Top 10 London Hidden Gems

Dennis Severs' House is not a museum but a private home that opens to the public as a time capsule to London's past.

American Dennis Severs lived here, without electricity and other home comforts, while also creating a Huguenot silk weaver's home for Mr Isaac Jervis, his family, and their descendants. The Jervis family are imaginary but attention to detail here is incredible, although do not be mistaken in thinking that historical accuracy was the driving force behind this project.

Can you lift a gold bar? You can try at the Bank of England Museum! It weighs 13kg and you can put your hand into a hole in a cabinet and lift the bar. There's no chance of stealing it but it may be the only time you get to touch something so densely valuable.

The Courtauld Gallery is displayed in Somerset House in London; a stunning 18th century Neoclassical palace. The Courtauld Gallery's art collection covers the 14th century up to today. The Courtauld is best known for its Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, including works by Monet, van Gogh, and Cezanne.

• Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery - Free on Mondays
• Somerset House Free Guided Tour
• Somerset House Ice Rink

Inner Space is a meditation and self-development center in Covent Garden, central London. After visiting the bookshop, try the free Quiet Room where you can relax and unwind. What an oasis of calm in such a busy city!

The Wallace Collection is a national museum which displays the artworks collected in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the first four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the son of the 4th Marquess. It was bequeathed to the British nation by Sir Richard's widow, Lady Wallace, in 1897. The paintings include Hals's The Laughing Cavalier and artworks by Titian, Rembrandt, and Velázquez, as well as medieval and Renaissance objects, including glass and bronzes, as well as an array of princely arms and armor in Britain, featuring both European and Oriental objects.

This museum is currently closed but I am remaining hopeful that it will reopen in 2010.

Prince Henry's Room in Fleet Street is one of the few houses in London which survived the Great Fire of London in 1666. The building was once a tavern (pub) and has some original oak panels and an ornate plaster ceiling. This room was equipped in 1975 by the Samuel Pepys Club with materials illustrating some features of the life and achievements of Pepys. Pepys never lived there as it was a tavern in his day.

In the Area
• Dr. Johnson's House
• Hunterian Museum
• Sir John Soane's Museum
• Old Curiosity Shop
• Free Things to Do in the City of London

Gresham College has no students and does not teach courses but is an educational institution of higher learning that exists to provide free public lectures. The free public lectures have been running for over 400 years.

• Free Things to Do in the City of London

Entering the Grant Museum is like walking into a laboratory with all the specimen jars, glass cabinets, and skeletons. But what's really great is that you're allowed to be there! It's not very big so allow just an hour for a visit. You'll see some freaky stuff including a dugong skeleton (now extinct), an elephant bird egg (also now extinct), and a mammoth tusk which is at least 12,000 years old.

In the Area
• Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy
• Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
• Wellcome Collection
• Free Family Day Out (includes a visit to the Grant Museum)