I often feel overwhelmed by the Insta suggestions of London hotspots. There’s always a new cake shop with gorgeous interiors, or a fun market with foodie treats and vintage goodies, or parks in full, autumnal bloom or the latest brunch spot with the perfect avo toast… The list is endless. The trick is to find the places that aren’t being raved about, but certainly deserve to be.

Admittedly, my London finds always revolve around food. I love trawling the Internet for where I need to be eating brunch on Saturday, or where my next photogenic cup of tea and slice of cake will be coming from. So, I’m not quite sure when I became the sort of person that thinks whiling away the weekend at a garden centre is the sign of a good time – but apparently I have.

Battersea Flower Station is a quirky alleyway come garden centre, hidden between Winders Road and Battersea Park Road. It’s not big (though remarkably long!) but they have everything – the ‘pot shop’, seeds, herbs, window boxes, garden plants, house plants and a gorgeous florist hidden at the very end.

It is like an Aladdin’s cave, complete with bunting strung up overhead and illuminated by fairy lights. As I said, I am not really one to be enthused by a garden center, but you just don’t know what you will next stumble across – and surely everyone loves a good bouquet of flowers? If I am honest, I thought it would be a lesser-known alternative to Petersham Nurseries (the garden center meets cafe meets restaurant meets celeb hang out that I wrote all about here). It’s not. I was misled by the cake on their Instagram page (they’d recently held a Macmillan Cake Morning), but it’s not like Battersea won’t provide some cake – so no need to go without. And as for the prentending to be green-fingered plant shopping part of Petersham, I reckon this is even better. A bit more rustic (though not too much – we are still in London), and a lot more fun.

So if you are after something a little different, pop down to Battersea Flower Station. It feels like a long, very thin slice of calm in the middle of mad Battersea – completely bizarre, but also wonderful. Just don’t tell too many people. This place is worth keeping a secret.