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London's hidden heritage

Look past London's major sights to discover some of the city's most engaging attractions. Picture: Steve McKenna

One of the most striking things about London is how the lovely, bland and ugly exist cheek by jowl.

The Geffrye Museum encapsulates this perfectly. Housed in a cluster of neat former almshouses, draped in ivy and edged by tidy green lawns and herb gardens, the Geffrye wouldn't look out of place in the Kent countryside.

But it's on Kingsland Road, a seemingly never-ending stretch of north-east London characterised by blurring traffic and towering housing blocks (as well as tasty Vietnamese and Turkish eateries and, increasingly, hipster bars and clubs).

In a series of period rooms, dating from the 17th century to the present day, the Geffrye displays the evolving interior designs of middle-class Londoners' homes. One minute I'm admiring the varnished oak furniture and panelling of a living parlour circa 1745; the next, I'm mulling over the minimalist feel of a 1990s Cool Britannia-era loft apartment.

Free to enter, the Geffrye is one of London's smaller-scale, and lesser-known, cultural spots - the kind of places that are ideal for whiling away a few hours, especially when it's drizzling outside (which it's known to do in the British capital, every now and then).

The Cartoon Museum is another gem that usually goes under tourists' radars. Overshadowed, literally and figuratively, by the great hulk of the British Museum, this quirky little affair explores the history of cartoons, comics, caricatures and animation.

Eye-catching and occasionally rib-tickling illustrations decorate the walls, including William Hogarth's satirical sketches of 18th century London society, plus excerpts from the Beano, Dandy and 2000AD (think Judge Dredd).

In the workshop area, children and big kids alike are encouraged to create their own masterpieces with coloured pencils, while the museum shop is stocked with comics and books, including collections of work by The Guardian's award-winning cartoonist Steve Bell. Bell's biting caricatures of Tony Blair, George W. Bush and the royal family, among others, were showcased in one of the museum's recent temporary exhibitions.

The Cartoon Museum is just down the road from the Dickens Museum, housed in the writer's former home - a handsome four- storey mansion in Bloomsbury's genteel backstreets. It reopened at the end of 2012 following a $5 million restoration, coinciding with the bicentenary of Dickens' birth and the cinematic release of Great Expectations, starring Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes.

Furnished with period decor - the curators have tried to make things look as they did in Dickens' day - the museum's rooms, and gift shop, trace his life and work, and are filled with old manuscripts and memorabilia.

The vivid sights, smells and sounds of Victorian London provided fertile material for Dickens, whose best-loved novels portray the multifarious layers of the Big Smoke, and he wrote two classics - Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist - in this home.

Over in Notting Hill, the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising is another relatively under-appreciated delight.

Set in a cobbled mews a two-minute walk from bustling Portobello Road, it offers a nostalgia-inducing trawl through consumer culture and social history from late Victorian times to the present day.

"Ah! Remember this?!" is probably the phrase used most by visitors to this arresting spot, which displays more than 12,000 items of yesteryear, including vintage Kellogg's cereal boxes, Heinz beans cans, Star Wars toys and posters heralding the benefits of a Mediterranean seaside holiday.

Set up like a time tunnel, in chronological order, this trip down memory lane is the brainchild of Robert Opie, who began collecting bits and bobs in 1963, at the age of 16. The first thing he hoarded was the wrapper of a packet of Munchies.

The 'burbs of south - "sarf" - London don't tend to make too many tourists' itineraries but the Horniman Museum and Gardens is worth the detour. Nestled amid 6ha of peaceful, landscaped gardens in Forest Hill, this eclectic, family-friendly attraction was founded by globetrotting Victorian tea trader Frederick John Horniman, an avid anthropologist and collector of exotic artefacts and souvenirs.

A indigenous Alaskan totem pole looms beside the entrance to the museum's Art Nouveau-style building, where highlights include a gallery of African, Afro- Caribbean and Brazilian art, sculptures and masks, about 1600 musical instruments and a natural history zone sporting eye-catching birds and animals. A signature piece is a comically over-stuffed walrus, hunted in Canada's Hudson Bay in the late 19th century. Fantastic, sweeping views over London can be enjoyed beside the garden's bandstand.

Stroll five minutes west of the Horniman and you'll be on Lordship Lane, an ancient south London thoroughfare and now a cosmopolitan stretch lined with appealing bars, cafes and restaurants. Birthplace of popular children's author Enid Blyton, the lane threads through the leafy village of Dulwich, which boasts England's oldest purpose-built public art space.

Opened in 1817 following a bequest from art dealer and collector Sir Francis Bourgeois, the Dulwich Picture Gallery flaunts a world-class array of paintings from European and domestic masters such as Rembrandt, Rubens and Gainsborough.

The gallery faces Dulwich Park, an idyllic spot dotted with duck ponds, a boating lake, a cricket field and pavilion cafe.

Dulwich has a dark Australian link. In 1980, Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC, was found in a car outside a house in the village's east (67 Overhill Road). Rushed to King's College Hospital in nearby Camberwell, Scott was pronounced dead on arrival.

Hugging another hospital, Guy's, the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret is my last stop. Sitting by the River Thames, in the shadow of the dazzlingly futuristic Shard tower (at 310m high, the European Union's tallest building), this atmospheric little museum probes the history of surgery and herbal medicine.

After clambering up a rickety spiral staircase, visitors enter what's thought to be Britain's oldest surviving 19th century operating theatre. Perched in the roof space of a former church, it's peppered with hair-raising surgical tools and bygone ointments, and, at 2pm on Saturdays, there's a re-enactment of a Victorian operation using pre-anaesthetic techniques.

You may need a stiff drink after a visit here. Fortunately, round the corner, The George is a charming, oak-beamed coaching inn that once counted Charles Dickens as a regular. He mentioned the pub in Little Dorrit.

FACT FILE

For an overview of the British capital's attractions and accommodation options, see visitlondon.com.

Geffrye Museum: geffrye-museum.org.uk.

Cartoon Museum: cartoonmuseum.org.

Dickens Museum: dickensmuseum.com.

The Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising: museumofbrands.com.

Horniman Museum and Gardens: horniman.ac.uk.

Dulwich Picture Gallery: dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk.

Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret: thegarret.org.uk.