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.

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.

This is one of my favourite places in the whole of London. Cernamic, run by Nam and Susi, they offer some fantastic workshops and at a very affordable price. They have really cultivated a welcoming environment, full of lovely people and a place to share and recieve knowledge.

Tate Modern can always be relied on for offering up interesting, challenging exhibits, housed in great architecture and with one of Londons best cultural bookstores. An ever reliable weekend hangout.

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