Mediterranean food in our cool and laid back cafe

Epping Forest is a 2,400 hectares area of ancient woodland between Epping in the north and Wanstead in the south, straddling the border between Greater London and Essex. I tend to get off at Loughton Tube Station (Central Line), which is about 10–12min walk to the forest.

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.

The V and A houses a public collection of prints and drawings of every kind imagineable from old master drawings to photographs, playing cards, fashion plates and wallpapers. You have to select what you want to see from the collection http://collections.vam.ac.uk/and book in advance. The behind-the-scenes route up to the study room of v and a is a treat alone (pictured)

On Burlington Gardens in Mayfair, Cecconi’s is a modern-day classic Italian restaurant open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week. Cecconi’s serves handmade pasta, seafood and dishes from Italy using the finest ingredients. The restaurant has outposts in West Hollywood, Miami, Istanbul, Berlin, Barcelona, New York, and Mumbai.