Lucy, espresso first in Borough

Most people look at the Shard. Lucy looks past it, hunting for the one or two stars the city lets through. She is 163 cm and slender, with long curly dark brown hair she rarely bothers to tame and brown eyes that go soft when she is thinking. Her style is coastal and bohemian: a loose linen shirt, silver rings, a long skirt that catches the breeze, sandals until the weather absolutely forbids them.

She is dreamy in the best sense, artistic, tender, easily moved by a good view. Talk with her drifts from the planets to painting to the best coffee roaster south of the river, all in unhurried English. Astronomy is her private passion; she knows the names of the brightest stars and when they rise. She paints small skies in gouache, one for every clear night she manages to catch. Mornings she runs along the Thames, usually from Pimlico towards Tate Britain and back, then goes looking for a proper espresso.

In Borough her day begins at Monmouth Coffee on Park Street, on the edge of Borough Market, where the queue is long and entirely worth it. She takes a flat white or a short black, depending on her mood. From there she wanders the market stalls, buys two custard tarts without asking whether you want one, then follows the riverside path past the old cathedral towards London Bridge, talking about anything and noticing everything.

Lucy lives in Pimlico and keeps daytimes and midweek evenings free. Suggest a Borough morning or a quiet evening via booking; rates has the hour-by-hour figures.