Is there any place in the Greater London area where I'm likely to find privately owned country homes with a lake? I thinking of a semi-rural area, a lone house on a hill, patches of fog, etc. The closer to central London the better. Help?

I need a good place to get our boys soaking wet on a cold day without endangering their lives too much for a fluff piece, and Wiki tells me that the boating lake at Regents Park is only four feet deep -- filled in to that depth after an 1867 incident where the ice broke and 200 people fell through (with 40 casualties ( Read more... )

Is there a lower rent, somewhat disreputable neighborhood (urban decay?) of London that has back gardens? Some indication that it was once a more middle class area but has slid a bit? Perhaps alley ways between the gardens or some way to get a car in there ( Read more... )

Does London have open mike nights? They're essentially periods of time set aside in clubs or restaurants where audience members can perform live music. It's one way to promote new amateur talent, and in the States I think it's the traditional way for artists to be scouted. In which part of London are these venues located ( Read more... )

Sherlock and John appear to eat out a lot (and the food disappears from the refrigerator when John does buy it!) so I'm curious. What kinds of restaurants are they likely to find? Are certain areas of London going to have a concentration of certain kinds of food? Do you have farmer's markets? (Which, in Boston, consist of farmers coming in and ( Read more... )

Hello hello!

I hope that this post is okay, first of all - if not, please, oh modly ones, just delete it, no harm done <3 ( Read more... )