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The most exciting North London markets are open every weekend, and linked by the busy and colourful Camden High Street. Camden Market, near the tube station, is packed with stalls selling clothes, shoes and jewellery. Further up the road, by the canal, Camden Lock Market focuses on crafts and ethnic goods. Stalls in the warehouses of Stables Market have great food on sale. Open weekends only between 8am and 6pm.

Regent’s Canal, Camden Lock

A welcome retreat from the city, this large, open area is one of the best places in London for walking. Covering 800 acres of countryside, it contains ancient woodlands and ponds for swimming and fishing. The high point of Parliament Hill has great city views and is a popular place for kite-flying.

Hampstead Heath

Keats Grove, off Downshire Hill, is one of the loveliest areas of Hampstead. The house where the poet John Keats wrote much of his work is a pretty white villa, containing facsimiles of his fragile manuscripts and letters, as well as some personal possessions. Poetry readings and talks are given on Wednesday evenings.

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, and his daughter Anna, came to live here when he fled Nazi-occupied Vienna. The house contains Freud’s collection of antiques and his library, including first editions of his own works. Also on display is the famous couch on which his patients related their dreams.

This magnificent mansion, filled with Old Masters, is set in an idyllic lakeside estate on the edge of Hampstead Heath. Vermeer’sThe Guitar Player and a self-portrait by Rembrandt are among the star attractions. Concerts are held by the lake in summer – audiences sit in the grassy bowl, with picnics to sustain them.

Built in 1703, Burgh House houses Hampstead Museum, which has a good selection of local books and a map of the famous people who have lived in the area. The panelled music room is used for art exhibitions, concerts and meetings, and there is a pleasant café with garden tables.

This splendid 1686 mansion is the oldest in Hampstead. Its exceptionally fine collection of Oriental and European porcelain, furniture and needlework was bequeathed to the National Trust with the house in 1952. A formal walled garden contains an orchard.

Designed in 1939 by the architect Ernö Goldfinger for himself and his wife, the artist Ursula Blackwell, this is one of the most important examples of modern architecture in the UK. A film helps put the life and times of the couple in context. Goldfinger designed all the furniture and collected some fine works by Henry Moore, Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp.

Dating from the late 16th century, Lauderdale House was once associated with Charles II and his mistress Nell Gwynne. It now houses a popular arts and cultural centre, with regular concerts, exhibitions and Sunday craft and antique fairs.

On the opposite side of the Heath to Hampstead, Highgate grew up as a healthy, countrified place for nobility who built large mansions here. Many of the famous people who lived in the area are buried in Highgate Cemetery. Soon after it had been consecrated in 1839, its Victorian architecture and fine views made it a popular outing for Londoners. Karl Marx and the novelist George Eliot are buried in the less glamorous East Cemetery.