Whitstable oysters

Whitstable is one of the most obvious and closest seaside destinations for Londoners, and I make regular visits there, not just for the town’s charm but also for its oysters. On the way through the town, you will pass a piece of history, the original Wheelers oyster bar, with its pink façade and an ever-inviting quaintness. It feels like it is run pretty much as it may have been back in the late 1800s.

It was opened in 1856 by Richard ‘Leggy’ Wheeler, a skipper of a local oyster boat called Bubbles. It was later taken over by the Walsh family, who kept the Wheelers name. Their son, Bernard, who was born in one of the upstairs rooms there, went on to open a London branch in Old Compton Street in 1929. The original in Whitstable is now run by Delia Fitt, a local who reckons she’s been opening oysters since she was ten years old.