The AA is Britain's oldest school of architecture, but anyone can take advangte of the great work going on there. You can catch really interesting public lectures and free exhibitions throughout the year. There are also occasional installations and event launches, a bijoux cafe and brilliant bookshop. A great place to hang out with the builders of the future.

A taste of Portuguese cafe culture on Golborne Road.

A treasure trove in the The City of London. The Archive of London. Strongrooms hold kilometres of shelving; boxes of matter that has somehow been catalogued and categorised in a traceable manner by the public, for academic, genealogical and other research. This beautiful book is from a box on Epping Forest. On the same visit, I looked through photographs of Blitz singsongs in Bethnal Green Underground station, 1980s anti-Thatcher / pro-GLC gig posters and paper concertina optical models of the Crystal Palace.

A great place to wander get lost and and escape the city.

My all-time favourite place. Whitewashed ex-smokehouse where Fergus Henderson pioneered the resurgent interest in offal dishes. The restaurant is brilliantly unfussy, retaining lots of the smokehouse’s original features, and the food very British, making St. JOHN something of a London institution. The restaurant has a winery and bakery.