Home is…
Thornton Heath, just down from Crystal Palace. I live on my own. I don’t seek to be alone, I just haven’t got a partner at the minute.
Last play you saw?
Company, with Rosalie Craig. I really enjoyed it. I thought the gender swapping was… I don’t want to use the world ‘clever’, because that sounds condescending. But it became a new show for me, which was very exciting.
Where would you recommend for a first date?
Depends on your financial situation. Money no object? The Ivy, without question. The service and the food will be wonderful. If money is an object, maybe Joe Allen. And if you’ve got no money, then hot dogs and a walk along the river.
Where do you work out?
Salsa dancing is as close as I get to working out. I do lessons at The Royston Club in Penge. And there’s a party called the Beckenham Bash, first Friday of every month.
Where would you like to be buried?
I know it’s not technically being buried, but it would be at the top of the Shard. In a little box. A glass coffin, looking out over the city.If you could live in any building, which would it be?
The V&A. Imagine! But I’d re-do some of it to make it a bit more homely.
What’s your London secret?
It’s kind of a non-secret, but the fact that central London is about a square mile. It’s really quite small, so don’t ever get the Tube from, say, Covent Garden to Green Park. By the time you’ve got down to the platform, waited, got on the Tube, and gone up again, you might as well walk.
What would you do if you were Mayor for a day?
Do you know what? I’ve been thinking about this. Apart from making Prosecco free — I do like a glass of Prosecco — I’d make public transport as cheap as possible, to get more cars off the road. But I would prioritise the free Prosecco, and make it part of our daily constitution. A glass of Prosecco a day keeps most things away.
What makes someone a Londoner?
Time. London seeps into your bones. One day you’re not a Londoner, the next you wake up and you kind of just are.
Favourite pub?
The Old Ship in Hackney, next door to the theatre where I’m working. Everybody likes the pub next door to where they’re working.
Who is your London hero?
Tameka [Empson, Rowe’s co-star in Aladdin] said I have to say her. I was going to say Dick Van Dyke because of his fantastic cockney accent in Mary Poppins.
Best thing a cabbie has ever said to you?
‘Didn’t you used to be Clive Rowe?’ That’s true!
Clive Rowe is in ‘Aladdin’ at Hackney Empire until 6 Jan (hackneyempire.co.uk)
