Pastures old

Once upon a long time ago, London was less buses and Beefeaters, more furrowed fields. And it’s still possible to beat a path back to the bucolic. On a picturesque tree-lined street, here is a home as tranquil as a thatched summerhouse. You’ve woodland wallpaper and sunny floorboards, original artwork and polished period dressing tables, old wirelesses and acres of classic paperbacks. And if the heart of every sleepy village is its green, you’ll be looking for buttercups in the open plan kitchen and TV snug. Just make sure you toddle down the lane to Islington’s too.

Countryphiles

Your hosts divide their days between the English capital and the French countryside. She works for a famed auction house, he runs a visual effects and animation company, and together they adore everything about their location – be it the Regent’s Canal or the antiquer’s mecca at Camden Passage.

Will-o'-the-wisp

Let the city bustle as it will: this is a retreat of leafy peace. The artwork is both original and everywhere, while florals give way to formals – a splendid old armchair here, a radiant shuttered window there. Downstairs, you’ve a contemporary kitchen and living area that owes much to the arboreal.

A garden gleams through floor-to-ceiling windows, where you might tend the barbecue or drowse away the afternoon on the dinky lawn. And do share a nightcap on the master bedroom’s characterful little balcony, or at one of the fantastic neighbourhood pubs.