When was I happiest? Every single time I walk across Waterloo Bridge
I feel elated.
Anna Braithwaite and Tanya Holt are ShooShooBaby, a cabaret duo who formed in 2000. Their show The Entire History of Cabaret debuted at Edinburgh’s prestigious Assembly Rooms and now their new show, Off the Scale, has just premiered at St James’ Theatre in Victoria. They’ve also recorded jingles (including, brilliantly, a new theme tune to Top Cat) and are both commissioned composers. Anna has lived in Nunhead since 2003: “I came for just a couple of years,” she says. Tanya has been in Waterloo for 22 years. “My daughter goes to Cathedral School in Southwark and my husband owns a motorcycle business by the Imperial War Museum.”
When were you happiest?
Anna: I love travelling so getting the sea tractor across to Burgh Island Hotel for our gigs there is always wonderful.
Tanya: Every single time I walk across Waterloo Bridge, I feel elated.
Where would you like to live in south London?
Anna: I live right by Peckham Rye Park, after years of living in the grey wastes of north London I couldn’t be happier living anywhere else.
Tanya: I wouldn’t move from Waterloo.
What is your favourite south London sound or smell?
Anna: Favourite smell, the food stalls at the Lambeth Fair. Favourite sound: The ice cream van.
Tanya: Lower Marsh on Fridays smells fabulous and the whistling blind man who busks all over London.
Who is your favourite south Londoner?
Anna: There are many people from South London to admire from William Blake to Peter Tatchell.
Tanya: Kevin Spacey!! He has brought so much personality and class to Waterloo with his stewardship of the Old Vic that we all regard him as a much loved local.
What is your earliest south London memory?
Anna: I grew up in Kent and would often be driven in to London across Blackheath by my parents. I used to scare myself by imagining all the bodies under there.
What simple thing would improve your quality of life?
Anna: More space, I love London but even in south London space is at a premium.
What is your most unappealing habit?
Anna: Being too perfect!
What is your guilty south London pleasure?
Anna: It’s always food. Cakes from Konditor and Cook, Waterloo, tapas from Angels and Gypsies, Camberwell, champagne at Frank’s Bar (left) on the roof of the multi-storey car park in Peckham, prawns from Soper’s on Nunhead Lane. I could go on…
Where do you hang out? Anna: Nunhead Cemetery is a wonderful place to be! My daughter loves The Horniman Museum so we go almost every week. And our business is based in south London. We either rehearse in Tanya’s studio in Waterloo, The Albany in Deptford or The Jerwood Space, Southwark.
Tanya: On the Southbank and in local parks with my daughter.
What’s your best south London experience?
Anna: 5 November, watching the fireworks across London from Telegraph Hill with friends and a Thermos of spiced cider is super (and free).
Your worst?
Anna: Trying to get home on the bus from the Southbank, with a buggy, at rush hour.
What’s the worst thing anyone’s said to you?
Anna: As performers we have drunken people say all sorts of things to us after a show. Once, one admitted to thinking we were both men. Probably the most annoying is when they ask what we do as our proper job.
Tanya: Everything Anna has just said.
Best south London night out? Anna: Indian food from Babur in Honour Oak and then cabaret at Pull The Other One at the Old Nun’s Head (right) in Nunhead.
Tanya: The Young Vic.
Your favourite south London building or landmark?
Anna: The Laban Centre.
Tanya: The London Eye.
Describe yourself as an animal…
Anna: In our next show Tanya and I are having costumes made in animal print. I am dressed in tiger print so I would have to say at the moment I feel like a big cat.
