Boutique Booty Weekender

Forget the grand department stores and chains for the weekend. We're talking about boutique living that's both chic and unique.

Hotel

Bed-down, boutique-style

The Landmark London is a great place to stay. With its own distinctive style and ambience, it combines classic British elegance and grandeur with the deluxe facilities demanded by today's discerning travellers. The attention to detail will make your stay here very special - this is chic boutique accommodation at its best.

Saturday Morning

Food and fashion

The Cabbages & Frocks market in Marylebone was created to offer a combination of delicious Continental and British organic goodies together with fashion. Food includes organic fruit and vegetables, meat and poultry, Sicilian sausages and Italian ice cream.

By contrast, the market also supports new fashion designers and cottage industries. There's retro and vintage clothing, homewares, children's clothes, hand-blown glass and jewellery by individual designers.

Opposite is the furniture design haven, the Conran Shop, which is always worth a visit for the interiors obsessive. Continue down Marylebone High Street; a refined shopping enclave in the heart of London. Highlights include Kabiri jewellery, a leading independent jewellery store showcasing the work of emerging and established jewellery design talent.

For bookworms, try one of London's most beautiful, independent bookstores, Daunt Books. This beautiful, 19th-century, galleried bookshop specialises in travel books but sells a vast, carefully selected range. Its large, sloping glass roof has a calming, serene effect on shoppers.

New to the area in summer 2007 is the Natural Kitchen. A pioneering slow food store, this shop sells organic, wild and artisan foods based on sustainability, seasonality, traceability, low food miles and animal welfare. It's a great lunch stop as it includes a café, a wine cave and an artisan tasting table. Just off Marylebone High Street on Moxon Street is La Fromagerie with over 200 specialist cheeses from France, England, Ireland, and Italy.

Saturday Afternoon

Market Place Treasures

A key destination for interior stylists and designers, Alfie's Antique Market is a treasure trove devoted to antiques and vintage pieces from the 20th Century.

Of particular interest is the Quad: an area within the market devoted to mid-century modern design. There's also a local market selling foodstuffs and clothes that contrasts with the often sky-high pieces for sales in-store.

Saturday Night

Food and Fun, Italian-style

For a fabulous end to your day, check out Stuzzico (24 Kendall Street, Marylebone) recommended by Dylan Jones, Editor of GQ, as the best Italian in London. This friendly Italian eatery of choice is neither pretentious nor overly designed.

Sunday Morning

Luxury Living

For a glimpse of luxury, discrete living, head to South Kensington on Sunday morning. Up-market, refined and stylish, the shopping experience here is a perfect antidote to frantic central London.

Under an initiative launched in 2006 known as the Brompton Design District, local companies have worked hard to increase the presence of new design and fashion stores. The area has been renowned for its historic links with design since the founding of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and Royal College of Art, 150 years ago.

Must-visit shops in the Brompton Quarter include the new Skandium store (dedicated to Scandinavian design simplicity); Paul and Joe (fashion); The Library (fashion). Further along you reach Fulham Road for a full fashion explosion of big brands such as Chanel, Paul Smith and Joseph.

Also take a trip to Walton Street for one of London's chicest shopping streets. Intimate, refined and quintessentially English, the street mixes independent stores selling everything from art to childrenswear.

Sunday Afternoon

Morris & Co at the V&A

Walk back up to Cromwell Road and visit the V&A for lunch, as recommended by Emma Mawston, Head of Fabric Design at Liberty…

"The Green Dining Room at the V&A was created by Morris and Co when the museum was still known as the South Kensington Museum. Out of the 3 elaborate refreshment areas they created, this was the one that became the meeting place for the men of taste in London. It is now once again part of the eating experience at the V&A, and although the food is more cafeteria than fine dining, eating in an original Morris experience is very humbling and totally inspiring."

Unlock the secret city

Experience your own unique, private tour of London's buzzing creative and style scenes with Urban Gentry: the London insider tour experts.  Let them connect you to the pulse of modern London. www.urbangentry.com