No Need to Travel When You Can Discover Polish London

London has long been home to a vibrant Polish community, from the Polish Protestant refugees in the 18th century, to Poland’s government-in-exile during WWII (along with 20,000 soldiers), and as a Cold War hideout for dissidents. In short, London’s Polish community has become part of the city - even the boroughs of Ealing and Wandsworth have adopted the Polish Eagle as a symbol on the mayoral chain.

POLISH SHOPPING

Books and food (but not necessarily in that order) define the Polish-specific shopping experience in London. With its ambitions set to become a widespread Polish food and drink chain, Polish Specialities at 226-228 King Street, Hammersmith, offers supermarket-style Polish food. Pickles, cakes, Polish confectionary and sausages are on sale at Korona, 30 Streatham High Road, Streatham. For a real treat, visit the more famous Polanka delicatessen at 258 King Street, Hammersmith, tel. 0208 741 8268, which also offers comforting home-cooking in its Polish wooden country-style restaurant. Polish books of all kinds can be found at Orbis Books, 66 Kenway Road, tel. 020 7370 2210, in the Posk centre at 238-246 King Street, and at Centrum Publikacji Fundacji Veritas, 63 Jeddo Road, tel. 020 8749 4957.

POLISH EATING

An eccentric little gem in trendy central London is Stara Polska, 69 Marylebone Lane, tel. 020 7486 1333, www.starapolska.com, with handmade furniture, candlelight, bison vodka and poppy seed cake. The Knaypa, 268 King Street, tel. 0208 563 2887, www.theknaypa.co.uk, offers respectable, reasonably priced Polish fare. The Ognisko Polish Club, 55 Exhibition Road, tel. 020 7589 4635, www.ognisko.com, is a grand old club that first opened in 1943, serving as a meeting point for Polish immigrants after the Second World War. It still continues to serve good Polish food in its grand dining room and hosts a wonderful gallery of memorabilia related to key Polish figures of post-war London. Wodka, 12 St Alban’s Grove, Kensington and Chelsea, tel. 020 7937 6513, www.wodka.co.uk, has good Polish grub including kaszanka (black sausage), breaded pork escalopes, and braised rabbit with kopytka. Polanka, 258 King Street, Hammersmith, tel. 020 8741 8268 is a restaurant attached to a delicatessen. It’s great Silesian fun with Polish TV on offer, lots of pierogi, bigos, and golabki and even, sometimes, live entertainment. At the Posk Cultural Centre, 238-246 King Street, is the Lowiczanka Restaurant, tel. 020 8741 3225, which provides a wide range of Polish cuisine. The Lowiczanka is loud, noisy and great fun, with simple tasty food (washed down with Polish vodka) and live music on Friday and Saturday nights. Not to be missed is the elegantly odd Daquise Restaurant, 20 Thurloe Street, Kensington, 020 7589 6117, for its Polish veterans, eccentric intellectuals, plastic tablecloths and its hearty Old Country cooking such as pork knuckle, beetroot soup and placki. Beware the strong beer! Famously, Daquise is where Christine Keeler (mistress to Profumo in the scandalous 1960s Profumo Affair) would meet the Russian Embassy senior naval attaché, Yevgeny Ivanov. But was she eating pierogi or passing on official secrets?

POLISH EXPERIENCES

The Posk Cultural Centre and Posk Jazz Café is a sort of mini-Poland at 238-246 King Street, Hammersmith, tel. 020 8741 3225, www.posk.org. Posk has its own in-house theatre, is home to the largest Polish library outside of Poland, has a bookshop, cinema, is host to the Federation of Poles, sells Polish cakes in its Café Maja, and even runs traditional Polish dancing sessions (run by the Tatry folk dance group, www.tatry.org.uk). Nor does it end there: in the post-war era Posk was the London centre of opposition to the Communist regime, and émigré writing was smuggled from Posk to Poland. Posk is the first-ever Polish jazz venue in London with regular jazz sessions featuring Polish singers and musicians, and every Saturday night is jazz night. They showcase Polish art from jazz posters to photographs and run workshops for young Polish musicians.

The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, 20 Princes’ Gate, tel. 020 7589 9249, www.sikorskimuseum.co.uk, is a museum, research centre and publishing house. It’s worth visiting the Sikorski Museum: alongside the fascinating memorabilia associated with General Sikorski, the museum also has a collection of bronze sculptures, some exquisite examples of 18th century Polish porcelain, a number of delightful miniatures and a collection of coins and medals. It also houses the Polish Underground Movement Study Trust.

The aim of the Polish Cultural Institute,  52/53 Poland Street, tel. 020 3206 2004, www.polishculture.org.uk, is to deliver contemporary Polish culture to a wider British audience. It has film, theatre, music and literature events. Linked to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it sits next door to the Polish Embassy in central London. It organizes the annual Polish Film Festival in London, which usually takes place in March or April.

The White Eagle Club in Balham is famous for its ‘zabwaw’ dance nights, a lure to Poles across London since the 1950s onwards, with a band playing a mix of Polish folk and pop music, over a sea of vodka … On Tuesday evenings, the remarkable Orleta Polish Folk Song and Dance Ensemble, www.orleta.co.uk, practise here.

AND FINALLY …

A good social networking organisation for Poles in London is Topaz, www.topaz.org.uk, which organises lots of events - they offer trips, walks, weekends away, BBQs, Zabawy, theatre outings and trips abroad.

For students, the ZSAPWB association, www.zsapwb.org.uk, coordinates events for students and graduates, from discussions on hot topics to ski trips to pub-crawls.

The Polish Embassy at 47 Portland Place, tel. 0870 774 2700, london.polemb.net, is host to numerous events and contains the Polish History Museum