Designer, restaurateur and retailer, Terence Conran has had more impact than any other designer of his generation on everyday life in contemporary Britain. He was the founder of Habitat, set up Next (the high street fashion chain), various restaurants and remains one of the most sought after interior designers today, selling out of the eponymous Conran Shop, amongst others. Conran also sits on the mydeco.com design board.

What’s your best kept London secret?

As the East End continues to get rediscovered you find all manner of streets and architecture that surprise and delight. Leadenhall Market is a wonderful place and I love Denis Severs house. I love the angel in Kensal Rise cemetery and the Botanic Gardens at the Palm House in Kew Gardens. London is such a wonderful place, you see something new and surprising every day.

Where do you go to escape a) within the city b) outside of the city.

a) I love to take an early evening stroll around the Chelsea Physic garden - it is intimate and inspiring and encloses you like a secret world which is rare in a city like London and you could have a wonderful picnic.

b)I love London but at the end of a hard working week I escape to Barton Court, my home in Berkshire, to recharge my batteries. I love the quietness and relaxation and will happily sit in my garden with a cigar and a good bottle of vieille prune.]

“Chelsea Physic garden. it is intimate and inspiring and encloses you like a secret world which is rare in a city like London and you could have a wonderful picnic.”

Favourite restaurants/eats?

Roka in Charlotte has an inventive menu and serves delicious food. St John’s serves uncomplicated food with the finest British ingredients with an unfussy approach to food that matches my own. Sweetings in the City is another favourite place to eat. Cambio de Tercio serves wonderful Tapas and Bocca di Luppo in Soho is a great Italian restaurant. Gastropubs worth a mention are the Atlas near Earls Court, the Queen’s Head and Artichoke near Regents Park and the Eagle in Farringdon.

Favourite shops?

Marylebone High Street for its diversity, individuality and sensitive choice of shops, restaurants and cafes. It really has stood up to the challenge of the high street chain stores and is a quite remarkable place. Even if you are not a big reader, the Edwardian book store Daunts is well worth a visit because it is such a beautiful space.

Sally Clarke’s shop and bakery is still wonderful to this day and if there are any two finer butchers in London than Lidgate or Randalls I am yet to find them. I like the small, quirky shops like Chantel’s chocolate shop and the antique market stalls near the King’s Road. We must allow them to survive. Borough Market for delicious fresh fish, meat and vegetables and an old fashioned market atmosphere. My sisters shop Few and Far between for all manner of beautiful objects from around the world and of course Alfie’s Antiques market.

Favourite bars/drinks?

Bars aren’t really my sort of thing but I do like the one at Claridges – it has very good cheese straws and excellent Dry Martini’s.

"Bars aren’t really my sort of thing but I do like the one at Claridges – it has very good cheese straws and excellent Dry Martini’s."

Favourite time of year in the city?

Spring time, which seems to come anytime between March and June. You can literally smell the optimism in the air as Londoners get ready for the summer. The parks are in bloom and picnickers venture out in the sunshine.

Favourite view of London?

Standing on Waterloo Bridge on a summers evening looking down the river with the buildings and river bathed in sunshine and the South Bank buzzing with activity.

Complete the sentences:

I can’t make it through the day without…
at least four cigars and a couple of glasses of decent wine.

If London had a soundtrack it would play…
the most eclectic collection of songs ever heard - something akin to the music of the spheres that encompasses every single instrument that has been played.

Londoner who most deserves to be on a stamp is…
a toss up between Sir Christopher Wren or Sir Edwin Lutyens who have both shaped the London skyline quite brilliantly.

What are your guilty pleasures?

Smoking cigars and drinking glasses of viellle prune in my greenhouse. I am also rather partial to a tin of Heinz tomato soup with half a pint of full fat milk in it.

“MY Guilty Pleasures : Smoking cigars and drinking glasses of viellle prune in my greenhouse. I am also rather partial to a tin of Heinz tomato soup with half a pint of full fat milk in it.”

If you could burn down any building in London, what would it be and why?

I’d hate to burn any building down, it goes against all my instincts – I would much prefer to breathe new life in to buildings, as we have done with Michelin House, Butlers Wharf, the Bluebird garage and most recently the Boundary. I’d love to have a stab at doing something with the hotel by Tower Bridge which is really quite a dreary building to say it has perhaps the best riverside location in London – I thought we could redesign it with a nautical theme, taking its inspiration from a giant sail.

If you’re in need of a little luxury/pampering, where do you go?

Home – it remains the most luxurious place of all.

Where do you go for a culture fix?

The V&A still takes my breath away whenever I visit, it is an incredibly inspiring place to walk around. The Soane Museum also offers such a personal experience that not many other museum’s offer.

What’s your top London tip?

Go to the top of the London Eye – as well as offering breathtaking views it gives you a far better understanding of it’s often bewildering maze of streets.

Anything else we need to know?

Go out and explore for yourself! Part of the charm of London is the gritty toughness of a post industrial landscape. We’ll never be orderly or squeaky clean but it is the unexpected, the surprising and our optimism that makes London such a fascinating place to explore and that will never change.