8am: After a long night flight, settle into the exclusive Belmond Cadogan, once the home of Oscar Wilde. Dip into the library in your room before heading to nearby Sloane Street for its feast of fashion labels. Then change for a game of tennis in the private residents’ gardens across the road.
10AM : Head for the fascinating collection of Alms Houses on Kingsland Road and enjoy the refurbished Museum of the Home. It’s an experience like spying on your neighbours’ houses – if they hailed from almost every significant era of British history, that is.
11AM : Rub shoulders with media A-listers at Son of a Stag, a temple to men’s workwear and denim. The East London institution sells the best selection of vintage denim outside of Daikanyama. Once you have debuted its dry denim, there’s no looking back.
NOON : Grab a shot of culture at Shreeji in the heart of freshly fashionable Chiltern Street. This old-school Marylebone newsagent turned new-age literary salon offers up, for free, the latest edition of Graydon Carter’s digital weekly Air Mail on iPads dotted around the elegant space, a hard-to-find selection of global art and design magazines, and even some tightly curated homeware if you still need to scratch your shopping itch. The macchiato is rather good, too.
1PM : Soak up the ambience of a Belle Époque Parisian brasserie at Soutine, in a part of St John’s Wood celebrated for its Anglo-French artistic heritage. Then walk around to Lord’s to see some of England’s finest cricketers in action.
3PM : Explore contemporary icons of architecture, fashion, graphic and product design from Eileen Gray to Hussein Chalayan at the Design Museum. And be sure to visit its shop to check out the reproductions of 21st-century hits, such as Thomas Heatherwick’s Spun Chair.
4PM : View world-class contemporary art (be sure to make an appointment first) in the cavernous, Annabelle Selldorf-designed Hauser & Wirth gallery in Savile Row. There’s a good chance you’ll have the austere, almost 2,000-square-metre space to yourself. Use it to get better acquainted with one of the art world stars that H&W represents, such as Rashid Johnson, Phyllida Barlow or George Condo.
5PM : Embrace your wild poetic soul in the magical setting of St Dunstan-in-the-East. With foundations dating back to the 12th century, the church was all but destroyed during the Blitz. Instead of being rebuilt, the shell was left to stand untouched and the surrounding ancient trees and ivy encouraged to prosper.
6PM : Put yourself in the safe hands of Salvatore Calabrese and relax into the rich red velvet banquettes at Velvet, the sumptuous new bar at the Corinthia Hotel helmed by the barman famous for making London’s best martini. Bar none.
8PM : Rub unstructured, soft-tailored shoulders with the London cultural and creative elite at Brat, a restaurant so of-the-moment it doesn’t even have a reservations number. Just as well that the food and atmosphere at this former pole-dancing spot are as good as it gets.