Kilburn’s Little Bay restaurant gives new life to the meat-and-potato staples of the UK in a setting you won’t mistake for your lounge.

London is a haven for buskers, especially in the summer. If you are a fan of unaffected folk music, the best place to listen – all year round – is the London Underground. On sidewalks and city streets, busking rules are as varied as the sounds these artists make.

The first Vincent van Gogh exhibition in London in more than 40 years proves he wasn’t just a painter who had brushes with insanity and creative genius. The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters, on show now until 18 April at the Royal Academy of Arts, pairs 65 paintings and 35 of his letters to suggest he was just as apt with a pen as a paintbrush.

The 2009 Veolia Environnment Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition offers the rare chance to see where the wild things of this world are and what they’re doing when we’re not looking.

Camden is known for a lot of things — the lock market, a canal, heavy music, leather and people who like black. In a matter of months it has also become known for what goes on inside a tall black and washed stone building at Camden High Street’s center: blues music and soul food. So popular has its stage become that on a recent Sunday jam night the host band looked at its sign-up list and couldn’t find the end. The menu, filled with staples of the American south, has been getting pretty good reviews too.

Used in the 19th & 20th centuries as a commercial waterway linking Paddington to the River Thames, Regent’s Canal is now a reminder of London’s industrial past. Nowadays, it serves as a nearby retreat from the hustle and bustle of the city, with a few canal boat tours plying their trade up and down these historical waterways.