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.

A contemporary café, great for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, on the top floor of Dover Street Market, just of Picadilly Circus.

A phenomenal cultural place which brings to London the best contemporary dance talent and productions. Sadler's Wells is one institution that makes London such a an amazing place to live in. Always ground-breaking and risk-taking programming. The best dance venue in the world, thanks to the amazing artistic vision of Alistair Spalding and his team. Leading by example and always doing it with heart.

The best ice cream I have ever tasted in England – You are allowed any and every flavor and they shape it into a rose.

The many book stores dotted along this strip can provide hours of inspiration. Aside from those selling new books, several specialise in second-hand and antiquarian books.