Westminster tube/Waterloo tube/rail. Open 10am-5pm Mon-Fri (last entry 4pm); 11.30am-4.30pm Sat, Sun (last entry 3.30pm). Admission ?4.80; ?3.60 5s-15s, OAPs, students, ES40s; ?10 family. Credit AmEx, MC, ?TC, V.

Website: http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk

The world’s most famous
nurse is celebrated in the well thought-out displays of this small
museum, close to Westminster Bridge. Nightingale’s chief achievement in
a long career of social campaigning was to establish nursing as a
disciplined profession (indeed, ?her lady and the lamp’ care in the
Crimea was but a small part of her life’s contribution to medicine);
and she set up the first nursing school at St Thomas’s in 1859.

Open 11am-3am daily. Admission $10 drink minimum.

This is Chuchó Valdés’ turf. His group Irakere and other famous Cuban jazz bands often play here in two sets starting at 8pm and 11pm. Afterwards the place turns into a lively disco. The atmosphere is mellow and sophisticated. The café also operates as a restaurant, so come early to nab a good table.

This beautiful Italianate museum – also an extraordinary literary-research facility – was once the private library of financier J. Pierpont Morgan. Mostly gathered during Morgan’s trips to Europe, the collection includes three gutenberg Bibles, original Mahler manuscripts and the gorgeous silver, copper and cloisonné 12th-century Stavelot triptych. A subtly colorful marble rotunda with carved 16th-century italian ceiling separates the three-tiered library from the rich red study. Guided tours are available Tuesday through friday at noon. There’s also a modern conservatory attached to the museum, with a tranquil courtyard café.

This full-size reconstruction of Sir Francis Drake’s sixteenth-century flagship looks impressively pristine considering the two decades it has spent circumnavigating the world as a seaborne museum. It’s hard to believe that the dinky ship travelled over 100,000 miles, many more than the original. Years of research went into producing this authentic reproduction, now in a dry dock, and it shows: the interior has been recreated in minute detail and the diminutive proportions of the gun deck and hold feel painfully real. The atmosphere on board is fleshed out by åcrew’ in Elizabethan costume. A big hit with kids. Tickets are sold from the card shop next to the ship.