Gadgets, places and treatments

Gadgets

Ice Vest: Paula Radcliffe's choice of attire for the Athens marathon is yet to hit the high street, but if your job keeps you hot and sweaty outdoors, one of these could be your salvation. £144 from www.coolsport.net

Instant Pool: a portable piscine. At 3.35m x 1.8m, and with cup holders for those long glasses of pina colada, it blows other paddling pools out the water. £129.95 from www.iwantoneofthose.com

Super Soaker Helix: water pistol technology has come a long way - the latest Super Soaker has a seven-metre range, a variable nozzle and a one-litre capacity. Weapons of mass destruction have never been this affordable. £7.99 from toy shops.

Airzooka: ingenious. This little gadget blasts a sharp bullet of air up to seven metres away. £9.95 from www.firebox.com

Places to go

For the best air conditioning in town, spend your lunch hour in an art gallery, which typically spend millions on keeping temperature and humidity absolutely constant. Head to Tate Modern or Fordham, E1 to see emerging star Jonathan Wateridge's exhibition (020 73928868) - the paintings are constructed in wax so while the imagery is hot, the gallery is most definitely not.

Go to a bar where summer can't get you: members' bar Milk & Honey, Poland Street doesn't do sunlight. It's very dark and very cold, particularly with a Mojito in your hand. Also try basement restaurant Joe Allen, Exeter Street, W1, which plunges you into a dark cold underworld miles away from Covent Garden. Or the lobby bar at The Hempel (Bayswater, 020 72989000) - "cool" cool, as well as cold.

Seek out people-sized chiller compartments while doing some gastronomic shopping. Buy some of the world's finest cheeses, and spend time in the 11-degree fridge at La Fromagerie (in Highbury or W1, see www.lafromagerie.co.uk),

Cooling Treatments

Bliss Cold Feet. The antithesis of a sauna. The 60-minute pedicure uses alternating hot and cold therapies to deflate swollen feet. £55, 020 7584 3888.

Sanderson Spa Swiss Shower. If you're boiling on Oxford Street detour to the Spa at Berners Street for the coldest shower around: it starts warm, then after a rubdown in oil, the water is made as cold as you can bear. £22, 020 7300 1414.

The ice machine at LA Fitness club South Kensington - instead of a plunge pool there's endless shaved ice to throw over yourself after a sauna. Get a member to sign you in (020 78380500).