Second paragraph of third story (“Infinite Tea in the Demara Café”, Ida Keogh):

He had found himself at his usual corner table in the Demara Café, affording him a full view of both the establishment and the street outside where the morning traffic was making haphazard progress towards central London. Or rather, at first glance it looked like his usual table. But it didn’t feel like it. Without thinking, he straightened the cutlery. It felt too light.

A 2020 collection of thirteen stories from NewCon Press, concentrating on London as a setting, which I had bought originally because one of them was on the BSFA shortlist the following year. The list of authors is pretty stellar and the quality of the writing what you would expect. The two stories that particularly jumped out at me were “Fog and Pearls at the King’s Cross Junction”, by Aliya Whiteley, and “Nightingale Floors”, by Dave Hutchinson, the latter possibly in the same continuity as his Europe books. You can get London Centric here.

This was the sf book that had lingered longest unread on my shelves. Next on that pile is Musings on Mothering, ed. Teika Bellamy.