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.
The Premises is cozy café attached to a recording studio in Hackney (frequented by Nina Simone, Al Green and Jarvis Cocker over the years.) Lovely people serve up tasty breakfasts and Turkish food in the evening.
A short walk from Oxford Circus tube station, Kaffeine is easily one of the best coffee houses in London. Whenever I'm working in the area I pop in beforehand to kick start my day with a well-made cappuccino.
I vaguely thought about leaving London recently and the British Library came to mind as somewhere I’d miss. It’s an essential resource because it has almost everything. It also has some interesting exhibitions.