The Premises is cozy café attached to a recording studio in Hackney (frequented by Nina Simone, Al Green and Jarvis Cocker over the years.) Lovely people serve up tasty breakfasts and Turkish food in the evening.

Beautiful architecture and setting, ideal place for catching the latest art-house flick or to enjoy evening tea and a journal session. Friendly staff, ambient atmosphere and a wonderful crowd.

A great club to see amazing performance from the funniest drag queens in the city. I have so much laugh and fun every time I am going.

Even if you have seen it hundreds of times it will still stop you in your tracks. A great piece of architecture and apparently the largest brick structure in Europe.

Half a mile from Markfield Park down the River Lee is Springfield Park. The park rises steeply up from the river and has an amazing array of tree species making it beautiful in all seasons. At the brim of the hill there is a line of park benches each one surrounded by box hedge offering a private view across the Lee Valley, Walthamstow and beyond. The park warden was nice enough to give me a chestnut log a couple of years ago from which I carved a bench and two stools.