Postcard Teas
If you really care where your tea comes from, this shop run by well-travelled tea expert Timothy d’Offay is for you. Postcard Teas on New Bond Street claims to be the only shop that reveals the true origins of its teas, marking every tin with the maker or estate’s name and the place of production. You can send someone a “tea postcard” by posting a packet into the shop’s own red postbox.
Top tea: The rare Ancient Tree Teas, including a blend from four 100-year-old trees on Wuyi Mountain in China. Only 5-7kg of Oolong tea is made from them every year.

Yumchaa
Yumchaa believes the key factors for a great cup of tea are “the leaf, the water and the freedom for the two to mingle”. So it’s loose leaf or nothing across its four shops - one on Tottenham Street near Goodge Street station, two in Camden and one in Soho.
Top tea:  Berry Berry Nice, a Rooibos tea with notes of blueberry, blackberry, strawberry, rhubarb, kiwi, vanilla and rose petals. It should be drunk while wearing sunglasses, according to Yumchaa.

Twinings
Thomas Twining bought this flagship Twinings shop on The Strand in 1706, as tea became an increasingly popular alternative to the coffee houses springing up in London. It still operates today, albeit in a slightly more modern form. It has a loose tea bar with unusual and expensive teas, a sampling counter where you can try warm teas, and even a small tea museum with old teapots and artefacts from the Twining family.
Top tea: The Cutty Sark blend, created to celebrate the reopening of the world’s last remaining tea clipper ship in Greenwich. The black version is a mixture of two Chinese teas: strong sweet leaves from Yunnan province and Keemun tea from Anhui province.

Tea Palace
This queen of modern tea shops sits in the Market Building in Covent Garden. It sells tea bags and loose leaf tea in regal purple tin caddies. Among more than 160 whole leaf teas, Tea Palacecreates limited edition blends for special occasions – such as an Ultimate Antioxidant Tea Trio to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Top tea: The Diamond Jubilee Blend – although Tea Palace keeps the exact blend of black teas involved a secret.

If you fancy some tea and cake, here’s our list of the best afternoon teas in London.

1)    Leather Lane

One of London’s oldest markets, Leather Lane, sells fruit, vegetables, flowers and fabric,  but what we really love is the food! Our favourite is Daddy Donkey Mexican grill’s tasty burritos. Monday to Friday

2)    Earlham Street Market

For beautiful, fresh flowers head to Earlham Street Market, off Seven Dials. Here you’ll find both exotic and local flowers on display, as well as second hand clothes, funky T-shirts and bric-a-brac. Monday to Saturday

3)    eat.st

The newest addition to the Camden street food scene, eat.st collective, is a rotating group of food vendors behind King’s Cross station. We can’t go past The Ribman and his special hot sauce without buying some! Monday to Friday

4)    Camden Farmers’ Markets

Camden has three farmers markets: Bloomsbury Farmers’ Market (Thursdays) offers loyal customers a lunch club card which gets you your sixth lunch free. Look for Les Lawrence of Christchurch Fish, who sells fresh fish from Dorset at St John’s Wood Farmers’ Market (Saturdays). Parliament Hill Farmers’ Market (Saturdays) serves up award-winning sausages from Giggly Pig Farm.

5)    Queen’s Crescent

Visiting Queen’s Crescent Market is like stepping back in time! Rumoured to be London’s oldest market, it’s still very popular with locals. One of the first Sainsbury’s stores was at number 159 and Mr Sainsbury lived above the shop.  The market sells discount everything – clothing, flowers, household items and there’s a great selection of food stalls selling international cuisine at very reasonable prices. Thursdays and Saturdays

Find out more about Camden on Love Camden’s website.

What’s your favourite market in Camden?

Ansar Ahmed Ullah from the Swadhinata Trust and Mariam Sheikh Hakim, a London-bred communications specialist and freelance writer have teamed up to tell us all about Bangladeshi culture in London for our World in London series.

The 2001 National Census recorded that 153, 893 people of Bangladeshi origin reside in London, with approximately 65,500 living in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Tower Hamlets has a rich history of welcoming different immigrant populations – from the French Huguenots of the 1700s to the Jewish immigrants of the late 1800s. Now the area is largely occupied by the Bengali Community and is the best place to experience Bangladesh in London.

The very first Bengalis who came to the UK were seamen, and were often ship’s cooks in the early 1900s. Back then Bengal was still part of India, and later, following partition in 1947, the majority of Bengal became East Pakistan.

The success story of the so-called “Indian” is the 10,000-12,000 restaurants in the UK, which are almost all owned and run by Bangladeshis. This started with the setting up of cafes ashore, which spread out from the docks.

By the 1970s, East Pakistan gained independence and sovereignty as the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. After the independence of Bangladesh during the 1970s and 1980s, many more Bangladeshi families began settling in East London near Brick Lane as well as central London such as Camden – Drummond Street in particular. This led to an increase of cultural and religious activities in these areas, particularly in food, music, arts, literature, drama and now festivals in East London.

Today, Brick Lane – also known as Banglatown – has been dubbed the “Curry capital” of Europe, boasting more than 50 restaurants on just one street.

Since 1997, the Bangladeshi community in East London have been organising the Baishakhi Mela (Bengali New Year Festival) in Banglatown annually. The celebrations take place in Brick Lane, and adjoining streets, and include live music from two stages, Bengali food and a grand parade by children in costumes. The festival is often held in the second weekend of May and has now become an annual event for all Bangladeshis from the UK as well as Europe. Today the Baishakhi Mela held in London’s East End is the largest open air festival outside Bangladesh and West Bengal and the second biggest in London after Notting Hill Carnival.

At the Altab Ali Park at the very bottom of Brick Lane, there is even a replica version of the famous national Bangladeshi monument, the Shaheed Minar which commemorates Bangladeshi language martyrs.

So, in short if you want to experience Bangladesh in London, head to London’s Banglatown, as it’s the best place to start!

Note: We’ve used the term “Bengali” here to describe the language and culture from the Bengal region now spreading across West Bengal in India and the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

Do you have any other top tips for experiencing Bangladeshi culture in London? Let us know in the comments below…

La Soirée is giving away four “Posh Seats” to one lucky winner this Christmas.

A heady cocktail of cabaret, new burlesque, circus sideshow and contemporary variety La Soirée is a rare and unforgettable treat in the incredible setting of the Roundhouse in Camden.

These tickets entitle you to a reserved table with table service before and throughout the performance, not to mention a great view of all of the performers close up!

Due to the risqué nature of some of the acts, La Soirée is recommended for adults only.

Enter now to win this fantastic festive night out!

On its travels, the ball bounces past plenty of classic London sights and attractions, including Trafalgar Square, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace and Camden Market, before taking a well earned rest on the Tube.

Following last week’s announcement that The O2 is the world’s most popular music venue, we asked our Visit London Facebook fans What’s Your Favourite Place in London To Hear Music?

There was a big response. Plenty of you agree The O2 is excellent, and other large venues such as HMV Hammersmith Apollo, Royal Albert Hall, The Roundhouse and The Barbican were mentioned.

Smaller venue favourites include Ronnie Scott’s in Soho, Camden’s Electric Ballroom, Vortex Jazz Club in Hackney, Union Chapel Islington and The Archduke at Waterloo.

Lots of people rate London’s buskers, music outdoors in Covent Garden, Regent’s Park (in summer!) and Trafalgar Square, and several of you professed a love for candlelit concerts at St Martin in the Fields.

So what’s your favourite place in London to hear music? Leave a comment below…

Dubstep star Katy B switched on Camden Town’s Christmas lights yesterday, alongside Camden’s Mayor, Councillor Jonathan Simpson.

Camden High Road was closed for the first time during the day for a Christmas street party where Katy B performed her appropriately-titled new single Lights On.

Comedienne Amy Lamé assisted with the big switch on and other music acts performed throughout the day including Victoria and Jacob, Goodluck Jonathan, Oh! Gunquit! , Rum Shebeen and Ilia Darlin.

Were you there? Don’t forget to add your photos of London’s Christmas Lights to the Visit London flickrpool: they’ll be featured on our main site too!

Japan is about to become big in London. While Londoners have long enjoyed the taste of Japan at numerous restaurants and sushi bars, we’ve been mostly missing out on the kooky-cool of Japanese pop culture. But that’s all about to change, according to Yukiko Takahashi, general manager of the upcoming Hyper Japan event.

“Sushi is so widespread and well-known in London now”, she says, “But Japanese pop culture is the new star. British people like new stuff and they’re really curious about Japan.

“While Japanese [computer] games do really well in the UK, other things such as anime and cosplay haven’t been as big here as they are in France and Germany, for example. But it’s time for London to embrace Japanese culture, big time!”

Hyper Japan is a two-day event in October that’s bringing Manga, cosplay, technology and Japanese street fashion to the heart of happening Shoreditch. The Barbican is also turning Japanese this October, with an exhibition, Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion and a season of Japanese cinema.

Outside work, when she’s homesick Takahashi says she personally enjoys Tomoe restaurant in Marylebone, and visiting Japanese food shops – “they’re a sacred place for us” – such as Atari-ya for fresh sashimi and the Japan Centre on Regent Street. A favourite hidden gem is Adanami Shobo, a second-hand book shop with a karaoke-box behind it.

Takahashi also mentions Camden as a good spot to find touches of Japan in London.  ”Lolita gothic fashion I find really interesting, and it’s got a real connection to the London street fashion of the 1970s – what Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren were doing. “I think London and Japan definitely have a connection when it comes to fashion.”

What are your top tips for Japanese stuff in London? Tell us in the comments below.

This week’s London photo is by Earthsea Ged who snapped canal boat The Jenny Wren passing through Camden Lock.

If you’re out and about enjoying yourself in London this bank holiday weekend, don’t forget to share your pictures with the Visit London Flickr pool!

We rather like this quirky video of quirky places in London by ChrisCLondon.

There’s quite a long sequence of travel at the start, but stick with it as you’ll get some really nice insights into parts of London you never knew existed. (London’s Victorian dog cemetery anyone?)

And if you’re concerned about revelations that Shunt is now closed, don’t worry: since this vid was made, Shunt’s reopened and is still offering a suitably quirky night out for just £10. Check out www.shunt.co.uk for more info.