One of London's best kept secrets, Spiritual Bar is a small and super welcoming live music bar on a side road near Chalk Farm station. Always somehow busy but not too packed, they play host to most of London's best emerging blues, rock and folk musicians, and owner Raf is the nicest dude you could meet. And makes a serious mojito

Great little neighbourhood hangout. Delicious food, good coffee and open evenings Thursday-Saturday. Next to the Sylvanian Family shop! 

Leila McAlister's grocery shop and café off Arnold Circus, Shoreditch. You can find the best of everything, from jars of horseradish to eggs and croissants.

A perfect place for any occasion - or no occasion at all - every table feels like the best one.

Not long in the custody of the National Trust, designed by Philip Webb and commissioned by William Morris, in 1859. Tucked away in Beckenham. William and Jane Morris only lived here for five years; not a happy time of their marriage. But there is humility, authority and even bite, in the domestic scale. The rigorous, holistic design-hand at work belies any sense of souvenir shop Morris-lite. The vegetable garden in late Summer is the place to be.