal agriculture; and an eco embroidery workshop with Offset Warehouse.

Zero Mkt is all about:

  • Zero animal products
  • Zero single-use plastics
  • Zero waste

Surplus meals will be donated to City Harvest and leftover food will be composted and used by the venue’s Gardening Club. Trees will also be planted by event founders, as part of a carbon offsetting mission.

Zero Mkt is taking place on Saturday April 13, 2019 between 10am and 5pm at Saint Thomas More Language College on Cadogan Street, Chelsea.

The nearest underground station is Sloane Square. Lifts and disability accessible toilets are available on site.

Entry into the event and all workshops is totally FREE. Simply download your free ticket in advance on Eventbrite to guarantee entry.

You can follow Zero Mkt on Instagram.