My favourite places to visit in London

I have lived in or around London all of my life. I know it well. I have my favourite places that I love to return to over and over again. I also have an opinion about the best places to visit if you are coming to London and have only a very short time to explore this amazing city.

I was a very young child when I first began to find out about the city where I had been born. My family lived in Ladbroke Grove, which is located north of the rather more famous Notting Hill. My Grandfather was someone who loved to get up early in the mornings - he was never late for work! Luckily for me at the weekend he would visit our home and take me out with him. We would walk through the quiet, peaceful London streets together, and I began to learn about (and love) the city which was my home. I can still remember the sun shining through the trees in Hyde Park, or looking up at the huge buildings of government in Whitehall. Most of all I loved the excitement of the street markets.

London is so varied it takes a lifetime to explore. One place I would recommend is the (relatively new) London Eye. It is great to see the whole of the city spread out before you. As a Londoner it is fun trying to pick out familiar landmarks from a very unfamiliar perspective.

Back on the ground my favourite place is South Kensington and Knightsbridge. If I have enough time I take a whole day to enjoy this fabulous area of London. Clustered around Exhibition Road are the Victoria and Albert (V&A), Natural History and the Science Museums - they are all truely worth a visit - but as they just couldn`t all be viewed in one day ..... a choice has to be made. My first choice is the V&A, but I love history.....

After spending time in one of the museums (or even instead of visiting a museum - all depending on my mood.... ) I like to make my way to Harrods. I used to work in this sensational department store. I love returning to have a look around and do some shopping. It is easy to get to Harrods from South Kensingston you can take the Tube (the underground train) from the station at South Ken. - it is just one stop. Or my favourite way is to walk through the streets which run parallel to Brompton Road. These are quieter and prettier than the more busy main road, but Brompton Road is direct and has lots of great shops. If you go via this route you pass the front entrance of Brompton Oratory which is also a beautiful building and worth a visit if you have enough time.

There are lots of good places to eat in this area of London. Princess Diana was a frequent visitor for that reason. The range of cafes, bars, and restaurants cater for everyone - including the staff working in the nearby stores.

You can also chose to eat in Harrods. The store is huge and visiting every department takes a long time. My favourites are the famous Food Hall and the perfumery and cosmetic departments.

If after visiting a museum you don`t want the hustle and bustle of Knightsbridge then a visit to nearby Hyde Park is always a pleasure. I enjoy looking at the Albert Memorial which is situated opposite the Albert Hall. As a little girl I used to run up and down the steps completing ignoring the famous characters carved into the base of the monument. As a bride (a decade later) my bridal car - complete with white ribbons - was kept waiting in a line of traffic slowly exiting the park, I had lots of time to steadfastly look up at the Prince as a rather large crowd of tourists were looking rather curiously at me !!!!!

About ten years later when I no longer lived in central London. I remember taking my young family to see the Serpentine (the lake in Hyde Park) and being absolutely amazed to see something that I had never ever seen before. An old man had attracted a large crowd of people to an area by the water because he was somehow able to bring hundreds of tiny little sparrows to land on his hands and arms and even his head, and then to my families delight they would alight upon anyone else close by ...... including my own children. Was this a regular spectacle? I have no idea. No-one else has ever talked of it to me. It certainly was a magical moment for all of us.

Many years before the sparrows had been a very real problem in the magnificent glass building that housed the Great Exhibition, which was located in Hyde Park. Shooting them down was one suggestion - the combination of glass and bullets was always going to be difficult. The Duke of Wellington suggested sparrowhawks. I think they could have done with the elderly Pied Piper that we saw in the Park a hundred years later.

Another of my favourites is the Wallace Collection. I was about seventeen when I first discovered this wonderful place tucked quietly away behind Selfridges in London`s West End. I was studying A level art at school, and also very interested in historical costume. I felt completely overwhelmed by the amazing technical brilliance of the Dutch Masters. The collection has room after room of masterpieces by artists such as Rembrandt, Hals, Rubens and also Titian and many more. If you are planning to visit Oxford Street for the shopping - Manchester Square, (and Hertford House where the collection is found) is very close by and so worth visiting.

Wow, talking of the amazing technical expertise of the Dutch Masters - I am not the only person to be struck by it !!!!!

I have just watched a television documentary by the famous contempory artist David Hockney. He claims that the brilliance is due to the use of a camera obscura. I must say I can see why this could be true.