We challenge our contributor to reply to ten devilishly probing questions about their London and we don’t take “Sorry Gov” for an answer. Everyone sitting in the hot seat will face the same questions that range from their favourite way to spend a day out in the capital to their most hated building on London’s skyline to find out just what Londoners really think about their city. The questions might be the same but the answers vary wildly.

[C]indy Eve was born in South Africa but now resides in the United Kingdom and is passionate about travelling and exploring new and exciting places. An enthusiastic photographer (still learning), adrenaline sports lunatic, ex-personal development junkie, and all round lover of life. She has published two books, written poetry (published) and is a voracious reader of poetry and biographies of interesting people, Richard Branson and Nelson Mandela among others. She claims to be 90 per cent vegetarian and loves cats, and in between all that runs the 3 days in London website.

What’s your secret London tip?

Look up! London’s buildings have some of the most amazing artwork: on the façade, the roof and above doorways, sometimes small, many times large, some of which is just outstandingly beautiful.

What’s your secret London place?

Museum of London. Totally under-rated, in my opinion it is way better than the British Museum. One of my most delightful discoveries, I visit whenever I am on one of my #walkabout jaunts. A fabulous place, with oodles of London history.

What’s your biggest gripe about London?

Rubbish in the streets. I mean seriously people, let’s get real here. There are plenty of bins for rubbish, toss it in the bin not on the ground…especially cigarette butts; totally unsightly.

What’s your favourite building?

Oh definitely and without a doubt it has to be St. Paul’s Cathedral. It is a truly magical building and appears to float in the air at night. The interior is exquisite and the views of London from the galleries are hard to beat.

What’s your most hated building?

Gosh! I am not sure really. I don’t particularly like the current crop of new buildings going up in the City of London, they spoilt the skyline, but I don’t think I have a particular hate.

What’s the best view in London?

Standing on either side of the Hungerford/Golden Jubilee bridges . . . the view from either side is phenomenal and the river is just beautiful.

What’s your personal London landmark?

Oooo! Difficult, but the one that has impressed me the most has to be The Shard. It is the only building I have watched grow from a stubby concrete block into the most beautiful and elegant shard of glass. It’s been a hate/love relationship. I was totally against it to start, but oh my gosh once the glass panels went on . . . I kinda changed my mind J Now I take a photo every time I see it and then some!

What’s London’s best film, book or documentary?

Mary Poppins. Not sure if that qualifies as a London film, but it is due to this film that I fell in love with London. I have seen the film about 50 times+ and on my first day in London when I saw the chimney pots from the tube I just fell in love, a passion that has not yet waned in the slightest. It gives me a thrill each time when I sit on the steps at St. Paul’s in the exact spot where the old lady sat when she sang “feed the birds”. Always brings a lump to my throat & a tear to my eye. J

What’s your favourite bar, pub or restaurant?

Ahh! Without a doubt that would be Sweetie Pies Boutique Bakery in Twickenham. Fab.u.lous darlings . . . Craig would say. Best cupcakes in town and scones just like my mother used to make them . . . no other place will suffice.

How would you spend your ideal day off in London?

There is nothing I love more than to go #walkabout through the streets, especially the City of London, wandering here and there, finding previously unknown streets and alleyways, popping into churches and gasping at the hidden treasures that reveal themselves and taking as many photos as my camera can cope with. What a privilege to live in this fabulous city, a never-ending ‘City of delights’.

This ‘Grill’ was first posted on the Radio Taxis blog.

We challenge our contributor to reply to ten devilishly probing questions about their London and we don’t take “Sorry Gov” for an answer. Everyone sitting in the hot seat will face the same questions that range from their favourite way to spend a day out in the capital to their most hated building on London’s skyline to find out just what Londoners really think about their city. The questions might be the same but the answers vary wildly.

[F]iona Maclean is the founder of London Unattached, a website that covers a whole range of things to do in London and out! She also works as a marketing consultant and in previous lives has helped launch Orange, set up and run dating sites and worked on a building site! She lives in London and has done so pretty much all her adult life, including being born here too. And, even when she tries to move out to the country just keeps coming back!

What’s your secret London tip?

For a completely different view of London, take one of the cheaper river boats up the Thames from Westminster to Tower Bridge. You get to see things that you’ll miss on foot or in a car – and you’ll save your shoe leather too!

What’s your secret London place?

I like a lot of the London churches. I think my favourite is St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield (it’s the one that was in Four Weddings and a Funeral).

What’s your biggest gripe about London?

The weather! Of course!!!

What’s your favourite building?

I am always awestruck when I see the Houses of Parliament.

What’s your most hated building?

The Gherkin. It’s just plain ugly!

What’s the best view in London?

From the Shard. I never thought I’d say it but I went on a press preview and you really do get a 360 view of London! I like the intelli-scopes there too.

What’s your personal London landmark?

St. Paul’s Cathedral. The Dome is something I can always spot

What’s London’s best film, book or documentary?

Too many really! Perhaps Notting Hill, for something that encapsulates London as I know it.

What’s your favourite bar, pub or restaurant?

Where I live I like the Troubadour for a classic coffee shop experience (they do good food too). Up in town it really depends on what kind of a mood I’m in. I rather like 10 cases in Covent Garden.

How would you spend your ideal day off in London?

People watching on the Southbank, with a swanky meal in Oxo tower as the sun sets!

This ‘Grill’ was first posted on the Radio Taxis blog.

We challenge our contributor to reply to ten devilishly probing questions about their London and we don’t take “Sorry Gov” for an answer. Everyone sitting in the hot seat will face the same questions that range from their favourite way to spend a day out in the capital to their most hated building on London’s skyline to find out just what Londoners really think about their city. The questions might be the same but the answers vary wildly.

[O]liver O’Brien is a research associate and software developer at University College London’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. He specialises in visualising geographical data. He is always on the look out for new ways of visualising London’s data, population and movements, and co-authors the Mapping London blog. He recently created CityDashboard, a live view of London’s information. He is currently working on developing a unified model for transport mobility for a number of European cities, a collaborative project across a number of EU universities called EUNOIA. In his spare time he competes in orienteering, and organises the London City Race.

What’s your secret London tip?

Always try and leave London, at least once a month. Even if it’s only for a walk in the Chilterns or a visit to Arundel. Or, if you don’t manage to leave the city, go to Richmond Park and walk right into the middle of the park.

What’s your secret London place?

Wilton’s Music Hall. It has a wonderful ambience, which is enhanced by its dilapidated state. It’s also properly hidden away – you have to know it’s there, you don’t just stumble upon it. A close second would be Trinity Buoy Wharf. It is similarly hard to get to, and the view is unexpected and superb.

What’s your biggest gripe about London?

We don’t build proper cycle infrastructure in London. It’s always just squeezed in, if there’s space. Cycle lanes just stop suddenly, in the road. It’s immensely frustrating to visit other large, historic European cities and, in almost every case, discover that their cycle infrastructure is streets ahead of our own.

What’s your favourite building?

The Heron Tower on Bishopsgate. It’s built the way skyscrapers should be – it has clean lines and goes straight up. Its look at night is enhanced by attractive lighting, and it has a bar at the top with a great view.

What’s your most hated building?

The Shard, particularly at night when the top floors are (over)lit up and it looks like a messy beacon. It’s just too big for the area – especially as it stands apart from the main clusters of skyscrapers.

What’s the best view in London?

The view from the veranda on the river-side of the Angel pub in Bermondsey. Tower Bridge on your left, Canary Wharf on your right.

What’s your personal London landmark?

The Regent’s Canal. I’ve crossed it almost every day for the last 10 years.

What’s London’s best film, book or documentary?

It was great to see so much of London in the most recent Bond film, Skyfall.

What’s your favourite bar, pub or restaurant?

I like Fredericks Restaurant, in Camden Passage, Angel. It feels like a central London restaurant but it’s in a much more chilled out part of town.

How would you spend your ideal day off in London?

I like visiting bits of London that I have never been to before. Having been here a while now, and therefore “done” most of the centre, I would probably draw a big circle on a map of London, then spend the day following it around, aiming to do a lap of the city and visit local landmarks that I would otherwise never see.

This ‘Grill’ was first posted on the Radio Taxis blog.

I challenge our contributor to reply to ten devilishly probing questions about their London and don’t take “Sorry Gov” for an answer. Everyone sitting in the hot seat will be ‘grilled’ with the same questions ranging from their favourite way to spend a day out in the capital to their most hated building on London’s skyline to find out what Londoners really think about their city. The questions are the same but the answers vary wildly.

[D]uncan Barrett is the co-author, with Nuala Calvi, of Sunday Times bestsellers The Sugar Girls (www.thesugargirls.com) and GI Brides (www.gibrides.com). His forthcoming book Men of Letters, about the Post Office during WW1, is published in August 2014.  Follow him on Twitter: @WW1stories.

What’s your secret London tip?

Take the tour at Highgate Cemetery – and then check out the rest of the ‘Magnificent Seven’.

What’s your secret London place?

The Secret Tea Room above the Coach & Horses pub in Soho – if you ask nicely, you’ll be led through the bar to a retro world of 1940s decor and vegan scones.

What’s your biggest gripe about London?

The number of people on the Tube.

What’s your favourite building?

It took a while, but the Shard is growing on us – at least from a distance. Where we live in Brixton, it glistens in the distance like the tower of a magical ice kingdom.

What’s your most hated building?

The Strata Tower at Elephant and Castle, aka The Razor. Its three wind turbines look like finger holes – if only some benevolent giant would pick it up and take it somewhere else!

What’s the best view in London?

Looking both ways as you whizz across the river after dark, upstairs on a double-decker bus.

What’s your personal London landmark?

The old Tate & Lyle factory at Plaistow Wharf in Silvertown, which still produces the famous golden syrup.

What’s London’s best film, book or documentary?

Bleak House by Charles Dickens. But for the area we wrote about in The Sugar Girls, Melanie McGrath’s Silvertown and Jennifer Worth’s Call the Midwife were great inspirations.

What’s your favourite bar, pub or restaurant?

We’re vegan, so we love Mildred’s in Soho and Food for Thought in Covent Garden.

How would you spend your ideal day off in London?

Lazing on the grass in Brockwell Park, with snacks from Ms Cupcake’s café in Brixton Village and a thermos of tea.

This ‘Grill’ was first posted on the Radio Taxis blog.

I challenge our contributor to reply to ten devilishly probing questions about their London and don’t take “Sorry Gov” for an answer. Everyone sitting in the hot seat will be ‘grilled’ with the same questions ranging from their favourite way to spend a day out in the capital to their most hated building on London’s skyline to find out what Londoners really think about their city. The questions are the same but the answers vary wildly.

[M]atthew Crampton recently wrote The Trebor Story, which tells how a small sweet firm from East London rose to become Britain’s largest confectioner. It’s a fun book with hundreds of pictures of sweet wrappers and factory life, along with anecdotes, history and attacks on modern corporate capitalism. You can read extracts and see pictures at www.thetreborstory.com. Matthew’s now working on a book about Music Hall and the First World War, and he spends his spare time fishing and singing folk songs.

What’s your secret London tip?

People are often friendlier in London than in the country. Not on the tube maybe, but wherever I’ve lived around town, I’ve known my neighbours – and I prefer the London community experience to living in a small village. There’s the same upside – good people around you – but less of the downside – bad people around you – because, generally, London’s size dilutes their poison. The bigger the village, the smaller the feuds.

What’s your secret London place?

I love introducing people to the secret garden in Regent’s Park. If you don’t know it, go look for it.

What’s your biggest gripe about London?

Apart from Borisconi, (gloriously described by arch Tory Max Hastings as ‘a far more ruthless, and frankly nastier, figure than the public appreciates’) – my main gripe’s the hideous property bubble that’s swept a swill of rich people into nice middling areas where once dwelled teachers, writers and cab drivers.

What’s your favourite building?

I’ve got strong memories of the Festival Hall from every decade of my life. As a boy I’d roll mints down the grooves in the long stair banisters. Later I’d dare to skateboard down below. In the bookshop I met my first, and last, blind date. Discovering vertigo in a box there at one of many, many concerts. A wild wedding lunch at The People’s Palace restaurant, then drunkenly seeing close friends off to Paris for their honeymoon. More recently, performing in some concerts myself, in the ballroom, the foyer and a beach hut out front. It’s a great public institution – I always feel good there.

What’s your most hated building?

Selfridges. Not for the architecture, but because it’s a palace of bling. When I hear the words ‘designer label’, I reach for my revolver.

What’s the best view in London?

Two years ago I was celebrating the Festival of Britain with a huge amateur choir and a brass band on the South Bank. We were singing Waterloo Sunset by Ray Davies. And as we sang, the sun was setting over a panorama from Westminster to Waterloo Bridge. It doesn’t get much better than that.

What’s your personal London landmark?

I’ve lived next to Hampstead Heath for twenty years of my life. There may be a few corners of it I haven’t yet seen, but not many.

What’s London’s best film, book or documentary?

“Hands across the ocean” growls Bob Hoskins as he welcomes some American gangsters to his crime manor of East London in The Long Good Friday. This big film is many things; not least a herald for the horrors of Thatcherism, but it’s above all a London film. Hoskins thinks he’s top dog in the top city. He, and we, get unsettled to realise this ain’t necessarily so.

What’s your favourite bar, pub or restaurant?

Lemonia in Primrose Hill. Best waiters in town. An old gaff with a confident swagger. There’s always a buzz – and I always have the grilled quail.

How would you spend your ideal day off in London?

This is ideal, so don’t expect geographic, temporal or climatic consistency. I wake up with a few lengths at the Parliament Hill Lido, water warm from a heat wave. Thence a bacon roll at Borough Market and onto a friend’s barge for a leisurely trip under Tower Bridge – which opens for us, of course. An idle cast from the boat hooks a salmon, fresh in on the tide, which becomes instant mid morning sashimi. Suddenly it’s December and I’m swept into a Putney pub for some winter wassailing with a bunch of folkies. I sing a song of my own, walk out on a wave of glory to find myself – summer again – at a lazy picnic deep in Hampstead Heath. Kids, kites, chicken legs. Over to Kenwood to say hello to Rembrandt, then a quick kip in the hammock on my roof terrace. Now I’m ready for the evening. Snifter in the Savoy, some squid at Sheekeys and wow, Springsteen’s playing a surprise gig at the Greennote in Camden. Midnight finds me high on Primrose Hill. Then, magically sober and alert, I spend the small hours driving round the centre of the city, the pavements still sweating from the daytime heat, the sweet sculptural rhythms of Charles Mingus on the machine. And back home to cool fresh sheets and a functioning blackout curtain. Well, you did ask.

This ‘Grill’ was first posted on the Radio Taxis blog.