London: 10 Things to Do

What's the nattiest neighborhood in London? Not leafy Notting Hill, which lost its claim to cool after Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts frolicked through it in the eponymous 1999 rom-com. And not fashionable Hoxton or Shoreditch, even with their spiky-haired, skinny-jeans-clad tribes of cool kids. They're all worth a look, but the real cool resides in Marylebone, an area so confident of its charms that it doesn't need to broadcast them.

Lying north of the glossy Selfridges department store and south of Regent's Park, Marylebone (pronounced mar-le-bone) is an affluent, strollable residential district of white terraced Georgian and Edwardian townhouses, the grandest of which are still single-family. It's also home to the Wallace Collection, where the girl with the billowing skirts in Jean-Honoré Fragonard's The Swing remains as seductive as when France's dirty old master painted her in 1767. The main shopping drag is Marylebone High Street, but the whole area is packed with fabulous shops and restaurants: Come here for everything from haute couture and baby clothes to organic butchery and extravagant cakes. There's also a specialist travel bookshop called Daunt Books that's worth a detour just for its Edwardian fixtures and fittings.

• 1. Notting Hill
  London, U.K. 51.519812-0.200774 nottinghill.com
• 2. Selfridges
  400 Oxford Street, London, U.K. W1A 1AB 51.514975-0.144328 selfridges.com
• 3. Regent's Park
  London, United Kingdom NW1 4NR; 44-(0)20-7486-7905 51.525838-0.138585 royalparks.org.uk
• 4. Wallace Collection
  Hertford House, Manchester Sq., London, U.K. W1U 3BN; 44-(0)20-7563-9500 51.51719-0.151391 wallacecollection.org
• 5. Marylebone High Street
  Marylebone High Street, London, U.K. 51.520826-0.151875 More Info
• 6. Daunt Books
  83 Marylebone High Street, London, U.K. W1U 4QW; 44-(0)20-7224-2295 51.520528-0.151855 dauntbooks.co.uk