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City guide: London

Story Highlights

• Take a wander around Spitalfields and Petticoat Lane markets
• Brave the tripe and chips at St John Bread and Wine
• Imbibe fabulous cocktails at LAB Bar or Milk and Honey
• Cut loose to Balearic beats at Veryverywrongindeed
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Check out The Scene's recommendations for the British capital and send us your own suggestions and comments.

Arts

Whatever your tastes, London's extensive art scene has something to offer. If you've already checked out the contemporary collections at the monumental Tate Modern, then head east for the provocative and sometimes just plain "out-there" Whitechapel Gallery. The annual Turner Prize exhibition, from October to January at the Tate Britain, can usually be relied on to throw up something controversial.

Theater lovers are also spoilt for choice. Islington's Almeida offers star names and highbrow productions in a stripped-down setting, although these days the Arcola further east has usurped its reputation for edgy experimentalism.

Eat

Celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver have helped banish the drab British cuisine of old. Maze is the latest addition to the Ramsay stable. For classic British dishes rediscovered, try the nose-to-tail eating experience at St John Bread and Wine -- tasty, but some dishes not for the faint hearted. For lazy breakfasts, laid-back lunches and a New York-style vibe, hang out at Bistrotheque -- a converted factory in a slightly menacing East End sidestreet that looks more like a kickboxing gym.

Drink

Arguably the home of the cocktail in London, let the master mixers of the London Academy of Bartenders shake you up a storm in the small but always popular LAB Bar. Cocktails are also the way to go at Soho's Milk and Honey -- but get there early if you're not a member. If Shoreditch's best days are behind it then no-one has told the revelers at the George and Dragon, where an austere Victorian exterior belies the carnival of high campery within. Also causing a stir out east, Lounge Lover just off Brick Lane is the current hangout of choice for the fashionista crowd. It may be in poor taste to kit your bar out like a Brazilian shanty town, but it can't be denied that the recently-opened Favela Chic on Great Eastern Street is pulling in the crowds with its winning combination of live music, DJs and weekend party madness.

Club

London's club scene changes quickly; check out what's happening where in Time Out. A few hardy perennials can be relied on, however. The 24-hour weekend dance scene at Fabric is still going strong as one of the capital's best-loved superclubs reaches its sixth birthday. For something more a la mode, try Clandestino (every first Sunday of the month at The End), which mixes 80's exotica with Eurotrash glamour and has them queuing around the block into the early hours. For true club freaks however, the only way to finish off a big Saturday night is currently at Veryveryverywrongindeed which brings Balearic beats to EC1's legendary Turnmills with the fun kicking off at 6 a.m. on Sunday mornings.

Shop

London is home to dozens of the world's most famous designers. Serious spenders head for the classics in the areas around Bond Street and Knightsbridge. If you'd rather just wander and soak up the atmosphere, head for the eastern fringes of the City on a Sunday morning. Get there early to catch the Columbia Road flower market at its most colorful, before checking out Spitalfields' retro fashions and chic designs. For contrast continue to Petticoat Lane, where traders have hawked their wares since the 17th century. These days it's a sprawling street market centered around Middlesex Street that is dominated by the local Bangladeshi community.

Chill

London boasts some of the best open spaces to be found in any of the world's major cities, with parkland accounting for 30 percent of the city's area. One of the least appreciated is the Lea Valley, a ribbon of nature reserves, bird sanctuaries, marshlands and lakes that twists incongruously through a grim, industrial wasteland from Docklands to beyond the M25. See it before the Olympic Park redevelopment strips it of any character. When you just need to get above it all, St. Paul's Cathedral and David Bailey's favorite, Primrose Hill, still offer the best views -- and without the naked commercialism and pre-millennial tension of the London Eye.



David Bailey's London - collage

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