Visit Dennis Severs' House at 18 Folgate Street, the Georgian house dressed as a 'still-life drama' of a Huguenot silk-weaving family

Visit the Museum of the Home, formerly the Geffrye Museum, on Kingsland Road

Find the Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice, unveiled in 1900, in Postman's Park

Tour Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where Hogarth's Rake's Progress hangs

At 18 Folgate Street, Dennis Severs' House is dressed as a still-life drama of a Huguenot silk-weaving family. The Museum of the Home, once the Geffrye Museum, is on Kingsland Road, Postman's Park holds the Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice, opened in 1900, and Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields keeps Hogarth's A Rake's Progress.

London's Hidden Houses: Dennis Severs, Soane and Postman's Park

Walk Leake Street, the tunnel under Waterloo station where graffiti is legal, and where Banksy held the Cans Festival in 2008

Look for the big murals around Brick Lane and Shoreditch

Find the David Bowie mural on Tunstall Road in Brixton, painted in 2013

See the bronze statue of Amy Winehouse in Camden's Stables Market

Under Waterloo station, Leake Street is a tunnel where graffiti is legal, and Banksy held the Cans Festival there in 2008. Brick Lane and Shoreditch have the big murals, the David Bowie mural on Tunstall Road in Brixton was painted in 2013, and in Camden Amy Winehouse is remembered with a bronze statue in the Stables Market.

London's Street Art: Leake Street to Shoreditch

Eat a salt beef bagel at Beigel Bake on Brick Lane, open 24 hours a day

Eat pie and mash with liquor at M. Manze on Tower Bridge Road, run by the Manze family since 1902

Have afternoon tea in the Palm Court at the Ritz

Eat a curry in the Bangladeshi restaurants of Brick Lane

Brick Lane's Beigel Bake is open 24 hours for salt beef bagels, and the street's Bangladeshi restaurants serve curry; M. Manze on Tower Bridge Road, run by the Manze family since 1902, serves pie and mash with liquor; and at the other end of the scale there is afternoon tea in the Palm Court at the Ritz.

London's Food: Brick Lane, Pie and Mash and the Ritz

Climb the dome of St Paul's Cathedral, Christopher Wren's masterpiece built between 1675 and 1710, to the Whispering Gallery and the outer galleries

Go up The Shard, Renzo Piano's tower of 2012, 310m tall, to The View from The Shard

See the Palace of Westminster and the Elizabeth Tower, the home of Big Ben, designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin after the fire of 1834

Look up at 30 St Mary Axe, Norman Foster's 'Gherkin' of 2004, and Richard Rogers's Lloyd's Building of 1986

Christopher Wren built St Paul's Cathedral between 1675 and 1710, and its dome can be climbed to the Whispering Gallery and beyond. The Palace of Westminster and the Elizabeth Tower, the home of Big Ben, were designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin after the fire of 1834. In the City, Norman Foster's Gherkin of 2004 stands near Richard Rogers's Lloyd's Building of 1986, and across the river Renzo Piano's Shard of 2012 is 310m tall.

London's Landmarks: St Paul's, the Shard and Westminster

Eat at Borough Market, one of London's oldest food markets, on its present site since 1756

Browse the stalls of Camden Market around Camden Lock

Walk Portobello Road on a Saturday, when the antiques market runs

Buy plants at Columbia Road Flower Market on a Sunday, among the Victorian shopfronts

Borough Market, one of London's oldest food markets, has been on its present site since 1756. Camden Market spreads round Camden Lock, Portobello Road's antiques market runs on Saturdays, and on Sundays Columbia Road fills with a flower market among Victorian shopfronts.

London's Markets: Borough, Camden, Portobello and Columbia Road

Watch a play at Shakespeare's Globe on Bankside, the reconstruction opened in 1997 of the theatre where Shakespeare's company performed: stand as a groundling in the open-air season, or in winter see a play in the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

See a play at the National Theatre, Denys Lasdun's Brutalist building of 1976 on the South Bank

See a show at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, on the site where a theatre has stood since 1663

Shakespeare's Globe on Bankside, opened in 1997, reconstructs the theatre where his company played, and in the open-air season you can still stand as a groundling. Denys Lasdun's National Theatre of 1976 stands on the South Bank, and at Drury Lane a theatre has stood on the site of the Theatre Royal since 1663.

London Theatre: The Globe, the National and Drury Lane

Visit Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street, rebuilt soon after the Great Fire and traditionally linked with Dr Johnson

Drink at The Prospect of Whitby in Wapping, which claims the site of London's oldest riverside tavern, near the old Execution Dock

Visit The George Inn in Southwark, the last surviving galleried coaching inn in London, owned by the National Trust

Have a drink at The Mayflower in Rotherhithe, the riverside pub named after the Pilgrim Fathers' ship, and look out at low tide for the spot the pub gives as her 1620 mooring point

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street was rebuilt soon after the Great Fire of 1666, and tradition makes Dr Johnson, who lived round the corner in Gough Square, one of its regulars. In Wapping, the Prospect of Whitby claims to stand on the site of London's oldest riverside tavern, from around 1520, near the old Execution Dock; in Southwark, the George Inn is the last galleried coaching inn in London, owned by the National Trust; and the Mayflower in Rotherhithe is named after the Pilgrim Fathers' ship, which was based here on the Thames and whose master, Captain Jones, lived and is buried in Rotherhithe.

London's Oldest Pubs

Watch the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London, the nightly locking-up said to date back to the 14th century, booking a ticket from Historic Royal Palaces well in advance

Ride the London Eye after dark, the 135m wheel that opened in 2000

Join a Jack the Ripper walking tour through Whitechapel and Spitalfields, past the sites of the 'canonical five' murders of 1888

Every night the Tower of London is locked in the Ceremony of the Keys, said to have been held in some form since the 14th century; tickets must be booked well in advance from Historic Royal Palaces. The London Eye, 135m high, opened in 2000, and walking tours follow the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888 through Whitechapel and Spitalfields.

London After Dark: The Ceremony of the Keys and the Eye

Walk Richmond Park, the 2,120 acres Charles I enclosed for hunting deer, and find the herds

Climb King Henry's Mound in the gardens of Pembroke Lodge for the protected view of St Paul's Cathedral

Walk the Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park when the azaleas bloom in spring

Walk Bushy Park's Chestnut Avenue, Wren's approach to Hampton Court, to the Diana Fountain

Charles I brought his court to Richmond in 1625 to escape the plague and turned the hill above the town into a park for hunting red and fallow deer. At 856 hectares — 2,120 acres — Richmond Park is the largest of London's Royal Parks, and a national nature reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation. From King Henry's Mound in the gardens of Pembroke Lodge, which may be a Neolithic burial mound, there is a protected view of St Paul's Cathedral; the legend that Henry VIII stood on it has no evidence behind it. Next to Hampton Court, Bushy Park has Chestnut Avenue and the Arethusa 'Diana' Fountain, laid out by Christopher Wren as a grand approach to the palace, and from the mid-19th century until the Second World War Londoners came out for Chestnut Sunday to see the trees in flower — a custom revived in 1993.