John Hurt's My London

Where do you live?

North West Bloomsbury, just off Tottenham Court Road. It's university land: vibrant and central. I can walk anywhere.

First thing you do when you arrive back in London?

Stock up at my favourite Soho deli, Lina Stores.

Most romantic thing someone’s done for you?

Probably getting me the application form for RADA, but that was a while ago. In the true sense of romantic, marrying me.

Best place for a first date?

I had a wonderful and highly successful first date at a food truck in Covent Garden when it was still a market. We ate a sausage sandwich and had a cup of tea. It was all I could afford and it went down a storm.

Best meal?

Chez Solange in Leicester Square; it cost 17s 6d for three courses for two people. I still remember the côte de porc.

Best place for a nightcap?

The Soho Hotel.

Earliest London memory?

I was eight and my mother told me if I got lost, to ask a gentleman on the platform if he knew which Underground train I should get on. But there were a whole sea of them replete with bowler hats, black overcoats, pinstripe trousers, shiny black shoes, rolled-up umbrellas and a copy of The Times.

Who’s your hero?

Alec Guinness because he changed the face of screen acting.

What would you do as Mayor for the day?

Get rid of those bloody bikes! No, I don’t mean it, Boris... What I would do is vastly reduce the price of public transport.

Best thing a cabbie has said to you?

‘There’s no way I’m taking a fare off you, John.’ That was after The Naked Civil Servant had aired.

Favourite shops?

Planet Organic, Patisserie Valerie, and tailors John Pearse and Ozwald Boateng.

Who do you call when you want to have fun in London?

My youngest son, Nick.

Favourite discovery?

The London Silver Vaults on Chancery Lane.

Building you’d like to be locked in overnight?

The College of Arms. I’ve been fascinated by heraldry since I was a child.

Best place to let your hair down?

Home — it’s safer.

Building you’d most like to live in?

Kenwood House would suit my style.

Favourite club?

The Garrick — they asked me to be a member.

Best piece of advice you’ve been given?

Howard Sackler, who wrote, among other things, The Great White Hope, once said to me: ‘The greatest freedom in life is to know that it is not necessary to be liked.’ It is very carefully worded.

What do you collect?

I’m not a collector, I’m more inclined to give everything away.

Animal you’d most like to be?

A swallow, flying with all that grace and speed and still finding time just to have fun.

Only Lovers Left Alive is out in cinemas today