A private travel office · Amsterdam You were given a word.
London · In season April to October and December
London
The capital of the United Kingdom, carrying itself like the capital of the world. Shopping, museums, theatre and architecture — London has all of it, in depth.
Eat
- The Wolseley The Art Deco brasserie buzzing by 08:00 on weekdays — waistcoated staff, pressed newspapers, someone of note behind a copy of the FT. The scrambled eggs and kedgeree remain the standard for breakfast in Mayfair. Mayfair
- Brutto Russell Norman’s ode to a Florentine trattoria — checked tablecloths, linen-draped bulbs, tonnato and raw porcini under aged Parmesan. One of London’s most convincing Italian rooms.
- Maison François Matthew Ryle’s contemporary French room on Duke Street — art dealers over Comté gougères and rotisserie chicken at lunch, pudding arriving as a trolley of drawers filled with madeleines, macarons and mousses. Soho
- The River Café Ruth Rogers’ Thames-side Italian, seasonal above all else — antipasti first, the tagliarini with white pork ragù after. Without a booking, The River Café Café next door holds space for walk-ins. Hammersmith
- Bistro Freddie Candle-lit and hand-scribbled — flatbreads in garlic butter, bavette au poivre, and a golden-topped chicken pie to share. As right on a Monday lunchtime as on a Friday night. Shoreditch
- Borough Market The thirteenth-century food hall — oysters from Richard Haward’s, Neal’s Yard cheese, sugar-dusted amaretti from Bread Ahead, and cod tacos from Padre in the street-food amphitheatre. Southwark
Stay
- Claridge’s Chequered Art Deco floors, a resident pianist and cucumber sandwiches at tea — with a vast subterranean spa and the Pawson-designed ArtSpace Café besides. The classic, with an eye on the present. Mayfair
- Brown’s Hotel London’s oldest hotel and one of its most storied — Churchill, Wilde and Christie all slept here. Eleven townhouses wide, papered in Olga Polizzi botanicals, with Adam Byatt cooking downstairs at Charlie’s. Mayfair
- Broadwick Soho Martin Brudnizki at full volume — pink elephants above Broadwick Street, parrot prints, gold panelling — with quieter bedrooms in candy-floss pink or sky blue. The fashion crowd’s favourite for a reason. Soho
Do
- Royal Academy of Arts The Summer Exhibition’s submission-based patchwork has run since 1769. Less known — Michelangelo’s Taddei Tondo, his only marble in Britain, sits in the permanent collection. Piccadilly
- National Portrait Gallery British society in 220,000 portraits — Zadie Smith by Toyin Ojih Odutola beside oils of Shakespeare and Byron, and Tracey Emin’s bronze doors, scribbled with the faces of forty-five women, at the threshold. Covent Garden
- Tate Britain The world’s greatest collection of Turners, on Millbank, and the home of the Turner Prize. A few hours go quickly. Westminster
- Victoria and Albert Museum Calmer than its museum-quarter neighbours, with crowds paddling in the courtyard pool on warm days. The fashion blockbusters earn their queues; Botticelli and Michelangelo wait in the permanent rooms; the shop is a reason of its own. South Kensington
Shop
- Daunt Books Marylebone The Edwardian flagship with the balconied back room — literary fiction first-class, booksellers hired for their recommendations, the green and Malbec totes visible all over the city. Marylebone
- John Sandoe Books Three knocked-together eighteenth-century cottages off the King’s Road, proudly independent — botanical books, architectural tomes and a window seat upstairs for a browsing perch. Chelsea