Just above the Dorfman Theatre lobby at the National Theatre, is the entrance to the high-level walkway, a public walkway that overlooks the National Theatre props and scenic workshop. It's free and is a unique chance to get a glimpse of what happens backstage. I love popping in when I'm on the south bank, as you get a completely different sight each time, depending on which production the workshops are working on at the time.

Spring always arrives earlier to London, and London shows its most beautiful face during the spring. If you live in London, or if you come to visit, bring your training shoes and take a morning run along river Thames in Chiswick. Between Barnes Bridge and Hammersmith Bridge, there's a great trail on both sides of the river. And if you take the run in March, you might run through this wonderful Alice-in-Wonderland cherry-blossom landscape.

A station, a stop or two away from London sits a shop that is only open once or twice a year – its specialty are books but it also sells things.

A beautiful old school bookshop, floor to ceiling photo books. Heaven.

This painted of the shopping centre by my brother, Leo Verhoeven, shows a rather idyllic vision of the shopping centre we both share. Its pretty rough, full of budget shops and funny cafes and framed by a shanty town style open air market. I have a real soft spot for it as the classic under dog, thats so often slated and condemned but lives on.