Curzon

My favourite of the three. Comfortable seats, a proper bar, and a mix of new releases, independent features, and older films you don’t often get to see on a big screen. There are Curzons all over London, so there’s usually one near enough.

Aldgate is the one I know best. I lived five minutes away for years and it was my happy place, so much so that I had a membership. I went on my own as often as with my partner or my friends. The bar does coffee and snacks, so you can make a day of it: work there through a rainy afternoon, then watch a film in the evening with a pizza in front of it.

📍2 Canter Way, London E1 8PS

Electric Cinema

I went to Electric Cinema on Portobello Road earlier this year for a Clueless screening and it was one of the best cinema evenings I’ve had.

The room is properly beautiful. Edwardian Baroque, a high arched ceiling, chandeliers, and a red velvet curtain over the screen. The seats are deep red two-seaters with little lamps on the tables between them, and the front row ones are big enough to lie down on. Food and drinks come to your seat.

It’s one screen and the programme is short, so you have to keep an eye on the website and book ahead. Worth planning around.

📍 191 Portobello Road, London W11 2ED

Everyman

The most popular one on this list, and reasonably so. They have over forty venues across the UK and plenty of choice, with new releases as well as some throwbacks.

Here are the three Everyman locations worth keeping on your radar:

The Whiteley in Bayswater opened in 2025 in the old Whiteleys department store, and it’s the most glamorous of the lot. An excellent date night one.

📍8 Porchester Gardens, London W2 4DB

Hampstead is where the whole thing started, on Boxing Day 1933, in a converted Victorian drill hall.

📍5 Holly Bush Vale, London NW3 6TX

Screen on the Green in Islington opened in 1913 and is one of the oldest continuously running cinemas in the UK.

📍83 Upper Street, London N1 0NU

Where to stay

Two hotels and a campsite. The region is expensive, so I’ve put the range in.

Rothay Manor Hotel

A Grade II listed country house and the luxury option here, and one of the best hotel experiences I've ever had. We were invited as guests in 2022. Huge beds, warm decor, the kind of room you're pleased to come back to. Get breakfast in your room one morning.

📍Rothay Manor Hotel, Ambleside, Cumbria, LA22 0EH

Rothay Garth
The bed and breakfast where I stayed in April with my cousin and our partners. We had a big dog-friendly room on the ground floor with its own door onto the front garden, which was very practical for taking the dog out without going through reception. The breakfast was generous and properly good. It was £98 a night when we went, which for this area is a fair price.

📍Rothay Rd, Ambleside LA22 0EE

Rydal Hall campsite
If you'd rather camp, Rydal Hall does it on the estate I've written about below, from £17.50 a night for adults. You'd be sleeping in the grounds with a waterfall in the garden, which for £17.50 is a fairly good deal. Dogs are welcome.

📍1 The Croft, Rydal Hall, Rydal, Ambleside LA22 9LX

Where to eat

A pastry, a pizza, a view, and one proper dinner.

The Apple Pie
A bakery people queue for. We picked up pastries here before heading out for the day.

📍Rydal Rd, Ambleside LA22 9AN

Tap Yard
Wood-fired pizza and good beer, very relaxed. The easy answer at the end of a long day out.

📍Rydal Rd, Ambleside LA22 9AN

Force Café and Terrace
I haven't been, so this is a note rather than a recommendation. It's on my list for next time, mostly for the view from the terrace. It's in the old Kelsick Grammar School and close to Stock Ghyll Force, a scenic 70-ft. waterfall, so you could stop either before the walk or after it.

📍Kelsick Grammar, Stockghyll Ln, Ambleside LA22 0QY

Rowan
Rowan is the restaurant at Rothay Manor, and the option for when the meal is the point. Very elegant. I still remember the pumpkin dessert I had there in 2022.

📍Rothay Manor Hotel, Ambleside, Cumbria, LA22 0EH

What to do

In no particular order. Pick whichever you're in the mood for.

Ambleside town centre
Start with Bridge House, a tiny two-room house built on top of the beck in the seventeenth century, apparently to avoid paying tax on the land it wasn't technically standing on.

Then Fred's Bookshop, going since 1956, which has a section of books written by Lake District authors or set here. I bought The Hotel at the Heart of the Lakes by Ellie Wood, undemanding in the best way, exactly right for a relaxing trip. Then walk up North Road and get lost in the small streets.

Rydal Hall
You cannot miss this one. An estate a couple of miles out of town with gardens, woodland and a waterfall, and a little café to stop at. The Grot below the falls is the picture everyone takes. It’s a one-room hut built in 1668 with a single window, positioned so that the window frames the waterfall.

📍 Rydal Hall, Ambleside LA22 9LX

Kirkstone Pass
A beautiful view down the valley, with free parking in front of the Kirkstone Pass Inn, right where the view is. The road up from Ambleside is called The Struggle, which tells you what you need to know.

If you’re up for it, there are paths going up on both sides of the road. Facing the view, Red Screes is on your right, a proper climb of two to three hours. I took the path on the left and stopped about fifteen minutes in, which was far enough for what I wanted. Both are very steep from the start. Buy something to eat in the village and have it at the top. There are sheep, so keep your dog on a lead.

📍 Kirkstone Pass, A592, north of Ambleside

Cathedral Cavern
A man-made slate quarry chamber, underground. Parking is the hard part. We found something around Little Langdale and it was about a thirty minute walk in from there, though there's a bigger car park at Tilberthwaite. The walk itself is lovely. We went in April and it was very muddy, so wear boots rather than trainers.

📍 3 Stang End, Little Langdale, Ambleside LA22 9NT

The proper hikes
Ambleside is one of the best hiking bases in the Lake District and I didn’t do any of them, so I’m not going to pretend to guide you. The one I kept seeing and wanting to do is the Rydal Water and Rydal Mount Circular. If you've done it, tell me whether it's worth it.

Anywhere else in Ambleside I've missed? Put it in the comments and I'll go next time I'm there.

For getting things done

Bloomyard

Bloomyard is inside an office building, so you would walk straight past it without knowing. Female-owned, with one big open room, plenty of seating and large windows. It feels corporate rather than cosy, which is why it works well for getting things done.

I turned up at 4pm on a Wednesday, which is the worst possible time to arrive anywhere, and still found a table. Go in the morning and you'll have plenty of choice.

Sockets are mostly under the long restaurant-style tables, the wifi is good, and enough people are working that you can take a call without feeling watched.

• Wifi: yes

• Sockets: yes

• Toilets: yes

Opening times:

• Monday: 7:30am - 6pm

• Tuesday to Thursday: 7:30am - 8pm

• Friday: 7:30am - 4pm

• Saturday and Sunday: closed

📍 Level 2, 100 Liverpool St, London EC2M 2AT

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For a long, calm session

Noxy Brothers, Old Street

Also inside an office building, this time The Bower. Understated, which I mean as a compliment: lots of space, good wifi, and enough room that taking a call is not awkward. The team are lovely, so just ask if you need the wifi password. They also serve a delicious banana bread.

Go for one of the high tables in front of the windows. They open them in summer and it’s the best seat in the room. I found it genuinely comfortable for a long session, and calmer than anywhere else around Old Street.

• Wifi: yes (it works better on the tables close to the windows)

• Sockets: yes

• Toilets: yes

Opening times:

• Monday: 8am - 3.30pm

• Tuesday - Thursday: 8am - 4pm

• Friday: 8am - 12pm

• Saturday and Sunday: closed

📍 The Bower, 207 Old St, London EC1V 9NR

Watch the review

For a client meeting

The Hoxton, Shoreditch

The obvious one, and popular for good reason. I wouldn’t pick it for a full day of head-down work, but it’s very good for a couple of hours, and better still for a client meeting you want to hold somewhere that looks the part. It’s a hotel lobby, so you can walk in at any hour, which helps if you’re working early or late. It does get busy.

• Wifi: yes

• Sockets: yes (sparse, mostly along the walls or on the restaurant tables right in front of you as you come in)

• Toilets: yes

Opening times:

• The lobby is open 24 hours. The bar usually runs 7am to midnight.

📍 81 Great Eastern St, London EC2A 3HU

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But first, 3 bits of history

Just so you can brag while showing your friends around.

• It used to be called Tyburn, after the stream that ran through it. Tyburn was also where London held its public executions, from 1196 until 1783, up near what's now Marble Arch. Not a great association for a village. By the 1400s it was going by the name of its church instead, St Mary at the Bourne, which wore down into Marylebone. Whether that was to escape the gallows is the part nobody can prove, though it's the version everyone tells.

• It isn’t French. People will tell you it comes from Marie la Bonne. It doesn't, and as a French person who would quite like it to, I've had to let that go.

• Two families still own most of it. The Howard de Walden estate holds the leases along the high street and the Portman estate owns much of the land to the west, so between them they choose who's on it. From the 1990s Howard de Walden went after independent shops rather than the highest rent. That's why you can walk five minutes from Oxford Street and find a bookshop and a cheesemonger instead of four branches of the same thing.

Where to have coffee

This is the longest section and I’m not going to pretend that’s an accident.

White Mulberries
My favourite in Marylebone and where I’d send you first. Very good coffee, small pastries worth having, and a delicious salmon bagel that makes it my default for a long catch-up with a friend. There’s a lovely outdoor space at the back you can’t see from the street, so walk through even if it looks full.

📍54 Paddington St, London W1U 4HU

Cup of Joy
The newest arrival on this list, a Turkish specialty coffee shop and bakery that started in Istanbul. All warm wood, and a good room to sit in for a while. The coffee is excellent.

📍28 Blandford St, London W1U 4BZ

Boxcar
A bakery and café on Wyndham Place, in a quiet residential pocket of Marylebone. Well known enough that you should expect it busy at weekends. The pain au chocolat swirl is what most people come for, and the mushrooms, scrambled eggs and parmesan on sourdough is what I order.

📍7A Wyndham Pl, London W1H 1PN

WatchHouse
No introduction needed if you live here. Space upstairs and downstairs, a 90-minute laptop policy if you're working, and it's big enough that you can usually get a seat even when it's busy. Their banana bread is very good, get it warmed up. The one I go to when I don't want to think about it.

📍32-34 New Cavendish St, London W1G 8UE

Abuelo
An independent Australian and Argentinian café, owned by an architect and unmistakably so. The room is genuinely beautiful, which is why it's all over social media. Good for a casual brunch with friends.

📍7-11 Cavendish Pl, London W1G 0QD

Where to eat

You can eat very well at any of the cafés above. These three are for when the meal is the point.

BAO
The Taiwanese Bib Gourmand known for its fluffy steamed buns, and a London staple at this point. Get the fried chicken bao. I took my mum and she loved it, which I offer as a reasonable test of a restaurant. Works as a quick lunch or a fun dinner with a group.

📍56 James St, London W1U 1HF

St John
Traditional, rustic British cooking and something close to an institution. Nose to tail, very good wine, a room that's lively without being too loud, and decor you could fairly call austere. I think it's a strangely good place for a date.

📍98 Marylebone Ln, London W1U 2QA

Maset
The more upscale option, Mediterranean, and the warmest room on this list. I went on a dark, rainy winter afternoon and it felt like walking into the south of France, where I'm from. Unhurried, and comfortable enough to sit for hours.

📍40 Chiltern St, London W1U 7LQ

What to do

There's no shortage of things to do around here. These are the ones I keep going back to.

Daunt Books
Reason enough on its own to come to Marylebone. An Edwardian bookshop with long oak galleries and a skylight at the back, and one of the most beautiful shops in London by a distance. Worth going even if you don’t buy anything, though you probably will. Be prepared for it to be packed.

📍84 Marylebone High St, London W1U 4QW

The Sherlock Holmes Museum
I went recently. Touristy and a bit overpriced for how long you’ll be inside, but worth doing once to stand in a room that came out of Arthur Conan Doyle’s head. Then go home and watch the Benedict Cumberbatch series. That’s the correct order.

📍221b Baker St, London NW1 6XE

The Wallace Collection
A free museum full of art, with world-famous paintings from the 14th to the late 19th century. My favourite is Fragonard’s The Swing, in the pink room. A young woman mid-air in an enormous silk dress, one slipper flying off, her elderly husband pushing the swing from behind and her lover lying in the bushes below, getting exactly the view he came for. A very silly painting and I love it.

📍Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN

Regent’s Park
Rain or shine, my dog's favourite park and mine. In autumn and winter, walk the Broad Walk and get a coffee at the little espresso bar at the end of it. In spring and summer, Queen Mary's rose garden and the Japanese garden. Worth knowing that the gardens aren't dog friendly, so check before you go if you're bringing yours.

📍Regent’s Park, NW1

Marylebone Lane
While walking through Marylebone Village, don't miss Marylebone Lane. Everything in Marylebone is a neat Georgian grid, and then there's this lane wandering diagonally through the middle of it like it doesn't belong. It was there first. The lane follows the course of the Tyburn, the stream Marylebone is named after, which is still there, just underground. Everything around it was planned. The lane is the shape of the water.

📍Marylebone Lane, W1U

Where to shop

Marylebone High Street is essentially one long shop. These are my favourites.

Sézane
The French brand has a store here. I’ve been wearing them for years and I have never once walked past without going in.

📍29 Marylebone High St, London W1U 4PL

Anna + Nina
Full of very good mugs, among other things. Ideal for making the friend you’re with buy you one.

📍54 Chiltern St, London W1U 7QX

Somewhere in Marylebone I’ve missed? Put it in the comments and I’ll go.

No shade to Jenki and Blank Street, both of which I still drink. This is for when you want something different. All three are independent, and all three are opening new sites across London, which tells you something.

For a fun but elevated matcha

Matchado

My easy go-to. Founded by Hiromi Matsunobu, using high-quality Japanese matcha, and the ratio of matcha to milk is the thing they get right.

Alongside the unsweetened one, which comes hot or iced, my favourite is the iced blueberry. There's also peach, strawberry, banana and mango. If Jenki and Blank Street are your reference points this will land, but it’s less watery and there’s more to it.

Mostly takeaway, with a few window seats at some locations.

📍 Bloomsbury, Chiswick, Acton, Herne Hill and Coal Drops Yard

For a Korean matcha house

Tokkia

The name means “hey bunny” in Korean, after the owner Sooji’s rabbit Hazelnut, who turns up on their socials if you scroll far enough. They make the matcha in front of you, and it's a bit of a show. Both locations are gorgeous inside, with the counter at the centre of everything.

The Injeolmi Vanilla Matcha Latte is the one. They top the matcha with an injeolmi cream, which is roasted soybean powder blended into a heavy cream, nutty and toasted and gently sweet, after the traditional Korean rice cake. Thick in the best way. The cream comes dairy or non-dairy.

Mostly takeaway, with a few window seats.

📍 Covent Garden and Soho

For when you want matcha and they want coffee

Nagare

Not everyone likes matcha, and I do understand. It's a specific taste, and let's be honest, most of us were marketed into this. So this is the one for when you’re with someone who just wants a good coffee.

The matcha is good, with a more bitter profile than the other two. It comes from Sayuri Teas, a high-quality London supplier working with multi-generational family farms in Kagoshima and Uji. Get the matcha brownie.

Carnaby and Spitalfields have a handful of seats. Bankside is the bigger one and has a bakery, so it’s the one to pick if you’re staying.

📍 Carnaby, Spitalfields and Bankside

I share a healthy obsession with Downton Abbey with my mum. She still lives in the south of France, and having a series we both love is one of those small things that keeps us close across a distance. For her seventieth birthday, I planned a getaway at Highclere, and it remains one of our favourite trips.

If you’ve never watched it and you like a period drama, start now, because it will make this whole thing better. It follows the Crawley family from 1912 onwards, through the war and everything that came after it.

The castle is real, and someone still lives in it

Highclere Castle

The castle you see on screen is a real house in Hampshire, and the family it belongs to still live there. George Herbert, the 8th Earl of Carnarvon, and Fiona, the Countess of Carnarvon, split their time between the main house and a smaller cottage on the estate, and tend to move out of the house during the busier visiting seasons.

Knowing that changes the visit a bit. It isn't a museum built to look lived in. It's someone's actual home.

📍 Highclere Park, Newbury, Hampshire RG20 9RN

What the tour is actually like

Real Lives and Film Sets Guided Tour

This is the one I did and the one I’d recommend. It runs on set dates between September and November, and at the time of writing there are still some in October and November.

They split you into small groups, which makes it feel less like being herded. Ours was every age and nationality, united by a fictional family. You go through the house including the library, which was my favourite room by a long way, and the bedrooms upstairs. The guides tie everything back to the series and give you the filming details you actually want.

The one that stayed with me: the furniture is old and fragile enough that the cast had to sit on the library sofas very carefully, and not for too long, to avoid damaging them.

Oh, and Mrs Patmore's kitchen doesn't exist. The whole downstairs was built on a set somewhere else.

Photography isn’t allowed inside, which I only realised looking back at my camera roll and finding nothing. Outside you’ll get plenty of the castle.

Also included: the Egyptian Exhibition in the cellars, which has nothing to do with Downton and is still worth your time. The 5th Earl was obsessed with Egypt and spent years funding excavation work out there, which ended with the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922.

On lunch: a small meal is included at the end of the tour. It won’t be the best meal of your life, but it will do the job before you head outside.

Afterwards there’s a shop and the grounds, which are genuinely beautiful.

Where to stay

The Carnarvon Arms

A former coaching inn that has been putting up Highclere visitors for a very long time. Our room was small but comfortable, clean and well decorated. They lean into the Downton thing, which I found made the weekend more fun rather than less.

It’s a proper pub underneath all that, with breakfast and dinner both served. Around £100 a night when we stayed. Dogs are welcome in some rooms.

📍 Whitway, Winchester Road, Newbury, Hampshire RG20 9LE

Getting there, and a warning

You don't need a car for this. We took a train from Paddington and were in Newbury in 40 minutes, then got a local cab to the hotel.

On the day of the visit we decided the cab felt ridiculous for such a short distance, so we walked. Big mistake. We spent a stretch of it on the verge of a road with no pavement, my mum entirely unbothered, having spent the seventies hitchhiking around France, and me, a millennial, quietly convinced this was how it ended. We took a cab back.

Once that bit was behind us, though, the walk was lovely. Fields, sheep, the estate opening up in front of you. If you want to do it, ask the cab to drop you a little short of the castle and walk the last stretch. Thinking about it now, that walk was my favourite part of the whole weekend.

Interiors as good as the pastries

Don’t Tell Dad

A local favourite that’s quickly pulling in the rest of London. You walk in to rows of pastries in flavours you don’t see everywhere: fig leaf and blackcurrant buns, a nectarine and toasted sesame danish, a roasted corn with chilli and lime one. I had the biggest, most generous pain au chocolat of my life here.

Despite the queue, the room is big enough that you’ll usually find a seat, and it’s a room worth sitting in. Corduroy banquettes, terracotta walls, warm lamps.

📍 10-14 Lonsdale Rd, London NW6 6RD

Afterwards: Queen's Park is a few minutes away, and a good walk after.

Worth crossing town for

Frankie’s Bakery

Small and unassuming from the outside, and I’d still do an hour on the tube for it. Judging by the queue every weekend, I’m not the only one. I still think about the pistachio and raspberry twice-baked pastry on a fairly regular basis. The almond croissant and the cinnamon bun are close behind.

There’s almost nowhere to sit, so go expecting takeaway. Small park right opposite, which is what I do. Get a matcha from Matchado while you're there, it's right next door.

📍 3 Chiswick Common Rd, Chiswick, London W4 1RR

Afterwards: walk on Chiswick High Road and the market, which is flowers, antiques, cheese or food depending on the Sunday you turn up.

A Notting Hill staple

Layla Bakery

The one everyone in the area already knows about, and with good reason. Female-founded, and the sort of place that has regulars rather than customers. The pastries change but there's usually something like a pistachio and dark chocolate pain suisse, a blueberry and fig leaf flan, a peach and verbena danish. Tables outside, none in, which on a sunny morning is exactly what you want.

📍332 Portobello Rd, London W10 5SA

Afterwards: walk down Portobello Road and the streets running off it. Looking at the houses, saying "I wish I lived here", then checking prices on Zoopla is a universal experience.

Start with coffee and cake

The Paper Boat Café

A charming café on the water at Folly Bridge, with outdoor tables looking onto the canal and a delicious cake selection. It’s about twenty minutes on foot from the station, or a short bus ride, but it’s worth the walk, especially on a sunny day.

📍The Old Toll House, Folly Bridge, Oxford OX1 4LB

Walk around the Oxford you’ve seen in films

Radcliffe Square

Walk up to Radcliffe Square for the Radcliffe Camera, the round eighteenth-century building attached to the Bodleian that you’ve probably seen in a film or on social media. Carry on down Catte Street and you’ll find the Tower of the Five Orders on your left and the Bridge of Sighs on your right.

Visit a college

New College

You can't come to Oxford and not go into a college, and New College is two minutes from the Bridge of Sighs. Walk through the chapel and the medieval cloisters, which you'll recognise from Harry Potter (the old holm oak in there is the one from Goblet of Fire), then sit in the gardens for a while.

📍 New College Lane, Oxford OX1 3BL (visitors’ entrance)

Lunch in a pub with a good guest list

The Turf Tavern

A very old pub down a narrow alley, easy to walk past and hard to leave. Elizabeth Taylor, Ernest Hemingway, David Bowie and Emma Watson have all drunk here at some point. Not at the same time. It gets busy at weekends.

📍 4 Bath Place, Oxford OX1 3SU

The biggest bookselling room in the world

Blackwell’s

Go to Blackwell’s on Broad Street, and specifically down to the Norrington Room. It took me ten minutes to find it the first time, so: walk straight through the shop, it’s on your left, then down the stairs. Three miles of shelving in one basement room. It’s the best thing on this list.

📍 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BQ

Wander around the local market

The Covered Market

A covered Victorian market in the middle of town, full of small independent shops and food stalls. Worth going in even if you're not buying anything. Grab a coffee at Knead while you're there.

📍 Market St, Oxford OX1 3DZ

For deep, quiet work

The Wellcome Collection Library

The Wellcome Collection is a free museum with two spaces you can work from. The reading room on the second floor is easy access, you can keep your bag, and quiet conversation is fine. It has a calm, slightly studious feeling.

For proper focus, head to the Library, also on the second floor. You get a free day pass, leave your bag and coat in a locker (no food allowed inside because of the rare books), and you’re given a small basket for your essentials. The lack of distractions makes it genuinely productive. Just don't come here if you need to take calls: they're not allowed in the Library at all, and only quietly in the reading room.

• Wifi: yes

• Sockets: yes

• Toilets: yes

Opening times:

• Monday to Friday: 10am - 6pm

• Saturday 10am - 4pm

• Sunday: Closed

📍183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE

Watch the review

For a bright space

The Samsung KX coworking space

I almost kept this one to myself because it's so convenient. It's hidden at the back of the Samsung KX store, free to walk into, and most people don't realise it's there. There's a café, and then the workspace itself: stable wifi, long tables with sockets, and a view over Coal Drops Yard. You can take calls without feeling like you're disturbing anyone.

• Wifi: yes

• Sockets: yes

• Toilets: yes

Opening times:

• Monday to Saturday : 11am - 7pm

• Sunday: 11am - 5pm

📍1 Stable St, London N1C 4DQ

Watch the review

For a cosy work session

The Library Lounge at The Standard

This is the one for romanticising your work session in London. The Library Lounge is located on the ground floor of The Standard hotel, and you’ll find a fireplace, walls of books, deep sofas, and the kind of light that makes the day disappear. Keep in mind that proper tables with sockets are limited, so you may well end up working from a sofa.

• Wifi: yes

• Sockets: yes (sparse)

• Toilets: yes

Opening times:

• Sunday to Wednesday: 7am - 12am (no laptops after 6pm)

• Thursday to Saturday: 7am - 2am (no laptops after 6pm)

📍The Library Lounge, The Standard, 10 Argyle St, London WC1H 8EG

Watch the review