The Horniman Museum is a genuine secret gem in south east London. It takes an effort to find but it is SO worth it.
It's a free museum, packed with all kinds of interesting collections: from anthropology to musical history to all kinds of natural treasures.
There's even an aquarium, and a lovely park to have picnics in, weather permitting.
Take a trip to the depths of non-tube-land south east London and discover a fascinating world.

www.horniman.ac.uk
100 London Rd, Forest Hill, London, SE23 3PQ
Open daily 10.30-17.30pm (except 24-26 Dec)
Entrance to the museum & gardens is free, but there is a charge for the aquarium
Getting there: buses 176, 185, 197, 356, P4 stop outside the museum on London Road
Forest Hill London Overground station is a five-minute walk away.
Google map: bit.ly/Z7bh4d

* Lucy is our Been there local for London. You can read her profile here: www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/articles/london-local-lucy-mallows.jsp and follow her tips here: www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/travellers/LucyRM.jsp

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I went on the Post Olympic architect tour from these guys, I thoroughly recommend it. I am very interested in architecture - this tour was led by someone who was very knowledgeable about the architecture of the Olympic buildings. The guide told me they mostly do tours for architecture students and professionals, but if you are interested in architecture it beats any other walking tour hand down!

www.artchitectours.co.uk
+44(0)20 33 18 21 53

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Quite apart from having six floors of books (you can happily spend hours browsing) this store has a handy cafe and bar on the fifth floor which I found nice and relaxing having dodged into the store to get out of the rain!

www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/navigate.do?pPageID=200003
203-206 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9LE
+44(0)843 290 8549
Google map: bit.ly/W4Nfj8

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This flight of fancy is one of my favourite places in London. It's a few moments from bustling Hampstead but feels like something from another time.
The red brick Victorian pergola is a delight, crammed with plants and trees, the twisting paths and ornate walkways are a joy to discover. Each flight of steps leads to something new. I love this place in winter when the frost outlines the hanging vines and the sun sparkles on the pond.

North End Way, Hampstead, NW3
Google map: bit.ly/Vp3Izx

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My favourite bar in London is Trailer Happiness, a little bit of Tiki heaven in Notting Hill Gate’s Portobello Road for an easy relaxed atmosphere and a drink at the end of a hard day. It’s been around for about eight years, and recently even better under new management. Food is great and as the home of the Notting Hill Gate Rum Club it’s definitely the place to go for rum based drinks.

www.trailerhappiness.com
177 Portobello Road, London W11
+44(0)20 7313 4644
Google map: bit.ly/R3MlXK
nearest tube: Nottinghill Gate

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The Wheatsheaf hotel and pub in Virginia Water is set in an ideal location as it is right by Virginia Water Lake and Windsor Great Park. It is cosy with its open fireplaces and it has a large beer garden at the back. The inn welcomes families for dining and staying. Traditional, freshly cooked English food and light bites are available.
For a bit of history, King George III and Queen Charlotte are known to have stayed at the inn in the early 1800s.

www.chefandbrewer.com/pub/wheatsheaf-hotel-virginia-water/c4306/
London Road, Virginia Water, Surrey GU25 4QF
+44(0)1344 842057
Google map: bit.ly/RPdXMJ

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The Dock is a newly-opened restaurant in Docklands, just a short walk from Canary Wharf. It's a bit off the beaten track but a real hidden gem. It serves delicious seafood - I had the scallops with bacon, and tried some of my friend's calamari. It was really good! I was tempted by the steak but in the end opted for the fish and chips which were great. The batter was light and crispy and the chips nice and chunky. The food is top-class but there's nothing stuffy about it - it's very relaxed and the owner and staff are very friendly. It's great value too. I am looking forward to my next visit to try something more adventurous. I would really recommend it as a place for lunch, or for meeting friends after work.

www.thedockseafoodrestaurant.com
2 Mastmaker Road, London E14 9AW
+44(0)20 7515 4334
Google map: bit.ly/RNgJlC

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Just 40 minutes from Euston, walk up the ancient Hastoe Lane. Overhung with hawthorn, chestnut and in the summer edged with bright red woundwort and fragrant white wild garlic.
Past the entrance to the park continue past the beech woodland and turn left into King Charles walk. You are now on a 2000-year-old Ridgeway path. In autumn the woodland is sublime. Colours of golden syrup and copper glint in subdued autumn light, and at the viewpoint you can see the Rothschild's Tring Park school and beyond to the castle-like Mentmore towers. The Iron Age fort of Ivinghoe Beacon is to the east.
In summer the park is carpeted with common orchids, scabious and harebells.
In winter snow it is a sledge and ski resort for the town.

Google map: bit.ly/Tq3DKR

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This transformed warehouse is a hidden haven for anyone trying to avoid the obvious crowds in Dalston. They serve hearty British food, sourced locally, seasonal and fresh. The eating area is warm, friendly and relaxed, and the kitchen in plain view, which is always a good sign when they have nothing to hide! A perfect place to come for a quiet read or to go with friends for a sensibly priced dinner. It also hosts exhibitions and live music events.

therusset.wordpress.com/hackney-downs-studios/
Downs House, 11 Amhurst Terrace, London E8 2BT
+44(0)20 3095 9731
Google map: bit.ly/SD1e0K

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If you object to or can't afford paying to visit these great churches, you can always attend evensong at them. They are non-communion services which take place daily at around five in the afternoon (three on Sundays when the choirboys get off early) and last about 45 minutes to an hour. The singing is beautiful and you can see the church in action, lingering afterwards or beforehand to enjoy the architecture.

Westminster Abbey
www.westminster-abbey.org/
20 Dean's Yard London SW1P 3PA
+44(0)20 7222 5152
Google map: bit.ly/VKQrQE

St Paul's:
www.stpauls.co.uk/
St Paul's Churchyard, London, EC4M 8AD
+44(0)20 7236 8350
Google map: bit.ly/Pv4GuK

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Wherever you are in London the Regents Canal is never too far. On a crisp autumn day, especially in the morning when the water is so calm there is no nicer way to travel then a walk along here. The east side is my favourite with many snack bars and coffee hubs where you can sit and watch the Hackney posse rock about. Better yet are the charming houseboats that are docked up, especially towards trendy Broadway market which have taken to selling goods and sometimes even having live music. Take bread to feed the ducks and enjoy a piece of real London living.

The best place to start is the opening near Angel tube and the Canal can take you all the way to Victoria park.

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The Lea Valley walk is a lovely stroll for Londoners at any time of the year, but in autumn I think the combination of trees, leaves and water is particularly lovely.
For an 11ish mile walk, I recommend heading north from Limehouse to finish up at Ponders End, where you can catch the train back to Liverpool Street Station. For a shorter stretch start or stop at Markfield Park, about 1/2 mile from Seven Sisters and Tottenham Hale tube/train stations.
En route you pass the surprising and stunning Three Mills, the Olympic Park (albeit through security fencing), and breathe in the fresh air of the great green expanses of Hackney, Walthamstow and Tottenham Marshes - and then you're in the countryside with narrowboats and fishermen.
The whole route follows the reflective waters of the Lee/Lea in its various guises - from the Limehouse Cut to the Lee Navigation to the River Lea.
My favourite place to break the walk for a bite to eat is Pistachio's in the Park Cafe in Markfield Park which runs alongside the Lee Navigation.
For a coffee early on in the route, and good food too, you can detour to the Counter Cafe in Hackney Wick - it's on the west side of the canal at the junction with the Hertford Union Canal - which itself offers up a whole host of alternative destinations!
For me, the hardest thing about doing any of the Lea Valley Walk was working out how to get onto it. If you are walking from Limehouse aim for St Anne's Church - it marks the point where Commercial Road crosses Limehouse Cut, and there's access to the canal there. St Anne's is also one of Hawesmoor's churches and its website is great for directions - you can get there easily on the No 15 bus from central London, or on the DLR (Limehouse/West Ferry stations).

Lea Valley Walk information: www.walklondon.org.uk/route.asp?R=4
A Walk Along The Limehouse Cut Canal (lots of info about what you'll see on the early section): www.imvisitinglondon.com/limehousecut.html
Three Mills: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mills
Pistacios in the Park: pistachiosinthepark.org.uk/category/markfieldpark
Friends of Markfield Park (good map): www.markfieldpark.org.uk/
Counter Cafe: thecountercafe.co.uk/
St Anne's Church website (great directions): stanneslimehouse.org/location.html
TfL bus route map finder: www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaround/maps/buses/

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Easily accessible from central London (by tube, or overland rail from Liverpool St) the forest offers vast areas of walking and biking with beautiful dense trees, particularly the 'Up and Down Walk' which is a great leg stretcher in an otherwise pretty flat part of Essex. The Forest Information Centre is a good place to start, where guided trail maps are available. Take a map if you can and a compass is always helpful - as it's easy to lose your sense of direction in the forest!

www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/eppingforest
Google map: bit.ly/P4ds3T

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A well established vintage fashion fair running one Sunday per month in Primrose Hill. The fair is the perfect way to spend a leisurely Sunday afternoon and find some amazing vintage pieces.I got a really beautiful 1950's lace dress for under £30!
The fair has a great selection of stalls with a range of vintage clothing, shoes, accessories and textiles from a variety of decades with stallholders that really know their stuff and are approachable and happy to help. There is something to suit most people with clothes ranging from really affordable to some really special designer pieces and menswear. The pretty little cafe downstairs is also great for a cup of tea and slice of cake afterwards.

www.vintagefashionfairlondon.co.uk
Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regents Park Road, London NW1 7AY
Google map: bit.ly/UGKt2v

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Imagine a combination of healthy herbs, flavoursome flowers, juicy fruits, alcoholic tipples and a little night music thrown in and you have London’s hottest pop-up cocktail bar.
Lovely Lottie, the ‘Cocktail Gardener’ has created a fabulous roof-top paradise with botanically-infused drinks straight from the garden.
Last year, Lottie completed a one-year horticultural course at Capel Manor with honours and was looking for a vacant plot she could transform.
She found the neglected circular plot on the roof of the Brunel Museum, just across the road from her home.
In spring, with the help of fellow students, Lottie transformed the plot into a beautiful, edible garden with six raised beds radiating out from a central sundial.
By day, this rooftop cottage kitchen garden can be visited and enjoyed by all, while on Saturday evenings in September, Lottie places shimmering, coloured birds and flares among the plants, puts out the deckchairs, takes off her gardening gloves and rustles up the most amazing ‘prescriptions’ – her cocktail creations.
Visitors sip divine drinks amongst the foliage; honey and basil daquiris, whisky mint juleps, raspberry mint martinis and lavender gin fizzes with lavender sprigs as swizzle sticks.
Lottie uses borage blossom as decoration and also creates inspired, imaginative – and potent – creations such as lovage with brandy, gin with thyme or chocolate mint in whisky.
As Lottie says ‘Although we use lots of herbs and flowers, our cocktails really pack a punch.’
The marvellous Midnight Apothecary will only last until the end of September, so visit soon and reap the benefits!

Midnight Apothecary is going on till Sat 29 Sept, but then they have two specials - for Halloween (Sat 27 Oct) and Bonfire night (Sat 3 Nov.) In between, Lottie will be doing the bar for the Royal Horticultural Society's harvest festival event on 9 October.
www.brunel-museum.org.uk
Midnight Apothecary
Free entry, cash bar
Every Saturday in September 5pm-10.30pm
Brunel Museum, Railway Avenue SE16 4LF
Nearest tube: Rotherhithe
Buses: C10, 188, 381
Tours of the Grand Entrance Hall at 7:30pm (£5)
Google map: bit.ly/RVPDWG

* Lucy is our Been there local for London. You can read her profile here: www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/articles/london-local-lucy-mallows.jsp and follow her tips here: www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/travellers/LucyRM.jsp

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In the 90s I used to walk Yogi, a joyful Bouvier des Flandres, in these gardens every day. Yogi has long gone, but the gardens are in better shape than ever after a £12.1m facelift courtesy of National Lottery funding. An artificial lake, classic bridge, cascade of waterfalls and even an Inigo Jones gateway are just some of the treasures hidden among the specimen trees and latticework of pathways in this early example of English landscape gardening. Dogs still roam free in the wild woods and fields, but must be leashed in the more formal areas.

chgt.org.uk
Conservatory Yard, Chiswick House, London W4 2QN
+44 (0) 20 8742 3905
Google map: bit.ly/PPXHqo

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This south London park, its landscaped gardens formerly part of the Kelsey Estate, has been kept secret by the locals for the past 99 years. It has been our family favourite since Grandma pushed Mum around in her pram before the Second World War. When I was a little girl, Mum and I fed the ducks together every Sunday. As Kelsey Park heads towards its centenary, and since I have no daughter of my own to pass it on to, the time has come to share Beckenham's hidden treasure with the rest of the world. I hope Grandma isn't turning in her grave.

"... Confidence is a preference for the habitual voyeur of what is known as ... Parklife!" Blur, 1994

www.kelseyparkbeckenham.co.uk
Manor Way, Beckenham, London BR3 3LH
+44(0)20 8313 4471
Google map: bit.ly/RMc0mj

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The "Lungs of London": take a break from the city buzz and head up to Hampstead Heath. To breathe in wide, open and green views, start from the wonderful lido at Gospel Oak; trot up Parliament Hill to marvel at the city stretching out from east to west below; continue round the fields and woods to Kenwood House and enjoy a well-earned break on their outside cafe terrace; play spot the bird or spot the dog as you jog gently back down (approx three miles round route). To add to your fitness experience and commune further with nature, stop off at one of the swimming ponds (one each for men and women on the east Highgate side, and one mixed pond near Hampstead entrance) or finish off with a few lengths of the lido! To enjoy all four pools, enter the Hampstead Heath duathlon in early September, running between swims in all the pools, starting at the lido and finishing at the athletics track.

www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-spaces/hampstead-heath for a trails map and details of events like the duathlon. Can be easily reached from Gospel Oak or Hampstead Heath overground stations or C2 bus from Oxford Circus or 214 from the City/St Pancras, stopping at Parliament Fields.

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Us south Londoners have the most amazing free sports venue, here on Blackheath and adjacent Greenwich Park. Whatever your age, you can play and run your way across one of London’s biggest green spaces soaked in two thousand years of history.
Arriving at Blackheath Station walk up through Blackheath Village onto the heath proper. On the very place where thousands gathered for the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 you can play football, hockey, rugby, football, cricket, lacrosse, athletics, baseball and American football. It is also ideal and popular all year round for kite flying.
Walk across the heath past the start of the annual London Marathon to the gates of Greenwich Park where children can take a donkey ride. Then cross the A2 along which for centuries pilgrims rode and walked to Canterbury.
Through the gates and into the park where you can play cricket on a pitch in the shadow of the Georgian Ranger’s House, filled with mediaeval and renaissance art and old Dutch Masters; or play tennis on a court split by the nought degrees Meridian Line; walk toward the Royal Observatory and the statue of General Wolfe, winner of Canada for the British, pockmarked with Luftwaffe bullets and then take in the magnificent view that takes in the masts of the Cutty Sark and Canary Wharf.
Walk, run, jog, play with frisbees and cycle all for free in these grounds - horseback-ridden by Henry VIII and Elizabeth 1 - past the remains of a Roman temple, past a deer park, flower garden, bandstand and magnificent trees.
But if you want to be organised by someone else you can take part in sessions for military fitness, weight training and running for mixed groups and mums only. And if you’re worn out by all this you can take children and watch them making some effort on the children’s boating pond in the shadow of the Maritime Museum.

Transport
Blackheath Railway Station, Tranquil Vale, Blackheath, London, SE3 9LE
Buses: 53, 54, 89, 108, 202, 380, 386
Other stations around Greenwich Park: Network Rail, Maze Hill: DLR, Cutty Sark

Sports on Blackheath
For all field sports contact GreenScene, London Borough of Lewisham
Tel: 020 8314 2047 greenscene@lewisham.gov.uk

Kite-flying
Kite-flying is free and can take place all year round.

Donkey Rides
Donkey rides are temporarily-suspended due to bereavement but will resume in October 2012.

Sports in Greenwich Park

Putting
Small putting green at Greenwich Tennis Centre, north of Ranger’s Field
(0)20 8293 0276 www.playzennis.co.uk

Cricket
One cricket square on Ranger’s Field near Blackheath Gate available to book Tuesday-Thursday and weekends during park opening hours, 1May-30 September. Pavilion with changing rooms and showers.
Tel: 020 8858 2608

Rugby
South end of the park close to the Blackheath Gate.
Call 20 8858 2608 for details of pitch hire times and prices.


Military/Keep Fit Training/Running

British Military Fitness
www.britmilfit.com/
020 7751 9742
Contact for prices

Go Commando Personal Training
www.gocommandopersonaltraining.co.uk
07584 436060
£20 per 3 hour session

Serpentine Running Club
www.serpentine.org.uk/pages/training_run_hills.html
07970 896440 out of office hours
e-mail: karhan90@btinternet.com

Running Mummies
Michelle - 07956 234309
Rebecca - 07967 793957
Email - runningmummies@gmail.com.

Boating
Boating Lake
Pedal and rowing boats, open from Easter til October, weather permitting.

Google map: bit.ly/Onf2YV

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It's worth making a special trip to find Hampton Lido, as the Canadian triathlon team have just done. This little gem, saved from demolition in 1985, is hidden away in SW London by Bushy Park. Open 365 days of the year, the open air lido has a heated 36m pool, plus a children's pool and a delightful grassy area to spread rugs on beneath shady trees.
The low, 1930s style building along one side has a gym with all the latest equipment and a fitness studio which offers yoga, pilates, circuits and more. Upstairs is the small Sun Deck cafe for breakfast (best porridge in London) lunch, drinks and snacks and a south-facing balcony terrace overlooking the pools. There are music concerts on the grass in the summer and if you join the Poolside Club you can swim and BBQ in the evenings outside public opening hours.

www.hamptonpool.co.uk
High Street, Hampton, Middlesex TW12 2ST +44(0)208 255 1116
Google map: bit.ly/LMMtSF

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