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You batter believe we love cake: The Country Life team's definitive guide to London's best afternoon teasThere's an afternoon tea for everyone — from gluten-free to art-inspired — if you know where to look. Here are some of our tried and tested favourites.
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I'm just a blue door from Notting Hill, standing in front of a house, asking it to buy meThe home behind the iconic blue door from Notting Hill is up for sale.
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An architect turned this South London railway arch into a family home — and it's 'like an Escher drawing come to life'Architect Didier Ryan spent years finding the right spot to build his studio. He ended up loving it so much that it became his family home — and now it's up for sale.
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'Claridge’s is Claridge’s and everywhere else is everywhere else': How Britain's best hotel really worksHundreds of croissants, cocktails with caviar chasers, London’s best-looking bathroom and a Harris hawk: Emma Hughes spends (almost) 24 hours behind the scenes at Claridge’s.
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Frieze! Is counterculture back just in time for London's most prestigious art fair?Will Hosie argues that ongoing instability in London might be a good thing for artists — and therefore buyers; while Charlotte Mullins reveals what to look out for at Frieze.
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Let's get physical: The future of shopping is decidedly old-fashionedAmie Elizabeth White celebrates the return of in-person shopping.
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How do you make a map cool? By putting it on a Burberry parkaA Burberry coat, emblazoned with a map of London has caught Rosie Paterson's eye.
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London's past, present and future is hidden in the docksAs autumn beckons in the Docklands, Gio Fio reflects on what two neighbouring, yet contrasting areas on the Thames’s northern flank say about London’s knack for reinvention.
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The ghost stations of the London UndergroundWeaving alongside the ‘living’ London Underground is a ghostly parallel network of abandoned stations, former wartime hideouts and astonishing subterranean architecture. Emma Hughes steps back in time.
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What is everyone talking about this week: Why do art's insiders skip Frieze — and where do they go instead?The late David Hockney is among the artists exhibited as part of this year's show — a favourite for connoisseurs eager to skip the madness of crowds.
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Do we dress better when the economy is tanking?The seventies, the nineties and now the twenty-twenties are proving ripe for fashions that stand the test of time. Yet they also proved economically trying. Are the two things linked?
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Stop trying to make a pub something it isn'tIt doesn't need to be a restaurant. It needs to have a soul.
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If you Focus, you too can be inspired by the wit and wisdom of leading experts in the world of designThis month, events at Focus/26 and beyond will offer an opportunity to see new launches — and pick up some expert tips and tricks.
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If you want a hotel with history, then you can't put a price on funHotels risk losing their sparkle if they price out the very people who give them their place-to-be-seen allure.
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From Wilde to Woolf, the great and the good have all stayed at Hotel Café RoyalBella Fulford checks in to London's most central hotel.
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'The ground floor is a sweet shop for grown-ups': Country Life's favourite London spas and treatmentsLondon life moves a million miles per hour, so it pays to have somewhere to rediscover your inner peace.
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'We have concession rates for students and those who wear tartan': Meet the reel housewives of ChelseaThe lively Scottish folk dance seems odd and complicated to the uninitiated but is great fun, Will Hosie finds on a London dancefloor.
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A five-minute guide to the little London engine that could (deliver the mail)This curious London attraction is the perfect way to keep your kids learning this summer holiday (and adults will love it too), writes Gilly Pickup.
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The RA's Summer Exhibition is a lightning rod for artistic argumentsThe most famous exhibition in the world has been a magnet for controversy ever since its inception.
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From Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to T.S Eliot: London Library's most literary members go digitalMembers of the public can now browse the institution's collection online, thanks to the recent digitisation of their membership records.
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'Typically British, and simply perfect': Dick Strawbridge on his first house in the countryDick Strawbridge has gone from Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army to TV stardom to life in a castle — but at the heart of his life there's always been a country home of his own. He spoke to Julie Harding.
