For me, spring in London is when it’s at its best – the city has woken from its winter cocoon and the excitement of long nights, picnics in the park and a continuous stream of festivals generates an infectious buzz in the city. Therefore, with the Queen’s Jubilee and the Olympics set to take centre stage – so will your social life – regardless whether you like the royals or have even seen the Olympics.

To kick-start the celebrations off, the historic Andaz Hotel, next to Liverpool Street station, is running a series of Jubilee Afternoon Tea ceremonies in the exquisite 1901 restaurant until June. Themes include, the Brandy Man and the Empress of India, and pay homage to the Queens of England – and their most famous legacies.

March is dedicated is to Queen Elizabeth I, and aptly named ‘The Virgin Queen’- as she never married. Expect miniature hamburgers and hotdogs, chocolate brownies and peanut brittle to celebrate her American connections, mixed with a quintessential favourite – cream and jam fresh scones. Ensure you save enough room for the cocktail, made with Appleton Estate Rum, mandarin and passion fruit purée, ginger beer – possibly the best I’ve ever had.

If the American theme doesn’t float your monarchist boat, the next few months will have Austrian, Indian and traditional British themes.

To help you feel even more royal, each guest will also go in the draw to win a pair of diamond stud earrings!  God Save the Queen indeed!

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Andaz Hotel | Bars, Coffee & tea, Restaurants (Sandwiches) | Jubilee Afternoon Tea £ 45
40 Liverpool Street, EC2M 7QN | East
Mon – Sat High Tea 15:00 – 16:30

Located just up the road from the debauchery that is Camden, lies Primrose Hill – a quaint village like area that is known for its celebrity residents and some of the best views of London.

The most picturesque way to get there is by walking along the canal from Camden, where you’ll pass houseboats and buskers before popping out at the Primrose Hill exit. The streets are lined with beautiful mansions and perfect gardens, leaving you feeling like you’ve stumbled across a quintessentially English film set. This is quite fitting considering many English film stars have made this little area their home.

The high street (Regent’s Park Road) has a distinct village like feel to it, complete with a continental food store, cafes, specialty stores and restaurants. Come the weekend in summer, alfresco dinners and punters from the pub spill out onto the pavement, creating a lively yet relatively relaxed atmosphere. However, if a picnic in the park sounds more like your cup of tea, be sure to pass by Shepherd’s continental food store for delicious French pastries, bread and tasty Italian treats.

From there, head up the steep hill in the park until you reach the summit – and you’ll be welcomed by fantastic views of the city. During summer, it’s packed with sunbakers, ball games, picnics and people drinking cider in the sun. All in all, a very English way to spend an afternoon!

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Primrose Hill | Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Snacks, Restaurants (Various)
Primrose Hill | North-West
24 hours daily

Located along ubér cool Upper St in Islington, the Gallipoli Bazaar restaurant is a combination of Lebanese, Turkish and Mediterranean cuisines – offering a huge variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes.

The restaurant is one of the ‘Gallipoli’ branded restaurants along Upper Street, and offers a reasonably priced menu with all the traditional favourites such as kebabs, tangines and cous-cous. The set menu is fantastic value at £16 per person, which includes a vegetarian starter followed by any main, dessert and a coffee.

The restaurant is split on two floors, however still manages to illuminate a very warm and inviting feel to its customers. Deep red fabrics line the chairs and sofas, and beautiful coloured glass fittings hang from the ceiling – creating a cosy atmosphere.

However if word gets out it’s your birthday, be prepared to partake in some forced chair dancing whilst gyrating to excitable Turkish music. Fortunately, they sell a good selection of alcohol which makes the chair dancing exercise slightly less horrifying.

To complete your experience, take a seat outside and choose from a variety of fruit flavoured tobacco before lighting up a traditional shish pipe and watch the world go by.

It’s Gallipoli Bazaar’s authentic food and lively atmosphere that keeps the regulars coming back, always ensuring for a romantic night evening or great night with friends.

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Gallipoli Bazaar | Coffee & tea, Restaurants (Turkish/Lebanese) | 2 course set menu £ 14.50
107 Upper St | North-East | +442072265333
Mon – Fri 18:00 – 23:00, Sat – Sun 13:00 – 00:00

It might not have been the original coffee bar in Shoreditch (that honour has to go to the now defunct Bean) and it doesn’t sell the best coffee in the area (that honour definitely goes to the Prufrock team serving out of Present) but the Old Shoreditch Station has always been – and still is in my eyes – the best coffee bar in Shoreditch. 

Actually, calling it just a coffee bar is wrong. It is so much more than that. Coffee. Muffins. Whiskey. Art. DJs. It has it all.

In the day it is a cafe serving very good coffee, cakes and organic sandwiches from the nearby Grocery, but as darkness falls the Station turns into a bar serving whisky, wine and beer. If you catch it on the right night there might be an exhibition opening or a product launch or a gig. While at the weekends (when it can get very busy) you will most likely get a DJ. Oh, and during normal shop opening times you get access through to the next door fashion emporium no-one. 

When I had a studio on Hoxton Square popping in to the Station was a morning ritual. The Lattes and muffins I had on an almost daily basis might not have helped with the waistline, but it always set me up for the day ahead. Now, sadly I am not close enough to go as often as I use to, but when I am in the area, and have time, I still pop in. 

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Old Shoreditch Station | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Latte £ 2.20
1 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DA | East | +442077295188
Mon – Tue 08:00 – 21:00, Wed -Sat 08:00 – 01:00, Sun 09:00 – 21:00

I love to relax with a good book. I also like to chill out with a glass of wine. But try taking a hardcover book into a bar. It’s dim. It’s crowded. And you’ll probably be sitting next to a very desperate guy chatting up a girl way out of his league. Not an ideal place to dive into a book.

The solution to the above dilemma can be solved at the V&A Reading Rooms in South Kensington (which has recently been transformed to give a more ‘Continental vibe’ – think sidewalk cafes and street musicians). Located just a few minutes from the V&A Museum, this little bookshop/bar offers space for the more discerning readers just wanting some peace and quiet. Many of the books specialise in design, but there are many other books covering current events, poetry and literature as well.

This cosy spot is actually two bright and airy rooms full to the ceilings with books, with the first room also holding a small bar. Rather than separate you from the book stacks, tiny tables are placed throughout the rooms to actively encourage you to challenge your interests as your taste buds drown in wine or espressos. Just be sure not to spill any of your drink into their books – that’s just rude.

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The V&A Reading Rooms | Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks | Glass of wine £ 4.60
No.8 Exhibition Road, South Kensington | Central | +442072250594
Open from 11:00 daily

When some people think of libraries, they might think of old women in cardigans shushing people for making any noise at all (as a former librarian during my student days, I can assure you that I only wore cardigans on cold days). Surely a library is no place to hang out while on holiday?

The British Library breaks all of these stereotypes. Not only is it a working library for students and researchers with free wifi access and working spaces throughout, it also caters to more casual visitors with cosy cafes and a restaurant on the premises to relax and read.

However, the biggest draw to the British Library is its permanent collection – free for anyone to admire. The permanent collection covers many aspects of literature, ranging from original manuscripts from Charlotte Bronte to Virginia Woolf. Even if you are not a connoisseur of books, you’ll likely find displays that will capture your interest among the priceless religious texts, scientific documents and handwritten musical scores.

Complementing the permanent collection is a new exhibition called ‘Writing Britain: Wastelands to Wonderlands’ which covers journeys throughs texts, photos and letters.  It will be on until September, so if your legs are tired from physical travel, well you can let your mind wander here.

Emily Dickson wrote in one of her poems ‘There is no frigate like a book’.  I can think of no better illustration of this than the British Library.

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The British Library | Art & culture, Coffee & tea | Free
96 Euston Road,NW1 2DB | Central | +448432081144
Mon, Wed – Fri 09:30 – 18:00, Tue 09:30 – 20:00, Sat 09:30 – 17:00, Sun 11:00 – 17:00

Oto means ‘noise’ or ‘music’ in Japanese and that is exactly what you get at this amazing, innovative venue. By day it is a mild-mannered café serving a selection of teas, coffees, organic fruit juices, Devon and Breton cider, wines, Japanese snacks, Sake, Plum Wine and Japanese Whisky but then, when the lights go out and the cafe closes for a couple of house for the soundchecks, Oto turns into the home of the experimental musician and easily fulfills its stated aim of ‘providing a home for creative new music that exists outside of the mainstream’.

Past performers include Yoko Ono, London Improvisors Orchestra, Joe McPhee, Marshall Allen, Matthew Herbert and, amazingly and thrillingly, The Sun Ra Arkestra who consider Cafe Oto to be their spiritual London home. Some of the bigger names mean larger fees, but most gigs are around £10 entrance fee, but check the website first as the venue is small and gigs regularly sell out in advance.

Cafe Oto forms one point of the Dalston Jazz Triangle. The other two points being filled by the jazz daddy The Vortex and the newcomer Servant Jazz Quarters.

These three venues are only about 500 yards apart and between them they cover everything from the folky side of jazz (SJQ), to the more traditional approach (Vortex) and into the avant garde (Oto). Jazz has definitely found a (cool) home (or three) in E8. in fact, The Guardian recently went to find out more about Oto as Italian Vogue had named it as the coolest venue in Britian!!

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Cafe Oto | Coffee & tea, Music, Snacks | Entrance from € 7
18-22 Ashwin Street,E8 3DL | East
Mon – Fri 09:30 – 17:30, Sat – Sun 10:30 – 17:30, gigs from 20:00

Walking into The Bridge sets you back a century perhaps, but nothing gets you ready for the time warp you will encounter upon entering the second floor. It’s as if you’ve walked into an 18th century boudoir.

Navigating around mismatched and opulent sofas, throne-like armchairs and purposeful dim lighting, The Bridge makes a perfect setting for some dirty gossiping over a glass of wine or some clean fun, proved by a becoming cosy literary platform for my last bookclub meeting.

Although the food is minimal there are plenty of sweet snacks to cast your eyes upon.

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The Bridge | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks | Bottle of wine £ 19
15 Kingsland Rd, E8 4 | East
Mon – Wed 12:00 – 01:00, Thu – Sat 12:00 – 02:00, Sun 12:00 – 00:00

The Tricycle has been running since 1980 and despite being in the northwest, far from the glamorous West End theatre hub, it has become one of London’s most adored and respected theatres. Eleven years ago a one-screen cinema was added on and in 2001 the Creative Space was built for educational workshops.

The theatre’s directors try to present work which reflects the cultural diversity of its neighborhood Kilburn, a heavily immigrant area and has put on plays by Irish, African-Caribbean and Asian writers.

The cinema kiosk serves ice cream and candy and it has a bar/café which has a simple menu of pasta, sandwiches and jacket potatoes. There is a separate eating area which doubles as an exhibition space. On Mondays cinema tickets are only £6.50.

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The Tricycle | Art & culture, Bars, Cinemas, Coffee & tea, Snacks, Theaters
269 Kilburn High Road | North-West | +442073281000
Box office Mon – Sat 10:00 – 21:00, Sun 14:00 – 21:00 | Café & bar Mon – Sun 12:00 – 23:00 (12:00 – 20:00 for food)

If you are looking for something vegetarian or vegan or simply good food, Vita-organic is the place to go. It is a treasure amongst the overwhelming plethora of choice in Soho. It’s often easy to get drawn into a familiar chain or think you’ve spotted an appetising cheap eat only to find the food lacks taste and the service is non-existent. Everything in Vita-Organic is, as you would imagine, organic and you can really taste it.

Food is ordered at the counter, but you don’t specify what you want, but rather how much. Portions come in scoops. You can order anywhere between 1 and 6 scoops on a plate and I would recommend three scoops for a filling meal. Even though it’s vegetarian, it’s very filling as many of the dishes use alternatives, such as coconut milk in place of cream. And during lunch time there is a great buffet.

Vita Organic opens its doors to allergy sufferers; many dishes are dairy or wheat free. Making the decision of which dishes make the cut on your plate can be difficult – the spread of food is vast, including stews, bakes, curries, stir-frys and salads. Save room for a fresh juice – the list is impressive.

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Vita Organic | Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (Vegan) | First scoop £ 3.80
74 Wardour Street | Central | +442077348986
Mon – Sat 12:00 – 22:00, Sun 12:00 – 21:00