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Gwyneth: My guide to the best of London
Ruth Bloomfield and Ellen Widdup01.04.09
GWYNETH Paltrow has taken a break from dispensing lifestyle tips and designing clothes to write a guide to London.
The 36-year-old actress, who lives most of the year in Belsize Park with her husband, Coldplay singer Chris Martin, and their two young children, has written a guide to the best hotels, restaurants and pubs in the capital.
In a post on her lifestyle website Goop addressed to "London", she reveals the places she loves in the city.
"Many of my friends, or friends of friends, have asked me for 'my London' so that when someone is travelling here, or lives here but wants some extra info, it is compiled in one place.
"The first instalment of this three-part newsletter will include restaurants, hotels and pubs."
She admits the hotels "are on the pricey side" (The Berkeley, Blakes) but says she plans to ask "my Goop girls" to do some research into more affordable locations.
Her website was accused of being out of touch when it was established in September last year, encouraging her fans to "nourish their inner aspect". Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper said: "Why is it called 'Goop'? Perhaps 'Any Old Load Of Rubbish' and 'Learn From Me, Ungrateful Peasant' were both taken."
Paltrow, who starred in Seven with Brad Pitt and the film Shakespeare In Love two years later, is likely to attract further criticism after choosing some expensive restaurants.
Among her favourites are J Sheekey, near Leicester Square, and Locanda Locatelli in Mayfair, which "guarantees a perfect grown up night out".
Her favourite dining room in the capital is La Petite Maison in Mayfair. She writes: "I'm going to pull the trigger and declare this restaurant as my absolute favourite in London at the moment. The food has a very southern French soul."
There is also a mention for chain restaurant Wagamama. Paltrow writes: "I love getting takeaway from this place when I'm on the run."
Hampstead is called "as charming as it gets with its little streets and chocolate box houses" while "Primrose Hill is one of the most picturesque neighbourhoods of London".
When it comes to pubs, Paltrow favours the Engineer in Primrose Hill and the Grenadier in Belgravia, close to her first home in London.
Madonna also likes The Grenadier, and it is where her former husband Guy Ritchie held his stag night.
Reader views (7)
Fifi, you have no reason to be offended, you live in Lincolnshire - but if Gwyneth was writing a guide to two horse towns 150 miles from London, then you might have cause for complaint...
- Elmo, London
I rather resent taking advice on London from someone who has lived here for all of ten minutes.
- Fifi, lincs
Oh, Miss Paltry,
OH,Miss Paltry,
WHO CARES..........?!!!
- Radz, Expat!, Copenhagen , Denmark.
i saw an interview with 'Mrs Martin' last week, and she seemed very snooty and up herself. personally i wont be watching any more of her 'movies'....
- Emma, london
Jimbob you cannot afford to go into a pub? I think anyone can afford to go to a pub and Wagamamas is not exactly expensive. Rather an odd thing to say that there is very little to do in Islington as well??? There is loads to see and do that doesn't cost much.
- Andrew, St. John's Wood, London
She may well be a nice woman, but she consistently manages to come across as smugly self-satisfied, patronizing, and determined to ram her 'wisdom' down the throats of everyone else as if she well God, Buddha, Anna Wintour and everyone else rolled into one.
- L, London
Yeah. all of those places are great if you happen to be a multi millionaire, otherwise much like Kensington there is not an awful lot to do.
- Jimbob, Kensington
