For those in search of a real work out Barry’s gym with it’s ‘Red Room’ (of pain) offers an array of demanding HIIT classes throughout the day.  Top spec equipment and no membership required have made these loud, fun and extremely demanding HIIT classes all the rage. The café for post-workout fuel allows for some excellent people watching, too. 

Yes, it is a café, hitting all the right hipster notes of excellent coffee, perfect pastries, hipster-friendly publications such as Pamplemousse and Kinfolk for the steady stream of international crowd that turn up for their daily caffeine and gluten hit. And yes, behind the panelled office at the back, it is also a money change bureau offering the world’s currencies in fair exchange for your readies. But it’s the styling that wins the prize: the soft peach and jade marble counter that runs the length of the room, mustard leather banquettes, a mosaic floor redolent of 1950s Italy and wall to wall walnut panelling. The sort of place you should travel across the city for. 

By day neighbourhood deli and bottle shop, by night, wine bar and tapas joint specialising in well-kept, thoughtfully curated low-intervention wines from across Europe, many by the glass which you can happily taste before committing to. Eats on the menu are pitched just right, too, whether you are after a nibble to share or something more substantial: charcuterie plate with house-made pickles, braised butter beans with blackened delica pumpkin, roast hake with olive oil mash. A big table in the new extension next door will allow for pop-ups, too. In the summer, the front opens right up to form a bar at which you can perch streetside and watch the world go by. 

To find a moment of peace, a moment for yourself in the midst of a bustling city like London can be tough. Heartcore makes those moments all the more common. Find the perfect union of body, mind and heart with their intense yet intelligent reformer Pilates classes. If you’re not knocking about Notting Hill, check out their studios in Bayswater, Chelsea, Fulham, Hampstead, Kensington or St John’s Wood.