GREAT DRIVES

Morning: Park at Sclater Street and set off by foot through buzzy Brick Lane Market, historic Arnold Circus and Columbia Road Flower Market. Drive down Bethnal Green Road, park in Globe Road and visit the Young V&A.

Afternoon: Head down Old Ford Road, turn left at Grove Road, park on Gore Road for a potter round Victoria Park Village. Take the A12, off at the A106 to Walthamstow, then round the A406 to the A104 up to Epping Forest.

Evening: Either head back home or push on to outer Essex via B172 and A113, picking up the B184 to Saffron Walden.

East London’s Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and Hackney have become ground zero for hip in the capital, and a wander through shabby-chic Brick Lane and Columbia Road on a Sunday quickly reveals why. The market and flower market respectively are teeming with cool creatives in tight jeans and beards. Go via picture-postcard Arnold Circus to soak up some local heritage, then the V&A’s newly renovated Young V&A née Museum of Childhood. Things become positively chi-chi at Victoria Park Village, where you’re spoilt for gastrobpubs (the Empress for roasts, the Hemingway for Scotch eggs), cafés, a deli, and of course the glorious expanse of the Park itself, which recently benefitted from an Olympic £12 million investment. Right next to the Olympic Park is Crate Brewery – prime exponent of east London’s craft-beer explosion and a mean pizza joint to boot – but if you can’t be bothered figuring out the one-way streets and circuitous exit ramps intertwined with the similarly tortuous A12, probably best coming off the A12 early and heading through Leyton up to Walthamstow, where breathless rejuvenation has seen the emergence of the Blackhorse Lane ‘Beer Mile’. But it’s not just craft-brewery taprooms, you’ll also find the UK’s finest denim atelier (named after the road) and even a winery (Renegade, also home to revolving dining pop-ups). Carry on round to the North Circular (A406) and off at South Woodford, to arrive at three exhilarating stretches of tree-lined road all intersecting on the famous Robin Hood pub, just east of which is Bert’s Tea Hut – a legendary hangout for bikers on Sundays, where there’s a mean cuppa with your name on it. After that, it’s a potter through High Beech, perhaps a tongue-in-cheek visit to The Only Way Is Essex favourite, the King’s Oak then either home, or an adventurous stride out to Chipping Ongar and towards Saffron Walden via the legendary, undulating, winding B184 – perfect for taking your roadster (and driving skills) to task.

columbiaroad.info | vam.ac.uk/young | thehemingway.co.uk | blackhorselane.com | renegadelondonwine.com

Which Car?

FERRARI ROMA SPIDER

Buses and hipsters on ‘fixie’ bikes are a far more common sight on the streets of Hackney than supercars, so the Ferrari Roma Spider is probably the most bohemian option to go for if you’re worried about disapproving looks from the new-age locals – a contemporary take on the chic, pleasure-seeking Italian lifestyle of the 1950s and 60s, 54 years after the launch of 1969’s iconic coupé spider ‘bow-out’, the 365 GTS. And if the weather’s good, the ragtop will retract in seconds for maximum V8-powered, wind-in-the-hair exuberance through Epping Forest.