A slumber did my spirit steal

Sometimes the pace of central London can be almost overwhelming. Life strides. People press. The main roads breathe in fast, thick pants.

But veer off at just the right trajectory, and barely a hundred paces on the noise simply stops. It's the way Londoners do it, of course: escape the hubbub into a residential reverie of local merchants, privet hedgerows, and a great wide calm.

But then, they know where to look.

She looks, and her heart is in Heaven

In the dead centre of West Kensington is just such a hidden village. A few minutes West of Holland Park, and only half a mile from Westfield, now Europe's largest urban shopping mall, it's a world away from the throng.

Tucked into its nooks and crannies are gastropubs and daytime tearooms. And on one of its prettier terraced streets is this elegant 4 story townhouse.

Our quiet house all full in view

A large sitting room extends to the back of the house and a view over the garden. The cook's kitchen downstairs is also open plan and large enough for feast days. Heading up the stairs -- pausing only to take off your shoes -- you'll discover one of London's more beautiful bathrooms. The grand master bedroom is on the first floor, along with a second with a single bed, and a third room at the top with another double bed.

A further bathroom, with a shower, a utility room, and and the spacious back garden, unashamedly on the wild side of romantic, round out the property.

Read lazily in lazy books

This is a house to read in. With a lyricism which has been lovingly crafted by its owner, a professor at the University of London, it's a retreat, detached from the world.

Like all poetry, crafting a tone with this fluency has taken time. The furniture, fabrics, and fittings have been selected and restored over many years with care and subtlety.

No matter method, the result is an antidote to London. So pack your Wordsworth, and whether for a weekend or a fortnight, leave your own lines upon the seat of a yew tree.