Jessie Ware's My London

Home is…

Brixton. I always feel happiest when I’m back in Brixton. My mum is down the road in Clapham and she still loves doing my washing when I come back from being on tour.

Last play you saw?

Complicite’s The Master and Margarita at the Barbican. Complicite is one of my favourite companies; Simon McBurney is an absolute genius. I also love going to the Royal Court for new playwrights.

Building you’d like to buy?

The Isokon building in Hampstead, a 1930s Art Deco building that some friends once had a studio flat in. It reminds me of Embassy Court on the seafront in Brighton, which was built as an experiment in communal living. In an ideal world, I’d install my best mates on different floors of that building and then move it to Brixton.

What do you collect?

Old maps and Bauhaus-style lamps.

Best place for a first date?

Brunswick House Café, a beautiful Georgian mansion on the side of the Vauxhall roundabout, full of antiques and furniture for sale. If the date’s going badly, you have enough to look at — or if it’s a really terrible date, you’re near enough to Vauxhall station to leg it.

Best piece of advice you’ve been given?

‘Songwriting is like s***ting, you’ve just got to let it all out,’ from Dave Okumu, my producer.

First thing you do when you arrive back home?

Put a wash on and potter around. Then I meet my mum at The Abbeville Kitchen near Clapham Common for dinner and a catch-up.

Earliest memory?

Getting attacked by the vicious swans by the café in Battersea Park. I was on the picnic tables by the end, trying to escape.

What would you do as Mayor for the day?

Make sure everyone was given a free, month-long, all-zones travelcard. Public transport is far too expensive.

Favourite pub?

The Effra Hall Tavern in Brixton is one of the few pubs I like. It has live jazz many nights of the week and serves delicious Jamaican food.

Best thing a cabbie said to you?

‘Trust me, I know the best way.’ I’m a real backseat driver — I learned from my mother.

Favourite shops?

I’m a sucker for M&S food; it introduced me to the Jazz apple, and the ketchup is the best for bacon sandwiches. It’s always a treat to shop in Liberty because it’s such a gorgeous, calm place. I like Browns for the new designers and fun one-offs, and William Vintage on Marylebone Street because the clothes smell of Diptyque candles. I always stock up at the great Chinese supermarket in Brixton Market.

Animal you’d most like to be?

A pig, so I could justify being greedy.

Best place to let your hair down?

My mates’ night Standard Place at The Alibi on Kingsland Road. There are always great parties there, with excellent line-ups.