Where Do You Go? with Jess Lea-Wilson
The marketer, writer and designer on leaving London, coming back to London, and having a ciabatta named after her
Every now and again we like to ask people for their personal take on London. We get them to tell us the places in the city that they turn to for different reasons: the spots that excite them, inspire them, make them feel calm, happy or just make them want to spend money. We call it ‘Where do you go?’.
This time we’re doing something a little different. Ever since the pandemic and those stories of ‘thousands’ of people ‘fleeing’ the city we’ve been wanting to speak to someone who has left London and managed to make it work, i.e. not gone insane with boredom or come back within a few weeks with their tale between their legs.
The person good enough to answer all those questions for us was Jess Lea-Wilson (above). Jess is an independent writer, marketer and designer, who has worked primarily in the food industry. She left London a few years ago, swapping Hackney for the Isle of Anglesey, which sits off the northwest coast of Wales and is accessed by a 19th-century suspension bridge.
Because Jess is back in London every few weeks seeking out new places to eat and drink, she was gracious enough to provide two sets of answers for her WDYG? tips: one for London and another set for Anglesey (or Ynys Môn in Welsh). So this is basically a WDYG? twofer.
Who are you?
I’m Jess Lea-Wilson. I’m an independent marketer, writer and sometimes illustrator/designer, with lots of experience in the food industry. I am inspired by the big city of London, and the small island of Anglesey, and you’ll usually find me in one or the other.
Working for forward-thinking, conscious brands and people who want to make a positive difference is what I love to do. I write and edit engaging editorial, and work on books, brand identities and newsletters. Regular clients include Anna Jones, the celebrated chef who has changed the face of modern vegetarian cooking, and Halen Môn sea salt, my family’s amazing seasoning business, which exports all over the world.
I have co-authored two books - a recipe book, Sea Salt, which celebrates this misunderstood ingredient and the island of Anglesey, and Do Sea Salt, part of the inspirational Do Book series.
And why should we trust you?
Ha. I’m not sure you should really, I’m a Welsh girl at heart and always will be. But I do have a huge amount of love for London. I first moved to the big smoke in 2010, to do a foundation at Camberwell College of Arts. It felt unbelievably, overwhelmingly exciting, and like the absolute polar opposite of life on the small, beautiful Welsh island that I'd grown up on. I moved to the edge of East Dulwich, and lived in the tiniest of box rooms.
Almost immediately, I became obsessed with the food of the city. Though I couldn't really afford to eat out when I first lived there, it was the ingredients that excited me. Even the tiniest corner shop offered products a hundred times more diverse than what I’d grown up around. The flat breads, enormous cling-filmed wedges of watermelon, the rows of spices, bright cans of drinks, plastic bowls full of fruit I couldn’t name, even (actually, especially) the vast array of crisps. I was hungry for all of it. I started working for a pop-up restaurant that roamed east London, where punters sat on hay bales and drank from jam jars (sorry, it was 2010 though). That first year there was one of the best of my life, it felt like anything could happen.
Before long I was working as a food and prop styling assistant, on commercial ads and cookbook shoots, and I pretty much ate my way round London for nearly a decade, living in Kentish Town and then Hackney. In terms of work, I’ve moved into branding and marketing now, but still within the food industry - either with producers, restaurants or chefs
What prompted you to leave London and were you ever scared that you were making the wrong decision?
I was in London for around ten years and I left just before the pandemic, so it was remarkably good timing. The real catalyst was a breakup and I just needed a new start, but there’s this Welsh word ‘hiraeth’, which is this beautiful word that means ‘a longing for home’. That is a very strong concept that Welsh people have, so I think Wales had just been at the back of my mind for all that time, really.
I work for my family’s business and I have this conversation with my mum a lot because my mum and dad are serial entrepreneurs and when they started their very first business, they never wondered ‘Is this what should we be doing?’ or ‘Are we in the right place?. They just said ‘We want to work for ourselves and we want to earn a living!’. lt was that black and white. So I think she's a little impatient with my soul searching. I’m always asking ‘Am I in the right place?’ and ‘Am I doing the right thing?’. And I completely understand her impatience, because it’s an incredibly privileged position to be in to have the capacity to wonder where you should be.
I vividly remember moving out of the flat I shared with my brother in Hackney, and him saying, “Well, you can always come back!”. But, and this might sound really trite, it’s not better or worse here, it’s just completely and utterly different. All the things that London is incredible at are all the things that Wales isn’t necessarily good at, and all the things that Wales has in absolute abundance, London is completely lacking in. Like incredible natural beauty and real escape and peace.
As someone who is really interested in food, the quality of the ingredients and produce here is incredible. You get the diversity in London, but the freshness is something else. My dad grows a lot of food that we cook in our cafe and… I do feel like I'm just a walking cliche now… But being able to pick things from there and cook them brings me such immense satisfaction.
You say that you're inspired by both Anglesey and London and you seem to have created a good balance for yourself. How often are you back in London and how do you manage that balance?
I’m back about once a month and that’s a good balance for me to be honest. I work three days a week for Halen Môn, the sea salt company, and it such a strength to go back to somewhere which has a thriving, exciting, innovative food scene and to stay abreast of that and come back to tell everyone about it.
Lots of rural communities struggle with all the young, skilled people fucking off basically. That is a big problem, but I think that what we actually need is people to do that and then return and bring all of that good stuff back with them. I feel a bit evangelical about it, because you can see the local, independent businesses who do have that outward looking perspective and how they thrive, and you can see the businesses that are a bit stale and sort of struggling because they don’t have that outlook.
I could do a whole book on working for a family business, but I think that it’s especially important to go away and work for other people and do things on your own, and then come back and bring some of those skills into that environment.
When you come back to London do you have a checklist that you have to run through? Are you just running around for 48 hours, eating things that you can't get in Wales?
My trips are definitely food focused. My brother was really taking the piss out of me the other day because I love this one Stoke Newington veg shop, I just think it's one of the best in London. I go in there and just fill a rucksack.
I do try to see people. I don’t tend to tell a lot of people when I'm coming because if there’s too many people to see it becomes a little bit stressful, trying to squeeze them all in while doing some work. But it’s taken a few years being back in North Wales to make those genuinely good friends, you know? That is something I miss about London and specifically Hackney. Just knowing so many people and living so close to them.
Something else I found in terms of meeting people was that, because there's so many people in London, even though there is a real diversity of people you do end up surrounding yourself with people who are a lot like you. Especially politically. But when you leave for somewhere where there’s less people, you are sort of forced to get on with a broader spectrum of people. That's something I didn't really consider.
On to the usual questions… Where do you go that can never close down, because if it does you might cry?
Ynys Môn: There is a vegan cafe in Menai Bridge that does an excellent oat flat white and has a lovely, bright neighbourhood feel. Similarly, Dreamboat is a veggie food truck that’s out and about in the summer. I go there so often they named a ciabatta after me. True story.
London: Diwana Bhel Poori House is a vibrant, relaxed veggie Indian restaurant, tucked away behind Euston (below). The dosas there are stonking, and really excellent value-for-money. P Franco is right next to my old house in London (my brother lives there now) - and I think I would cry if it shut.
Where do you go to cheer yourself up?
Ynys Môn: Buying beautiful things never fails to make me happy - and in Anglesey I buy them from Hawthorn Yard. Over the years, I have bought a fruit picking ladder, a vintage sign so big I still haven't managed to hang it, many plants, some of which are still alive, etched glasses, a full dining set and plenty of flowers and pictures.
London: I am a big stationery fan, so a visit to Choosing Keeping, in all its gold-foiled, delicious new pencil-case-smelling glory, never fails to perk me up. If I need something sweet (which is often), then a trip to Honey and Spice, or Violet Bakery will be on the cards. And if I need a laugh then the Bill Murray is always a winner for some comedy.
Where do you go to be alone?
Ynys Môn: Anglesey offers space to be alone in a way that London cannot. I love to run along Llyn Rhos Ddu, a sandy path that traces the edge of sandy dunes, lined with pine forests, towards the open sea with Snowdonia as the backdrop. It’s just absolutely beautiful.
London: I could choose any number of cafes to head to with a book, but the cliche of a Donald Draper-esque cinema visit alone is pure escapism for me. Castle cinema in Hackney (above) is picture-perfect and always has an interesting choice.
Where do you go and always end up spending too much money?
Ynys Môn: And Caws is a modern cheese shop on the island (actually run by another London-leaver) that also sells natural wines and banging toasties, and hosts evening supper clubs. Impossible to leave without buying those expensive truffle crisps.
London: As excellent as it is for pasta as it is celeb spotting, surely it has to be the River Cafe. Plates of food that are impossible to beat outside of Italy. But you do have to pay for them.
Where do you go to think?
Ynys Môn: Sorry to be this person, but I’ve become an outdoor dipper. Walking into a lake, or the sea, allows you physical and mental space. It feels weirdly similar to some meditation techniques I’ve tried - simply because you are forced to concentrate on each part of your body in turn - your toes, your thighs, your neck - as you carefully, daringly, inch yourself in. There are so many spots in North Wales. Llyn Padarn (above) is one of my regulars, but there are countless hidden coves on the isle of Anglesey which I will only share if you buy me a pint.
London: Towpath cafe is a thinking spot for me. Perfect plates of herbed quiches, and savoury scones eaten whilst wrapped up against the elements.
Where do you go to be romantic?
Ynys Môn: Is it cheating to choose a cafe I help run?! Tide/ Llanw is our outdoor cafe right by the sea (above). In the summer we run pop-up dinners there, in a tipi under the stars, surrounded by wildflowers. This past year, I have been exploring the Llyn Peninsula a little more, so not technically Anglesey. I went to the outskirts of Aberdaron - pen draw’r byd (the edge of the world) - with some excellent eggs of friends, and then with an excellent egg of a date too. It’s a standout beautiful spot.
London: I think Spring (in Somerset House) is such a beautiful space. I went first when a friend took me for a birthday lunch and I felt so spoilt. The food, the flowers, the decor. All spot on.
Her personal website is Small Island Big City.
You can pick up a copy of Sea Salt, A Perfectly Seasoned Cookbook here.