Saturday in London belongs to other people. It has plans, bookings and a train to catch. Sunday morning is different. The city wakes late, the traffic thins, and for a few hours the whole place behaves like a village that happens to have nine million residents.
This is how we like to spend one. No itinerary, very little effort, and nothing that needs booking before Thursday.
Start with the kettle, or better, the coffee
The first decision of the day should be about coffee and nothing else. London has become a very good coffee city over the past fifteen years, and most neighbourhoods now have somewhere serious within a short walk. But the best version of the morning starts at home: a pot on the hob, the radio on low, bread that was bought yesterday and toasts better for it.
Nobody is dressed yet. That is rather the point.
The flat
The Georgian terrace went up across London through the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and it is still most Londoners' idea of the ideal flat. Tall sash windows, high ceilings on the first floor, floorboards that announce you from two rooms away. They were designed for daylight, and on a clear morning the light comes in low and long across the room.
If you do not live in one, you can at least walk past a few. Islington's Canonbury and Barnsbury squares, the streets around Spitalfields, and much of Bloomsbury are full of them. Fournier Street in Spitalfields, with its early eighteenth-century houses once home to Huguenot silk weavers, is worth the detour on its own.
Getting dressed, eventually
At some point one of you will suggest going out, and the other will ask how out. The answer on a Sunday is: not very. Jeans, trainers, and something warm on top that you can wear to the bakery and still be comfortable in when you get home and sit back down.
That is the job of the Morning After heavyweight pullover hoodie. It comes in cream, with a small navy print on the left chest, and it is heavy enough to take on a cool morning without a coat. Being unisex, it tends to get borrowed. Plan for that. The rest of the range is in hoodies.
The walk
Every Londoner has a Sunday walk, and it is usually a variation on water or a hill.
The water option is the Regent's Canal. The towpath runs east from Little Venice through Camden and past King's Cross and Islington, and on a Sunday morning it is mostly joggers, dog walkers and narrowboat owners making tea on deck. You can join it almost anywhere and leave it when you get hungry.
The hill option is Primrose Hill or Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath. Both give you the whole skyline laid out in front of you, which is more impressive with a coffee in hand and nobody else around. Hampstead Heath in particular rewards an early start, before the families arrive.
And if you are anywhere near the East End, Columbia Road Flower Market runs on Sunday mornings. Go early for the flowers, or late, when the traders start calling out their prices, for the bargains. Buy something too big to carry comfortably. It is tradition.
Back by lunch
The best Sunday mornings in London end where they started, with the kettle on again and the papers across the table. Lunch can be a roast at the local, or it can be whatever is in the fridge. Either way, the hoodie stays on.
London has plenty of grand weekends in it. This is not one of them, and that is why it works.
A slow London Sunday: questions, answered
What is there to do on a Sunday morning in London?
Keep it simple: coffee, a walk along the Regent's Canal or up Primrose Hill or Parliament Hill, and Columbia Road Flower Market if you are in east London. A pub roast is the traditional way to finish.
Where can you see Georgian houses in London?
Islington, especially around Canonbury and Barnsbury, Spitalfields, Bloomsbury and Marylebone all have well-kept Georgian terraces and squares. Fournier Street in Spitalfields is one of the best-preserved streets of the period.
Are shops open on Sundays in London?
Yes, but larger shops in England can only open for six hours on a Sunday, usually somewhere between 10am and 6pm, so many open at noon. Smaller shops, cafés and markets often open earlier.
What should I wear for a weekend in London?
Layers. London weather changes by the hour, so a heavyweight hoodie or sweatshirt over a T-shirt, with a light jacket to hand, covers most mornings for much of the year.