On the Saturday restaurants reopened, I was on the Northcote Road in Battersea at lunchtime, waiting to meet my daughter. With pavements broad enough to accommodate market stalls and outdoor eating spaces this has always been a thriving high street.

ON THE Saturday restaurants reopened, I was on the Northcote Road in Battersea at lunchtime, waiting to meet my daughter. With pavements broad enough to accommodate market stalls and outdoor eating spaces this has always been a thriving high street.

There was joy in the atmosphere as locals rediscovered their favourite places to eat – or get their hair cut. Putting stomach before bad hair, I headed towards an old haunt, the Osteria Antica Bologna, to see if I could get a table.

Nothing could be nicer, I decided, than to break my eating-out fast with a plate of Marzio Zacchi’s homemade pappardelle with peas and broad beans. But though the doors were open and a smiling Marzio was there, no tables were laid ready. Instead every available space was filled with beautiful, seasonal vegetables and specialist foods from Italy. He hadn’t the confidence to reopen the kitchen, he said, and the pop-up grocery had been a lockdown success.

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