Curated: Insider guides to London’s best bits

Artistic director Lynette Linton is a high-brow legend, writing plays, directing plays and now running the show at the Bush Theatre. But we didn't ask about anyt of that. We wanted to know about the best TV shows she's watched under lockdown. Because we are basic.  

All parks have blurred into one. Canal towpaths are boring. There are only so many times you can say ‘ah, that’s a nice bird’ or ‘I’ve not noticed that building before’ until you want to drop to your knees and scream for so long your tonsils get signed off with burnout...

What we’re saying is: it’s hard to get excited about ‘going for a walk’ these days. Sure, it might once have sounded like a joyful concept – a nice way to get a bit of nature in after a hard day at work – but now that we have done that for 365+, nothing feels duller. That’s why we've asked one of the people who knows London best to share secret spots to discover on lockdown walks with us. No, not a city planner or historian, one of those open-top bus tour guides. Phil Harris is the lead guide at Big Bus Tours. 

1. The Olde Cheshire Cheese step

‘The Olde Cheshire Cheese is a famous pub on Fleet Street rebuilt in 1667. For more than three and a half centuries it has been frequented by famous writers as well as journalists, City workers and even a US President (Theodore Roosevelt). As you enter, you step on a metal grille that covers the worn step below. If you step on the worn step you have literally stepped on the same step as Charles Dickens (you can sit in his chair in the chop room) Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr Samuel Johnson to name but a few. It’s 354 years of history in one step.’

2. John Snow’s water pump (and the cure for cholera)

‘If you happen to be around the Carnaby Street area, take a two-minute walk to The John Snow pub on Broadwick Street (formally Broad Street). Outside is the water pump that John Snow, the eminent epidemiologist, in 1854 discovered was the source of the local cholera epidemic. He subsequently found the vaccine for cholera. Millions of lives have been saved because of one man and a pump.’

3. The Tyburn tree plaque

‘In the traffic triangle at the junction of Marble Arch and Edgware Road is a small plaque. It notes the area of an execution gallows that stood here from 1571 to 1783. 1,100 people were executed, mostly for highway robbery and murder but also for other crimes such as theft and treason. Oliver Cromwell was hanged here for treason. When Jack Shepherd, a thief famous for escaping from prison numerous times, was hanged here in 1724 – up to 200,000 people, one third of London’s population, attended.’

 A film scout shares his favourite filming locations. 

A principal ballet dancer on three albums to walk around London to. 

When you live in a big, largely grey, city it can be easy to feel a bit like: What the hell would I even go looking for if I went foraging here? Here's Amanda Brame, the horticultural director at iconic restaurant/garden centre Petersham Nurseries for her top tips on snacks you can easily find in London’s woodland, hedgerows and fields.

There are many reasons to head out into the city with drawing pencils and a sketchpad. The main one being that it makes you look sexy and intellectual even if you can barely draw a stick figure. We asked Brixton Life Drawing's Anya and Bex for their top tips for the best London statues to spend an afternoon sketching.

Kim Fenton, whose credits include ‘Rocks’ and Pablo Larraín’s new film, ‘Spencer’, on her favourite London shooting locations. Why not pay the alleyways, parks and corner shops a visit if you're in that neck of the woods?

We think it's pretty fair to say that, when you spend hours dancing every day, you're going to hear some songs. Long songs, short songs, fast songs, slow songs – you're going to discover songs that are good to move to and songs that are bad. That's certainly the case for Sarah Lamb, a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet. 

Who knows London's cycle lanes and shortcuts better than anyone else in the city? Bike couriers and takeaway riders, that's who. While many of us have spent the past year looping the same route around our neighbourhood again and again, like hamsters in a giant wheel, they've been racing through streets across town, getting all our lockdown impulse purchases to us on time.

Do you ever find yourself staring at the dark night sky in London and wondering whether – if you really tried – you’d be able to see some stars? The answer, friend, is yes. Yes you could. Or so say the astrologers from top-notch, and pretty much legendary, stargazing spot the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

We asked the London Wildlife Trust for tips on which butterflies you can spot in London (and where you can go to see them). 

We’ve asked some of our favourite chefs to reveal the cornershops, local stores and mini-supermarket they love. Their answers reveal hidden gems on London’s high streets – from sustainability heroes to spots with top fruit and veg to places to go for unusual ingredients 

Why not use the next few weeks as a chance to make your street, balcony or garden a better habitat for wildlife? Sian Moxon, founder of the Rewild My Street campaign, gives her top tips.

You might not think of London as a wildlife hotspot, but actually loads of little feathery guys call this city home (even one of our most industrial buildings is home to peregrine falcons).

Are you pining for a nature fix? The aptly named Paul Wood, whose new guide to the urban forest, ‘London’s Street Trees’, has just been published, says you need look no further than the trees on your neighbourhood streets.

Delis serving up incredible hams, butchers that’ll do you a decadent leg of lamb, greengrocers whose apples sparkle in the sun, fishmongers with the freshest flippers in town.