One London, By Two

Savour the British capital’s two best restaurants, museums, hotels, and more.

- Siddharth Singh

IN OUR STUDENT DAYS IN LONDON, our hideouts were pubs and bookstores—both highs of different denominations. A return to the British capital, after two decades, was a comforting reminder of how, in a world of diminishing reading interest, bookstores foster civilisation. We stopped by Daunt (dauntbooks.co.uk) on Marylebone High Street and further out to Notting Hill’s Lutyens & Rubinstein Bookstore (lutyensrubinstein.co.uk): both radiated the solace of quiet places where literature resides. Oaken galleries, obscure and gorgeous books about the secret lives of ladybugs, large and light-loving windows overlooking rainy scenes of British city life—we were relieved to see independent bookstores restore a semblance of order in a crazed world. Daunt has signed books of some of the most important contemporary authors, while Lutyens & Rubinstein comes with its own reader’s concierge, where a book expert sits down with you at tea to talk about a list of books best suited for your tastes. Evolve, human, evolve!

WHAT TO SEE