A Day In The Life Of London

Or where to dine in Scottish poet William Dunbar’s “the flower of cities all” if you are wealthy and with taste.

- Hindol Sengupta

“Oh, I love London society,” exclaimed dramatist Oscar Wilde. “It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be.” Perhaps he should have added—and endless numbers of wonderful places for them to idle away time.

What follows is a whimsical, itinerant list of some of the favourite haunts of India’s rich, from dawn to dusk, and why these places remain an eternal lure.

BEFORE BREAKFAST

In keeping with the zeitgeist, the thing to do for the evolved rich Londoner-for-the-summer is to arrive in the morning to a juice bar so enlightened that it even provides meditation pods. The month I was writing this, the author and meditation teacher guiding the meditation process was suitably one-word named—Light. In chic Chiltern Street at Marylebone, the Yeotown Kitchen even encourages customers to experience a moment of mindfulness even as their order is prepared: ‘Breathe in for four, hold for four, and breathe out for four.’ The superfood smoothies are called Generosity (chocolate protein smoothie: almond milk, cacao powder, cashew butter, dates, avocado, lucuma, mushroom complex, maca, cinnamon, and vanilla extract) and Enthusiasm (immunity smoothie: banana, blueberry, turmeric golden blend, goji berries, pineapple, coconut milk, black pepper, dates, and ice). You could also choose a normal, nonsuperfood smoothie like Grace (strawberry, banana, pineapple, orange blossom, vanilla, coconut milk, and ice) or Sincerity (banana, cacao, avocado, spirulina, peppermint extract, dates, coconut milk, spinach, and ice). Nothing like a reminder of core moral and ethical values along with your morning juice.

BREAKFAST