Each week we gather at the CNN Future site to discuss the stories of the previous few days that the 'ireporters' have written about Second Life (SL). A couple of weeks ago we discussed how someone in SL had created a copy of the Taj Mahal and if there were many copies of real life buildings and cities in the virtual world.

Well there is one big build going on and it's growing very quickly, it's central London. As a new person, over a year ago, I had looked round quite a few cities in Second Life, you have New York, Paris and quite a few others. However, as I am English I looked for some English sites and spotted Knightsbridge on the map. Even in those days it was a popular venue, it has a club called the Underground Club that is pretty full of avatars most nights. The club is right next door to the London Underground where you can actually board a tube train and travel to the next station. You can also explore the sim on an open top London Bus, we boarded one the other evening and had so much fun as it manoeuvred around the tight corners and mounted the pavements, it could fly as well, taking off to circle Big Ben before landing at the bus stop along the embankment.

Since Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Mayfair and Kensington have been added and the builders are trying to stay as faithful to the original London buildings and streets as possible. It's a lovely feeling wandering around there, seeing copies of original features like the Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus and well known establishments like Sothebys.

I'm extremely lucky, I have landed myself an SL job with a real British National Newspaper, who are making their presence known in Second Life. There is a 'nearly exact' copy of their building, the DM&GT, on the Kensington site where I have my in-world office. The building itself is a fantastic replica of the original, only missing a few features because of real life security issues.

A short distance from the DM&GT building is the Chelsea sim, with its little mews cottages and Big Ben by the embankment. A few weeks ago ten houseboats where installed along the embankment and I fell in love with the place. The newspaper has kindly paid for me to rent out one of the houseboats and it's a great place to be based. You get the feel of living on a real life boat, there is the sound of lapping water, a nice open upper deck either for entertaining friends or chilling with a glass of wine (after setting the in-world environment menu to 'Midnight') and sitting watching the stars.

There have been lots of boutiques and shops opening up, even Harrods has an SL store there. Shop space is becoming a premium in the London sim, as so many businesses want to be there. I covered a story the other day about a boutique called 'Gbbrish' where the young designer is doing remarkably well with her trendy London clothes. Just like real London, exclusive fashion items are a must.

Due to open soon is the Greyhound Public House opposite the DM&GT building. The publican is actually the real life publican of the real Greyhound Pub and it must seem strange for him swapping between real and virtual worlds. Many avatars are looking forward to the opening of the Greyhound as it's a popular watering hole in real life for the staff of the DM&GT building.

The building of SL London continues, at the end of some of the roads there are photos of real London streets with the sign 'coming soon' on them. I love being there, feels so like home, and it's the only way I could afford to live anywhere near the beautiful parts of London that make it a truly wonderful city.