57 things I love in London

because London is so good. it's just so so good.

Sep 17, 2025

aerial photography of city buildings — Photo by Henry Be on Unsplash

I am doing this quickly, just as it comes, because I saw this superb video from the Mayor’s office this morning and I have spent my day so *tearfully filled* with love of London that I keep on thinking of more and more things and I just have to get it out.

please watch this video with the sound on and have a good sob

I am sorry that this list is very North London focused but that’s where I come from. It’s not some kind of “best of everything”. It’s just a lot of things I love in London. I love it here.

I have actually done 100 things I love in London but Substack is telling me this list is too long already so I’ll have to save the other 43 for eg tomorrow.

update! part two is now linked below.

London has the lowest level of ethnic violence of any city of comparable size in the world. Multiculturalism has worked here. I got this fact from this fabulous book and I find it utterly perfect for London to start this list with something written by an Italian person. I am sorry that this makes me sound weird but: London is a state of being, of not just tolerating difference but welcoming it, revelling in it, hurling yourself in and rolling around in all the things that are different. The rest of this list is mostly lovely places I love, but we must start with the spirit of London. Which is: turn your face to the world. Look outward, always.
So let’s begin a tour with Salvino in Kentish Town, the place where I first learned the perfection of a ciabatta roll with sundried tomatoes and taleggio cheese. Mmmmmmm.
Then let’s wander to the refurbished Kings Cross station where there’s so much to choose from but please go to Neuhaus in St Pancras, Neuhaus is the best Belgian chocolate possible.
Then of course when we’re in Kings Cross we must go to the British Library. Join the members room if you haven’t and you’re in the area, you see a lot of writers there. But also just enjoy that a ticket is FREE and then you can see ANY BOOK PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH? Just like that?!
Photo by CrowN on Unsplash
Queue up at Dishoom for some really really good food (just arrive a bit early for any mealtime and you can usually get seated at once)
Have a pop into Present and Correct, a stationery shop where you can be with other like-minded stationery ~~perverts~~ enthusiasts.
Go to a talk at the Courtauld Gallery - when I worked at a law firm on Fleet Street, I came here once a week for their 15-minute lunchtime talks and it was the best 15 minutes of my week every time. Just a person who knows what they’re talking about explaining to you what’s in a painting, you feel like it is opening up its petals at you.
Go to a Honey & Co for some gorgeous lunch. I promise not all of these will be food. But there is a lot of great food in London.
Like also the amazing Lalibela. Ugh I want something from there right now.
Let’s listen to some music. Oh wait, the Proms are over but you can still listen to them all for free online wherever you are in the world? We’ll just have to go to whatever’s on at the Wigmore Hall, oh no.
Oh well as long as we’re in Marylebone we could go to Daunts bookshop and think of a theme day for ourselves of London-based travel. The challenge is to buy a novel from any country in the world and then find three places to go to where there’s some food/music/art/heritage objects from that country. Enjoy.
And also pop into Fabriano where they sell pens that also have a ruler on the side *and a spirit level*.
Fischers for some perfect Viennese elegance, also if you become a regular then they do welcome you with a smile and your choice of table.
I am almost too nervous to put the Orrery restaurant in Marylebone here. It is the best upscale restaurant that you’ve never heard of and no one that you know has ever been to. I don’t understand how it’s so good and still such a secret. It is the place I take people to prove that I have secret London knowledge.
Theberton Street - just walk down this little parade and pick a restaurant, they seem to have one of everything and you are round the corner from some of the best shopping in London.
The Almeida theatre - just really have a look at whatever they put on because they are so smart.
Tofu Vegan - oh my god the food here, every single dish is perfect and you do know it’s not meat but you cannot possibly possibly care, everything is delicious.
The Africa Centre: amazing events and food.
The Royal Court theatre - again just a very very clever and interesting theatre, you can barely go wrong here.
Neasden temple! Just sitting there, in a suburban street, beautiful like a vision of heaven.
The Trobridge castle houses and thatched cottages in Kingsbury; one of the great joyful sights of my childhood.
Beas of Bloomsbury - what a perfect little shop!
The London Library - alright so this is bad in a way because you have to pay to join. But also it’s such a weird interesting place and you can ask for a tour. I am a member and have never regretted it.
Fortnum and Mason (and the Christmas windows) - I know you know Fortnum. But do come and see the Christmas windows when they go up.
And OBVIOUSLY the ones at Libertys. Just go to Libertys.
Regents Park - I have fallen over twice in this park because I was so entranced by all the beautiful plantings, and once I got locked in because I didn’t hear the warning sounds.
The Green Note cafe in Camden - there is always something interesting going on here!
Camden Town Market obviously
Bridge Command - this is very erm specific but if you are a fan of Star Trek you do have to do this, it is one of the most joyful experiences I’ve ever had
and similarly specific, Steven Shaw literally the best swimming teacher in the world is based in London and if there’s any stroke you want to improve or master he will teach you how. It’s all based on the Alexander Technique, he is an incredibly good teacher. I have seen people come for his classes from literally New Zealand and America.
The whole supper club scene - it’s always changing and god this is LONDON, just sit down with a bunch of strangers and have a natter!
Covent Garden Market even though the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre has now moved to Hastings.
St Paul’s Cathedral - look it’s obvious but I know so many Londoners who haven’t gone.
Ditto Westminster Abbey. You can just rock up to these beautiful places and sit quietly during a service. Maybe you are just thinking thoughts about humanism, it is fine. Everyone needs some time and space to think quietly, and our ancestors provided us with beauty to do it in.
Sorry about the number of libraries. Not sorry though. I have worked in and enjoyed: SOAS library, UCL library, Senate House library
This one gets a line of its own: the Classics Library in Senate House - spending an afternoon here is I think what heaven will be like.
Primrose Hill! Which has a hill, fantastic restaurants and also the marvellous Primrose Hill Books - as everything was closing down in March 2020 I called them desperate to feel connected to the world of books and they brought a hand-chosen selection round to my house. I couldn’t love them more.
ChrisKitch at Muswell Hill and the Everyman cinema - oh this is a perfect afternoon here, my friends. Also last time I was at ChrisKitch it was just before closing and they gave me a loaf of their cornbread. I can’t promise that’ll always happen. But it has happened at least once.
Kew Gardens. We literally have Kew Gardens and you can go there.
Photo by Chris Johnson on Unsplash
Kirkdale books in Sydenham - this is an intellectual bookshop just like you hope you’ll find anywhere in the world.
Cafe Palestina in Kentish Town - absolutely lovely, delightful people and look they run Arabic classes!
Kossof’s Bakery in Kentish Town - please try the miso-chive swirl pastry.
Sadler’s Wells for goodness sake.
St John yes alright now I am just going for food places that are wonderful, but like OK so sue me. No one needs me to write about St John but do go to St John.
Andrew Edmunds which has the feeling that you have absolutely gone back in time and Dennis Severs might pop his head round the corner at any minute.
The Quality Chop House and especially their wonderful little grocery shop.
Crouch End lido - have you seen Your Fat Friend the movie? Where she says that she used to swim all the time but now she’s too nervous to because people judge her body? Crouch End lido is the opposite of that. I once saw a lady get in, in what was clearly a red bra and some M&S knickers. No one cares. Cover your bits and have a swim.
Also Brockwell, also Charlton lido.
Also London Fields lido - which has the benefit of being in the heart of trendy Hackney for many a bite after a swim.
Billingsgate fish market. It won’t be there for long, might close by 2028, but it’s still there now. Get up early and go! Get fish! Share fish with everyone!
The Prince Charles cinema
and of course the BFI - on which note can I also recommend the wonderful novel Brian by Jeremy Cooper which is about a man who decides to go to the BFI every single day after work and his life is changed and maybe saved by it.
J Sheekey before the West End theatre. I mean…
The West End theatre. I just.
look, London has the best theatre in the world, sorry but it’s true. It’s because we got Shakespeare, New York certainly has AMAZING theatre and I have this sense that Broadway and the London stage have been in a continuous animated conversation for the past 150 years chatting across the Atlantic about everything. And it’s not a competition. But we do have the best stuff. So like, obviously Shakespeare’s Globe. What can you do about that? If you have Shakespeare’s Globe you should probably mention it.
And once you’re around there, do go to Borough Market which is as Nigella Lawson once wrote less of a market and more of a food happening.
This is a recommendation you won’t get anywhere else. Rushgrove Park in Colindale. I remember when all this was just fields. This was the park I came to with my mum when I was a tiny baby and a little girl learning to ride my bike. It is part of me. It is a really nice suburban park. And I promise, there is a heron that sometimes fishes on the Silkstream River.

I am a Londoner heart-and-soul, through-and-through. My family came here in the 1890s and 1900s fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe and it has been the most wonderful home for us since then, filled with opportunity and richness and variety. And the people who stayed in Latvia/Lithuania/Poland/Russia/Hungary were all killed in the Holocaust. So, I am a Londoner. This city literally saved our lives. I love it. Other places are also great but this place is my place. I don’t like to hear people saying mean stuff about it.

It’s London. Asking whether it’s good is like asking if there’s any point to daylight. Saying mean stuff about it just makes you look stupid.