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This delightful child-sized museum is a treasure-trove of historic toys. The shop below is crammed with old-fashioned playthings including Victorian toy theatre sheets, originally published by Benjamin Pollock.

Running through the centre of the decidedly fashionable Notting Hill, Portobello Road, with its extensive selection of antique shops, is a great place to spend some time. It is especially good on Saturday when the market is in full swing. This starts just beyond Westbourne Grove, with fruit and vegetables, bread, sausages, cheeses, then music, clothes and bric-à-brac. Beyond the railway bridge it becomes a flea market. Sit upstairs in the Café Grove (No. 253a) and watch it all go by, or quench your thirst in Fluid’s juice bar (13 Elgin Crescent). Ethnic food is otherwise what goes down best, and the West Indian flavour spills over into the vibrant music and colourful clothes stalls.

This delightful home in the midst of Greenwich Park was the first Palladian building by Inigo Jones, and home to the wife of Charles I. Beautifully restored to its 17th-century glory, it now provides a home for the National Maritime Museum’s art collection.

John Nash wanted the canal to go through the centre of his new Regent’s Park, but objections from neighbours, who were concerned about smelly canal boats and foul-mouthed crews, resulted in it being sited on the northern side of the park. In 1874, a cargo of explosives demolished the North Gate bridge beside London Zoo.

The best part of Regent’s Park lies within the Inner Circle. Here are Queen Mary’s Gardens, with beds and bowers of wonderfully fragrant roses, the Open Air Theatre with its summer Shakespeare productions and the popular Park Café –one of half a dozen cafés in the park. Rowing boats, tennis courts and deck chairs can be rented and in summer musical performances take place on the bandstand.