The Barbican is worth visiting for it's brutalist architecture alone. The concert programming is really diverse; it's home to the BBC Syphony Orchestra, but you'll also find bands like the Dirty Projectors and the National amongst the classical and contemporary composer line up. Plenty of art, dance and theatre too, however, the Conservatory is the real gem that's not to be missed.

Museum exploring connections between medicine, life and art. Fascinating range of exhibitions and great shop, library and cafe. Free entry too. 

Archive collection of surgical instruments - anatomy and pathology - dental instruments - medicine and surgery (basically a lot of dead things in jars, really interesting to draw from).

Every year I take my 25 year old mini on the London to Brighton run. The views from the start line are always worth the 4AM wake-up.

Sometimes when I wake up it feels like I am at sea watching a big ocean liner pass by. It is the view from my home in one of the two stepped concrete apartment blocks that make up the Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury. When you visit skip the chain stores of the shopping centre below (except for the excellent Renoir Cinema) and instead get an invitation to one of the small but gorgeous flats with their winter gardens or just wander through the spectacular concrete A frames and across the vast sun drenched terraces on podium level.