The meeting spot is Larry’s in Peckham, a fairly recent addition to the Instagram foodie circuit and directly opposite Il Giardino, now in its fourth decade of serving South Londoners and day trippers Sicilian food (by way of Spain). Il Giardino is the restaurant director Raine Allen-Miller decided to include in her debut feature Rye Lane. Nestled on a side street off of Rye Lane, it’s pockets of Peckham history like these that Raine was determined to showcase in her contemporary take on a classic rom-com.
Once Raine arrives, flustered and effervescent, we begin a proposed walking tour of shooting locations of the film. “The loos are so beautiful,” she tells me as we enter Coal Rooms, a bijou bar located just behind Peckham Rye station. The film opens on an overhead shot looking down into different toilet cubicles: teens taking selfies; mums changing babies; and then acclaim, crying alone. In the story, this doubles as the unisex restroom of an art gallery for a friend’s opening, and the weeping Dom is soon discovered by Yas, played by the spellbinding Vivian Oparah. The majority of ’s runtime follows these two young Black Londoners as they meander around Peckham and Brixton, helping one another heal from past heartbreak, with often-hilarious consequences.
