London

All roads lead east

Myth 1 ‘It’s a cultural blackspot’
The Geffrye Museum
Middle-class living rooms through the ages at this cracking little museum, even including a late-twentieth-century trendy loft. The walled herb garden is particularly pretty. Following extensive refurbishment, the seventeenth-, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century period rooms reopen on November 17.
136 Kingsland Rd, E2 (020 7739 9893/ www.geffrye-museum.org.uk) Liverpool St tube/rail. Open Tue-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun & bank holidays 12noon-5pm. Feature continues

Lee Hurst’s Backyard Comedy Club
Given that humour is a defining characteristic of the East End character, it’s strange that there aren’t more comedy venues out here. Still, Lee Hurst’s purpose-built club is a beacon and offers stand-up shows throughout the year (Thursdays-Saturdays) with a raucous atmosphere most other clubs would envy. A short menu offers bagels and curry, and there’s usually a disco afterwards.
231 Cambridge Heath Rd, E2 (020 7739 3122/ www.backyardcomedyclub.moonfruit.com) Bethnal Green tube.

Rich Mix
This six-floor arts and media centre in a former garment factory opened last December offering three cinema screens, exhibition spaces and a café. Opening in early 2007 are a multimedia newsroom bar with glorious views across the City, a 200-seater performance space and BBC broadcasting centre.
35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, E1 (020 7613 7490/ www.richmix.org.uk) Bethnal Green tube. Open Mon-Sun 9am-11pm.

Rivington Place
A collaboration between the Institute of International Visual Arts and photographic arts agency Autograph ABP will result in (well, by next summer anyway) a five-floor visual arts centre featuring exhibition and installation spaces, screening rooms, multimedia labs, meeting rooms, and photography archives.
6-8 Standard Place, Rivington St, EC2 (020 7729 9616/www.rivingtonplace.org) Old St tube/rail.

V&A Museum of Childhood

V&A Museum of Childhood
Closed since October 2005 for a hefty £4.7 million facelift, the V&A’s fantastic specialist children’s museum is due to reopen next month. Upcoming temporary exhibitions include ‘Happy Birthday Miffy’ (a celebration of the picture book favourite) and Science Projects’ interactive ‘Feel the Force’.
Cambridge Heath Rd, E2 (020 8983 5200) Bethnal Green tube. Reopens Dec 9, 12noon.

The London Buddhist Centre

London Buddhist Centre
The building used to be a firestation, but chilled out considerably in 1978 when it was transformed into one of the largest urban Buddhist centres in Europe. The LBC offers daily meditation classes, organises retreats and works in the wider community through outreach projects.
51 Roman Rd, E2 (0845 458 4716/ www.lbc.org.uk) Bethnal Green tube.

Vyner Street
Hackney has, it’s said, a higher concentration of artists than anywhere else in Europe, and this street has more than its fair share of the area’s galleries. The Wilkinson, Modern Art, Fred and IBID (who have just relocated) stand out from the crowd.