Elsewhere in London

30 places in London, outside the boroughs above, each one on the Guide on merit.

Abbey Wood

Crossness Pumping Station
Museum
A Victorian sewage pumping station opened in 1865 as part of Sir Joseph Bazalgette's system to save London from the Great Stink. The Grade 1 Listed building houses a working steam beam engine and ornamental cast ironwork described as a cathedral of spectacular design. Guided tours run on select Tuesdays and Sundays, with a museum holding over 400 artefacts including a Toilet Timeline tracing 5000 years of sanitary technology.

Perfect Circle Poi
Flow-arts / fire poi
Learn flow arts one to one, working up to spinning fire poi, taught wherever suits you. Not the most useful skill, but a good one to have.

Sabiib
African
A polished Somali room in Acton that looks far smarter than the postcode would have you expect. Worth the trip west.

Chiswick House & Gardens
Palladian villa & gardens
The Palladian villa and Kent landscape that is the birthplace of the English Landscape Movement, plus the country's oldest camellia collection each spring.
La Trompette
European
Serious cooking in a relaxed Chiswick room, with none of the flash. A grown-up place to take someone.

Chatsworth Bakehouse
Bakery
A postage-stamp Crystal Palace bakery worth crossing zones for: viral focaccia sandwiches that sell out online in 60 seconds, a 2026 Baker's Dozen name.
Crystal Palace Wine Club
Wine bar
A dog-friendly neighbourhood wine bar that takes English wine seriously and itself less so. Tom will point you somewhere good.
Yuki's Kitchen
Japanese cooking class
Japanese home cooking taught by Yuki Gomi, Penguin cookbook author, from her garden-facing studio in Crystal Palace. Sushi, gyoza, ramen and miso-making in small, unhurried classes.

Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery
Museum & gallery
Sir John Soane's restored Grade I villa in Ealing, with a contemporary gallery alongside. Architecture worth leaving Zone 1 for.
pulp.
Scrollsants & natural wine
A coffee shop that moonlights as a natural wine bar, with a pastry it basically invented. Worth the trip west.
Rayuela
European
Ealing tapas with a South American accent and the chargrill front and centre. Coren put it on the map.

The Phoenix Cinema
Cinema
One of the oldest continuously running cinemas in Britain, a 1910 barrel-vaulted room in East Finchley, art-house programme, run by a charity since 1985.

Myddelton House Gardens
Historic garden
The plantsman E. A. Bowles' own Enfield garden: glasshouses, a rock garden, national plant collections and a pair of 300-year-old lead ostriches. Free, tranquil, properly off the beaten track.
Trent Park House of Secrets
Historical Landmark
A Georgian country house in north London that served as a bugged prisoner of war camp for German generals during WWII, with conversations recorded and fed to Bletchley Park. The ground floor state rooms have been restored with original Sassoon-era furnishings including Sargent portraits, Flemish tapestries and Chinese lacquer cabinets. For anyone drawn to espionage history and the layered lives of English country houses.

Joyau
Wine bar
A railway-arch wine bar that earns the word jewel, especially with the terrace full on a warm evening.

Café Japan
Asian
A no-frills Golders Green counter where the chefs use real wasabi and the sushi outclasses half of Mayfair.

The Lexi Cinema
Cinema
A tiny boutique cinema near Kensal Rise, volunteer-run and giving its profits to charity, with a warm bar and a programme that swings from arthouse to crowd-pleasers.

Ram Jam Records
Live music venue
A candlelit back-alley room for blues and jazz, comedy on Fridays and a quiz on Tuesdays. Properly independent.

Bimber Distillery
Whisky distillery
A real London single-malt distillery, with tours and tastings that take the spirit seriously without the craft-workshop kitsch.

Alexandra Nurseries
Nursery tea room
A ramshackle plant nursery in Penge with a vintage-clutter tea room, a vine canopy and summer-evening barbecues. The undiscovered take on the nursery-cafe.

Bar Blondie
Natural wine bar
The Milk Beach site reborn: a 160-bin low-intervention list from an award-winning sommelier, poured beside a proper southern-European kitchen doing fresh pasta, grilled sharing plates and artichoke alla Giudia. More restaurant than wine bar, and adults only.
Casa Felicia
European
A cosy Queen's Park Neapolitan from an ex-Manteca chef: contemporary southern-Italian cooking, a tempura parmigiana, decadent food at very fair prices.
Don't Tell Dad
European
A glossy Queen's Park bakery by day, warm modern British-French restaurant by night, from an ex-Layla baker and an ex-Noble Rot chef. Photogenic without trying too hard.

The French Table
European
A proper neighbourhood restaurant that happens to cook at a level Surbiton has no business hosting.

Mudlarking with Thames Explorer Trust
Mudlarking
An archaeologist-led foreshore dig for clay pipes and Tudor pottery, now the only legitimate way in.

Provender
European
Unfussy French bistro cooking that has held a Bib Gourmand since day one. Often called the cheapest Michelin-listed table in E11.

Hashi Cooking
Japanese cooking class
Reiko Hashimoto was the first person in the UK to teach sushi, and has run Hashi from her minimalist Wimbledon kitchen for over twenty years. Small groups around a central island, focus firmly on the food.
ssam ssam
Asian
A family-run Korean grill on an unglamorous stretch of Merton Road that took a Bib Gourmand in 2026 without a single national review. Tabletop barbecue done properly, no scene attached.
Table @ Vallebona
European
A restaurant supplier's deli that turned into a dining counter. Sit at the marble and watch your dinner get made.

The Black Lamb
European
The Gladwin brothers' local-and-wild British cooking in Wimbledon Village, dried flowers overhead, a buzzy room. Good, though portions can run small and the mood varies. Go for a smart pre-tennis lunch or a wine-led dinner rather than a big feast.

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