Around Town

The tube

The subterranean transport warren known officially as the London Underground deserves recognition for its heritage. The first section opened in 1863. It now has 270 stations, 250 miles of track, is 221ft below sea level at its deepest station and it generally trumps any other city’s underground line as an engineering marvel. Plus Harry Beck’s tube map is an under-appreciated piece of modern art. Read more

British Museum

44 Great Russell St, WC1B 3DG

There is much to rediscover at the BM if you haven’t been for a while. It boasts one of London’s architectural marvels of recent times, the Great Court, which, unlike most construction jobs in the capital, went up with minimal fuss and bother. It’s always there, lurking, with its apparently endless treasures, thousands of years of history and secret corners, waiting to be found. Read more

V&A

Cromwell Rd, SW7 2RL

The V&A has one of the world’s greatest collections of decorative arts, in fields ranging from ceramics and sculpture to photography. Our favourites are the New British Galleries 1500-1900, tracing the history of design, and the beautiful Madejski garden. But it’s the events programme that keeps the V&A consistently fresh – the Friday Lates, the family workshops, the Village Fete and more. Read more

Tate Modern

Bankside, SE1 9TG

We’ve perhaps forgotten just how staggering this institution is. Aside from the permanent exhibits – one of the world’s great collections of art from 1900 onwards, starring Matisse, Rothko, Bacon, Twombly and Beuys – who else excavates their own floor to create artworks and invites skateboarders in at the weekends? Each new installation in the Turbine Hall is a genuine London event, and the members’ bar is pretty good, too. Read more

Sadler's Wells

Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4TN

While its main theatre programming is becoming more commercially driven, Sadler’s Wells is using its smaller studio to show more boundary-pushing dancers, many of whom haven’t been seen in the UK before. It’s also going off to festivals, partnering other theatres and putting on work in unlikely venues – enhancing its wonderful reputation. Read more