It doesn’t happen very often but its one of those things that brings people together. Running to the park or hill with anything you can find that might work as a sledge with a big grin or your face.

London is blessed with many fine parks, but Brockwell is a real jewel in south London. A short walk or bus ride from Brixton, or right by Herne Hill overground station, the park includes large grassy areas, the fantastic Brockwell Lido (a vast open-air pool – hectic mid-summer unless you get in early - a 7am swim is utterly blissful), tennis courts, a bowling green, a BMX track, a mini-railway, a secret garden, and a few newly landscaped ponds. Perfect for a lazy summer day.

It's a members-only library but you might be granted access with a research request. The writer's room is great but there's a few special, hidden corners among the bookshelves to tuck yourself away in.

A station, a stop or two away from London sits a shop that is only open once or twice a year – its specialty are books but it also sells things.

Not long in the custody of the National Trust, designed by Philip Webb and commissioned by William Morris, in 1859. Tucked away in Beckenham. William and Jane Morris only lived here for five years; not a happy time of their marriage. But there is humility, authority and even bite, in the domestic scale. The rigorous, holistic design-hand at work belies any sense of souvenir shop Morris-lite. The vegetable garden in late Summer is the place to be.