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No adults admitted without a child, says the sign on the gate to this 7-acre park dedicated to small children. There’s a paddling pool, play areas and a city farm with a pets corner and grazing farm animals.

A range of champagnes and wines are available at this basement bar near Leicester Square. Open until midnight, Monday to Saturday.

Cork Street is famous for its art galleries. You can buy works by the best artists here, from Picasso and Rothko to Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.

The most appealing art shop in town has wood panelling and rows of glass jars full of pigments.

Founded in 1932 for the study of the history of European art, the Courtauld is part of Britain’s oldest institute for teaching the history of art. Located in the North Block of Somerset House thegallery rooms are particularly strong on Impressionist paintings. Each Tuesday at 1:15pm there is a free talk on one of the paintings in the exhibition.

From Fra Angelico to Van Gogh, this is a complete art course in one manageable gallery. The core of the collection is the country’s finest Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, amassed by a textile magnate, Samuel Courtauld (1876–1947). Many of them are instantly recognisable: Manet’sBar at the Folies-Bergère , Van Gogh’sSelf Portrait With Bandaged Ear , Gauguin’sTeRerioa and Manet’sDéjeuner sur L’Herbe .Visit Somerset House’s fountain courtyard and riverside terrace café for a drink afterwards.

London’s most innovative new hotel group is distinguished here by modern style and traditional elegance. Rooms are individually designed with luxurious marble bathrooms. A basement screening room is a nod to its showbiz guests.