Walthamstow - with journalist, broadcaster and content strategist Katie O’Malley
Katie O’Malley is a freelance journalist, broadcaster and content strategist, and the former Digital Director of ELLE UK. She regularly writes for publications including The Times, The Telegraph, i Paper, Stylist and Harper’s Bazaar.
After giving birth to her daughter in December 2024, Katie launched A Long Way To Go in March 2025, a platform and community dedicated to empowering pregnant and postpartum women. Through live panel discussions and a podcast launching in June, Katie brings together leading experts in women’s health and wellbeing to answer the questions many women are left asking, helping them feel more informed, confident and supported through pregnancy, postpartum and beyond.
1. Where do you rest your head?
Walthamstow. We’ve been here three years, but it felt like home almost straight away. I grew up in Merseyside and, honestly, my childhood idea of London was that everyone lived somewhere near Oxford Street, it was the only landmark I really had in my head. Then I realised London is actually made up of all these distinct pockets, each with their own cultures, communities, parks and village-like feel, and I completely fell in love with it.
I started London life in a dingy four-bed flatshare in Clapham with university friends. It was freezing (we used to hug the boiler to stop it making noise and boil the kettle in the kitchen to do the washing up), but it was perfect for house parties. We’d have hungover breakfasts sitting on the hallway floor, silly fancy dress parties, make child-like dens for film nights…. some of my favourite memories are of my twenties in that flat.
2. What’s something amazing about your area that only the locals know about?
It’s become a bit of a sauna hotspot. There’s Walthamstow Community Sauna, tucked away on an industrial plot with its own community garden and firepit. I went with my partner just after Christmas for a couple of hours while my parents cared for our daughter and it was such a treat. I then booked a sound bath session with a friend for a Sunday morning before brunch, which was such a novel way to start the day.
There’s also a new sauna and cold plunge space called Arvo that’s just opened, which I’m desperate to try.
3. Where’s your favourite free place to visit in the city?
It sounds cliché, but having wanted to live in London since I was a child, I still get a buzz every time I go to Hampstead Heath. Whenever I walk up towards Parliament Hill, I feel like I’m in a Richard Curtis film. I still get lost every time I visit, but there’s something lovely about wandering along the winding paths and seeing where you end up.
One of my favourite London memories is a summer afternoon spent swimming in Kenwood Ladies’ Pond with friends and sitting with a couple of bottles of wine, crisps and dips. My husband and I regularly say that there’s nowhere better than London in the summer. It’s when it truly comes alive.
4. And your favourite local spot in your area for a cheap bite to eat?
There’s a small place at the bottom of Walthamstow High Street, towards the St James’ St end, that’s called JerkFusion which serves the best jerk chicken, rice, peas, plantain and coleslaw for about a tenner. Other great places on the high street include TARO, which serves wonderful Japanese food, and the Spanish tapas restaurant Don Francisco Y La Luna.
We’re lucky we live near Weirdough Bakery which is an institution in Walthamstow. It serves some of the most delicious, buttery soft pastries. My favourite is the pain au chocolat with pistachio cream. It’s dangerously good and fueled the majority of my maternity leave.
I also love the vegetable-focussed restaurant SlowBurn, which is located inside the craft jeans makers, Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, but it’s more for special occasions or one-off Sunday lunches with friends.
5. What would your perfect no-spend London day entail?
I love running and seeing pockets of the city you can only see on foot. I’m imagining this is a summer’s day, so I’d start with a run through Walthamstow Wetlands towards Victoria Park while listening to a podcast, then wander along the canal towards Broadway Market and do some window shopping in Rites before sitting with a picnic, a great book (I’m currently reading Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall and I’m hooked), put some house music on a portable speaker and sunbath with friends in London Fields until sunset. I love seeing Londoners unfurl in the summer; everyone just feels that bit freer, more spontaneous and let loose.
6. What made you decide to launch A Long Way To Go – and how can Londoners get involved in it?
During my pregnancy in 2024, I was struck by how confusing, contradictory and often inadequate the information around women’s health and wellbeing can be, and how much worse that felt postpartum.
The name A Long Way To Go comes from years of interviews I’ve done as a journalist, where women and experts repeatedly told me the same thing: there is still a long way to go when it comes to research, equality and adequate support in women’s health.
Three months into maternity leave, I felt compelled to create a platform for women who wanted evidence-based advice directly from experts. From social media wellness trends to outdated ‘rules’ passed between well-meaning mums, too many women are being left to navigate pregnancy and postpartum surrounded by fear, confusion and conflicting information.
A Long Way To Go is my attempt to make those conversations more accessible, honest and free from shame, misinformation and scaremongering. Through interviews with leading experts in women’s health and wellbeing (we touch on topics like pelvic floor recovery, fitness, nutrition, mental health and more), my new podcast – which launches on 3rd June – explores why women deserve better support and why being able to advocate for yourself during pregnancy and postpartum shouldn’t depend on how much money you have or who you know.
Alongside the podcast, I host regular wellbeing panel discussions in Walthamstow for the community Mums Who Build, covering topics from postpartum skincare to C-section recovery.
I’m also hoping to host more events and classes that bring experts directly to women in the community. The dream would be to host monthly ALWTG events and expand into a day festival. Watch this space!
7. Cast your mind back to your maternity leave – what were your favourite things to do in London with your daughter?
Maternity leave was a blur, and I found the gap between the perception (quiet coffee mornings with new mum friends and days lying on the sofa watching films) and the reality (doctors appointments, solo lunches while breastfeeding and nap times) quite discombobulating. Maternity leave looks so different for everyone. It largely depends on routines, finances, support and what kind of baby you have.
I found it hard spending money on things when I couldn’t predict the outcome. In the early days, I’d book a fitness class or an activity and either have to leave halfway through, or not really enjoy it because I was worried about my daughter crying or if she didn’t have a lunch nap. It took time to find a rhythm and work out what maternity leave looked like for me.
That said, we’re so lucky in London to have so much on offer for parents on maternity or paternity leave. I spent a lot of time doing pram walks around different parks, usually with a podcast in and a pastry in hand. I booked parent-friendly pub quizzes, baby-friendly fitness classes and towards the end of my maternity leave, I tried to plan at least one new activity a week with my daughter. Some favourites included the Royal Albert Hall’s storytelling and music sessions for 0-4 year olds, a swim at London Fields Lido, visits to the Young V&A and baby-friendly cinema screenings. V&A Storehouse has been on my list for ages too.
8. Do you have any general advice for Londoners on maternity leave?
I know it can feel daunting, but try to get out of your area every so often and use maternity leave as a chance to see other areas of London, if only for a couple of hours. I found myself discovering the city in a whole new way. I have such special memories of sitting breastfeeding my daughter in random parks, cafés, museums and shops across the city. London can make you feel like you’re always rushing, but maternity leave with a pram forces you to slow down. There’s something quite lovely about finding pockets of calm in the middle of it all.
And take maternity leave at your own pace. It looks different for everyone, as do people’s support networks. Not everyone has family nearby, and in a city like London that can feel especially isolating. So don’t put pressure on yourself to ‘do’ maternity leave in a certain way or compare your time to another mum’s. Find the version that works for you and keep in mind that maternity leave doesn’t need to be ‘the best year ever’. You’re caring for a newborn on very little sleep, navigating a new way of life and identity and still recovering – maternity leave isn’t a walk in the park (pun intended).
9. What’s the latest hidden London gem you’ve discovered?
Ye Olde Mitre is an amazing London pub set down a small side alley in Ely Court, located in Hatton Garden. It’s beautiful, but it’s not somewhere you’d easily stumble upon. It's almost 500 years old, making it one of the oldest pubs in the city, and the second you step inside it’s like stepping back in time. It has a super low ceiling, oak beams and a tiny courtyard that gets full with local workers after hours.
Another hidden gem is Sugo82, Netil Market. Last year I booked the terrace table for my dad’s birthday, which was so special as it’s so secluded and private. It’s just one small table that sits around six people at a push, underneath fairy lights, and overlooks the market. We had a set menu of arancini, pasta, tiramisu and sat with blankets as the sun went down.
10. If you were Mayor of London, what’s the first thing you’d change about the city?
I’d put lifts in every Tube and Overground station. It was only on maternity leave, navigating London with a pram 10-days post C-section, that I realised just how poor step-free access still is across so many stations.
11. In three words, what makes someone a Londoner?
No-nonsense. Community. Diverse.
