For opera, Holland Park provides something that very few cities in the world can match. An outdoor stage set against the ruins of a Jacobean mansion, surrounded by one of London’s most beautiful parks, with the kind of programming that takes it seriously as a venue rather than merely a setting. The Proms, beginning in July and running through to September, offer something at a different register entirely. The Royal Albert Hall on a warm evening, the queues for the arena forming early, the sense of a city taking its culture seriously, it is one of the things London does better than anywhere.

When it comes to eating and drinking outside, the city rewards those who know where to look. The River Café terrace in Hammersmith is, on a warm evening, as good as London gets, the cooking has always been the point but the setting, right on the water with the light changing over the Thames, makes a long dinner there feel genuinely unhurried. At the other end of Holland Park, the Belvedere has one of the most romantic terrace settings in the city, the kind of place where a long Sunday lunch can quietly become the whole afternoon. Colbert on Sloane Square offers something different again, the closest thing London has to a proper Parisian brasserie terrace, excellent for watching the square from a table outside with no particular urgency to leave.

Petersham Nurseries in Richmond is worth the short drive from Barnes. Greenhouse dining is surrounded by extraordinary planting, a menu that changes with what is growing, and an atmosphere that manages to feel both refined and completely relaxed. It is the kind of place that people who live nearby take years to discover and then wonder how they managed without.

For those with membership, the Hurlingham Club in Fulham occupies a category of its own. Croquet lawns running down to the river, a summer that feels borrowed from a quieter era, and the particular pleasure of a city that has largely forgotten the place exists. It is, by some distance, one of the finest settings in London on a warm afternoon.

None of this requires going anywhere.

There is, of course, a practical observation worth making for those considering a sale. The summer months carry a reputation for quietness that is not entirely deserved. Serious buyers do not pause their search for a holiday. Well-prepared properties with good outdoor space show beautifully in June, July and August, and competition from other sellers is often lower than at any point in the spring. Some of the most straightforward sales we handle each year happen quietly, in the summer, with motivated buyers who have simply been waiting for the right home to appear.

The city in summer rewards those who stay. The people who leave are often returning to something they already have.