Novelist KATHY LETTE fell in love with the famous hotel while she was its 2003 writer-in-residence. After its recent renovation, she returns with celebrity girlfriends and slight apprehension

With London's Oxford and Regent Streets preparing to host a traffic-free day later this month, SARAH WESTCOTT enjoys some family shopping and sightseeing

IT'S not every day that you can step out of your hotel and straight on to the set of a period drama.

JAMES ELLIS develops a new-found respect for cabin crew staff as he is put through his paces by the experts

Keep the kids entertained this half term with a toy-tastic themed short break says LEAH SIMPSON

When I say my stay at The Charing Cross hotel made me feel at the centre of all things vibrant, I really do mean it says LEAH SIMPSON

THINK of Mayfair and familiar images spring to mind: the imposing Georgian facades of gentlemen's clubs in Pall Mall, the elegant stores of Jermyn Street. Yet stray just beyond the well-worn paths of St James's and Piccadilly and you'll stumble across minute cul-de-sacs and, if you're lucky, The Stafford hotel.

From Beefeaters and jewels to Winston Churchill's wartime bunker, MIKE HAWORTH and family pack in plenty of London's attractions courtesy of a value-for-money sightseeing pass

IT MAY have been three years in the making and is 14 months overdue but the reopening of The Savoy next month will be breathtaking if our exclusive recent tour is anything to go by.

REBECCA FORD relives the capital's past 400 years at the Museum of London's five new galleries