My favourite Shops in London

Since I started posting on the London art scene, I often thought of posting my favourite top lists of best shops, galleries, artist's books, restaurants since food or shoes can be like a piece of art itself. Starting with a topic that is closely linked to art – commerce – you’ll find my 10 picks from the 40.000 shops in London below:

Koenig’s Bookshop
Having been a loyal customer for a decade to its Cologne branch (best art bookshop in the world hands down) I was delighted to find their little London branch in the Serpentine Gallery. Sunday morning 10am, a short stroll in Hyde Park before the crowds flock in, followed by the free exhibition in the gallery, and then the ritual of exploring and screening through this tiny space crammed with monographs and catalogues of current exhibitions around London with a sale section is in the back room. Serpentine Gallery, Hyde Park

ICA Bookshop
This is the best place in London for independent, artisan-led magazines and other underground-style periodicals such as Ken360, Greenwich Emotion Map, Daydream Magazine and other ‘secrets’. You wander what else is out there…
The Mall, West End

Bookshop @ Photographer Gallery
Not surprisingly, the best stop for publications on photography. You might spend hours. Great Newport Street, West End

Miller Harris
Tranquillity. Enthralling shop design. Charming sales person. Captivating scents. Miller Harris is a heaven for perfume aficionados, and the whole thing feels like a holistic art installation for your senses. Unique! Needham Road, Notting Hill

Jeffery West
Gents: Fed-up with assembly line output of yet expensive high street brands? Ladies: bored with ‘try-to-fit-in’ footwear of your beloved City Adonis? Jeffery West of Northampton make shoes for ‘Dandies’ as they say, but for me they are simply the most flamboyant shoes to turn a great suit into an artwork or a to get you into a fancy place with your jeans on. My favourite colour is “honey leather”. Classic shapes are Chelsea Brogues and pointy Budapesters. Piccadilly Arcades, West End

Nino’s
You can spend £75 on a decent Boss shirt and the chances are 1:10 you’ll see another one on the tube the next day. Or, you spend £100 on a limited edition shirt at Nino’s and you have a guaranteed one-off in your size for a particular colour. My favourite is a dark brown shirt with each button hole stitched in various colours. The Quality? You still look 9am even after dinner! They also have great cufflinks made from porcelain marbles and LEGO cubes. Quadrant Arcade, Regent Street

HG Walters
Voted the best family butcher by so-and-so association, I am endlessly thankful to only live a stone throw away. The display cabinet wants you to eat it raw on the spot, there are great cheese for vegetarians as well. It is not even expensive given that it is organic and local produce. Palliser Road, Baron’s Court

Stanford’s
London’s No. 1 temple for travel publications. But the geek in me comes back for the abundance of maps of everything in the basement. The detailed Landranger maps are invaluable to soul surfers keen to explore secret surf spots. Long Acre, Leicester Square

The Library
This men’s boutique in Chelsea sometimes feels like a test lab for Harrods and Selfridges. In the past, you could find Trunk t-shirts, Dries van Noten Jackets, Margiella jumpers or Dirk Schoenberger shirts at least a season earlier. The price tags can make you nauseous though. Brompton Road, Chelsea

Grace & Favour
A great ‘life-style’ store that sells candles as well as clothes. I got my favourite blazer there, an eccentric Gibson Jacket with 70s-style leather elbow pads and red and yellow lines crossing the tweed pattern. North Cross Road, East Dulwich

Art Show: Karen Kilimnick

Well, this review is actually more about the Serpentine itself rahter than about Karen Kiliminck's interesting collection of mainly oil paintings and room environments, which refer to classic painting from the 16th to the 20th century. Granted, this is good and consistent work, and her installations such as table, chairs, fireplace, curtains, wood work on the walls and a painting depicting...eh... exactly this scene are nice food for thought, but do not exactly tickly my fancy.

However, this exhibition confirms (again) what a versatile space the Serpentine Gallery really is. Most of the rooms are purpose-changed to resemble gardens, stables, dining and ballroom of Tudor mansions. I wonder how many people who enter the Serpentine for the first time really know the installation and where the regular features of this 1934 original teahouse begin.

Other great end-to-end shows blending in artwork and 'work on the place' include Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset Welfare Show and Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Houses of Dreams. My favourite Serpentine show so far was Gabriel Orosco, and he used the space more like a couple of white cubes.

Perhaps, the key success factor for attracting 750.000 visitors per year is access: located in Hyde Park and free for all, it attracts figures from all sorts of life, ranging from sunbathers seeking a break to Charles Saatchi assessing the latest shadow projection of Tim Noble & Sue Webster. One of my all-time London favourites!

Until 9 April at the Serpentine