A late-closing cocktail bar that boasts live jazz and a gifted bunch of bartenders who have compiled a well-crafted list featuring liquid legacies from the cocktail's golden era. Mehr erfahren.
With a small square of front terrace, a modern bar and a grand, sunken restaurant, this little piece of Poland has been a worthwhile stop on Waterloo bar crawls for many a year. Mehr erfahren.
You could walk past the door of this Soho speakeasy every day and never know it was there, and that's just how the owners like it. Mehr erfahren.
Opened in 2009, together with the Mark Hix-operated restaurant on the ground floor, this is a destination in its own right. It's a subterranean speakeasy with plenty of style. Mehr erfahren.
Greenwich Park offers a wide range of facilities and points of interest, including a child-friendly boating lake, six tennis courts and the National Maritime Museum just on the perimeter. Mehr erfahren.
This stunning art deco house was built in 1936. The 19-acre garden really comes into its own during summer, when the long border transforms into a riot of herbaceous perennials. Mehr erfahren.
Regent's Park is one of the city's most popular open spaces, covering 410 acres. Attractions run from the animal odours and noises of London Zoo to the enchanting Open Air Theatre. Mehr erfahren.
Wild and undulating, the grassy sprawl of Hampstead Heath makes a wonderfully untamed contrast to the manicured lawns and flowerbeds found elsewhere in the capital. Mehr erfahren.
At 1.5 miles long and about a mile wide, Hyde Park is one of the largest of London's Royal Parks. The Joy of Life fountain is a popular spot for splashing around in when the weather heats up. Mehr erfahren.
A favourite of local artists, this formal Arts and Crafts garden is a little-known part of Hampstead Heath. Visit during the early evening and you might see roosting long-eared bats. Mehr erfahren.
The Serpentine Gallery, the sunken garden and the beautiful flower walk provide alluring ways to while away a sunny afternoon. Mehr erfahren.
Richmond Park is the largest of the Royal Parks, occupying some 2,500 acres. From the park's highest point, there are unobstructed views of St Paul's Cathedral, over 12 miles in the distance. Mehr erfahren.
Situated just north of Hampton Court Palace, Bushy Park is one of several vast open spaces that sprawl across the borough of Richmond-upon-Thames. There's a children's playground and café on-site. Mehr erfahren.
Though not everyone is a fan of the recent redevelopment of Spitalfields (particularly those pushed out by the rising rents), the market has been afforded a new lease of life. Mehr erfahren.
This bar-restaurant-cabaret complex in an ex-factory building has become part of the furniture in E2: its little black-box stage is the beating heart of east London's alt performance scene. Mehr erfahren.
Planted as part of the Festival of Britain, with guidance from the Eden Project, and volunteers from St Mungo’s Charity, this rooftop has incredible views across the river. Mehr erfahren.
Vicky Park is wonderful for youngsters: the V&A Playground is equipped with swings etc, and the fantastically designed Pools Playground encourages creative play. Mehr erfahren.
Clissold Park opened a new wheels park, all-weather table tennis table and basketball area early in 2011. Mehr erfahren.
The playground in Brockwell Park is a favourite, with its aerial slide, massive sandpit and sections for different age groups; nearby are the duck ponds and the huge new paddling pool. Mehr erfahren.
Highgate Wood has an excellent and well-equipped playground, complete with sandpits, climbing equipment of various levels of difficulty and a zip wire that gets very busy at peak times. Mehr erfahren.
Parliament Hill sports a state-of-the-art adventure playground, still looking spanking new after its award-winning refurb. Mehr erfahren.
Regent's Park has several playgrounds, but the most interesting is at Hanover Gate where, in 2010, a new timber treehouse area for older kids was built within a large sandpit next to the boating lake. Mehr erfahren.
The park's adventure playground is superb, with plenty of original and imaginatively-built features. Mehr erfahren.
This is ‘The Breakfast Club Part Four’ – the all-day diner chain has expanded east with a Spitalfields branch, two years after the third opened up the road in Hoxton. Mehr erfahren.
Soho’s smarter denizens can be found breakfasting at this polished and very English restaurant, which – as part of a boutique hotel – opens early. Mehr erfahren.
A 25-foot Alaskan totem pole outside the main entrance gives a clue as to what’s in here: a wealth of quirky anthropological and natural history treasures. Mehr erfahren.
On the site of the notorious prison, this museum relays the history of Southwark as well as hosting some deeply unpleasant-looking torture devices. Mehr erfahren.
You’ll never forget your first visit to the home of architect Sir John Soane. It’s stuffed with curios and is almost exactly as Soane left it when he died in 1837. Mehr erfahren.
This creaky old London home of the US politician and scientist focuses on the scientific discoveries he made while living here between 1757 and 1775. Mehr erfahren.
The Guards Museum tells the story of the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, Scots Guards, Irish Guards and Welsh Guards. Mehr erfahren.
The last word in factional conceit, 221b’s study is a loving Victorian recreation and a splendid photo op. Mehr erfahren.
As one of London’s most talented chocolatiers (and a patissier to boot), Young fashions chocolate creations that delight and impress. Look out for his infamous Marmite truffles... Mehr erfahren.
This beautifully appointed pâtisserie-chocolatier and café showcases an array of delectable specialities, including truffles sharpened with Japanese vinegar, shiny-glazed mousses and much more. Mehr erfahren.
At Covent Garden’s Gelatorino, the machines churning the ices occupy pride of place: on several visits, they served us gelati scooped straight from the frosty drums. Mehr erfahren.
The Icecreamists shouts loudest of all the ice cream parlours – but look beyond the publicity stunts, the banging music and the adolescent decor, and there are actually some decent ices on offer. Mehr erfahren.
Matteo Pantani’s sheer enthusiasm for his frankly superior product is contagious – and justified. Many of the ingredients for his frequently changing palette of gelati are imported from Italy. Mehr erfahren.
Gelupo is one of the London’s best-kept secrets – an outstanding ice-cream parlour not even five minutes from Piccadilly Circus. Step inside, and feast your senses. Mehr erfahren.
Most ice cream is made slowly, in a freezer. Not here. The laboratorists freeze ice cream to order using liquid nitrogen. Mehr erfahren.
This small, simply decorated ice-cream parlour is a low-key, traditionally Italian affair, with a score or so of the more traditional flavours made by Lorenzo Nardulli and his small team. Mehr erfahren.
Known for its popular kiosks in Whiteleys and Selfridges, this renowned gelateria also runs a standalone outlet on a South Kensington side street. Mehr erfahren.
Squeezed into a narrow shopping arcade, this small gelateria dishes out superior sorbets and ice creams. Mehr erfahren.
Completed in 1638 by Inigo Jones, the house has an interior as impressive as the paintings on the walls. Mehr erfahren.
The world's largest maritime museum contains a huge store of creatively organised maritime art, cartography, models and regalia. Mehr erfahren.
There's plenty here to fill a whole day, and it's worth joining one of the highly recommended and entertaining free tours led by the Yeoman Warders (or Beefeaters). Mehr erfahren.
The original Globe Theatre, where many of William Shakespeare's plays were first staged, burned to the ground in 1613. Nearly 400 years later, it was rebuilt not far from its original site. Mehr erfahren.
The concrete-clad, 1960s modernist grandmother of them all: no theatrical tour of London is complete without a visit to the National. Mehr erfahren.
On a clear day the London Eye, the world's largest observation wheel, offers views as far as 25 miles away. Mehr erfahren.
Designed by architect Charles Barry as part of the Palace of Westminster, The Clock Tower was completed in 1859. Mehr erfahren.
The cultural significance of Westminster Abbey is hard to overstate. Its popularity can only have increased since the wedding in April 2011 of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Mehr erfahren.
A Grade II-listed Art Deco masterpiece, and Europe's largest brick building, Battersea Power Station is a London icon. Mehr erfahren.
Built as a memorial to Queen Victoria's husband in 1871, the Royal Albert Hall's vast rotunda was once described by the monarch as looking like 'the British constitution'. Mehr erfahren.
Kew Gardens is a magnificent World Heritage Site covering 300 acres with over 30,000 species of plants. Mehr erfahren.
Housed in a 19th-century warehouse (itself a Grade I-listed building), this huge museum explores the complex history of London's docklands and the river over two millennia. Mehr erfahren.
Housed in a set of 18th-century almshouses, the Geffrye Museum offers a vivid physical history of the English interior. Mehr erfahren.
The most popular part of the museum is its showpiece Aquarium, where a series of tanks and rockpools cover seven distinct aquatic ecosystems. Mehr erfahren.
Upstairs, the chronological displays begin with 'London Before London', where artefacts include flint axes from 300,000 BC, found near Piccadilly, and the bones of an aurochs. Mehr erfahren.
Antique guns, tanks, aircraft and artillery are parked in the main hall of this imposing edifice, built in 1814 as a lunatic asylum (the Bethlehem Royal Hospital, aka Bedlam). Mehr erfahren.
The collection is unmatched (150 million items and counting), and the reading rooms (open only to cardholders) are so popular that regular users are now complaining that they can't find a seat. Mehr erfahren.
The collection includes remains of many rare and extinct animals, such as a dodo and the skeleton of the zebra-like quagga, which was hunted out of existence in the 1880s. Mehr erfahren.
The V&A is one of the world's most magnificent museums, its foundation stone laid on this site by Queen Victoria in her last official public engagement in 1899. Mehr erfahren.
Attractions at the Royal Air Force Museum include 80 aircraft on display, an interactive area, a simulator ride and 'Our Finest Hour', a multi-media account of the Battle of Britain. Mehr erfahren.
Can't see the Number 10 door from where you are? You can have a virtual tour of No.10, inside and out by clicking the link below. Mehr erfahren.
The park on this beautiful walled garden site is the best for miles around. There's an enormous sandpit and all sorts of toddler climbing frames, plus an adventure playground for the older kids. Mehr erfahren.