London

London, in notes — places, walks, and the city as it earns its keep. Records of where the city pays its way.

Abbey Road flat

Fully furnished third-floor 1-bedroom at 11 Abbey Road, St John's Wood NW8 — short stays, weekends to three months.

Stay · abbeyroad.gf.cx

St John's Wood NW8 · five-minute walk to the Jubilee Line

Restaurants

Suggestions from the flat outward — none vetted yet. Cross off the ones that don't earn their keep.

• The Ivy St John's Wood, St John's Wood High Street — the neighbourhood Ivy; all-day, reliable, easy to book.
• Oslo Court, Prince Albert Road — a 1970s dining room that never changed and never needed to. Dessert trolley.
• Sea Shell of Lisson Grove — fish and chips, sit-in or paper; a short walk south of the flat.
• Lemonia, Regent's Park Road — Primrose Hill's Greek taverna since 1979; loud, big, good.
• Greenberry Café, Regent's Park Road — the Primrose Hill breakfast; time it after the summit.
• Fischer's, Marylebone High Street — Viennese café, schnitzel and strudel; a bus 139 ride down.
• The Clifton, Clifton Hill NW8 — the pub, with a garden, between the flat and Maida Vale.

Groceries

• Tesco on St John's Wood High Street, the Boundary Road takeaways, Waitrose and Sainsbury's at Swiss Cottage.

Takeout

Indian

• Meghna Grill, Boundary Road NW8 — running since 1964, masalas hand-ground on site; north and south Indian, sit-in or takeaway.
• Dhaba 49, Chippenham Road, Maida Vale — dhaba-style Punjabi cooking with a modern finish; worth the walk west.

Sushi & Japanese

• Maido Sushi, Circus Road NW8 — cut fresh on site daily, minutes from the door; eat in or take it home.
• Maguro, Lanark Place, Little Venice — a small room by the canal, sushi counter and not much else; the regulars don't need convincing.
• Sushi Murasaki, Lauderdale Road, Maida Vale — unshowy, properly fresh, and nobody's rushing you out.

Coffee

• Soutine, St John's Wood High Street — a Parisian café dropped onto the high street; coffee and a pastry standing up, or the full sit-down.
• Notes Coffee Roasters, Circus Road NW8 — the serious cup on this side of the flat; beans roasted in east London, poured here.

Pub food, Maida Vale

• The Prince Alfred, Formosa Street — Grade II* listed, snob screens still dividing the bar; go for the room, stay for the kitchen.
• The Elgin, Elgin Avenue — the modern local: rotating ales, a kitchen that means it, Sunday roasts that book up.
• The Hero, Shirland Road — pub food taken up a notch, fish finger rolls through to steak, with a wine list that outclasses the postcode.

Walks

• The Abbey Road loop — out of the flat, past the studios and the zebra crossing (mind the tourists), round Lord's and back up St John's Wood High Street. Half an hour; the walk that sets the neighbourhood. Maps routes you as far as the High Street — the last two minutes back to the door you walk unaided.
• Regent's Park to Primrose Hill — across the park past the zoo's edge, over the canal bridge and up to the summit for the skyline. Robin Howie's Dialogue with Public Space sat on this hill; the view is the point either way.
• The canal, west to east — Little Venice to Camden Lock along the Regent's Canal towpath: houseboats, the park's north edge, then the market. Start from Maida Vale (Bakerloo) and finish on the Northern line.
• The river at More London — Tower Bridge to Foster's City Hall, along the water channel to Tooley Street, ending at Borough Market. Hazard or delight, still undecided.
• Liverpool Street to Columbia Road — through Spitalfields and up Brick Lane; a Sunday walk for the flower market. Liverpool Street once had 350 dancers in its concourse; it is calmer now.

Parks

• Primrose Hill — the summit and the skyline, twenty minutes on foot from the flat. The one to show a first-time visitor.
• Regent's Park — the big one next door: the zoo, the boating lake, Queen Mary's rose garden, the Open Air Theatre in summer.
• St John's Wood Church Grounds — the small nature reserve opposite Lord's; a ten-minute sit, not a walk.
• Paddington Recreation Ground — Maida Vale's local: running track, tennis, the flat's nearest proper lawn to the west.
• Hampstead Heath — up the hill past Swiss Cottage and Belsize Park; Parliament Hill for the view, the ponds for the brave. A half-day, not an hour.

Landmarks

• Lord's Cricket Ground — the home of cricket, ten minutes' walk from the flat; book the MCC Museum and ground tour if there's no match on.

Map

Open the neighbourhood map — every recommendation plotted on a walking map, with 5 / 10 / 20-minute rings from the flat and the nearest Underground stops. Pan, zoom, tap a pin.

Useful numbers

• +44 20 7722 9000— main-residence
• +44 7776 936000— uk-european mobile