City Guide: London
A design lover’s guide to England’s art & antiques mecca
I first fell in love with London from afar, like so many millennials: by watching Hallie Parker’s welcome-to-London montage in The Parent Trap, with its glimpses of Big Ben, Tower Bridge, and Kensington Palace to the tune of ‘90s classic There She Goes. Even now, I still get a thrill when Hallie opens the glossy black front door to the fictitious 7 Pembroke Lane - though it’s the quintessentially English interiors that catch my attention most as an adult.
I’ve been fortunate to visit London many times - first as a 13-year-old on my very first trip abroad, and most recently earlier this summer with my mom, sister and brother-in-law, en route to visit family in Norwich. Each time, I leave more smitten with the city than when I arrived.
Over the years, I’ve also amassed plenty of design-forward recs for where to stay, eat, drink, sightsee and shop. I’ve personally vetted every last experience on this list, with the same obsessiveness that I bring to decoding cryptic artworks and dismantling flea market chandeliers with tweezers.
Where to stay
For polished luxury in a quiet corner of the West End:
📍The Bloomsbury, 16-22 Great Russell Street
Tucked away on a leafy side street just steps from Soho and Covent Garden, The Bloomsbury is a living tribute to the neighborhood’s artistic legacy: portraits of painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant line the cozy sitting room walls and works by Luke Edward Hall depicting the neighborhood and its illustrious inhabitants hang in cocktail bar The Coral Room.
For a maximalist fever dream in the heart of Soho:
📍Broadwick Soho, 20 Broadwick Street
Interior designer Martin Brudnizki’s creative concept for the property was “Studio 54 meets your grandmother’s Soho townhouse,” the type of place where you’d “combine chintz with a disco ball.” The flamingo pink lobby feels like an ultra-stylish Barbie’s dream house.
For collected British interiors in posh Marylebone:
📍The Zetter Marylebone, 28-30 Seymour Street
Rumor has it that The Zetter Marylebone is filled with more than 10,000 antiques, amassed by designer Russell Sage over 3 years. Sage designed the space around a fictional persona: wicked Uncle Seymour, an eccentric world traveler and obsessive gambler who loves his booze.
Where to eat
For Michelin-starred Indian cuisine: Trishna, a posh-but-not-pretentious eatery in Marylebone. Order the Aloo Tokri Chaat - a potato, chickpea, tamarind and yogurt confection - paired with a mango lassi to counter the spice.
For high-style afternoon tea: The Orangery at Number Sixteen in South Kensington, for eclectic interiors by designer Kit Kemp, a charming garden filled with mulberry trees and a koi pond, and perhaps the best savory scones I’ve ever had, served with a heavenly chive and olive oil dipping sauce.
For picnic-ready grab-and-go fare: I’m not officially in London until I’ve made a pit stop at Ottolenghi, sometimes for pastries and coffee, other times for an assortment of takeaway salads (and, if I’m being honest, a dessert or two). I regret not bringing home a bag (or ten) of the granola on my most recent visit.
For stress-free solo dining: When dining solo, I look for three things: small plates and/or tasting menus, bar seating that can be reserved in advance, and unfussy service. The Palomar (Soho, modern Jerusalem-inspired cuisine), The Barbary (Covent Garden, North African small plates), and Bubala (Soho, vegetarian Israeli with a £46 tasting menu) all fit the bill.
Where to drink
For art-y environs: Art and design lovers will fall in love with the color theory-inspired menu at Fitz’s, a glamorous, dimly-lit cocktail lounge on the ground floor of the historic Kimpton Fitzroy. I spent a pleasant evening sipping on an amethyst-colored concoction and reading on my Kindle as the disco ball turned lazily overhead.
For gilt noir at one of Taylor Swift’s favorite haunts: Swifties may prefer to make a pilgrimage to the Beaufort Bar at The Savoy, which screams Reputation-era with its matte black walls adorned with gold leaf accents and sensual, curved light fixtures. When we asked our waiter if he’d ever seen Taylor onsite, he smiled and said no - but then leaned in conspiratorially and told us how he’d met her while working backstage at Cabaret on the night of Cara Delevingne’s last performance.
For eye-popping art deco design: You may feel the urge to slip on your sunglasses when you first walk into The Coral Room, with its lacquered coral walls, glittering art deco chandeliers, and backlit brass bar. It’s the kind of place where you’re practically obligated to order something bubbly.
Where to sightsee
For fashionistas and magpies: On multiple occasions, I’ve set my alarm for the wee hours in order to snag tickets to a blockbuster fashion exhibition at The V&A. And I’m happy to report that, every time, it’s been worth it: Chanel’s “dinner pyjamas” still live rent-free in my head after Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto in 2023, and I’ll be daydreaming for the foreseeable future about Elsa Schiaparelli’s eccentric buttons on display during Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art, on view through November 8, 2026.
For serious art lovers: Years ago, I found myself at a dinner party in Belgravia, where the hosts had decorated their stately townhouse top-to-bottom in French antiques and Old Master paintings. As I sipped a nightcap, I finally worked up the courage to ask our glamorous host where she’d trained her eye for art. Her answer? The Courtauld, an intimate jewel box filled with Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces and a leading center for art historical scholarship.
For committed collectors: Architect Sir John Soane’s home and studio is filled with dozens of ancient Roman funerary busts, a full-size cast of the Apollo Belvedere, paintings by masters from Canaletto to Hogarth to Turner and yes, a two-thousand year old Egyptian sarcophagus. The real treat? Being in the tiny picture gallery promptly at 3pm, when the docent dons a pair of white cotton art handling gloves and opens up the walls to reveal more layers of artworks hung on “picture planes” behind.
For decorative arts aficionados: I’ll be the first to admit that it wasn’t actually the period interiors or world-class collection of paintings, sculpture and more that drew me to The Wallace Collection; it was a 2023 exhibition on dog portraiture. But after I finished fawning over David Hockney’s portraits of dachshunds Stanley and Boodgie, I was delighted to wander the permanent galleries, with their silk brocade wall coverings, ornate chandeliers and salon-style displays of masterworks like Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s iconic painting The Swing.
For world travelers and souvenir shoppers: Like Soane, Sir Frederic Leighton - celebrated Victorian painter, draughtsman and sculptor - was known for bringing art and artifacts from his world travels home to Holland Park. The two-story Arab Hall in his home is outfitted with thousands of tiles that Leighton personally sourced from bazaars across Turkey, Egypt, Syria and Greece. Wandering the practically empty halls of Leighton House, I couldn’t help but feel I’d met a kindred spirit: a fellow design obsessive with a penchant for hauling home evidence of his travels.
Where to shop
For quintessentially British souvenirs: The lower ground floor gift shop at Harrods is pure magic - enough to make even grown women (read: me and my dear friend, Anne) squeal. I’m still dreaming about the elaborate wicker picnic hampers, plush teddy bears, and leather key fobs stamped with phrases like “private jet” and “pool house.”
For bespoke fascinators and other bits and bobs: Haberdashery VV Rouleaux is a cult-favorite, with two floors packed to the brim with ribbons, trimmings and elaborate accessories (think glittering brooches and ornamental birds). Prices are equally extravagant: I’m still lusting after a burgundy velvet baseball cap finished with a stylish satin bow, which even I couldn’t justify for a cool £290.
For antiques: Portobello Road Market is hardly a hidden gem - it’s packed with tourists and locals alike by 10:30 or 11am on Saturdays - but it’s worth a visit all the same. I’m partial to the antique arcades on the southern end of Portobello Road, where I once snagged a pair of Murano sconces for about £100, rather than the stalls that pop up streetside. Make your way down to Golborne Road, too: the stalls are junkier and less curated than those along Portobello Road, but you’ll have a better chance at unearthing underpriced treasures. Muirshin Durkin and Les Couilles du Chien, both permanent storefronts along Golborne Road serving up well-curated antiques, are also worth popping into.
For contemporary design & decor: Golborne Road doesn’t miss when it comes to design and concept stores, either: it’s home to Trove, a small full-service interiors showroom run by designer Tiffany Duggan and team; Alice Palmer & Co, where lamp shades and tissue box covers in whimsical prints abound; and my new personal favorite, Arte House, which is exactly what its name implies - part art gallery, part home decor showroom, all impeccably curated as if by your most stylish, most well-traveled friend.
For sumptuous fabrics: Every time I pop into The Cloth Shop, I regret not carrying measurements for every possible textile project - window treatments, throw pillows, reupholstering furniture - on my person; the selection of cotton block prints and decorative braids have me convinced that I should take up sewing. But I know myself, and DIYer I am not - which is why it’s harder for me to leave Cologne & Cotton empty-handed, as their linen duvets and hand-embroidered sheets are ready to use, no crafting required.
For secondhand designer clothing: I am physically incapable of walking past a charity shop without at least stopping for a cursory browse - especially when the racks are stocked with high street favorites (Sezane, Maje, Reiss) and designer duds alike. My favorite charity shops in London: Oxfam Boutique - Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill, Royal Trinity Hospice in Kensington, and Mary’s Living and Giving Shop in Primrose Hill.
Where to day trip
For a glimpse into how the Bloomsbury Group lived, worked and played: I can’t quite believe that Charleston House - the country estate and studio of painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, and home to many of the Bloomsbury Group’s interwar escapades - still flies under the radar (though perhaps not for long - it’s trending in art and design algorithms). When I visited in 2023, I had the property practically to myself; I happily spent hours peppering the docents with questions as I wandered from room to room and, eventually, through the gardens.
Don’t forget about the desserts served with tea at The Orangery at Number Sixteen. They were almost too beautiful to eat….key word being “almost.” Decadent!
Sarah! This is perfect timing, and I can't wait to read - I'm heading to London next month for my birthday, and I love having a list of recs so long that it leaves me needing to return.