What are your favourite places in London? :)
Hello. I’ve received at least five questions about this lately (you seem to travel in packs) so I thought I’d answer this one. These aren’t my absolute favourite places - those are my own - but they are wonderful. London is so vast and ancient and mercurial; haunted, dour, metamorphic, a thousand cities shifting over each other / into view, that it’s always hard to know where to begin.
Caveat: I spend a lot of time skulking around in dingy little blues and jazz bars, so this list is admittedly quite biased.
Ain’t Nothing But Blues Bar (cheap entry, gritty and great bands every night. Get there early), Kansas Smitty (excellent Wednesday nights), The Jazz Café (classic), The Hideaway, KOKO, Boisdale, 606, Brilliant Corners, Notting Hill Arts Club, Nola, 100 Club, Ronnie Scott’s (an institution), Night Jar (fabulous. An actual speakeasy / ‘20s heaven without being cliche. Music always excellent) and their new joint, Oriole, The Spice of Life, Brooke’s Blues, Oliver’s, Guanabara, The Candlelight Club (again, speakeasy. Excellent), Jazz After Dark, Bart’s, Vortex Jazz Club, Royal Albert Hall, St-Martin-in-the-Fields (beautiful church. Remarkable music).
Cafes: Grind & Co, Nude, Climpson & Sons, Monmouth Cafe, Allpress, Prufrock, Kaffeine, Ziferblat (need to buzz to get in, which I adore. Great place to work), The Proud Archivist, Monocle, Kahaila, Farm Girl (Notting Hill. Beautifully presented drinks, delicious coffee), Algerian Coffee Stores, Fleet Street Press Co, Bea’s of Bloomsbury’s, Bluebird. Also Claridge’s or Fortnum’s (for afternoon tea). The Lanesborough is excellent, too. Frank’s Cafe, Petersham Nurseries, Ember Yard (another good place to work, though get there early to bag upstairs seats).
Bars: Casita, Crobar, The Book Club, Evan’s & Peel Detective Agency (this is amazing. It’s a secret-bar-cum-1930s-detective agency. You have to go there armed with an interesting case. If they like it, you’re allowed entry. Recommended not just for imaginative delight, but for atmosphere), Call Me Mr Lucky (best Tequila in town), Opium, The First Aid Box, Admiral Codrington (Chelsea Institution. Lovely, but expensive. Food excellent). The Box (more of a club than a bar. Small, sweaty, lots of beautiful people). The Electric, Proof (rooftop bar. Fires and blankets in winter, airy and light in summer), Hawksmoor Seven Dials (best steaks in town, too), Fanny Nelson’s, Behind This Wall, Satan’s Whiskers, CTC, The Alibi, Freud, The Experimental Cocktail Bar.
Restaurants: Dishoom (if only for the decor, though the food is excellent too. If you know - and love - India, then you’ll adore it; all the restaurants are exquisitely done up and such a fond reminder of the idiosyncrasies of a country now fading into the new. The branch in Kings Cross looks like an old train station. A sign on the wall says, amongst other things, ‘No Rowlatt Acts’, and ‘All Castes Allowed’). Mr Falafel, Tamada (Georgian, excellent), Scoop, La Gelatiera, Franco Manca (amazing pizza. Brixton branch the best), Fish Central, Colbeh, Chapati and Karak (pricey but best chai this side of Southall), Tayyab’s, Saporitalia, Cantina Laredo, Mestizo (Mexican, run by Mexicans, loved by Mexicans. Great tequila), Bleecker Street, Meatliquor, Mango Tree, Gogi, Barshu (Sichuan. Yum), Coya (fancy Peruvian, but delicious), Ecco Pizza (£3.50 for a pizza in Central London? Madness. Cheap, fast, small but delicious), Manna from Heaven (Veg/Vegan), The Heron (pub with dingy basement Thai on Edgeware Road. Marvellous), Champagne & Fromage, The Gay Hussar (as good as it sounds), Nobu (posh sushi), Flesh & Bun.
Shops / Patisseries / Etc: Nordic Bakery (yum), Ottolenghi (yum), Paul A Young Chocolates, Fortnum & Mason, Harrods Food Hall, Selfridges Food Hall, La Fromagerie, Neal’s Yard Dairy, Paxton & Whitfield, Allen & Co, The Spice Shop (2500 spices. Madness), Melrose & Morgan, E5 Bakehouse, Maison Bertaux (Institution), Crosstown Doughnuts (tdf), Crumbs & Doilies, Persepolis, Damas Gate, R. Garcia & Sons, Atari-ya, Cadenhead Whisky Shop (recommended), Brindisa, Lina Stores, Cocomaya, Postcard Teas (excellent).
Museums: British Museum (aspiring plunderers of the world, bow down in awe), Victoria and Albert, Sir John Soane’s Museum, British Library, Charles Dickens Museum, Design Museum, Greenwich Observatory, Chiswick House and Gardens, The Wallace Collection, The Horniman Museum, The Freud Museum (home of the problematic fucker’s psychoanalytic couch. There’s an interesting exhibition by artist Mark Wallinger called ‘Self-Reflection’ this autumn), Museum of London, London Film Museum, Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Leighton House, The Hunterian Museum (there’s a room full of pickled dicks. Also see guestbook, where almost every entry says ‘need more pickled dicks’).
Galleries: Tate Modern, Tate Britain, National Portrait Gallery (like many galleries, they have a room - by appointment only - where you can handle works and prints that aren’t on display, including sketches by Turner and Sargent. A religious experience. I die), The Crypt, National Gallery (they’re having a wonderful exhibit on Caravaggio and his ilk in October), William Morris Gallery, Serpentine Galleries, Whitechapel Gallery, The Royal Academy, ICA, The Barbican, Saatchi, White Cube, DRAF, Dulwich Picture Gallery, South London Gallery, Courtauld Institute.
Landmarks: Kensington Palace (+ Gardens), John Keat’s House, Houses of Parliament, St Paul’s, Westminster Abbey (I love coming here on a rainy day. When it’s empty, there’s something about the atmosphere that whispers of kingship and secrets. I remember once when King Edward’s Chair was being restored out near the High Altar proper; I asked one of the experts if I could sit in it. I didn’t think he would agree, of course. I’ll never forget that moment, looking down the Nave with the weight of history and irony smooth beneath my fingertips), Highgate Cemetery (RIP Marx), Burlington Arcade, Portobello Road (minus Hugh Grant, obvs. Fun fact: Adele used to live in the flat above the location of the Travel Book Shop when she was recording 21. But no demi-cappu, I’d imagine), Carnaby Street, Liberty’s of London (the carpet room is magic), Somerset House, Leake Street Tunnel, The Globe, Dalston Commune, Speaker’s Corner.
Books: Persephone Books (focuses on women / lgbt writers), Daunt Books Marylebone, 56A (Anarchist collective), Word on the Water (floating bookship, as it were), World’s End Bookshop, Daniel Crouch (rare books), Collinge & Clark (secondhand, excellent), Forbidden Planet (sci-fi heaven), Shapero (rare books), Hatchard’s (institution), Lutyens and Rubinstein, London Review, The European Bookshop, Maison Assouline, Herne Hill, John Sandoe, Camden Lock Books, Foyle’s. A great resource on London’s indie bookshops can be found here. Happy ferreting/foraging/reading.
Markets: Borough Market, Portobello (expensive, but fun to poke around. Gets crowded, though), Brick Lane (a fave. Also try Taj Stores for South Asian goods if it’s your thing), Old Spitalfields, Leadenhall, Greenwich. I’d also recommend Kingsbury High Street (not exactly a market, but amazing fruit and vegetable shops (turn right when exiting the tube station and head all the way down), and one of the best places to get Mangoes in season. Promise). And Columbia Road Flowers Market, Brixton Market, Camden Market (obvs), Shepherd’s Bush Market, Exmouth Market (great vibe, good coffee spots), Billingsgate Market (fishy. I’d recommend going with a specific purchase in mind).
Secret Places & Curiosities
The Strand tube station (abandoned, eerie), Wilton’s Music Hall, St Dunstan-in-the-East (gardens / ruins of a church bang in the middle of London, Beautiful), Secret Cinema (buy a ticket, wait to be told the venue), Gingerline (secret restaurant), the lost River Fleet (follow it underground and around London), The Mail Rail, Dennis Sever’s House, The Old Curiosity Shop, Suck & Chew (sweets n’ treats. Old-fashioned and delish), Fitzroy House (the early beginnings of Scientology found here. Yikes), Secret Tearoom, Davenport’s Magic Shop, Execution Docks (where pirates were hanged. Most famously Captain Kidd), Southwark Cathedral, Crossbones Graveyard (where many of the prostitutes of London used to be buried, unmarked. I call it the Grave of the Unknown Woman. Better than seeing its male, ‘Unknown Warrior’ counterpart in Westminster Abbey any day. Pay tribute to the bravery and resilience of women throughout history and contemplate the injustices of patriarchal erasure and centuries of silence), Hoxton Street Monster Supplies, remains of the Roman Wall, Jam Tree (bookshop with a secret bar and beautiful garden. Love), Japanese Roof Garden - Brunei Gallery, Floating Gardens, The open rooftop at One New Change, Record Detective Agency (great for vinyl).
Whew. This is just the tip of the iceberg, of course - I haven’t even touched on London’s parks and theatre / literary life, for example (NB: best views of the city from Primrose Hill and Hampstead Heath. Guaranteed), so I apologise if I’ve missed something key. And, as always, please email me if you’d like a more specific chat. Hope this is helpful.
