Teams of paddlers take to Canary Wharf's South Dock on 8 and 9 July 2026. Image: WaterAid Dragon Boat Race

Canary Wharf will be teeming with dragon boats again this July — as teams compete in a series of races on the water.

On Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 July 2026, the WaterAid Dragon Boat Race takes over South Dock (located to the immediate south of Canary Wharf Tube station), with teams of paddlers racing between 12pm-5pm both days.

Dragon boating — characterised by dragon-headed/tailed boats, and a drummer keeping the paddlers in rhythm — is not an unusual sight on London's waterways, thanks to groups like the Windy Pandas. But the WaterAid Dragon Boat Race, which raises money for the charity, sees a particularly impressive coming together of vessels.

Anyone is welcome to cheer the rowers, but you can also compete as part of a group. Image: WaterAid Dragon Boat Race

Anyone is welcome to come along and cheer the rowers, but if watching isn't enough, and you'd rather compete (and you're able to assemble a crew of 11-17 rowers), visit the WaterAid website to sign up. You needn't be pro paddlers (in fact experts will be there on the day to give full training and tips to your team), and if you aren't the fastest, you can still be in with a chance to win the 'best fancy dress' prize.

WaterAid Dragon Boat Race, Canary Wharf, Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 July 2026, 12pm-5pm, free to watch.

The police take on the fire brigade in a tug of war every year. Image: Peter Clarke

Sorry, but London just does things better. World class theatre? Check. Best restaurants anywhere? Yup. Quaint village fetes? Er actually, yes.

The Soho Village Fete — which is on Sunday 19 July 2026 — has been going for half a century now. Organised by the Soho Society, it's the kind of do you'd expect to find going on in the vicar's back garden (in fact, this takes place in the grounds of St Anne's Church, so not far off).

The fete is accompanied by six hours of live music. Image: Charlie Milligan

There's tea and cake, morris dancing, splat the rat, a raffle... all that parochial jazz, and very pleasant it is too.

The poster for 2026's fete. Image: David Shenton

But this is Soho, people, and so you can also expect a tug of war between the police and fire brigade (surely the firefighters win this every year?), a spaghetti-scoffing contest, a human fruit machine, a best in show where pooches must dress like royalty — plus snail racing.

There's also six hours of live music at the French House's stall bar.

If you're doing the spaghetti eating contest, arrive hungry. Image: Peter Clarke

As for the pièce de résistance: that would be the well-documented Soho Waiters' Race, the finest possible display of Soho eccentricity, in which local bars and restaurants put up a sucker runner to leg it up Dean Street, whip around Soho Square, come back along Greek and Romilly Streets, then back to the starting point outside the French House.

The Waiters' Race gets messy. Image: Peter Clarke

The catch, of course, is that they must carry a tray with various things perched on it. Lining the street with a beaker of Cidre Breton and cheering on this whimsical feat of athleticism is surely one of the great joys of London in summer.

Soho Village Fete, St Anne's (accessible via Wardour Street), Sunday 19 July 2026, 12pm-6pm, free. There's a capacity of 500 at any given time, so arrive early and prepare to queue for a bit. Soho Society members get priority entry.

This feature first appeared in June 2025 on Londonist: Time Machine, our much-praised history newsletter. To be the first to read new history features like this, sign up for free here.

Today, I’d like to talk about the history of traffic islands.

We have a lot of them in London. They help pedestrians get across busy roads by offering a refuge between lanes of traffic. Here’s one near Trafalgar Square, tested to its limits:

Image: Matt Brown

We have so many traffic islands in London that, contrary to all expectations, a few of them might be described as “quite interesting”.

I’d nominate the one opposite the Hilton on Park Lane, for example, where Mungo Jerry made their promotional video to In The Summertime (by some estimates, regarded as the biggest-selling single by a British band thanks to its international success).

Certainly, I’d put forward the one from the opening credits of Bottom, the second-best British comedy of the 1990s:

If you go to that spot today, you will find that the bench carries a plaque to “The man, the myth, the legend; Pan Global Phenomenon, Dr The Rik Mayall”, who died in 2014.

Meanwhile, you might have used this triangular traffic island at the foot of Edgware Road:

One of London’s most historic spots… not that you’d know it. Image: Google Street View

This is where the Tyburn gallows stood for centuries. Thousands of lives were snuffed out on the site of this crossing. Its triangular plan mirrors the ghastly geometry of the Tyburn Tree. Today, it is a convenient way to get across to Wagamama.

The Tyburn crossing stands within sight of Marble Arch, itself marooned on a glorified pedestrian island. At the other pole of Park Lane we find Hyde Park Corner, yet another pedestrian sanctuary, which boasts the Wellington Arch and numerous war memorials.

I shall ignore these inflated examples of the traffic island, however, in favour of something more humble. The rest of today’s newsletter will concern itself with this elementary refuge:

Image: Matt Brown

It is a traffic island so humble that I bet you didn’t even notice it at first. The eye bounces off it; heads towards the truck or the buildings. It scarcely enters the cognisance of the people who pass by. But, in London, even the most insignificant places can have a rich history. In this case, we’re looking at London’s very first traffic island (allegedly). You can probably guess where it is. The prominent window display of CAVIAR would rule out Whitechapel or Willesden Green. We’re somewhere much more fancy: at the rarified junction of Piccadilly and St James’s Street.

The Origin Story

St James’s Street, as you’re no doubt aware, is a place of gentlemen’s clubs and high-end shops of such class that they could (and indeed did) feature in the Kingsman films. Thanks to the nearby presence of St James’s Palace, the street has been a place of quality since the 17th century.

Back in 1864, a gent by the name of Colonel Pierpoint was on his way to White’s club, on the north-east corner of the street. An elderly man, the Colonel had some trouble getting across the opposing lanes of traffic. This resourceful veteran of the Napoleonic wars resolved to do something about it. He petitioned the local vestry (council) to install a refuge mid-way across the road, so that pedestrians had only to contend with one direction of traffic at a time.

The traffic island was duly installed. It was widely hailed as the first of its kind in London. Pedestrians could now cross safely, even after a few too many recommendations from the White’s sommelier.

Colonel Pierpoint was delighted with his initiative. He led an inspection party down the steps of White’s and onto the carriageway, there to admire his handiwork. Pierpoint was promptly run over by a passing carriage and killed, and on the very same day that his safety measure had opened.

We Brits don’t just live with a deep sense of irony; we die by it too.

The man, the myth, the legend…

This, at least, is the story recounted across several reputable websites, as well as MyLondon. Yet it sounds a little fishy to my ear. Can it be true?

There is, it turns out, more than a kernel of truth in the tale, if not a colonel. The gentleman concerned was the Hon. Philip Sydney Pierrepont, part of the aristocratic Pierrepont family of Northamptonshire (but sadly no relation to Albert Pierrepoint, the noted hangman). As far as I can tell, I’m the first person to identify him as a real individual. Every other source can point only to a misspelled, mis-ranked “Colonel Pierpoint”.

Here’s our man, tub-thumping for a traffic island as early as 1860:

Morning Post, 25 May 1860. Image via British Newspaper Archive

Pierrepont, though self-identifying as “aged and inactive”, was tenacious and persuasive. His letter-writing campaign was next directed at the local authority, who eventually moved forward with his proposals. The following is taken from the Minutes of the Committee of Works of St George’s Hanover Square, as reported in April 1863.

Sir, -In reply to your favour of yesterday, I beg to say that your sketch and plan of the proposed pillar of refuge at the top of St. James's-street, meet my entire approval, and I am quite ready to bear the expense, provided that it does not exceed £50, and also that it is completed and in operation by the 1st of May next. It would gratify me to have the words "Pierrepont's Refuge, 1863," cut on the stone plinth, on which I conclude it is to stand. But I by no means wish to make this a stipulation, or a sine qua non.

I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,

(Signed)

P. S. PIERREPONT.

We can, then, confirm the first half of the story. The crossing was initiated by a man almost-called Pierpoint, and was brought into being some time shortly after April 1863. He even paid for it himself.

Now, the big question. Was the Hon. Mr P. mowed down while inspecting his own road safety measures? Was he busted by his own refuge, to coin a new variant of the hoisted-petard?

The good thing about posh people is that they’re easy to trace. I found Pierrepont’s dates with little difficulty. Born 13 June 1786, died 15 February 1864. He did indeed meet his end in 1864, just as the legend says. But this may just be coincidence. He was approaching his 78th birthday after all. “Being old, he would have died soon anyway,” to paraphrase The Day Today, the runaway best British comedy of the 1990s. Can we find a cause of death, to clinch the matter either way?

I discovered in the archives that he’d expired at his home at 4 Seamore Place, Mayfair. This now-vanished street was at the western end of Curzon Street in Mayfair.

Having already written my introduction to this article, I was rather amused by the coincidence. Pierrepont’s sick room may well have looked out onto Park Lane and — had he and his property somehow survived another 106 years — straight onto the traffic island where Mungo Jerry recorded their record-breaking hit. Honestly, if this article has one more unlikely call-back, then it’ll self destruct*.

The road layout changed a bit in the interim, but this is roughly how traffic-island pioneers Mungo Jerry and the Hon Philip Sydney Pierrepont were spatially if not temporally neighbours.

But what did he die of? Most newspaper accounts of the Pierrepontian demise deal only with the contents of the Will. One report, however, mentions that he passed “after an illness of some weeks”. A longer obituary says that he slipped away “after a period, we fear, of much suffering”. Nowhere reports the actual cause of death.

Now, it could have been a road-traffic accident that left him critically injured. Then again, I can find no accounts of any elderly gentleman being struck by a carriage in the right time frame, and certainly not on St James’s Street. Sadly, Pierrepont had no children, and therefore no descendants, so he’s been largely overlooked by the genealogists on sites like Ancestry. Short of ordering a death certificate (which I’m tempted to do), I am unable to establish what fatally ailed him.

My hunch is that the Hon. Mr Pierrepont died of an illness unrelated to any road accident, but we can’t rule it out. That’s as it should be. A good urban legend should always retain an air of mystery, even in the light of contradictory evidence**.

Speaking of the urban legend, it began to circulate three decades after Pierrepont’s death. In 1895, several newspapers published a ‘Notes and Queries’ item about the curious and barely legible inscription on St James’s Street commemorating “Pierpoint’s Refuge” (it seems he got his wish). All of them give the punchline about the gentleman being killed at his own crossing, but with an air of scepticism. At some point in the 20th century the tale had been spun enough times to Chinese-whisper his name into “Colonel Pierpoint”.

The real Pierpoint, the Hon. Philip Sydney Pierrepont, has been all-but-forgotten by history. I think we should revive the memory of this putative inventor of the traffic island. This obituary in the Bicester Herald (26 Feb 1864) paints the picture of a man who lived up to his honourable honorific.

Pierrepont’s Refuge remains in place today, albeit much altered and no-doubt repaved a dozen times. The “Pierrepont’s Refuge” plaque was noted as missing as early as 1897, and calls for its return can be found in the press a decade after that. It never was replaced. Perhaps my friend Martin Wilkie of World Origin Sites, which marks ‘world first’ locations, might care to look into it.

Finally, let’s go out with the greatest song ever recorded on a London traffic island. Take it away, lads:

*FOOTNOTE: I mean, there are other connections I could interweave. I’m too young to remember In The Summertime’s original release (and video) of 1970. My generation associates the song more with an anti-drink-driving commercial from 1992 which, like the Pierpoint myth, also ends in a fatal car crash. Rik Mayall of Bottom was also strongly associated with motor accidents. He was seriously injured and almost killed in a 1998 quad-bike crash. His character was clipped by a van in Four Men in a Car. And the unforgettable finale to the The Young Ones saw Rik’s character Rick and the rest of the cast plummet of a cliff in a double-decker bus.

**FOOTNOTE: After publication of this article, an intrigued reader ordered the death certificate and it turns out Pierrepont died of kidney disease — not usually contracted from a road collision.

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This article was originally published in 2019.

This year's Covent Garden Rent Ceremony takes place on 2 July 2026, from 4.30pm. It's a public event so anyone on the piazza by St Paul's Church at that time can join in or just watch.

"Hear ye! Hear ye!"

The cry rings out around Covent Garden on a balmy Thursday afternoon, alerting people it's time for one of London's strangest annual traditions: the Covent Garden Rent Ceremony.

The historical ceremony is held each summer, as a merry band of misfits — that is, the Lord Mayor of Westminster, the Deputy Mayor of Camden, Covent Garden Area trustees, musicians, street entertainers and a town crier — march around Covent Garden Piazza.

Their every step is followed by a determined group of photographers, and bemused yet gleeful tourists.

Because every parade needs a man on a unicorn unicycle.

But what exactly is the Rent Ceremony? It's an event where the trustees pay the "peppercorn rent" of five rosy red apples and five posies of flowers — a callback to the fruit and flower market on which Covent Garden was founded — to the landlords of the five properties of the 'Protected Lands'.

The trust has a 150 year lease on the properties and this is the 31st edition of the ceremony, meaning there's another 119 years left to go.

The Lord Mayor of Westminster with The Deputy Mayor of Camden and some of Covent Garden's trustees behind.

The parade winds its way around Covent Garden, pausing for the town crier to make a booming speech explaining what on Earth is going on, followed by a musical interlude from the string quartet. The parade then sets off again.

Most impressively the quartet includes a man marching with a massive double bass, often for brilliant comic effect. (As someone who played the instrument abysmally at school, I cannot stress enough how physically impressive a feat this is.)

One of the rosy red apples being handed over.

At two different points, the peppercorn rent is exchanged. The first time comes reasonably early in the parade for the lease on the St James's buildings. The second is at the end of the parade, for the lease on the main Covent Garden Piazza building.

After that, a few speeches thank all involved in the merry day out, before the parade marches out of the piazza and dissipates.

Take a look at some photos we captured at 2019's ceremony, followed by the video we shot in 2017.

Wahey!

Not the traditional way to play a double bass.

Festivities come to an end and the trade is made.

Chair of the Friends of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens Sue Price with Kensington Gardens Park Manager Andy Williams, admiring the restored Elfin Oak. Image: Royal Parks

London's most magical tree — certainly its most magical dead tree — has just been restored.

It was in 1928 when the hollow stump of a 900-year-old oak tree was moved from Richmond Park to Kensington Gardens, where the children's illustrator Ivor Innes slowly yet skilfully carved a village of magical folk into the wood: elves, fairies, goblins, witches and forest animals.

Amazing how a tree stump has brought joy to so many over almost 100 years. Image: Royal Parks

Two years later, the Elfin Oak was unveiled on 25 July in 1930, and has delighted scores of children ever since — not to mention many adults, including Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, who was photographed in front of it for the inside cover of the Ummagumma album.

Spike Milligan would be pleased to see the latest restoration. Image: Royal Parks

The tree has taken its fair share of weathering, both by the natural elements, and vandals. The latter prompted park keepers to enshroud the tree in an old raven's cage from London Zoo.

Needless to say then, the Elfin Oak has been through a few restorations. In the mid 1960s — and again some 30 years later — the comedian Spike Milligan lobbied to save and renovate it, as documented in the BBC's 2021 radio drama, Spike and the Elfin Oak. The tree stump gained Grade II listed status in 1997.

The fantastical tree stump was Grade II listed in 1997. Image: Royal Parks

Now, the Royal Parks charity has unveiled the result of conservation repairs, carried out by DBR Conservation, in which the tree's 97 figurines — including Wookey (the little old witch), Huckleberry (gnome) and Harebell (fairy) — have been expertly and sensitively restored, once more vibrant, glossy and rendered in intricate detail.

Visibility of the Elfin Oak has also been improved, including the removing of a mesh lining, and a reduction in the number of bars encasing it.

Just look at the detail on this. Image: Royal Parks

Says Andy Williams, Park Manager for Kensington Gardens: "Kensington Gardens is one of the most magical parks for children and part of its appeal is the Elfin Oak, where elves, witches and owls inhabit a secret world. We are delighted to help restore this much-loved treasure back to its former glory."

Magical, really, how a tree stump has brought so much joy to so many people.

The Elfin Oak is free for all to enjoy. You'll find it by the entrance to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens.

Apartments that look good enough to eat... or lick, at least. Image: Pensaer

London's current crop of architects is often accused of being uninspired, but one new design for a set of apartments in Homerton will have you licking your lips.

Architects' Journal reports that south London based architectural firm Pensaer has submitted designs for 28 new homes in Chelmer Road, Homerton, which take direct inspiration from ice cream. Mock-up designs show waffle-textured precast panels, as well as supporting columns distinctly resembling ice cream cones. What's more, the building's colour scheme includes lickable shades of pistachio and strawberry.

So was Pensaer inspired by the recent heatwave? In fact, the flats are to be built on the site of the Valente Bros ice cream factory/the depot where it parks its fleet of ice cream vans. A small family business, Valente Bros has operated from here since the 1970s, but recently experienced a downturn in business caused by factors including increased business rates, the expansion of Congestion Charge zone and increasing energy prices. With the Chelmer Road site no longer viable, Valente Bros is hoping to relocate elsewhere, though a new location has yet to be secured.

Meanwhile, the development's marketeers have already rebranded the area the Ice Cream Quarter. Cool.

No news yet on when the apartments might get the go-ahead/construction will begin. Let's just hope, for the sake of whoever might end up moving in, that the walls themselves are not wafer thin.

A genuine Archbishop and various National Treasures are among the speakers at this year's Idler Festival.

Fenton House — a gorgeous 17th century mansion hidden away from the busier areas of Hampstead — is once again the fancy venue for 2026's event, a relaxed-jolly of ideas, activities... and inactivities.

The annual event — which this year takes place on 10-12 July — features some serious big-name speakers, but in a studiously laid-back environment. Festival goers are invited to do "as much or as little as they please" at London's most relaxed festival.

You'll probably end up doing quite a lot, actually, because the speakers include hugely popular authors Irvine Welsh, Jojo Moyes and Charlie Higson, as well as Bake Off legend Prue Leith and the returning Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury. Some other confirmed highlights include:

🐌 Jah Wobble will delve into his ‘Memoirs of a Geezer’.

🐌 Cathi Unsworth talks Goth women.

🐌 Nigel Planer holds court as the paperback of his autobiography, Young Once, arrives.

🐌 Chris Difford reveals the stories behind the songs of Squeeze as their 'lost' concept album, Trixies, finally lands.

🐌 Lissa Evans reminisces about Craggy Island in her tales of producing Father Ted.

🐌 Ben Moor presents his one-man show, Not Everything is Significant.

🐌 DJ Zakia Sewell recounts her travels from Somerset to Scotland, looking for the alternative spirit of Britain, found in otherworldly folk songs, ancient legends, Celtic seasonal rites and mystic stone circles.

🐌 Esther Freud discusses using Lucian, Bella and the rest of the Freud family as characters in her fiction.

🐌  Georgia Mann treats people to a classical DJ set.

🐌  All this in beautiful surroundings with an orchard bar and Spanish-Moroccan mezze made by Moro chefs.

Side activities include dancing lessons, walks, singing, beekeeping and plenty of time to lie under an apple tree with a book and a drink. Not completely idle, then.

The Idler Festival, Fenton House, Hampstead, 10-12 July 2026. Day and Weekend tickets available.

Tools of the trade. Quentin Blake's illustration tools. Image: Matt Brown

The 'world’s largest space dedicated to illustration' opens in Clerkenwell.

An old industrial complex at the back end of Clerkenwell has been transformed into the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. It reckons to be the largest site dedicated to illustration in the world. Draped across 18th century industrial buildings and a remnant windmill, it's a visual feast before you even set foot inside.

Image: Matt Brown

The heart of the museum is a peculiarly shaped brick engine house, whose three floors are repurposed for art. The debut offering gives a glimpse of the breadth and diversity on offer. We first meet the work of Sophy Hollington, which brightens the entrance to the library. Her art uses "mythological references to create striking modern pieces with elaborate patterns and bold colours". Her cut-outs are particularly joyful.

Murugiah's art. Mostly illustration, but he's not averse to other artforms. Image: Matt Brown

Joyful, in fact, is the key word for this building. The next floor is devoted to the artist MURUGIAH, whose swirling bright imagery cannot help but put a smile on the face, even while exploring themes of mental health and identity.

The top floor is reserved for the work of the centre's namesake and patron Sir Quentin Blake (born 1932). The much-loved illustrator is perhaps most famous for his work on Roald Dahl's books, and original drafts of panels from The Enormous Crocodile can be viewed here. But Blake's output is much, much wider. His distinctive illustrations have appeared in over 500 books, including many of his own. The gallery includes some of Blake's earliest professional drawings, from the 1950s. Quite incredible to consider that he's still working.

Image: Matt Brown

The largest exhibition space sits to one side of the main stack. Its debut show looks at the history of queer comics, a medium that had to operate in the shadows for many years, when homosexuality and its portrayal were illegal. Finally, and most atmospherically, an old windmill base (London's oldest, apparently) in the gardens serves as a circular gallery.

The centre comes with further bonuses. A free-to-use library with over 1,000 books on illustration is something of a centrepiece and will appeal particularly to families. We also get a new walking route. For the first time in history, it's possible to walk from Myddleton Passage to Amwell Street, through the centre's gardens (free to enter). This is of no particular convenience or time-saving, but an extra route is always a good thing.

The library. Image: Matt Brown

The centre's location is itself historically interesting. This was formerly a key part of London's water infrastructure. From 1613, an artificial conduit known as the New River would bring fresh water into the capital from Hertfordshire. It terminated here, at the New River Head. The surviving buildings of the centre recall this aqueous past — and Thames Water still maintains a site adjacent to the centre.

Indeed, Blake himself has added a nod to the New River. He's contributed a new mural to the cafe, called A Bridge to the Past, which shows figures from different eras enjoying the river.

Image (c) Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration

The launch of the centre comes at an interesting time. With AI, anyone can now 'create' an 'illustration' in seconds through a simple prompt. Does AI sound the death knell for traditional illustrators, or might it herald a golden age in which we appreciate their talents all the more, in the face of robotic competition? The centre will no doubt explore such questions in future displays, and hopefully tip the balance towards the latter scenario.

Cafe space. Image: Matt Brown

The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration opens 5 June 2026. Much of the centre is free, but the feature galleries charge at £15 (adults), and £6 (children). Concessions available.

Image: public domain

See re-creations of the War of the Roses battle.

Barnet. Famous as a terminus of the Northern line; and widely deployed as a slang term for haircuts. But it's got some proper serious history going on, too.

A throne was won on Barnet's lofty slopes. It was here, on Easter Sunday 1471, that Edward of York saw off the Lancastrian forces, all but securing his future as Edward IV. The Battle of Barnet is seen as one of the most important battles of medieval England, and it happened right here, within what is now Greater London's borders.

Every year, the good citizens of Barnet put on a big shindig to celebrate their manor's momentous past. The 2026 Barnet Medieval Festival takes place on 6-7 June and promises to be a spectacle for all the family. As well as battle recreation, you can also see archery and cannon demonstrations, medieval artwork, mounted knights in combat and... well, we might as well just drop the flyer in:

Sadly (though perhaps wisely) the battle won't rage throughout the town, nor on the prime battle site in Hadley Green. Instead the action takes place at the wonderful Lewis of London farm — famous for its ice cream cafe — on Galley Lane. It's a bit of a schlep if you're coming from afar, perhaps a 45-minute walk from the Tube station. But there is a shuttle bus from the Spires shopping centre, and parking is available on site for those who drive.

The Battle of Barnet memorial, a little north-east of the festival site, in Hadley Green. Image Matt Brown

Although the main action is at the ice cream farm, a walk through central Barnet will also turn up plenty of nods to the battle. Look out for the 90-or-so medieval banners, fitted to lamp posts and hanging in the Spires shopping centre (photo above from 2023). The pennants were created by volunteers at the Museum of Barnet, and are based on the heraldic devices used by combatants in the battle. The town even has a commemorative bench or two:

Image: Matt Brown

The main event is organised by the Barnet Medieval Festival Committee. Tickets are available on the gate or in advance at £10 for adults, £5 for teens (children free). Parking is available. While you're in the area, check out the whalebone arch, or go hunting for fairy doors.

A start date for construction of the City of London's tallest building has been announced. Image: © Dbox

Farewell to 1 Undershaft, hello One London.

A start date for construction of the City of London's tallest building has been announced, along with a new name.

The office tower formerly known as 1 Undershaft will begin construction in 2028 for a completion in 2033. It will stand 309.5 metres tall, the same as The Shard. It will also boast a viewing gallery operated by London Museum.

But what of the name? 1 Undershaft always prompted a bit of a snigger. The peculiar moniker references the local road and church (St Andrew Undershaft), which in turn recall a giant maypole that once thrusted into the skies hereabouts.

Historical flavour has now given way to blandness. The tower will hereafter be known as One London, a reflection of its prominence on the skyline.

One London (centre) as it may appear. Image: © Dbox /Eric Parry Architects

The name is not exactly original. Apsley House, former home of the Duke of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner, was historically known as Number One London, as it once constituted the first building of note when approaching London from Kensington. We wonder, also, how journalist Dave Hill will feel about its similarity to his independent local news website OnLondon.

Meanwhile, Simon Usborne has previously pointed out the rash of new-builds that use the 'One' device to attract foreign investment. Examples include One Blackfriars, One Nine Elms, One Kensington Gardens and One Tower Bridge. The addition of One London brings the trend to its natural climax, even if it doesn't finger the Undershaft.

The Aviva Tower (centre) under the 'white sheet of death' awaiting demolition. This will be the site of One London. Image: Matt Brown

One London will be built on a plot of land between the Cheesegrater and Gherkin, currently occupied by the Aviva Tower, also known as the St Helen's Tower. This 1960s skyscraper will be the largest skyscraper ever demolished in London, at 118 metres.

The scheme is being developed by Aroland Holdings and designed by Eric Parry Architects.

This magnificent ship will dock in east London this summer. Image: Nao Foundation

A full-size replica of a celebrated 16th century ship docks in London later this month, with the public invited on board to have a snoop around.

The Nao Victoria is a 26m (86ft) replica of the Victoria, the first ship to fully circumnavigate the world. The original departed from Seville in 1519 and travelled the globe, returning three years later with just 18 of its 245 crew left.

The modern replica was built in 1992, and has itself been around the globe, acting as a working museum, visiting 17 countries across five continents. Next stop: London, where you can learn about that world-first voyage.

No, that's not London: the Nao Victoria started out in Spain. Image: Cdoncel

If this all sounds familiar, it's because the Nao Victoria is part of the Nao Foundation's three-ship fleet of reconstructed ships. Another, the Nao Santa María, visited the capital in May 2025, inviting Londoners to get an insight into life on board Christopher Columbus' ship. The non-profit organisation reconstructs historic ships as floating museums, promoting their maritime heritage and contribution to navigation history.

The Nao Victoria will be in the centre basin at St Katharine Docks, 30 June-12 July 2026, and is open to the public (weather permitting). Book tickets here.

It's a Sin is returning... this time as a dance stage show. Image: Rambert.

Coming of age HIV/AIDS drama It's a Sin comes to the London stage next year — as a show by the acclaimed Rambert dance company.

Russell T Davies' devastating (and devastatingly good) rollercoaster of a drama landed back in 2021, shaking audiences to the core with its depictions of young people caught up in the whirlwind of queer 1980s/90s London culture, and the cruel fallout from a disease that people didn't understand, and in many cases, chose not to.

Now, the BAFTA-nominated show will take on a new lease of life as a dance spectacular, envisaged by Rambert, the company behind Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby. Russell T Davies and the Pet Shop Boys (whose 1987 song was used as the show's title) will be executive producers, alongside Glyn Fussell, director of south London's Mighty Hoopla festival.

Says Rambert's Artistic Director Benoit Swan Pouffer, who will choreograph and direct: "Storytelling sits at the heart of Rambert's mission. This is a story we feel compelled to tell right now, and collaborating with Russell — one of the most powerful storytellers of our time — is incredibly exciting."

Touring the UK from February 2027, It's a Sin will land at Sadler's Wells from 5-16 October 2027. Tickets for these London dates go on general sale from 6 July 2026, although tickets for the first leg of the tour (Manchester) are available from 4 June.

The announcement of It's a Sin's dance revival was made with a surprise on-stage preview at Mighty Hoopla over the late May bank holiday weekend.

It's a Sin, Sadler's Wells, 5-16 October 2027. Tickets on general sale from 6 July 2026.

Queer Brewing will shut at the end of July 2026. Image: Ewan-M via CC BY-SA 4.0

East London brewery Queer Brewing — the UK's first queer- and trans-owned brewery — has announced it is winding down operations at the end of July.

In a video posted on the company's social media, founder Lily Waite-Marsden said: "This is the announcement that we never thought we'd have to make, but this is sadly the end of the road for Queer Brewing."

Explaining that the company has decided it is no longer viable to keep operating, Waite-Marsden added "We know that there's a certain irony in making this announcement at the start of Pride month, our busiest time of year, and we realise that this may come as a surprise."

Founded in 2019, Queer Brewing has become renowned for its superb range of craft beers, including a Queer Joy! Queer Power! stout, a Something To Put In You hazy pale, and a Glitter Veil IPA. The most frustrating thing about this news — both for Queer Brewing and the people who love it — is that business was good, with the brewery busier than it's ever been. "Everything seems like it's working," says the founder. Something in the brewery and pub industry has to give, because losing outfits like this one is in the interests of no one.

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The silver lining, Waite-Marsden says, is that by calling time now, the brewery can focus on going out in style over the next couple of months: "We can do what we want to with the dying breaths of the brewery. We can brew the best beer imaginable; the ones that have lived in Slack beer name channels for years."

As far as we know, the taproom in Leyton will continue to operate until the end of July, and perhaps there will be a party or two to bid farewell.

A recent BBC article explains that the number of beer brewing companies across the UK has peaked; in 2022, there were 2,594, but as of April 2026, that number's dropped to 2,320. Says the BBC: "London is the only English region which didn't see a net loss of companies last year." It could be that stat is about to change.

Meanwhile, amid an impassioned thank you to everyone who has supported Queer Brewing over the past seven years, its founder has another message: "If you know anyone who wants to buy a brewery, send them my way."

All weekend

Find your way to the London Map Fair. Image: London Map Fair

OPEN GARDENS WEEKEND: London Open Gardens Weekend is a chance to explore the city's green spaces via open days, tours and talks. They range from allotments to small private gardens, to the larger gardens in the likes of Eaton Square, usually only accessible to residents with a key. 6-7 June 2026

LONDON MAP FAIR: The Royal Geographical Society hosts around 40 national and international antiquarian map dealers selling original maps from the 15th to the 20th century, with prices starting from about £10 (and going much higher, if you happen to have deep pockets...). The London Map Fair also features lectures including Rose Mitchell on historic mapmakers and talks by Ashley Baynton-Williams on starting a collection. 6-7 June 2026

BARNET MEDIEVAL FESTIVAL: See re-enactments of the 1471 Battle of Barnet, as well as displays by the gunners, archers and mounted knights, at this year's Barnet Medieval Festival. There's also a medieval-style market, craft displays and an art exhibition, all taking place at Lewis of London ice cream farm, just north of Barnet. 6-7 June 2026

ART MARKET: King's Cross Open Art Market brings local artists and makers to Coal Drops Yard for a weekend of stalls, live music and hands-on workshops. Browse and buy handmade pieces or limited-edition artworks. 6-7 June 2026

Browse art in King's Cross. Image: Open Art Market

SERPENTINE PAVILION 2026: 'a serpentine' (their lower case, not ours) is the apt name and design of this year's free Serpentine Pavilion, erected in the grounds of the Serpentine South gallery, and open to the public from this weekend. Mock-ups show the interior will provide an irregular-shaped courtyard with spaces for sitting, and a brise soleil roof propped up with brick columns. FREE, 6 June-25 October 2026

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY: Now in its 15th year, the World Food Photography Awards brings together finalists chosen by a global panel, with the winning images on display at Mall Galleries this weekend. See fantastic photos depicting the growing, farming, harvesting, cooking and eating of food across the world. FREE, 3-7 June 2026

ARCHITECTURE FEST: The first weekend of this year's London Festival of Architecture is a packed one. Learn about the Crystal Palace Subway, join a Festival of Britain-themed guided walk around Poplar's Lansbury Estate, or take a tour around Iron Works, a new spot in the Royal Docks, among many other events. Until 30 June 2026

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Mark 175 years of the Great Exhibition at this scientific street party

Image: GERF.

When it arrived in Hyde Park in 1851, the Great Exhibition became the best attended public exhibition ever staged in London — millions of Victorians flocking from far and wide to gawp at the scientific and industrial breakthroughs of their age.

175 years later, its legacy lives on; not just with institutions like the V&A and Science Museum, but also the Great Exhibition Road Festival. Taking place on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2026, the Festival continues in the vein of wowing people of all ages with wind tunnels, puppet street parades, a kaleidoscopic carnival butterfly, Bollywood dance classes, Science Cabaret and a lot more besides.

Plus there are special events marking that 175 year anniversary, including the chance to sample dishes from 1851, and an invite to step inside the original Crystal Palace via VR.

By the way, Victorians had to pay to get into the Crystal Palace, but the Great Exhibition Road Festival is entirely free!

The Great Exhibition Road Festival, 6-7 June 2026, 12pm-6pm each day.

All events are free. Register for early info.

Saturday 6 June

The Zoffany Ensemble performs in Kew. Image:  Zoffany Ensemble

MORNING RAVE: Start your weekend strong with a morning rave at Farmer J in Russell Square. Enjoy high energy, feel-good music with live DJ sets and special guests, alongside healthy food, and a discount on lunch if you stick around after the event. 10am-12pm

CAPITAL ANTIQUE MARKET: Bargain hunters, assemble! A brand new antiques, vintage and furniture flea market launches today, running on the first and third Saturday of every month. Capital Antique Market is by the creators of Capital Carboot Sale Pimlico and takes place at The Pimlico Academy, offering mid-century furniture, antique homewares, vintage jewellery, and all manner of other collectables, curiosities and oddities. FREE entry, 10am-3pm on launch day (£2 thereafter). From 10am (sponsor)

WORLD OCEAN DAY: Greenwich's National Maritime Museum celebrates World Ocean Day with a day packed full of family-friendly workshops, talks and activities exploring the importance of the oceans, conservation and maritime history. The programme includes hands-on sessions for children, films, and talks from museum staff and guest speakers from conservation and science groups. FREE, from 10.30am

BRUNCH BOOK CLUB: Internationally bestselling author Louise O'Neill joins the Brunch Book Club at Utter Waffle in Balham for a hybrid literary event celebrating her new novel, Whatever Happened to Madeline Stone?. Begin with a group discussion and an exclusive author Q&A, followed by a brunch. 10.30am-4.30pm

BRITISH JAZZ LEGENDS: Celebrated saxophonist Art Themen and legendary bassist Dave Green join broadcaster Ian Shaw at Ronnie Scott's in Soho for an afternoon of brunch, songs and stories. The two pillars of the scene recount decades of shared history, from Themen's early years with Alexis Korner to Green's collaborations with Ben Webster and Sonny Rollins. Expect a mix of live musical moments and vivid tales from the road, mapping the evolution of British jazz through the eyes of those who shaped it. 11am

TAKE FLIGHT: An interactive, multi-sensory aerial show for babies aged up to two-years-old and their carers, Take Flight is a 35-minute performance following a musical mother bird as her chick hatches, grows and explores. There's a stay and play session afterwards, where you can try baby-safe props and a silk swing. 11am/1pm/3pm

MARMALADE AND MASQUERADES: Enjoy a one-hour family concert from The Zoffany Ensemble, pairing Herbert Chappell's Paddington Bear's First Concert with André Caplet's Conte Fantastique, with narration. The programme contrasts bright, playful music with darker, dramatic storytelling, introducing children to how music can tell stories. It takes place at St Anne's Church in Kew. 11am-12pm

Take Flight at the Half Moon Theatre. Image: Pamela Raith Photography

PRIME MINISTERS' HOMES: Explore the Mayfair and St James's residences of 12 British leaders on a guided walk led by Rob Smith of Footprints of London. While 10 Downing Street is the famous address, this walking tour visits the exteriors of houses previously belonging to figures such as Churchill, Gladstone and Disraeli, while uncovering the scandals and political intrigues of Georgian and Victorian Britain, beginning at Green Park and concluding near Piccadilly Circus. 11am-1pm

OPEN STUDIOS: Meet a diverse collective of painters, sculptors, and ceramicists as Open Studios returns to Wembley Park. Venture into the creative workspaces of Second Floor Studios & Arts across four different buildings, chat with makers about their techniques and purchase original works commission-free. FREE, 11am-5pm

BLOCK PRINTING: Head to the historic Forty Hall Estate in Enfield for a hands-on block printing workshop for adults. This beginner-friendly session introduces the art of Indian block printing, using traditional hand-carved wooden blocks to explore rhythm and pattern. Experiment with layering and various motifs to personalise your own canvas tote bag to take home. 11.30am-1.30pm

THE ARTISTS' FAIR: Somerset House Studios brings together a cross-disciplinary community of practitioners for the fourth edition of The Artists' Fair. This alternative artist-led market features a live programme of talks and workshops in collaboration with Montez Press Radio, including a DIY zine-making session for kids and a frank discussion on the financial realities of maintaining an art practice. 12pm-6pm

LONDON METAL PRIDE: Heavy music and queer power collide at Signature Brew Blackhorse Road for a full-day festival of riffs and zero apologies. The stacked line-up features Battle of the Bands winners Riff Dealer, the horror-infused black/doom of Karnstein, and trans black metal activists Davghter. Expect unhinged energy and danceable chaos from Something or Other? alongside a host of other heavy acts. 1pm

WILLIAM FINN: Sail through the songbook of one of musical theatre's most influential voices at The Other Palace in Victoria. A Celebration of William Finn features songs from his most honest and fiercely funny works, including Falsettos, A New Brain, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, honouring Finn's significant contribution to authentic LGBTQ+ representation on stage. 2pm

POLYMATHS AND PIONEERS: Humanist heritage expert Madeleine Goodall leads a two-hour guided walk through the streets and squares of Bloomsbury to uncover the history of its most remarkable female residents. Starting at Conway Hall, the tour explores the homes and haunts of trailblazers who broke new ground in law, health, print and design. 2pm-4pm

Cowboy hats at the ready for the Rhinestone Rodeo. Image: Between the Bridges

BLACK HISTORY: Discover how ancient and modern African stories are reshaping mainstream media at Fulham Palace. This special presentation explores the rise of self-published works and their transition into billion-dollar visual media, and features a Q&A with Hollywood producer Terry Jervis, covering topics ranging from Caribbean-designed spacecraft to the fight for equality in publishing. 2pm-5pm

MAGIC SHOW: Vaudevillian duo Norvil & Josephine bring a magical extravaganza to The Exchange in Twickenham, blending 1905-style whimsy with contemporary flair. Rabbits Out Of The Hat features a mix of magic, circus skills and showstopper songs to tell a spellbinding story about the importance of being yourself. 2.30pm

LAUREL AND HARDY: The London branch of the Laurel & Hardy Appreciation Society gathers at the Cinema Museum in Kennington for its quarterly meeting, The Live Ghost Tent. This afternoon of slapstick nostalgia offers a curated selection of features and shorts screenings, including the 1941 film Great Guns and the 1927 silent short With Love and Hisses. 3pm-7pm

RHINESTONE RODEO: Between the Bridges on South Bank throws a country music-themed outdoor party, Rhinestone Rodeo. It's an afternoon of live music, a mechanical rodeo bull, line-dancing classes, country karaoke, dancing and prizes for best dressed. Yeehaw! 4pm-11pm

ECHOES OF PRINCE: Parisian funk band Echoes Of returns to The Jazz Cafe in Camden to celebrate the life and legacy of the High Priest of Pop. This birthday party marks what would have been Prince's 68th year with a high-energy set of classics including When Doves Cry and I Would Die 4 U. 6.30pm-10pm

The London Mozart Players open the Games Music Festival. Photo: Nick Rutter

FORENSIC SCIENCE: A team of UK forensic specialists — including Dame Lorna Dawson, Katherine Brown, Iain Macauley, Georgios Zouganelis and Nicholas Dawnay — leads an evening of demonstrations and recreated crime scenes at the Royal Institution. Learn how evidence, from DNA to soil, is used in investigations, and find out about the SCAnDi project, a technique for tracing DNA from single cells to help 'unmix' mixed profiles. 7.30pm-9pm

LIVE AT THE CHAPEL: The monthly comedy showcase returns to Union Chapel with a headline set from David O'Doherty. The "Ryanair Enya" and king of tiny keyboards tops a high-calibre bill, featuring Taskmaster star Bridget Christie, viral comic Red Richardson and Hasan Al-Habib. Chloe Petts takes on hosting duties for the evening. 7.45pm

GAMES MUSIC FESTIVAL: Hear three decades of music from video game series Diablo, performed by the London Mozart Players and a choir at the Royal Festival Hall. The concert features themes from across the series and special guests Ted Reedy (lead composer) and Derek Duke (music director) are present. It's the opening event for the Games Music Festival 2026. 8pm

THE CLONG SHOW: Courageous clowns go head-to-head in a series of hilarious tasks and challenges to compete for the prestigious London Clown Festival Clong Award. Hosted by Dan Lees and Neil Frost at Soho Theatre Dean Street, The Clong Show leaves the final verdict to the audience to decide who will be crowned the biggest idiot of all. 10.15pm

TALKING HEADS: Regular club night Scared To Dance holds a Talking Heads special at the George Tavern in Shadwell. Resident DJ Paul Richards is joined by Finn Kidd for a Talking Heads‑focused night of post‑punk, new wave, indiepop and art‑rock. 11pm

Sunday 7 June

Take a special tour of London Zoo. Image: Matt From London

HEAVY HORSE SHOW: Capel Manor Gardens in Enfield hosts the Herts Heavy Horse Show and Country Show. See heavy horse breeds in action, taking part in various events in the show ring. There's also a dog show, farrier demonstrations, a mini zoo and children's rides. A great excuse to explore the venue's 30-acre gardens. 10am-5pm

VINTAGE MARKET: Dulwich Picture Gallery fills its stunning gardens and galleries with a curated selection of 40 handpicked traders for the So Last Century Vintage Market. Hunt for mid-century furniture, original 1950s art, and French brocante while enjoying live New Orleans jazz from the Alvar Treefrogs, street food from Sarrasin and coffee from the Flotsam & Jetsam Café. FREE ENTRY, 10.30am-5pm

LITTLE HOLLAND HOUSE: Carshalton's Little Holland House is a Grade-II listed building packed full of hand-made furniture, paintings, interior decoration, carvings and metalwork. Take a look inside at the monthly open day, with guided tours available. FREE, 11am-5pm

VINTAGE FAIR: Frock Me! is at Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster for a one-day vintage fair featuring some 80 exhibitors specialising in antique textiles, menswear, womenswear, workwear, jewellery and accessories. 11am-5.30pm

MITCHAM CARNIVAL: After a successful return last year, a parade takes place as part of Mitcham Carnival again this year. The mile-long route starts in the town centre and finishes at Three Kings Piece, where you'll find live performances, wrestling demos and funfair rides. FREE, 11am-6pm

Wander past Highgate Cemetery on a walk through the area. Image: Peter Trimming via CC BY-SA 2.0

ZOO HISTORY TOUR: As part of the ongoing ZSL200 celebrations, take a tour of London Zoo themed on pop culture, and find out how the zoo's animals, buildings and staff have inspired films, music and art, from James Bond to Harry Potter. 11.30am

FLEETING PARADISE: Clarinetist Ewan Bleach brings his 10-piece big band to Jamboree in King's Cross for a lunch gig dedicated to the "territory" bands of 1920s and 30s America. The Fleeting Paradise Orchestra performs authentic arrangements of blues and jazz numbers originally made famous by the likes of Duke Ellington, Bennie Moten and Charlie Johnson. 12.15pm

WE ARE NOT MACHINES: Sarah O'Connor of the Financial Times is at Conway Hall to give a talk about how AI and automation are reshaping the world of work, using examples from translators, warehouse workers and graduates to look at both harms and possible improvements. 3pm-4.30pm

HIGHGATE WALK: Join a two‑hour walking tour of Highgate Village, visiting Lubetkin's High Point flats, Waterlow Park, Highgate Cemetery, Holly Lodge Estate and St Anne's Close, soaking up architectural titbits and local stories as you go. 3pm-5pm

BEATS AND BANDS: Get lively at Beats and Bands, a stadium-scale fitness party at Craven Cottage. A live DJ plays Afrobeats, Amapiano, dancehall and hip hop while group workout classes take place. 3pm-7pm

Beats and Bands takes over Craven Cottage. Image: Fulham FC.

MONET'S GIVERNY: Capture the light and colour of the French Impressionist movement at the London Art Bar in Holborn. This creative workshop invites you to paint Monet's Bridge Over Giverny, using loose brushstrokes to recreate the famous Japanese bridge from the artist's own garden. All supplies are provided, including a canvas to take home and a glass of prosecco to help the creative process along. 3.30pm-6pm

CLIMATE EMERGENCY: Gather at Southwark Cathedral for a screening of The People's Emergency Briefing, a short film presenting the latest evidence on the climate and nature crisis. The 50-minute documentary features expert interviews and celebrity reactions, exploring the human impact on food security, health and extreme weather. A short Q&A session with the Bishop of Kingston follows the film. FREE, 4.15pm-6pm

CINEMATIC BLOCKBUSTERS: Hear the spectacular scores that defined modern cinema performed by the London Symphony Orchestra at Barbican. Conducted by Dirk Brossé, the programme features iconic music the orchestra originally recorded for the big screen, including John Williams' themes from Star Wars and Superman alongside more recent hits from Harry Potter and Thor. The evening also includes world premiere suites from Pandora – The World of Avatar and Asterix: The Kingdom of Nubia. 7pm

LOST IN MUSIC: Step back into the era of glitter balls and groove as the Churchill Theatre in Bromley stages Lost In Music. A live band and powerhouse vocalists recreate the golden age of disco with a high-energy production featuring the hits of Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Chic. Expect a non-stop setlist of classics including I Will Survive and Boogie Wonderland, turning the main auditorium into a massive 70s dance floor. 7.30pm

COUNTRY SOUL SESSIONS: Western Swing and Americana fill the basement of The Spice Of Life in Soho for a high-energy double bill. The Boot Heel Playboys return to the venue with their authentic 1940s-style dance tunes, while Honest Hal and His Buried Hearts launch their debut 10-inch pink vinyl LP, Kentucky Bound. Expect a mix of steel guitar, fiddle and rock 'n' roll melodies, designed to get the audience two-stepping. 7.45pm

Eel Pie Island is known for its eccentric buildings and studios. Exhibit A here. Image: Londonist

Twickenham's Eel Pie Island is an enclave of west London enveloped in musical legend, artistic curios galore — and a healthy dose of secrecy.

Though you can cross the footbridge onto the piscatorially-monikered island anytime you like, you'll only get a tantalising whiff of the creative minds buzzing inside (think shrubbery-ensconced huts festooned with headless mannequins, skeletons in cages and other forms of screwball sculpture).

But for two weekends this July, you can gain access to Eel Pie Island's inner sanctum, thanks to its Open Studios series.

You've got four chances to visit the island this summer. Image: Daderot via CC0

The footbridge that takes you to a zany dimension of London. Image: M@/Londonist

On Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 July 2026 — and again on Saturday 11 and Saturday 12 July 2026 — you're invited into the creative hubs of the artists who live and work on this unique island.

While enjoying a rare opportunity to hobnob with the locals, you can peruse handmade oil paintings, jewellery, ceramic sculptures and caricatures. There's even someone who transforms vintage cases into portable Bluetooth speakers. How very Eel Pie Island.

And of course, if any particular treasure ruffles your truffles, you can take it back ashore without having to go through customs. Refreshments are also available (we once had a Pimm's here surrounded by some VERY interesting sculptures), so all in all it makes for a grand couple of hours away from the shackles of mainland life.

Not your typical London abodes. Image: Marathon via CC BY-SA 2.0

Nothing to see here. Image: Londonist

It's free to access Eel Pie Island for the open days, but you MUST book a two-hour time slot. DON'T just show up, or you won't get onto the island!

While you're in Twickenham, we recommend a trip to Eel Pie Island Museum, which details the island's rock n' roll roots — including The Who, the Stones and Pink Floyd — as well as famous residents, including the late Trevor Baylis, inventor of the wind-up radio. The museum's on the Twickenham mainland, and you can visit any time of year, Thursday-Sunday.

There's also Twickenham Museum, open Friday-Sunday. What a thoroughly cultured place Twickenham is.

This person didn't book a ticket. Image: Londonist

Eel Pie Island Artists Summer Open Studios, 4, 5, 11 and 12 July 2026, 11am-5pm, free entry, book ahead.

"Seventy minutes. Seven seasons. One Spike." Image: Buffy Revamped.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is back... sort of.

While a revival of the hit 90s Sarah Michelle Gellar series — Buffy: New Sunnydale — was ultimately, er, Spiked, a stage show called Buffy Revamped scooped various awards at Edinburgh in 2022 — and fans have had a taste for it ever since.

This October (nice Halloweeny timing), the show's on a UK tour, landing at the West End's Lyric Theatre on Monday 12 October, with tickets starting at £25.

For anyone not familiar with Buffy Revamped, it's a lightning-faced performance zipping through all 144 episodes of the original Buffy — that's over two episodes per minute! And there's a major twist: no Buffy. The whole thing is performed by comedian Brendan Murphy, as the capricious bleach-blond antihero, Spike.

If Murphy's name rings a bell, he was also behind FRIEND (The One with Gunther), in which he played the lugubrious Central Perk barista. Which yellow-haired 90s TV icon will he play next? He hasn't done Bart Simpson yet...

Buffy Revamped, Lyric Theatre, Monday 12 October 2026. Tickets on sale now.

Free things to do in London this week.

See foodie photography at Mall Galleries. Image: Chloe Hardwick/World Food Photography Awards sponsored by Tenderstem®

See what's free at the London Festival of Architecture

Belonging is the theme of this year's London Festival of Architecture, which begins on Monday and runs all month. Many (though not all) of the events are free. This week, take a free history tour of the Waldorf Hotel, watch a discussion about how art and inclusive public installations contribute to a sense of belonging in London, or tour the only Jacobean church in London, among many other events.

Search the month's programme to find something that takes your fancy.

1-30 June.

Delve into the Whitechapel murders

Author Sarah Bax Horton is at Guildhall Library on Tuesday afternoon to discuss her extensive investigation into the identity of Jack the Ripper and the Thames Torso Killer. Drawing on Metropolitan Police Archives and the legacy of her great-great-grandfather, a police sergeant during the 1888 "Autumn of Terror," Horton explores the evidence that led to her identifying the notorious killers in her books One-Armed Jack and Arm of Eve.

Watch in person at the library, or online.

2 June.

Tour this incredibly beautiful chapel

Former Middlesex surgeon James Thomson leads a guided tour of Grade II* listed architectural gem Fitzrovia Chapel on Wednesday lunchtime. The 45-minute tour explores the history and intricate gold mosaics of the neo-Gothic chapel, which originally served the Middlesex Hospital.

3 June.

Tour the exquisite Fitzrovia Chapel. Image: Peter Trimming via CC BY-SA 2.0

Question the City Hall experts

Put your questions to the Deputy Mayors and a panel of City Hall experts at the State of London Debate 2026, on Wednesday evening.

This hybrid event invites Londoners to have their say on critical issues including transport, policing, housing and the environment. You'll need to register by Tuesday to attend in person. Otherwise, join a dedicated online livestream to raise questions via a live chat.

3 June.

Gawp at an aerial piano performance

A live performance on a piano suspended high above the Docklands waterfront is the show-stopping headline act of the Royal Docks Innovation and Enterprise Summer Festival, a one-day family-friendly event courtesy of the University of East London. Expect interactive exhibits, wellbeing activities, workshops and performances from 11am-7pm, plus food and drink stalls. The festival's free, although 'make and take' activities incur a £5 charge. Planning on going? Register your interest.

3 June.

Find out about Pluto's demotion

Pluto as seen from the New Horizons spacecraft in 2015 at a distance of 476,000 miles. Image: NASA

Professor Chris Lintott visits Conway Hall in Holborn on Wednesday evening to discuss the 2006 decision by the International Astronomical Union to demote Pluto to a dwarf planet. The Gresham College lecture explores the remote Kuiper Belt and questions what it means to name celestial bodies, while explaining why this distant world still warrants our scientific attention.

3 June.

Feed your eyes at this food photography exhibition

Feeling hungry? You will be if you wander through Mall Galleries this week. The free World Food Photography Awards exhibition showcases shortlisted snaps from all over the world, selected by a panel of judges, celebrating the growing, farming, harvesting, cooking and eating of food.

3-7 June.

Get an eyeful of fantastic Japanese photography

On Wednesday, Japan House London opens Kyotographie, a free joint exhibition of work by two exciting Japanese photographers, Kawada Kikuji and Iwane Ai. Works include Kawada's Chizu (The Map), selections from The Last Cosmology, and Iwane's Kipuka and A New River series. The show, organised with Kyotographie International Photography Festival is the gallery's first major photography exhibition.

3 June-18 October.

Celebrate 50 years of  skating at Southbank Centre

The futuretense x Skate 50 gig is a free programme of live music and visuals across two stages at Southbank Centre on Thursday, celebrating skate sound and culture. Curated by the SORI Collective, the evening features the hardcore intensity of queercore trio Shooting Daggers and the genre-blurring alt-pop of Tiberius b, accompanied by immersive visuals. The event acts as a "love letter" to the original skate space and runs alongside the current Skate 50 exhibition (suggested donation £8).

4 June.

Stay late at the Science Museum

Image: Serendipity Arts

This month's edition of the regular Science Museum Lates is a collaboration with South Asian creative organisation Serendipity Arts. Visit the museum after its usual opening hours for a free adults-only evening of music, making and ideas inspired by India.  

View a display of giant hand-crafted puppets in the Energy Hall, have a go at embroidery or printing, and hear researchers, scientists and makers talking about contemporary and historical innovation from India. The evening is the launch event for the Great Exhibition Road Festival, more on which below.

5 June.

Celebrate World Ocean Day

© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

Head to the National Maritime Museum on Saturday for free World Ocean Day celebrations. Meet ocean experts, enjoy live music and science shows, play games and get stuck into craft activities, with entertainment for all ages. Hear about creatures from sperm whales to mermaids and deep-sea monsters, along with stories from a former fisheries biologist.

6 June.

Get stuck into the Great Exhibition Road Festival

Image: Great Exhibition Road Festival

Huge free cultural event the Great Exhibition Road Festival is organised by Imperial College and its South Kensington neighbours, including the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Royal Parks and the V&A.

Celebrate science and the arts through a weekend of free events and activities, many suitable for children. Mingle with scientists, artists and musicians as you see the latest technology in action, or try a few foods you've never sampled before — all in a street party atmosphere. This edition is a special one, as it marks 175 years since the namesake Great Exhibition of 1851.

6-7 June.

Be among the first to visit this year's Serpentine Pavilion

'a serpentine' (their lower case, not ours) is the apt name and design of this year's free Serpentine Pavilion, erected in the grounds of the Serpentine South gallery, and open to the public from Saturday this week. Mock-ups show the interior will provide an irregular-shaped courtyard with spaces for sitting, and a brise soleil roof propped with thin brick columns. It's free to visit and explore.

6 June-25 October 2026.

Watch a parade in south London

It's free entry at Mitcham Carnival on Sunday where, back again after a successful return in 2025. The mile-long route starts in the town centre and finishes at Three Kings Piece, where you'll find live performances, wrestling demos and funfair rides.

7 June.

For every fresh, exciting venture that springs up, London sheds an old favourite. Once again, it's time to cue the melancholy piano for our list of places that closed down in 2026. We'll update the list as the year goes on.

101 Records, Croydon

Image: Londonist

Beanos, Big Apple, Bonaparte... there was a time when Croydon was a go-to for vinyl-pursuing musos. Sadly, as 2026 made its entrance, the town saw the exit of 101 Records — a fantastic value shop we enjoyed perusing every now and then — and which bluntly blamed successive councils and landlords for 'running our once great town into the dirt'. Ouch.

100 Wardour Street, Soho

Image: Ewan-M via CC BY-SA 4.0

This lively Soho hangout — situated on the site of the former Marquee Club — brunched its last bottomless brunch early in 2026, despite having received consistent thumbs-up for its hospitality over its decade-long lifespan. It's unclear exactly why the venue closed, although the team behind it, The Evolve Collection, continue to operate a number of other London venues.

Brixton Tube's newspaper stand

Image: Londonist

We visited Pritesh Patel on his last day of trading at the well-loved newspaper/confectionary stand he'd worked for over 35 years. "The trade is still here," he told us, "Not as big a living as we used to, but we're still making a living."

The problem? The landlord, TfL, decided it wanted to enlarge the shop (something which Pritesh had been game for) and — here's the sucker punch — vertiginously increase how much it'd cost to remain in situ. "It's double the rent, so for us it wasn't viable," said Pritesh, "I wish them luck." London sometimes has a nasty habit of destroying some of the best things about it.

Lambeth Country Show, Herne Hill

Image: Londonist

Is London's park life gradually being fenced off? While Crystal Palace Park must fund it revamp by selling off parcels of land, all is not well in the garden of Herne Hill either. Lambeth Country Show — which debuted in 1974 — will not take place in the summer of 2026. The reason? Budget cuts. It's especially sad news, given that paid-for festivals such as Mighty Hoopla will continue — its organisers presumably paying Lambeth Council a fair whack for the privilege. Is the Lambeth Country Show gone for good? As its resident sheep might put it: that'd be baaaad news.

The Orange Tree, Winchmore Hill

Revered as one of the most honest boozers in north London, when the Orange Tree's landlords John and Marie retired in February 2026, it was curtains for the Taylor Walker-built local, the Enfield Society fearing it could be redeveloped into housing. The Orange Tree was, opined one beer commentator "pure trad pub bliss". Winchmore Hill does, however, still have another exquisite locals pub up its sleeve — the Little Green Dragon, and long may it draw fiery breath.

Lots (but not all) of London's BrewDogs

Image: Sebastian Lomas via creative commons

Not, perhaps, as cherished as the Orange Tree, but certainly a player in the pubscape of 21st century London, BrewDog abruptly announced the closure of nine of its London outposts (Soho, Camden Road, Chancery Lane, Clerkenwell, Ealing, Hammersmith, Seething Lane, Tower Bridge and Wandsworth) with immediate effect in March. It was confirmation that the seemingly troubled brand was very troubled indeed. We pored over fond memories of the early BrewDog days while nursing a beer — although not a Punk IPA, as we haven't bought one of those for ages. A handful of BrewDogs continue to ply their trade in London, including the one with the slide.

Seven Dials Playhouse

Image: Seven Dials Playhouse

A "catastrophic loss to actors" is how campaigners described the closure of Seven Dials Playhouse at the end of March 2026. The small Covent Garden theatre had its roots as the Actors Centre, founded in 1978, as a place for actors to experiment, and "dare to fail". Judi Dench and Laurence Olivier were among those associated with the Actors Centre and its workshops in its early days. Moving to Seven Dials in 1994, thanks to a fundraising campaign championed by Anthony Hopkins, the Centre was then rebranded as the Seven Dials Playhouse in 2021. But after the theatre building was sold for £3.6m in 2024 to "generate new revenue streams and build a sustainable future, following the collapse of the old membership and training model", things unravelled fast, prompting an unsavoury end for what had been a highly-regarded institution. "I do feel a deep sadness," said Kate Maravan, director of The New Actors Centre, "I think, in a way, they drained it of its heart."

Corsica Studios

Image: Paul Hudson from United Kingdom via CC BY 2.0

It's no secret that Elephant & Castle has lost much of its gritty rizz over the past decade, Corsica Studios being one of the latest dominoes to fall. "Ask any music-loving Londoner to name the city's best venues, and there’s a decent chance Corsica Studios will appear somewhere near the top of their list", wrote the Guardian, when it was announced the under-the-arches venue established in 2002 by Adrian Jones and Amanda Moss, was to shutter. Though the closure perhaps wasn't purely down to the ongoing development, that certainly didn't help. "You can stay as long as you want," Jones was told by the developer Delancey at one point. "You just can't make any noise past 1 April." It fell silent for good in spring 2026.

Hacha Dalston

Image: Hacha

On 25 April 2026 (exactly seven years since opening), neighbourhood bar Hacha Dalston served its last signature Mirror Margarita cocktail — so called because of its clearness — before shutting up shop for good. However, this is adiós, rather than goodbye; the team (which also lost its home in Bermondsey in 2025) has announced it'll be appearing at six festivals across the UK, plus in a series of short-term residencies and pop-ups.

Various Franco Mancas

Image: Ewan-M via CC BY-SA 2.0

Early champions of London's Neapolitan sourdough pizza craze, Franco Manca opened its debut restaurant in Brixton in 2008, before ballooning into a 70-venue UK-wide beast — becoming a byword for decent, and decently-priced, pizzas (not to mention proud purveyors of wine in tumblers). In April 2026, however, The Fulham Shore, which runs the Franco Manca chain, made swinging cuts to the brand, with nine London locations facing the axe: Battersea, Brixton, Bromley, Broadway Market, Chiswick, Kilburn, New Oxford Street, Stoke Newington and Tottenham Court Road. Fulham Store CEO Marcel Khan claimed the challenging climate was to blame: "‘Even restaurant businesses that are doing all the right things from a customer and operational perspective are not immune to widely publicised pressures impacting the hospitality industry." Because there were so many Franco Mancas in the first place, London still has a number of branches, including in Soho, London Bridge and Waterloo. Our obvious advice: use 'em or lose 'em.

Science Gallery, London Bridge

Image: Matt Brown/Londonist

A table made of sugar, and partly dissolved by tea, was what greeted us during our first encounter with the Science Gallery, when it opened in 2018. The King's College gallery was part of an international group of such venues — presenting works influenced by, or built upon, science. "If you're a fan of the Wellcome Collection," we reckoned, "then you'll feel at home here." Sadly, 2026 will be the gallery's final year, although if you haven't yet visited, there's time enough: its valedictory exhibition, The Art of Care: Through the Eyes of Tomorrow's Doctors, opens in June, running till later in the year.

What've we missed? Email will@londonist.com with any major losses to the London scene in 2026.

For a more comprehensive rundown of restaurants that've closed in 2026, we recommend checking out Hot Dinners.

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Frida Kahlo, Marilyn Monroe and M.C. Escher.

© Rachel Maclean.

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Pick Your Own Lavender At This Annual Harvest Weekend In South London

Carshalton Lavender invites you to snip your own bunch.

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The queue to end all queues.

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Ice cream bricks, and fans on the Underground.

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Click/tap for larger version

What would the Tube map look like if we boiled it down to just the bits the stereotypical tourist is interested in?

Tourists are the only group of people who really need a Tube map — at least for the centre. Locals already know their way around, and business visitors take cabs. So if we only need to cater for the sightseer, then the map condenses down somewhat.

The map above shows only the stops that the stereotypical tourist might be interested in. We've substituted the official names for more helpful descriptors.

(Of course, we realise that many visitors have a more sophisticated itinerary... this is just a bit of fun.)

This article was inspired by an earlier map we made (way back in 2008), which really pared things back to just 12 stations on three lines:

Created by Matt Brown in 2008

What would you add to the tourist Tube map?

West End Live is free and VERY popular. Photo: Danny Kaan

Free musical theatre festival West End Live returns to Trafalgar Square on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 June 2026. The annual event brings together stars from 50 West End musicals and shows for free performances on a stage in Trafalgar Square.

West End Live 2026 line-up and stage times

West End Live 2026 features over 50 performances from top West End shows — both long-running and new — including Beetlejuice The Musical, Cabaret, Hamilton, High Society, Les Misérables, Mamma Mia!, Matilda The Musical, Taboo, Paddington The Musical, Six, Wicked, and many more — all serving up bitesized chunks of their productions in the open air.

Disney's Hercules opens the festival on Saturday, with Disney's The Lion King kicking things off on Sunday.

Never been? Take a look at this clip for an idea of what to expect:

While many of the performers are usually cast members of long-running West End shows — some dashing over to Trafalgar Square between their Saturday matinee and evening performances — it's a chance to get a look at upcoming or very recently opened musical theatre treats too.

Snappy scheduling means sets are brief enough to maintain the attention of even the youngest audience members, and you can drop by to catch your favourite shows. But it gets busy, and once you've given up your front row space, there's no getting it back.

Exact scheduling will be announced about one week before the event.

We'll repeat that: the event gets very busy. So busy, in fact, that there were reports of people queuing from 6am in previous years, ahead of the gates opening at 10am, the line reaching all the way to Holborn, and prompting thespian blog Theatre & Tonic to question whether the event has now grown too big.

A one-in, one-out policy operates when the Square reaches capacity, and while there have been calls for the event to be ticketed, that's not happening in 2026. So. Get there early and be prepared to queue.

West End Live 2026 queue jump

Photo: Pamela Raith

But, there's good news for 2026! For the first time ever, 'fast track' queue jump places are available — if very limited. 100 queue jump places for each day can be won in a competition. Winners will access West End Live via a separate entrance, and one very lucky fan will get the chance to go backstage and watch the show from the wings, as well as being showered with merch, vouchers and theatre tokens.

If you fancy your chances, enter online here before 14 June 2026.

West End Live 2026 viewing areas

Have a Super (Trouper) day at West End Live 2026. Photo: Pamela Raith

Don't fancy battling the crowds? An additional viewing area on Pall Mall East is back for 2026, but note that there is no screen or livestream here this year — this area simply offers a restricted view of the stage.

Accessible viewing at West End Live 2026

West End stars leave their theatres to perform in the open air. Photo: Danny Kaan

There is an accessible viewing area for wheelchair users and people with other accessibility requirements. It's located along the North Terrace of Trafalgar Square, offering a view of the stage and BSL interpreters. This area was ticketed for the first time in 2025, and will be again for West End Live 2026. Tickets were available via a ballot but this is now closed.

Away from the accessible viewing area, the rest of West End Live remains first come first served, with no ticketing.

Keep an eye on the West End Live website and social media for updates. If you can't make it in-person (or can't face the queue), highlights will be shared on Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube throughout the weekend.

West End Live 2026 takes place on Saturday 20 June (11am-5pm) and Sunday 21 June (12pm-5pm) 2026. It's free to attend, and there's no need to book tickets. The full schedule appears on the website approximately one week before the event.

If this kind of thing gets your toes a-tapping, browse offers for tickets to current and upcoming musicals in London.

Loopy for lavender? Check out our guide on places to find (and pick) it, not far from the borders of London.

In Carshalton, there's a spot where you can pick your own lavender. Image: Carshalton Lavender

June-August marks lavender season, turning farms and fields into seas of lilac. In Carshalton, south London, there's a spot where you can pick lavender yourself, from an allotment brimming with the stuff. The catch: it's only for one weekend a year.

What's the Carshalton Lavender Annual Harvest?

For one weekend each summer (Saturday 25-Sunday 26 July 2026), Carshalton Lavender invites the public to descend on its Stanley Road allotment, and pick their own lavender. It's £2 entry for adults (or £5 including your own bunch of lavender). Up to two kids under 16 per group go free. Tickets are on sale now, although you can also show up on the day.

Just remember to bring secateurs or scissors to do your snipping with.

Bring your own secateurs. Image: Carshalton Lavender

Is this the place with the red phone box?

No, that's Mayfield Lavender Farm, which is down the road, and sits JUST within Greater London. But that's more readily open, from June-August. Carshalton Lavender, meanwhile, is eager to point out it is south London's only not-for-profit PYO lavender scheme. (Historical context: The soil in this neck of the woods is chalky — ideal for lavender, and this part of London/Surrey was once replete with purple lavender fields. There was also a major lavender farm/distillery near Mitcham.)

Buy anything you want, so long as it's lavender. Image: Carshalton Lavender

What else is happening on Carshalton Lavender's harvest day?

This is a veritable lavender-scented beano. Stalls will be selling lavender-themed bits and pieces: plants, oils, creams, candles, soaps, sprays... even lavender cake. You can also buy (non lavender) chutneys, patchwork crafts and upcycled artworks.

All in all, a perfectly pastoral day of purpleness. On the Sunday only, the Black Swan morris dancing troupe will be jingle-jangling away.

FYI Carshalton has one of the best beer pubs in London. Image: Londonist

Anything else to do in Carshalton while I'm there?

If you're looking to make a day of it, Carshalton is a pretty little area, which feels distinctly 'un-London'. Take a wander around the village ponds, call in at the Honeywood Museum (free, although only open Thurs-Sat), get a pint in one of London's best beer pubs the Hope, and maybe catch a show at the CryerArts Centre (on Saturday 26 July, there's a Bruce Springsteen tribute!). Nearby Beddington Park is a sprawling space with playgrounds, a historic old church and walks along the River Wandle.

Carshalton Lavender Annual Harvest, 25-26 July 2026, 10am-5pm each day (last entry 4.30pm).

Ready, steady... QUEUE! Image: Simon Tregidgo via creative commons

Lawn tennis. Strawberries and cream. Sun hats. Pimm's. Add a well-organised queue to the mix and you've reached peak Brit.

The Wimbledon Championships — taking place from Monday 29 June-Sunday 12 July 2026 — is one of the few major UK sporting events where the public can get their hands on premium tickets on the day of play itself. And yes, we have a good-old fashioned queue to thank for that. So iconic is this queue, in fact, Wimbledon itself now refers to it as 'The Queue'.

If you haven't been fortunate/organised enough to get tickets through the Wimbledon ballot (which closes by the end of the previous year), then The Queue is your best chance of getting to see some world class tennis in SW19.

The Queue in all its sophisticated majesty. Image: Carine06 from UK via CC BY-SA 2.0

What day tickets can you queue for at Wimbledon?

Each day of the tournament, there are around 500 tickets each for No. 1 Court, No. 2 Court and the much-coveted Centre Court (except for the last four days on Centre Court, where tickets are only sold in advance). These are known as Show Court tickets.

In addition, thousands of Grounds Passes (aka Grounds Tickets) are also available daily. These give you access to the unreserved seating and standing room areas on Courts No. 3-18. If you just want to see some good tennis and soak up the atmosphere, we'd suggest plumping for one of these; they're cheaper, and easier to get your mitts on.

Naturally, as the tournament progresses, the competition is thinned out, so you've got more choice on, say, Day 1 with a Grounds Pass than you have on Day 11.

All tickets also allow you access to Murray Mound/Henman Hill/Raducanu Ridge, where people famously perch to watch action on the big screen.

Grounds Passes are a cheap (and easier) way to enjoy Wimbledon. Image: Londonist

How much do Wimbledon tickets cost?

It's a sliding scale. For example, a Day 1 Centre Court costs £115, whereas a Day 13/14 ticket costs up to £350 — because by this time, it's the finals, innit.

Grounds Pass prices work the other way. They start at £33 (still the bargain of the century if you ask us) on Day 1, and cost just £21 by Day 14 (by then, there's far less tennis to see on the more minor courts).

Here's a full list of tickets prices for 2026.

Can I buy Wimbledon tickets with cash?

Nope, debit or credit card only.

Do not let this out of your sight. Image: Leon Brocard via creative commons

Where do I join the Wimbledon queue?

The queue for on-the-day tickets starts in Wimbledon Park, eventually winding its way towards the Gate 3 turnstiles, where the tickets are sold. It's about a five-minute walk from Southfields station. (Other Wimbledon stations are not so close to the tennis.)

Here's a handy (and may we say lovingly illustrated) queue area map.

Transactions can be made by credit or debit card, one ticket per person, non-transferable and on a first-come-first-served basis.

What's to stop me other people from pushing in?

Such unbecoming behaviour is thwarted by the Queue Cards which are divvied out daily to each arrival to represent your exact placement in the queue. They'll only be given to bona fide humans, so don't rely on getting a friend to collect one for you — that won't wash with the stewards handing them out.

Queue Cards are dated, numbered and will be checked on entry to the Grounds. Now THAT is how to do queuing.

You can pitch up the night before for a prime queue spot, but you don't have to. Image: Hans Dinkelberg

So. Now you know the basics, it's time to ask yourself... What kind of Wimbledon queuer are you?

Overnight Wimbledon Queuer

Kudos. You are the unwashed king/queen of the queuers. Turn up the night before with your sleeping bag and tent (maximum size permitted is a two-person) and pitch up just metres from the front of the queue. Note that barbecues, gazebos, smoking, loud music and generally being a drunken so-and-so are not permitted. Neither is any noise at all after 10pm. You are, however, permitted to order yourself a takeaway to Wimbledon Park Road gate. One person must remain with the tent at all times. A smattering of bottle stations, toilets, first aid tents and food stalls in the park mean you don't need to be Bear Grylls to make it through the night.

Expect to be woken by a steward around 6am to dismantle your camping gear, drop it off at the left luggage facility (there's a charge of £5 for overnight equipment) and — this is possibly our favourite bit — "close up into a tighter formation" to allow for those mere early-morning queuers to join the queue behind you.

From 7.30am, stewards issue wristbands, starting at the front of The Queue, to those queueing for Centre, No.1 and No.2 Court. But you've still got a while till opening time. Better get yourself a cuppa.

Classic Wimbledon stock image... apart from the fact that's yoghurt, not cream. Image: iStock/Bill Oxford

Morning Wimbledon Queuer

If camping isn't your (sleeping) bag, joining the queue by 5am-6am should still put you in good stead for decent tickets. If you arrive at 6am there will be roughly an hour of hanging around with the recently-roused campers before the stewards come along from 7.30am to issue wristbands to those queuing for those premium Show Court tickets.

Turn up later in the morning and you'll join the back of a sizeable queue. It's unlikely there'll be many (if any) Show Court tickets left, but there should still be Grounds Passes remaining. Nothing is guaranteed of course. Our advice: join that queue as early as it's comfortable for you to do so.

You'll receive your Queue Card to dictate exactly when you arrived, then it's time for some serious hanging around. This is the most organised, best-behaved queue we've ever had the pleasure of joining: you can sit on the grass, read the paper, have a picnic... enjoy it!

Tickets are sold from 9.45am, and the full grounds open at 10am. Once Wimbledon is full with ticket holders, on-the-day queuers are subject to a one-in-one-out policy.

Wimbledon opens its doors at 10am. Image: Londonist

Afternoon Wimbledon Queuer

By mid to late afternoon, the main fixtures of the day will be in full swing, or otherwise have already happened (matches typically start on the outer courts at 11am and Number 1 Court/Centre Court at 1/1.30pm), and there is little to no chance of a Show Court ticket. But if you simply want to experience the buzz of Wimbledon, catch some of the later games and cram fistfuls of strawberries in your gob, it's possible to join the queue after 5pm for late entry. Grounds Passes are slightly cheaper, and by this time, many morning visitors will either have left or be leaving, so the queue should move swiftly. And if a plucky Brit hopeful is slogging it out in a five-setter, you can always pick a spot on Murray Mound/Henman Hill/Radacanu Ridge, and cheer them on from there.

If you're already inside the grounds, post 3pm, there's the chance to bag yourself a return No.1 Court and No.2 Court ticket or Centre Court ticket for the remainder of that day of play, from the Ticket Resale Kiosk north of Court 18 (tickets in 2025 cost £10-£15; no prices have been shared yet for 2026). Given that both the biggest courts now have roofs — and sometimes host nail-biting clashes long into the evening — this could end up being quite the steal.

(In case you're wondering, yes, people really do hand back their Show Court tickets, even with hours of the playing day left to go.)

The magic of Murray Mound/Henman Hill/Radacanu Ridge. Image: iStock/coldsnowstorm

Other useful info

🎾 It's recommended you download the Wimbledon app and create a 'myWIMBLEDON' account, which will keep you updated with the latest news, and help you get the most out of your day at the tennis.

🎾 Those with accessibility requirements should call the Ticket Office ahead of time, as there are certain queue/car parking facilities available for mobility-impaired visitors. Stewards on the day will also be able to help. Check out Wimbledon's accessibility page for more details.

🎾 If you're considering bringing a giant, hard-edged bag emblazoned with political slogans and filled with knives, you might want to read Wimbledon's Conditions of Entry first.

🎾 If you're not up for picnicking, here's a list of places to eat and drink around the grounds.

Do bring: sunscreen, umbrella, water, food for a picnic, books or activities to keep you occupied while you wait, credit/debit card for your ticket purchase and cash for Pimm's/strawberries and cream.

Do not bring: selfie-sticks (they’re prohibited), barbecues, gazebos, large quantities of alcohol (Wimbledon allows you to bring in one 750ml bottle of wine or two 500ml cans of booze per person), or a bag larger than 40cm x 30cm x 30cm as this is the maximum size permitted in the grounds. There are a number of left luggage facilities just outside of the grounds for anything larger, which cost £1 per item or £5 for overnight equipment. See all prohibited items here.

For any other queue-related questions, this Wimbledon Queue Guide should provide you with the answer.

For more from London's art world, sign up for our free newsletter: Londonist: Urban Palette.

We look ahead and pick the best exhibitions to see in London's galleries and museums, opening in June.

Portraits of Japan: Kyotographie at Japan House & Japanese Women Photographers at the Photographers' Gallery

One of the eerie nighttime photographs of cherry blossoms. © Iwane Ai

Two photographers with powerful stories come together at Kensington's Japan House. Kawada Kikuji is best known for his series examining the scars of Japan's postwar period, which is presented alongside his more recent works capturing celestial phenomena. Iwane Ai, meanwhile, has produced a series exploring the lives of Japanese immigrants in Hawaii, alongside images capturing Japan's cherry blossoms during the Covid crisis, in eerie nighttime settings, and populated with characters from Japanese folk traditions.

For second helpings of Japanese photography, the Photographers' Gallery tells the country's story through the eyes of women. 27 artists, from the 1950s to today, offer perspectives on how Japan sees itself, and how it's seen by the world, spanning identity, pop culture, fashion and everyday life.

Kyotographie: Kawada Kikuji x Iwane Ai at Japan House London. 3 June-18 October 2026, free.
Japanese Women Photographers: From 1950s to Now at The Photographers' Gallery. 24 June-27 September 2026, £12 (free on Fridays after 5pm).

Big draw: Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration

An artist's impression of the new Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration © Nora Walter

After the major development of a new site in Clerkenwell and a rebrand from the House of Illustration to the Quentin Blake Centre, it's time to explore this new home for all things illustrative. The debut exhibitions are a display of 100 works by Blake himself, examining how theatrical traditions have influenced his almost 80-year career. There is also a kaleidoscopic escapade into the work of British-Sri Lankan illustrator, artist and designer MURUGIAH, bringing together his love of Hollywood, sci-fi and 2000s era pop-punk. A third exhibition celebrates queer depictions in comics. In addition, the Centre offers free public gardens, a cafe and shop, a free library and learning spaces.

Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. Opens 5 June, £15 for the exhibitions, other spaces are free.

Blonde bombshell: Marilyn Monroe at National Portrait Gallery

© MHG Collective, LLC.

100 years since her birth, Marilyn Monroe remains one of the most iconic women captured on screen, through photographs and in art. For her centenary, the National Portrait Gallery brings together candid off-screen photographs, snaps taken by legendary photographers such as Cecil Beaton and Richard Avedon, and artworks she inspired, including works by Andy Warhol and Pauline Boty. The exhibition focuses on Monroe's collaborative approach and her creative agency; she not only performed but also directed sessions and vetoed any images she didn't like, curating her own legendary image.

Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait at National Portrait Gallery. 4 June-6 September 2026, £25-£27.

Cute yet disturbing: Rachel Maclean at Josh Lilley

© Rachel Maclean.

We've always been a fan of how Rachel Maclean mixes cutesy aesthetics with savage critiques of the world today. Previous works have taken swipes at consumerism and beauty standards. Now she turns her lens towards AI and how it alters our perception of the world and the notion of authorship. The exhibition brings together painting, sculpture, film and installation in a space designed to blur the boundaries between the illusory and the real. Her feature film explores the biases, projections, desires and dangers embedded in AI — drawing parallels between the Victorian age of discovery and the microscope boom with today's AI companies.

Rachel Maclean: The Enchantment of Reason at Josh Lilley Gallery. 5 June-1 August 2026, free.

Astronomical inspiration: The Sun and The Moon at Saatchi Gallery

© Luke Jerram Photography by James Dobson

Humans have always looked to the heavens, at the sun and the moon, with wonder, so it's no surprise that both celestial bodies have inspired many artists. Saatchi Gallery's exhibition unfolds as a journey through a complete 24-hour cycle, moving from dawn through daylight to the depths of the night, with each gallery representing a different time of day. It includes historical works by Joan Miro and Joseph Wright of Derby, through to contemporary artists. Highlights include Luke Jerram's Helios, a glowing six-metre replica of the sun based on NASA photography, and an interactive work by TeamLab. Prepare to be sun-kissed and moon bathed.

The Sun and The Moon: Art Inspired by the Celestial at Saatchi Gallery. 5 June-8 September 2026, £20.

Mind-bending: M.C. Escher at Somerset House

Impossible shapes, stairs that appear to go up and down at the same time. Many of us are familiar with the mind-bending art of the Dutch artist M.C. Escher. The exhibition brings together over 150 of his original works, highlighting the techniques and research that shaped his squint-inducing output. The exhibition guides visitors through the major themes that made Escher famous: landscapes, tessellations, metamorphoses, to impossible constructions and the iconic visual paradoxes he's best known for. There are also interactive displays designed for both adults and children, allowing us to create our own illusions and learn how Escher pulled them off.

M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House. 5 June-6 September 2026, £20.

Summer living: Serpentine Pavilion at Serpentine Galleries

© LANZA atelier, courtesy of Serpentine.

Every summer, the space outside the Serpentine South Gallery is given over to an architect to design a pavilion, and this year that honour goes to Mexican architecture practice LANZA atelier. It comes with a serpentine wall of its own that uses the 'crinkle-crankle' method to build a strong wall, with coverings held up with towers of bricks, so we can sit in the shade/shelter from the rain under it — knowing the British weather, it will likely be both. As always, the pavilion is a gathering space to hang out, explore or use as a jumping-off point for exhibitions at the two nearby galleries.

Serpentine Pavilion 2026: 'a serpentine' by LANZA atelier. 6 June-25 October 2026, free.

Pan-African art: Project a Black Planet at Barbican

© Chris Ofili. Image courtesy the artist, David Zwirner and Victoria Miro.

Pan-Africanism refers to a broad spectrum of political and philosophical movements advocating anti-colonial resistance and transnational solidarity amongst peoples of African descent, and this exhibition showcases its influence in art from the 1920s to the present. It includes over 300 works from paintings and installations to posters, journals and film — highlighting how the movement has manifested through activism, as well as the lived experiences of Black artists across the African continent and the African diaspora in the UK and around the world.

Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica at Barbican. 11 June-6 September 2026, £19.

Stringy sculpture: Hepworth in Colour at the Courtauld

© Bowness. Image © The Hepworth Wakefield. Photo: Mark Heathcote

Abstract sculptures inspired by nature and the rugged seaside landscapes of Cornwall — and often connected by string — the style of Barbara Hepworth is instantly recognisable. Many of her works keep the natural tones of the materials she carved, but the Courtauld shows us how colour also played a part in her practise. In Hepworth's words "The colour in the concavities plunged me into the depths of water, caves or shallows". Alongside sculptures, Hepworth in Colour features a rich selection of her more vivid drawings and paintings.

Hepworth in Colour at The Courtauld. 12 June-6 September 2026, £18.

All the art: Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts

© Royal Academy of Arts, London / David Parry

You know the drill by now: over a thousand artworks stacked floor-to-ceiling in the grand galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts (RA), in what is the calendar's most wildly esoteric show. You won't love everything — it's about winkling out what speaks to you (as well as spotting the works by big-name artists like Tracey Emin and Grayson Perry). The annual art bonanza has been going for over 250 years, and if you're feeling particularly flush, know that most of the works are for sale, with some of the proceeds going towards the Royal Academy schools programme. Not every artist makes it into the Summer Exhibition, and Art Friend gallery puts on the annual  'Rejects' show, where only artists who got a thumbs-down from the RA are allowed to participate.

Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. 16 June-23 August 2026, £23.50-25.50.
Rejects 2026 at The Bakery (Art Friend Gallery Pop Up), Portobello Road. 18-28 June 2026, free.

Imposing sculpture: Anish Kapoor at Hayward Gallery

Photograph: Attilio Maranzano. © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, DACS, 2026

A blood red mountainous mass that fills the space and hangs above, making us feel small. Works made from the blackest black that mess with our depth perception. Anish Kapoor has always pushed the boundaries of what sculpture can be and make you feel. Visceral paintings and sculptures from Kapoor's past decade also feature, created using silicone, resin and pigment. Conjuring splayed-open bodies and internal organs, you will find them either fascinating or disturbing. Probably both.

Anish Kapoor at Hayward Gallery. 16 June-18 October 2026, £22.

Surreal visions: Frida at Tate Modern

Image courtesy of Nickolas Muray Collection of Mexican Art, 66.6 Harry Ransom Research Center, University of Texas, Austin

The surreal paintings. The fantastic outfits. That famous monobrow. It's obvious why Frida Kahlo has become a feminist icon, so much so that Tate doesn't even need to include her surname in the exhibition title. 30 of her famous works that introduce her 'many selves' — the dedicated wife, the intellectual, the modern artist, the political activist — appear here, alongside clothing, jewellery, photographs and memorabilia, plus the commercial products Kahlo continues to inspire. Showing just how tenacious her legacy is, there are also over 200 works by Kahlo's contemporaries, and the artists she inspired from later generations. This is the middle exhibition of a year of strong female artists for Tate Modern, following the excellent Tracey Emin show, and Ana Mendieta yet to come.

Frida: The Making of an Icon at Tate Modern. 25 June 2026-3 January 2027, £25.  

Indian mental health: Manasa Chitra at Bethlem Museum

Mental health is handled and treated differently across cultures, utilising different methods to support patients. Bethlem Museum of the Mind's new exhibition contains works by artists from India who have a lived experience of mental distress. A number were drawn by patients at what was known in the 1950s as the Bangalore Mental Hospital, as part of occupational therapy. Others are the creations of people living with mental health challenges in and around Bengaluru today. The pictures are full of movement, colour, humour and joy. They tell stories of people and places, homes and religions, and celebrate identity and resilience in the face of distress and despair.

Manasa Chitra: The art of mental health from Bengaluru to Bethlem at Bethlem Museum of the Mind. 26 June-14 November 2026, free.

Short-run events and exhibitions

Urs Fischer's exhibition at Sadie Coles from last year. Image courtesy of London Gallery Weekend. Photo: Linda Nylind

June marks the return of London Gallery Weekend (5-7 June, free), where over 120 galleries open their doors across London all weekend, with dozens of talks, performances, and, of course, exhibitions. The Mount Street Neighbourhood Summer Festival (4-20 June, free) features live painting from Kathryn Maple, as well as By Walid's array of objects and clothing crafted from salvaged and antique materials.

This is also the month when students graduate from London's many excellent art schools, and we get to see what they've produced. There are undergraduate (BA) shows at City & Guilds London Art School* (20-26 June, free), Goldsmiths (19-21 June, free), Wimbledon (13-20 June, free), Chelsea (12-19 June, free), Camberwell (13-17 June, free), Central Saint Martins (18-21 June, free), and The Art Academy (26-28 June, free). Those looking specifically for post-graduate artists (MA) can head to the Royal College of Art (18-21 June, free), Slade School of Fine Art (13-21 June, free), and the Royal Academy of Art Schools (12-28 June, free).

A previous edition of the Society of Women Artists exhibition.

Meanwhile, the work of many a skilled portrait painter can be enjoyed at the Contemporary British Portrait Painters exhibition in Brixton (6-14 June, free), while The Society of Women Artists hosts its 165th Annual Open at the Mall Galleries (23-27 June, £5)

If you're looking to meet the artists you buy from, the Artists' Fair at Somerset House Studios (6 June, pay what you can) is for you, while the Treasure House Fair at Royal Hospital Chelsea (24-30 June, £25) offers a curated blend of art, antiques and design — most of it high end.

Exhibitions outside London

© Pete Huggins

Kew Gardens has just opened its Henry Moore exhibition, but there are more Moores to be found at its wilder sister site, Wakehurst (until 23 May 2027; included in the admission price, £18.50). Here, four Moore sculptures have been scattered among the landscape alongside works by three contemporary artists, including Rana Begum, the creator of the colourful mesh clouds.

© Zo-Urness and Tia Collection. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo © Zoe Urness, courtesy YSP

Head north over the next 10 months or so? Yorkshire Sculpture Park is showing 67 works by 38 North American Indigenous artists in its exhibition 'Holding the Earth' (13 June–18 Apr 2027, £10, including entry to the park). It's the perfect setting, given these artists explore humanity's relationship to the land, now located within a landscape shaped by centuries of human and non-human activity. Across the works, land becomes witness, collaborator and material, carrying histories of memory, resistance and continuity.

* The author of this piece is a trustee of City & Guilds London Art School.

This June, Imperial College plays host to a grand cultural festival, and they've invited their famous neighbours along for the show.

The Great Exhibition Road Festival takes over the eponymous road during the weekend of 6-7 June 2026. This year's festival is an anniversary of sorts, marking 175 years since the namesake Great Exhibition of 1851. The proceeds from this festival were poured into South Kensington, turning it into a quarter of museums and education.

The centrepiece of the 1851 exhibition was, of course, the Crystal Palace, and it will rise again as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival... in sand. Seven tonnes of the grainy stuff will, over the course of the weekend, be sculpted into a giant model. You'll also be able to explore the Palace in virtual reality, take walking tours of the original exhibition site, and see objects that were displayed in 1851.

Alongside the historical stuff, the festival also looks to the future. It's a chance to see cutting edge research from Imperial scientists, with additional events and demos from museum teams.  Even as veterans of the festival, it's hard to express in words just how much there is to see and do — the festival sprawls throughout the Imperial College campus and museums, spilling into adjacent squares and roads which are closed to traffic, and this year also taking in part of Kensington Gardens. It's Glastonbury with lab coats.

In the festival's own words, this is "The only festival anywhere to offer Robot Football, Underground Mushroom Disco, origami spacecraft, giant roaming Indian puppets & baking a brownie that mirrors the surface of Mars".

It's also a chance to mingle with scientists, artists and musicians; see the latest technology in action; or try a few foods you've never sampled before — all at one street party.

The Great Exhibition Road Festival runs 6-7 June 2026 from 12pm-6pm. Entrance and all events are free, though you're encouraged to register in advance via the website. Nearest Tube South Kensington. All images courtesy of the Great Exhibition Road Festival/Imperial College London.

Looking for rooftop bars open before July? Here's our roundup.

Until now, very few people have had access to these iconic Tube trains hoisted above the Shoreditch streets. Image: Village Underground

Most Tube trains are beneath our feet, but here are two you have to crane your neck to see.

For 20 years, the two decommissioned Jubilee line stock carriages — in true Shoreditch style, zealously graffitied — have been perched above the Village Underground venue, just above the sagacious motto "Lets [sic] adore and endure each other".

The first thought to cross anyone's mind is "Can I go inside these?" and until now the answer has been "No, not really". Used as office space by the Village Underground team, very few people have able to access the Tube carriages, save the occasional Open House event.

All that is changing from Friday 3 July, when London's most gawped-at Tube trains open to the public... permanently.

The new rooftop bar opens on Friday 3 July. Image: Village Underground

Marking its 20th anniversary, Village Underground is opening its roof space as a 300-capacity terrace bar, serving 'draught beers, signature pours, and a curated wine selection', as well as food from Bad Boy Pizza Society. The rooftop will be open every Wednesday-Sunday thereafter.

Says Auro Foxcroft, Founder and CEO of Village Underground: "For nearly 20 years, we've had this suntrap spot on the Shoreditch skyline to ourselves, so it's exciting to finally be able to share it with our audiences and the local community. The train carriages have been part of how we've used the space day to day — from working to interviewing artists — and this feels like the natural next step, opening them up and making them part of the space for everyone to enjoy."

One of the trains being hoisted into position back in the day. Image: Village Underground

The rooftop bar will bring satisfying equilibrium to the transport-loving drinkers, who can already sip cocktails on (ersatz) Tube carriages underground in Cahoots, Soho.

Our abiding memory of clambering aboard one of the Village Underground trains some years ago was just how hot and stuffy it was — although nothing, we hope, a couple of standing fans and an icy Aperol spritz can't fix.

Village Underground Rooftop, Shoreditch, open from 3 July 2026

In an extract from the new, expanded edition of his wonderful book, Seats of London: A Field Guide to London Transport Moquette Patterns, Andrew Martin opens up a very special cupboard that any transport geek would love to glimpse inside.

Where moquette that hasn't made the cut goes to live out its days.

On the eighth floor of TfL's offices in Stratford is a metal-doored cupboard, of the kind you'd expect to be stuffed with old ring binders. But this one is full of moquette.

Each sample is about the size of a towel, and most were stowed away here soon after being delivered from the weaver. These are the lost moquettes: never applied to a train or sat on by a single bottom even for the shortest hop between Covent Garden and Leicester Square.

"TfL's design team habitually refer to their 'colour blanket': a long, multicoloured strip that is a sort of moquette equivalent of a Pantone swatch."

"Moquette is so weird," says TfL's Paul Marchant. "You can't make a decision about it until it's been manufactured." Back in the 1930s even being one of Britain's greatest 20th century artists was no guarantee of seeing a whole train upholstered with the moquette you'd been commissioned to design. Neither of Paul Nash's two patterns made the cut; one never made it past a sketch. The main reason is that woven colours can come out very different from the CMYK shades selected and viewed on a backlit computer screen. It's why TfL's design team habitually refer to their 'colour blanket': a long, multicoloured strip that is a sort of moquette equivalent of a Pantone swatch. (It would also make an eye-catching — though rather pendulous — scarf.) Several 'design routes' and colourways are woven, and sometimes one just doesn't come off. On my visit a variant of the new Metropolitan line moquette being developed had just arrived from Camira. You could get away with its rhubarb-and-custard effect on an MCC tie; not as something to stare at all the way home to Amersham.

Poplar, a variant of the new DLR moquette.

In the cupboard there's a variant of Poplar, the new DLR moquette, with a slightly more literal representation of the local architecture. A moquette from the Barber Osgerby design studio for the Elizabeth line has the same dense horizontal stripes as that selected, but warmer tones (orange, green, brown) and — above all — no royal purple.

'Lost' S-Stock moquette: "there's a delicacy about it, suggesting cobwebs."

An S-Stock moquette created by Paul's team during Covid features diamond shapes created out of thin diagonals in the sub-surface line colours; there's a delicacy about it, suggesting cobwebs. These 'lost moquettes' represent an alternative reality, not only for trains and buses, but also for Londoners themselves. Moquette is, to use an obvious metaphor, part of the fabric of our lives, as familiar to some as the cover of their sofa; like any aesthetic object, it affects mood.

"A certain type of person, rooting about inside this cupboard, will prefer all these rejects to the ones used."

Someone who would have found in the blue-green and orange colourway of the moquette designed by Pat Barrow for the Victoria line in the late 1980s a beauty absent from the mainly red and blue one that got the nod might have said 'yes' rather than 'no' to the marriage proposal they received on a Vic line train. But Barrow's Vic line moquette languishes in the 'lost' cupboard, along with a green, black and orange one Barrow did for the District at the same time.

A certain type of person, rooting about inside this cupboard, will prefer all these rejects to the ones used. We all know the type (I think I'm one myself): melancholics, forever brooding over the path not taken.

Seats of London: A Field Guide to London Transport Moquette Patterns by Andrew Martin, published by Safe Haven

All images: Safe Haven Books.

Buckingham Palace in the 1920s, although judging from the clothing, probably not those balmy days of May 1922. Image: Suzy Hazelwood

Until now, the hottest daily temperature record for spring in London — 32.8°C — was on 22 May 1922, during a spell of sweltering heat. So in a world without air con and corner shops stocked with ice pops, how exactly did Londoners cope?

The heatwave came as a shock, not least because March had seen the coldest day recorded in some 40 years. "The heat trick has been sprung on us with such unfair celerity that our tempers are exacerbated almost into doing something to cope with the futility of our anti-heat precautions," sweated an Express reporter, who'd winced at a 'limp' waiter's suggestion of steak and kidney pie. "lce-cream? Not enough to be had. lce? What is it? Cool, luscious salads? All green stuff very scarce. Coats off on the golf course? Not to he heard of: simply not done, sir!"

As Londoners clamoured for lighter clothing, a Lewisham draper moaned "The public wait until the weather comes before they ask for the goods, and you cannot cope with it". Meanwhile, a group of guards marching through the city did away with their trousers altogether, opting instead for khaki shorts.

"Cool, luscious salads? All green stuff very scarce." Image: Karolina Kołodziejczak

Working from home with a bag of frozen peas on your head wasn't an option in 1922, although even smart office dress fell momentarily lax, as the Perthshire Advertiser's London correspondent (who was apparently on heat) reported:

In city offices on Monday afternoon [22 May] the male staffs worked in their shirt sleeves, and even then they cast envious eyes on their female colleagues looking so cool and comfortable in the diaphanous blouses and peek-a-bo [sic] stockings.

Many office workers would have filed into town on the Tube, back then with no air conditioning, of course, although the network was cooler than it is in 2026, and when the heatwave struck, enormous electrical fans were installed, pumping 1,000,000 cubic feet of air through the Underground system every minute. Indeed, the Hampstead News claimed that Tube stations were the coolest place to be during a London heatwave. Homeward bound, some of those office workers surely came armed with a Lyons Ice Brick, the frozen treat that'd launched in 1921, and claimed to remain unmelted for two hours. Provided, of course, it hadn't already sold out.

As Londoners stumbled around in various states of heat exhaustion — heat blisters breaking out on their foreheads — the pubs were surely packed, although parts of the West End ground to a halt: "The hot weather playing havoc with the theatres," said the Bystander, which reported that some shows in the stuffier Victorian theatres had been cancelled. They weren't the only thing off-limits; Trafalgar Square's fountains had been cut off since the war and weren't to be restored until the following year (when children happily took to the pools as giant paddling pools). The Thames was a tempting alternative for many, although tragedy struck when one 16-year-old boy got cramp and drowned in the river in front of the Tate.

A thunderstorm on brought some relief, although not to Kentish Town Parish Church, which was struck by a thunderbolt. Image: NOAA Photo Library via Public domain

Up on Bolton Road in Kilburn, three lads quenched their thirst with one too many beers, and after being warned by an officer to keep the noise down, one retorted "Come on you ——; you can have it if you want it." Finding themselves in court, one of said lads bashfully admitted 'it was all his fault. Owing to the heat he had some drink and got excited.'

Some things never change, and the complaint that rang through town was one we're familiar with now: Yes, we wanted it to be warm, but not this warm! "But what is the matter?" asked the salad-searching Express writer. "Would we have bartered yesterday for a fog? Or for a sleet-storm? Let us be honest. Let us confess at once that there are many worse temperatures in the year than — eighty-seven in the shade!"

A thunderstorm on 25 May brought some relief, although not to Kentish Town Parish Church, whose belfry tower took a hit from a thunderbolt 'resembling a great ball of crimson fire', and was badly damaged. The warm spell would last until the end of the month, when, as the London Daily Chronicle put it, "Heavy men breathe again, and there is a slump in ice-cream bricks." For the Londoners of over a century ago, 1922's heatwave was a strange blip — one that wouldn't be mirrored again for another 22 years. And even then, the record was only equalled, not broken.

For us Londoners of 104 years on, however, the next record temperature could already be warming up in the wings.

All weekend

James Campbell entertains the whole family. Image: Flavia Fraser-Cannon

HALF TERM: Find ways to keep kids of all ages, from toddlers to teenagers, entertained in our guide to things to do in London in May half term. It contains our team's curated picks of intriguing exhibitions, exciting shows and myriad other events and activities to keep boredom at bay through the weekend until they're back at school.

COMEDY 4 KIDS: James Campbell, who invented mainstream stand-up for children in 2001, brings family comedy show Reducks to the Museum of Comedy. It's a one-hour performance show of sketches, songs and silly stunts — and this month it has a football theme. 30-31 May 2026

WOMEN WITHOUT BORDERS: The final weekend of the Women Without Borders Film Festival sees three different screening events taking place at London venues, including two programmes of shorts and a feature length film, all celebrating female-led storytelling. Until 31 May 2026

PORTRAIT CARICATURE: The Cartoon Museum's brand new exhibition, Does my head look BIG in this? The art of portrait caricature, explores portrait caricature from Renaissance Italy to 18th century England and the present day, with historical prints and modern examples that examine politics, fame and society. Until 1 November 2026

A LINE FLORIST: Anna Bruder's A Line Florist brings her hand-drawn, non-perishable blooms to Battersea Power Station. Receive a token to collect a paper flower, then personalise it at workshop tables, with murals on site for inspiration. Also at Battersea Power station this week is the Luminarium, a series of softly glowing inflatable chambers waiting to be explored. Both until 31 May 2026

A Line Florist by Anna Bruder pops up at Battersea Power Station. Image: Claire Bowes

WATER PANTANAL FIRE: A free photography exhibition by Lalo de Almeida and Luciano Candisani, Water Pantanal Fire at the Science Museum displays more than 60 images contrasting the Pantanal's rich wildlife with the drought and wildfire damage threatening the region. This weekend is your last chance to see it, but as it's half term, the museum will be busy, so booking in advance is recommended. FREE, until 31 May 2026

CATHERINE OPIE: Photographic portraits by the American artist Catherine Opie are on display at the National Portrait Gallery until Sunday, the first major museum exhibition of her work in the UK. Works featured in the exhibition span her first big artwork, Being and Having (1991), her portraits of LGBTQ+ friends inspired by court painter Hans Holbein, and her Baroque-like portraits of artists. Until 31 May 2026

STUBBS: The works of visionary British painter George Stubbs — best known for his portrait of racehorse Scrub — are collected together in a free display at the National Gallery, closing this Sunday. It shines a spotlight on the 18 months Stubbs spent studying and drawing the anatomy of horses in the 1750s. FREE, until 31 May 2026

SKATE 50: A reminder of Southbank Centre's ongoing exhibition Skate 50, marking 50 years of the Southbank Undercroft skate space, featuring documentary photographs and films by Winstan Whitter, Dan Magee, Lev Tanju and the Keep Rolling Project. Until 21 June 2026

Saturday 30 May

Explore the River Roding. Image: The wub via CC BY-SA 4.0

RIVER RODING: Join the River Roding Trust for a 3.5-mile guided trek along London’s third longest river as part of London Rivers Week. Starting from Redbridge station, the route heads up to Ray Park, offering a chance to observe the waterway's shifting shape and local biodiversity, as well as recent conservation efforts by the Friends of the River Roding. Wear comfortable shoes and long trousers, as some sections of the path feature encroaching nettles. FREE, 9.30am-11.30am

VICTORIAN SURGERY: Step into the oldest surviving surgical theatre in Europe for a Surgery Talk at the Old Operating Theatre Museum. Held in the original attic space of Old St Thomas' Hospital, the session explores the brutal reality of medical practice before the advent of anaesthetics and antiseptics. Museum experts trace the evolution of healthcare from the hospital's 19th century origins to the pioneering techniques that shaped modern medicine. 9.45am

RUGBY FUNDRAISER: Battersea Arts Centre hosts a vibrant celebration of sport and heritage to support the Jamaican Rugby League UK Men's Team, the Reggae Warriors. The Roots, Rhythm and Rugby Fundraiser features a pop-up exhibition tracing the history of the league, alongside DJ sets spinning reggae and ska, Caribbean food and family-friendly craft stations. Award-winning spoken word artist DUKE AL hosts the day’s activities, which include an open mic platform for Jamaican voices and a raffle to fund the team’s journey to the 2026 Emerging Nations Tournament in Sydney. FREE ENTRY, 11am-5pm

FOOTBALL BOOK MARKET: Stanchion Books hosts an independent football publishing market at Brixton Library, featuring publishers, authors, illustrators and brands selling books, magazines, fanzines, shirts, prints and other footie merchandise. 11.30am-4.30pm

SOULFUL BRUNCH: Head to Soul Mama in Islington for the Soul Mama Soulful Saturday Brunch, a daytime event blending live music with a relaxed dining atmosphere. The venue, known for its focus on soul and community, opens its doors for a four-hour session of food and rhythmic entertainment: think African, Caribbean and South American cuisine, alongside soul, R&B and timeless musical classics. 12pm-4pm

Take a tour of Walthamstow, ending at God's Own Junkyard. Image: JRennocks via CC BY 4.0

EID ON THE SQUARE: Trafalgar Square marks the festival of Eid al-Adha with this annual afternoon of celebration. Delivered in partnership with the Eid Community Advisory Group, Eid on the Square 2026 showcases a programme of live performances, food stalls, and workshops and classes spanning calligraphy to fencing. FREE, 12pm-6pm

VEG STOCK: Signature Brew Blackhorse Road in Walthamstow hosts a brand new day festival celebrating vegan culture through music, comedy and street food. The lineup features live performances from Millie Manders and Jimbino Vegan and the Jazz Cannibal, alongside a diverse market of traders serving everything from Japanese dishes by Feed the Village to fresh doughnuts and artisanal chocolate. Every ticket includes a beer. 12pm-7pm

FABRIC REPAIR HUB: Learn to revive worn or damaged clothing, at Bell House in Dulwich. Expert stitchers and darners provide the tools needed to mend your own items, helping to reduce waste and share traditional craft skills, as part of a wider initiative to bring household objects back to life rather than discarding them. FREE, 1pm-4pm

WALTHAMSTOW HISTORY: Explore the eclectic heritage of E17 on a guided Walthamstow walk. Begin at the childhood home of William Morris before heading off the beaten track to discover a hidden open-air theatre and the historic almshouses of Walthamstow Village. The tour concludes at the neon-filled wonderland of God’s Own Junkyard. 2pm-4pm

THE CONSPIRACISTS: Bertha DocHouse in Bloomsbury screens The Conspiracists, a 2024 documentary following three women on a road trip across America. The journey centres on a MAGA supporter recently sentenced for her role in the US Capitol storming, as she attempts to lead her companions into her "5D world" of conspiracy theories. 2pm

See some impressive experiments at the Spectacular Science Show. Photo: Charlie Flint Photography

AFTERNOON OF ROCK: Head to the Flamingo Rooms at O'Neill's Wardour Street for a daytime party specifically for rock and metal fans aged 30 and over. The playlist spans decades of hair metal, grunge and nu-metal, featuring anthems from the likes of Guns N' Roses, Linkin Park and Metallica. 3pm-7pm

SIP AND PAINT: Unleash your inner artist at the London Art Bar in Holborn during a creative afternoon dedicated to the Jubilee London Skyline. Led by a professional artist, get step-by-step guidance to help you recreate a technicolour version of the city's famous landmarks on canvas. All supplies are provided alongside a themed playlist to inspire your artistic flow. 3pm-5.30pm

QUEER HOUSE PARTY: Lewisham’s Fox and Firkin hosts a day-and-night takeover featuring multiple stages and sound systems. The Queer House Party line-up includes Grove, Harry Gay, and Chiyo B2B Femmi, with artists performing in both the venue's indoor spaces and its large garden. 3pm-3am

SPECTACULAR SCIENCE: Kids think science is boring? The Spectacular Science Show at Leicester Square Theatre will show them otherwise (and entertain you adults too). Presenter Mark Thompson carries out exciting experiments on stage, in a show featuring exploding elephant's toothpaste, vortex-generating dustbins and howling jelly babies. 3.30pm

SATURDAY AFTERNOON COMEDY: Head to the Spice of Life in Soho for a matinee showcase featuring four stand-up comedians, plus a compere — no break. Exact line-up isn't announced, but past participants have been seen on Live at the Apollo, Taskmaster and Netflix. 4pm

National stars go head-to-head in the Red Bull Dance Your Style final. Image: Jake Turney, Red Bull Content Pool

HARLOTS, STRUMPETS & TARTS: 18th century London's sordid sex industry is dramatically brought to life in this immersive, theatrical walking tour. Led by a guide performing as 'The Baroness', the two-hour route ventures through Covent Garden and the atmospheric backstreets of Charing Cross to uncover the voices of Georgian sex workers and business-savvy brothel madams, concluding at the ancient Nell Gwynne pub for a tot of gin. 5pm

STREET DANCE BATTLE: The national final of Red Bull's global street dance battle returns to Central Hall Westminster for improvised 1‑v‑1 street‑dance battles where the audience decides the winner. Expect the UK’s top dancers, special performances and musical guests — plus free dance workshops and interactive sessions from 12pm before the main show. 6pm

TONY CHRISTIE: Legendary crooner Tony Christie brings his Great Farewell Tour to the atmospheric Union Chapel in Islington for an up close and unplugged performance. Accompanied by a piano, pedal steel and a string quartet, the Yorkshire veteran performs reimagined country-style versions of his biggest hits, including Avenues & Alleyways and the ubiquitous (Is This the Way to) Amarillo. 7pm

WATERLOO CEILIDH: Hampshire-based dance band Jigfoot brings a high-energy evening of traditional music and dance to St John's Waterloo. Accompanied by caller Ian Nichols, the ensemble uses fiddles, button accordion, guitar and cello to create a driving sound for an inclusive night of dancing. No previous experience is required as all moves are explained throughout the session. 7.30pm

DRACULA: Wicked actress Cynthia Erivo stars in a one-woman reimagining of Bram Stoker's Dracula at the Noël Coward Theatre, ending today. Erivo plays 23 roles in a visually bold production slathered in theatrical blood, flashing lights and other intense effects. 7.30pm

Last chance to see Cynthia Erivo in Dracula. Image: Daniel Boud

ABBA TRIBUTE: Croydon's Fairfield Halls stages the international smash-hit tribute Thank You For The Music, now celebrating its 21st year on the road. This all-star production brings ABBA’s legendary catalogue to life with authentic harmonies and dazzling costumes, featuring chart-toppers from Waterloo to Mamma Mia. Expect a high-energy party atmosphere as the cast recreates the unmistakable sound of the Swedish pop icons. 7.45pm

SIZZLING HOT CIRCUS: Step inside the Fireworks Factory at Woolwich Works for an 18+ cabaret that blends high-skill acrobatics with a sultry, playful sense of humour. Aircraft Circus: Sizzling Hot Circus features a cast of aerialists and dancers performing daring feats on the hoop, straps and a rare quads trapeze. It's a strictly adult-only evening of seductive ground acts and aerial contortion. 8pm

MURDER MYSTERY PLAY: Bexleyheath’s Edward Alderton Theatre stages Blood Me Up Marjorie!, a razor-sharp two-hander pulling back the curtain on a chaotic murder mystery company. The fast-paced comedy follows a cast of eccentric characters as they struggle to keep their theatrical event on track while ensuring their "dead body" actually stays dead. 8pm

EY UP, IT'S SHOWTIME: A showcase of northern flair comes to The Other Palace in Victoria. Ey Up, It's Showtime features a cabaret-style performance by Yorkshire-born artists now living in the capital, blending West End classics with musical numbers inspired by 'God's own county'. Expect a night of charm, wit and camaraderie from a cast of over 20 performers celebrating their roots away from home. 8pm

HOT CHIP ANNIVERSARY: Celebrate two decades of the seminal album Warning at Dalston's Shacklewell Arms with A Love Letter To Hot Chip. The late-night party features a heavy rotation of the band's back catalogue alongside a mix of electroclash, disco and 00s dance-punk. Expect to hear tracks from LCD Soundsystem, Soulwax, and Justice as the Dance Yrself Clean crew commandeers the decks. 11pm

Sunday 31 May

Catch a screening of Inception at Rooftop Cinema Club tonight

JUMBLE TRAIL: The Francis Road Jumble Trail is a community street sale along the residential Leyton thoroughfare and surrounding streets, with stalls, bargain-hunting and fundraising for Cats Protection. Find all participating locations on the map. 10am-4pm

SLAVE HISTORY: Explore the financial legacy of British slavery and the history of Black resistance on this guided walk through the City of London. Organised by Black History Walks, the tour examines how institutions like Lloyds of London profited from the slave trade, and highlights the diverse strategies used by enslaved people to fight back, from cultural resistance to armed revolts. 10.30am-12.30pm

JAZZ AMONG FLOWERS: The Garden Café within the Flower Station in Finchley launches a new live jazz event, taking place every other Sunday from today. Head to the plant-filled, sunny sanctuary at the edge of Hampstead Garden Suburb for an afternoon of smooth tunes. FREE, 12pm-2.30pm

VINTAGE FURNITURE FLEA: Leadenhall returns to its market roots, hosting its monthly vintage furniture and flea market. Browse stalls from expert traders offering mid-century furniture, antiques, retro homeware, lighting, rugs and one-off pieces. 12pm-5pm

Browse for vintage furniture and homewares at Leadenhall Market

RNLI OPEN DAY: Teddington RNLI's Lifeboat Week concludes with an open day. Everyone's welcome to visit the station, climb aboard the lifeboat and tractor, watch volunteer crew lifesaving demonstrations, meet firefighters, play water-safety games and enjoy live ukulele and wind-band music. 1pm-5pm

HACKNEY WOMEN: Dalston's historic Rio Cinema hosts the premiere of Women from Hackney's History, a new film commissioned by the Hackney Society to celebrate local trailblazers. Spanning three centuries of stories, the production features pioneers such as Clara Ludski, the founder of the Rio itself, and was filmed across various borough locations. The screening is followed by a panel discussion with filmmaker Barney Snow and editor Sue Doe, plus a Q&A and book signing. 2pm

BROCKLEY MAX ALL-DAYER: Community arts festival Brockley Max celebrates its 25th anniversary with an outdoor garden show at the Fox and Firkin in Lewisham. Internationally acclaimed tuba visionary and former Sons of Kemet member Theon Cross headlines the event, bringing his unique "21st century sound-system" style to the stage. The eclectic lineup also features neo-soul from Hillarynx, electronic duo The Palindromes, and a closing indoor afterparty with DJs The DreZone and Mr Strutt. 2pm-10pm

JANE AUSTEN'S LONDON: Trace the novelist's connections to the capital on a guided tour through the streets of Mayfair and St James's. Led by a former Museum of London archaeologist, the tour visits the site of Austen's brother's bank, the location of her original publishers, and the historic shops of Old Bond Street that remain much as they were in the Regency era — as well as real-life settings that inspired the London-based chapters of Sense and Sensibility. 2.30pm-4.30pm

WAGE THEFT: Political economist Matthew Cole visits Conway Hall to discuss the "silent epidemic" of unpaid hours blighting the global workforce. The talk explores how wage theft is often a structural feature of modern capitalism rather than just the result of rogue employers. Cole, a lecturer at the University of Sussex, examines the history of these practices and offers strategies for workers to fight back. 3pm-4.30pm

Being Mr Wickham is back in the West End for one night only. Photo: James Findlay

FEARLESSLY TAYLOR: Ashleigh Stevens brings her international tribute to the "Eras" of Taylor Swift to the Millfield Theatre in Edmonton. Accompanied by a live band and professional dancers, Fearlessly Taylor spans a large part of the singer's entire discography from her self-titled debut through to the record-breaking Midnights. The full-scale production features faithful recreations of iconic tour highlights and a selection of surprise songs for dedicated Swifties. 4pm

IMMIGRANT COMEDY: International stand-ups take to the stage at The Immigrant Comedy Show for an evening of English-language performance at the Camden Comedy Club. The line-up features foreign comedians sharing their perspectives and complaints about British life, flipping the usual narrative for a night of sharp, cross-cultural storytelling. 7pm

LARA ZIFF: London-based artist Lara Ziff makes her headline debut at Next Door Records in Shepherd's Bush. Her sound is a sophisticated blend of classic soul, R&B and jazz, anchored by vulnerable and honest storytelling. This intimate performance marks the start of a new creative era for the singer, whose expressive vocals draw inspiration from the likes of Amy Winehouse and Alicia Keys. 7pm

COUNTERPOINT OF CHAOS: Counterpoint of Chaos is a solo dance‑theatre work about a woman's evolving relationship with artificial intelligence, presented at His Majesty's Theatre. The piece shifts between organic movement and machine‑like precision to examine authorship, agency and identity. 7pm

Counterpoint of Chaos comes to His Majesty's Theatre

FLEETWOOD MAC: A sensational cast of West End singers and a 13-piece live band gather at the London Palladium for a one-night-only gala performance celebrating 50 years of the band's self-titled album and the hit single Rhiannon. Expect hundreds of flickering candles and a guest appearance by Eurovision stars Remember Monday. 7.30pm

INCEPTION: Christopher Nolan's 2010 thriller Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a thief who uses dream-sharing technology to steal — and implant — ideas. We'll be honest, we've watched it several times and we're still not sure we follow all the complex layers, but if that sounds like your bag, it's screened at Rooftop Cinema Club Stratford tonight. 7.30pm

BEING MR WICKHAM: Adrian Lukis reprises his BBC role as George Wickham in a one‑man play that revisits the roguish Pride & Prejudice character on the eve of his 60th birthday. The one-off, 70‑minute performance at the Garrick Theatre offers Wickham's take on events involving Darcy, Lizzie and Waterloo. 7.30pm

HUMAN JUKEBOX: Throw your musical theatre song request at Daniel Benisty — aka the Human Jukebox — and he'll instantly perform it on the piano (with vocals). You'll find him at CellarDoor. 9pm-11.30pm

Too hot in London? Read on for ways to keep cool this summer. Photo: Shutterstock

We spend 50 weeks of the year moaning about the weather, then when we DO get a taste of summer, it's just too damn hot. Here's how and where to cool down when the heatwave hits London.

How to keep cool on the Tube

Mmm.... sweaty. Image: Shutterstock

You're joking right? The Tube is London's own furnace — rumour has it the devil himself once had a cosy little lair on the Central line, but found it a little toasty and relocated to the cooler, more bearable flames of Hell.

That said, there are ways you can rework your commute to keep a bit cooler: meet the air-conditioned Tube map, as compiled by Geoff Marshall. No surprise that the Central line is absent, but you'll notice that the beautifully chilled Elizabeth line runs a similar route through Central London.

Of course, we make no promises about your fellow commuters having the common decency to wear deodorant, but one step at a time, eh?

Rooftop bars and beer gardens in London

Sabine is one of London's best rooftop bars for a summer day (or evening)

If you're anything like us, as soon as thew sun's out, your thoughts turn to al fresco supping. You've got two main options; rooftop bars, and beer gardens.

Rooftop bars can be found hovering above the streets of London, from themed hipster hangouts in the east, to Peckham's famous negroni bar, Frank's. Browse our guide to the best rooftop bars in London (updated for 2026).

When the sun's out, make for your nearest beer garden. Image: Shutterstock

Otherwise, gather your crew together and make for your nearest beer garden. From riverside terraces to sprawling open spaces, and more compact gardens in the city centre, kick back with an icy pint — just watch out for wasps.

Want guaranteed sun? Launched in 2025, the SunSeekr app offers an interactive map showing you which parts of London — including those all-important beer gardens, rooftop bars and parks — will be in the sun or shade at any given time on a particular day. Great for making the most of the rays, but also handy when it's just too hot, and you're trying to dodge the direct sun.

Lidos and outdoor swimming in a London heatwave

Parliament Fields Lido is one of the capital's many open-air swimming options. Image: Shutterstock

Year-round swimmers must dread summer, when fair weather dippers take to London's many lidos and wild swimming ponds in a bid to cool down. Aside from the famous ones — think the ponds on Hampstead Heath, Brockwell Lido and London Fields — there are plenty of lesser-swum outdoor pools. Finchley Lido, anyone?

Excellent news for outdoor swimmers: the 50m lido Sea Lanes Canary Wharf opens in June 2026, offering yet another place for al fresco dips in London.

Conversely, London's year-round, indoor pools tend to empty out a bit when a heatwave hits, so you might get more swimming space at one of these.

Willing to travel a bit? Combine swimming with a day trip at one of these outdoor pools and lidos near London.

Summer beaches in London

Viking Bay in Broadstairs is accessible from London. Image: Shutterstock

No need to hop on the train to get to the beach — although Kent, Essex and Sussex all have excellent options. London has its own beaches, which pop-up every summer to offer city dwellers the feel of sand between the toes... and in their hair, and up their nose... Anyway, if you're up for finding sand in your crevices until October, here are the details of this year's summer beaches in London.

London water fountains you can play in: Summer 2026

That looks incredibly tempting right now. Image: Shutterstock

Move out the way, kids — we're coming in. In summer, London's awash with water fountains that you're allowed to play in. Splash, paddle and whoop to your heart's content — just remember, you've got to go back to the office in that soaking shirt and tie.

Take to the ice

Ice skating's not just for Christmas — London has several year-round ice rinks, situated in dark, cool buildings. The most central rink is located at Queensway, and has bowling, arcade games and a restaurant and bar. In fact, it's located underground — ideal if you're swerving the sun's rays entirely.

Things to do outdoors in London: Summer 2026

Rooftop Cinema Club is a staple of London's outdoor cinema scene

If you're keen to make the most of summer in London, there are plenty of things to do outdoors — just make sure you follow safety advice, wear sunscreen, drink plenty of water and stick to the shade on the hottest days.

On a summer evening, few things are more delightful than watching a good film at an outdoor cinema. London's summer 2026 options take places on rooftops, in parks and gardens, and even in the middle of the Barbican estate. Most have food and drink options available on site. Just bear in mind that no matter how scorching the day has been, things can get chilly when the sun sets, so take an extra layer along with you.

Beyond cinema, there's plenty of other outdoor culture to enjoy in London, from live music to outdoor theatre to open-air art. Check out our guide to summer 2026's music festivals while you're there.

Alternatively, we've always found boating to be a cooling activity (providing you're not doing too much of the rowing or pedalling yourself that is). Here's our guide to boating lakes in London.

Works by Kawada Kikuji feature in Japan House exhibition Kyotographie. © Kikuji Kawada Courtesy PGI

LONDON CLOWN FESTIVAL: Forget clowns in a Mini. How many can you fit into Soho Theatre or Jacksons Lane? They're the two venues for the London Clown Festival, showing that there's far more to the art than a red nose and a squirting flower. Alternative comedian and kindly clown Mikey Bligh-Smith, musical duo Dan Lees and Tom Penn, and comedian Elf Lyons are among the headliners. 30 May-13 June 2026

LGBTQ+ FUNDRAISER: For one night only at the Lyric Theatre, West End performers including Alice Fearn, Danielle Steers, Kitty Scott‑Claus and the London Gay Men's Chorus will sing roles they wouldn’t usually be cast in. The evening is an LGBTQ+ IVF fundraiser, with money raised going towards self‑funded IVF. 1 June 2026

LONDON FESTIVAL OF ARCHITECTURE: A celebration of architecture and 'city-making', the London Festival of Architecture programme is packed full of more than 400 events throughout the month, from public installations to talks, tours, debates and performances — including some family-friendly events. 1-30 June 2026

UCL SUMMER FESTIVAL: Workshops, panels, markets, fitness tasters and a world-record attempt are part of the UCL200 Summer Festival, a week-long bicentenary festival run by Students' Union. Ticketed headline evening events include the Great Debate, a student film festival and the UCL Proms. 2-6 June 2026

360 ALLSTARS: A high‑energy urban circus featuring an international cast of World Champion and World Record holding artists, 360 ALLSTARS barrels its way into the Peacock Theatre. Expect BMX tricks, basketball trickery, acrobatics, beatboxing and a live drumming soundtrack, accompanied by large video projections. 2-6 June 2026

Lively show 360 ALLSTARS comes to Holborn

JAZZ FESTIVAL: National and international musicians get into their groove for the fifth annual Battersea Jazz Festival, happening in venues neighbourhood-wide. From renowned artists (think Scott Hamilton, Dave O'Higgins and Gabrielle Stravelli) to young award-winning talent (the Emily Masser-Alex Clarke Quintet and Deschanel Gordon Trio), this festival has it all. Things kick of with a 'jazz ballet' take on Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. 3-13 June (sponsor)

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE: So It Goes Theatre presents Eric Simonson's stage adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, following Billy Pilgrim, a soldier who becomes "unstuck in time" after he is abducted by aliens. See it at Southwark Playhouse Borough. 3 June-4 July 2026

SHAKESPEARE IN THE SQUARES: Every summer, a single Shakespeare play is performed in open-air gardens and squares across the capital. For 2026. Shakespeare in the Squares tackles Love's Labour's Lost, popping up in venues including Kensington Gardens Square and Camden Square. 3 June-12 July 2026

KYOTOGRAPHIE: Japan House London stages Kyotographie, a joint exhibition of work by two exciting Japanese photographers, Kawada Kikuji and Iwane Ai. Works include Kawada's Chizu (The Map), selections from The Last Cosmology, and Iwane's Kipuka and A New River series. The show, organised with Kyotographie International Photography Festival is the gallery's first major photography exhibition. FREE, 3 June-18 October 2026

MAKE A MESS: Anna, newly bereaved and estranged from her mother, immerses herself in Nigella Lawson's How To Eat and summons an imagined Nigella as a guide. Theatre show How To Make A Mess explores grief and comfort through recipes and memory, and takes place Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate. 4-28 June 2026

MARILYN MONROE: Portraits and photographs of Marilyn Monroe by renowned artists and photographers go on display at the National Portrait Gallery to mark what would be the star's 100th birthday, along with personal belongings such as books, scripts and clothes. 4 June-6 September 2026

Celebrate the Women's Prize 2026. Image: Twiggles © Women's Prize Trust

GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS: 1992 dark comedy film Glengarry Glen Ross comes to the stage at the Old Vic, in a new adaptation, and with an all-female cast. 4 June-18 September 2026

BRANDING BRITAIN: The Museum of Brands' new exhibition Branding Britain explores how Britain’s identity has been built and exported. It pairs data visualisation from the Ipsos and JKR 'Be Distinctive Britain' report with objects from household names including Yorkshire Tea, Marmite and Burberry, also highlighting design figures such as Vivienne Westwood and Paul Smith, and cultural moments from the 1966 World Cup to London 2012. 4 June-October 2026

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A £10 orchestral concert inspired by nighttime in New York

This month, whisk yourself away to the city that never sleeps, with the help of Chromatica Orchestra and BBC Young Musician of the Year-winner Ryan Wang.

On 17 June at Battersea Arts Centre, they're treating Londoners to an evocative programme that encapsulates New York after dark, from its hushed backstreets to the glitz and glamour of its nightlife.

Your evening begins with Aaron Copland's melancholic Quiet City. Originally written for an NYC-set play, this atmospheric nocturne is laden with urban loneliness and abandoned dreams. After that, there's a big vibe shift, in the form of George Gershwin's exuberant Rhapsody in Blue. Even if you're not well-acquainted with jazz/classical, chances are you'll recognise this masterpiece which celebrates New York's bustling Jazz Age nightlife with brio (the opening clarinet glissando alone is enough to awaken your inner flapper).

The concert also features Charles Ives' daring, dreamlike Central Park in the Dark, and Leonard Bernstein's vibrant ballet score, Fancy Free. The whole thing is brought to life by Chromatica Orchestra's incredible early-career professional musicians plus pianist Wang, the latest in a series of talented soloists that the collective has teamed up with to create an extraordinary musical experience.

New York, New York takes place on Wednesday 17 June, 7.30pm at Battersea Arts Centre. Tickets usually start at £15, with a pay-what-you-can pricing structure, but our readers can get them for just £10 with the code LONDONIST.

CENTRE FOR ILLUSTRATION: After a couple of delays, the Quentin Blake Centre For Illustration finally opens its doors in a former waterworks building in Clerkenwell. The world's largest space dedicated to illustration opens with a debut trio of exhibitions, including one showing off Blake's own work. From 5 June 2026

COMEDY FESTIVAL: A new summer comedy weekend in a big top, the Battersea Park Comedy Festival attracts headliners including Sara Pascoe, Joe Lycett, Simon Brodkin, Lucy Beaumont and Simon Amstell plus curated nights from Wise Fools and family shows such as Comedy Club 4 Kids. The festival garden offers street food, beers and live music before, during and after shows. 5-7 June 2026

JAIPUR LIT FEST: Authors Namita Gokhale and Sheena Kalayil, and playwright Samantha Ellis are among the speakers on the line-up for the London Jaipur Literature Festival at the British Library, a satellite event of the huge Jaipur Literature Festival which takes place in India each January. 5-7 June 2026

Live at Chelsea brings big acts to the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

ZOO NIGHTS: London Zoo's late-night openings are back, for adults only on Fridays in June and July. Zoo Nights is a rare chance to see the animals at dusk, and enjoy tours, acoustic music, street food and live performances. London Zoo also unveils a special blue plaque trail this summer, marking ZSL's 200th anniversary. 5 June-24 July 2026

PROJECT A BLACK PLANET: Barbican Centre launches both an exhibition and a season of events called Project a Black Planet, celebrating the art and culture of Panafrica. Over 300 works — from paintings and installations to posters, journals and film — explore the impact of Pan-Africanism on artistic and cultural production from the 1920s to the present, alongside live music, film screenings and talks. 5 June-6 September 2026 (exhibition opens 11 June)

GAME MUSIC FESTIVAL: Hear three decades of music from video game series Diablo, performed by an orchestra and choir at the Royal Festival Hall. The concert features themes from across the series, and special guests Ted Reedy (lead composer) and Derek Duke (music director) are present. It's the opening event for the Games Music Festival 2026. 6 June 2026

OPEN GARDENS WEEKEND: London Open Gardens Weekend is a chance to explore the city's green spaces via open days, tours and talks. They range from allotments to small private gardens — to the larger gardens in the likes of Eaton Square, usually only accessible to local residents with a key. 6-7 June 2026

LONDON MAP FAIR: The Royal Geographical Society hosts around 40 national and international antiquarian map dealers selling original maps from the 15th to the 20th century, with prices starting from about £10 (and going much higher, if you happen to have deep pockets...). The London Map Fair also features lectures including Rose Mitchell on historic mapmakers and talks by Ashley Baynton-Williams on starting a map collection. 6-7 June 2026

Harry Styles curates this year's Meltdown. Photo: Laura Coulson

BARNET MEDIEVAL FESTIVAL: See re-enactments of the 1471 Battle of Barnet, as well as displays by the gunners, archers and mounted knights, at this year's Barnet Medieval Festival. There's also a medieval-style market, craft displays and an art exhibition, all taking place at Lewis of London ice cream farm, just north of Barnet. 6-7 June 2026

SERPENTINE PAVILION 2026: 'a serpentine' (their lower case, not ours) is the apt name and design of this year's free Serpentine Pavilion, erected in the grounds of the Serpentine South gallery in June. Mock-ups show the interior will provide an irregular-shaped courtyard with spaces for sitting, and a brise soleil roof propped with thin brick columns. FREE, 6 June-25 October 2026

HEAVY HORSE SHOW: Capel Manor Gardens in Enfield hosts the Herts Heavy Horse Show and Country Show. See heavy horse breeds in action, taking part in various events in the show ring. There's also a dog show, farrier demonstrations, a mini zoo and children's rides. A great excuse to explore the venue's 30-acre gardens. 7 June 2026

MITCHAM CARNIVAL: After a successful return last year, a parade takes place as part of Mitcham Carnival again this year. The mile-long route starts in the town centre and finishes at Three Kings Piece, where you'll find live performances, wrestling demos and funfair rides. FREE, 7 June 2026

MAKING IT FESTIVAL: Making It Festival 2026 at Guildhall School brings together student work from music, drama, production and design across the school's venues. The programme features final-year productions, ensemble concerts, new writing, installations and workshops presented in spaces such as Silk Street and Milton Court. Some (though not all) events are free. 8-26 June 2026

Have a tipple or two at The Wine Circuit. Image: Charlie Round-Turner

LONDON CONCOURS: Luxury cars meet garden party vibes at the London Concours, taking place at the Honourable Artillery Company in the City. The classic car show brings together dozens of the world's most beautiful motors, with special categories for Dream Cars, Hypercars and American Muscle Cars. 9-11 June 2026

WOMEN'S PRIZE LIVE: Enjoy a day festival of author talks, shortlist readings and workshops in Bedford Square Gardens to celebrate literary award The Women's Prize 2026. Authors including Candice Carty-Williams, Thangam Debbonaire, Julia Gillard, Vick Hope, Anita Rani and Kathryn Stockett take part, with readings of the 2026 Women's Prize shortlists, a pop‑up bookshop and signing station, plus workshops and other events throughout the day. 10 June 2026

LIVE AT CHELSEA: The legends keep coming at the newcomer Live At Chelsea festival, which pitches up in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea: over the course of five nights, acts include Holly Johnson, The Proclaimers, The Beach Boys (Mike Love's iteration at least), and Sparks. To paraphrase the latter, this festival is big enough for all of them. 10-14 June 2026

HAMPTON COURT PALACE FESTIVAL: Want a taste of pop royalty? Hampton Court Palace Festival's two-week shindig is back this June (it's individual shows rather than a festival), ready to welcome you with a flute of champagne and space for a picnic, before performances from Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Nile Rodgers & Chic, and David Gray, among others. 10-19 June 2026

RETURN OF THE GODZ: Return of The GODZ brings the troupe's mix of comedy, circus and acrobatics to the Peacock Theatre, following mythic figures such as Cupid and Hercules as the show stages a hedonistic Mount Olympus party. Prepare to witness gravity-defying stunts, feats of strength and comic twists in the adults-only show. 10-20 June 2026

Adrian Lester stars in Cyrano de Bergerac

KINGSTON BEER FESTIVAL: Over 100 cask and craft beers, ciders and perries are promised at the Kingston Beer Festival, with more details on what they are to come soon. 11-13 June 2026

HARRY STYLES' MELTDOWN: Harry Styles is the curator of this year's Meltdown at Southbank Centre, ahead of his run of shows at Wembley Stadium. Among the acts he's chosen to perform are Warpaint, Kamasi Washington and Erika de Casier. 11-21 June 2026. Styles also begins his run of shows at Wembley Stadium on 12 June.

2026 WORLD CUP: The USA, Canada and Mexico are the hosts for the 2026 World Cup. If you're watching from this side of the Atlantic, book yourself a spot at these London pubs and bars which are showing World Cup games. 11 June-19 July 2026

PRIDE: The National Theatre's headline Summer 2026 production is Pride, set during the miners's strike of 1984, when Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) quickly finds itself entwined with a small pit village in South Wales. 11 June-12 September 2026

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING: The curtain lifts on a new production of Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe. The romantic comedy follows Beatrice, Benedick and a web of gossip and mistaken reputations, set in a modern world of style, status and late-night parties. From 11 June 2026

BURGER FEST: It's all about the patties down at Richmond Athletics Ground, where Burger Fest brings together 20 top traders from all over the UK to battle it out to be crowned the winner. Expect full-size burgers, mini sliders, as well as eating competitions and other entertainment. 12-14 June 2026

Everyone's welcome at the Marylebone Summer Festival

WINE CIRCUIT: Over 20 wine stalls, an artisan market, street food trucks and a packed programme of ticketed tastings, pairings and evening events return to Battersea Power Station for vino festival The Wine Circuit. Take part in Strictly Bangers quiz, or Drag Wine Tasting with Beth Brickenden and Vanity Von Glow. 12-14 June 2026

T20 CRICKET: The ICC Women's T20 World Cup sees cricket teams from countries including Australia, Pakistan, South Africa, Scotland and the Netherlands go head-to-head. England hosts this year, with matches at grounds all over the country, including Lord's and The Oval here in London. 12 June-5 July 2026

HEPWORTH IN COLOUR: Barbara Hepworth's experiments with colour across sculpture and drawing are brought together in a research-led exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery. Around 20 sculptures and 30 drawings — including early painted wood and stone carvings from the 1940s and later works from the 1950s and 1960s — are on show. 12 June-6 September 2026

VINTAGE BUS RIDES: London Bus Museum runs a heritage day, putting vintage buses from the 1930s-90s into service on TfL routes 213 (Kingston-Sutton) and 293 (North Cheam-Epsom). Board at any participating stop on the timetable between 10am and 5pm for a free ride — some services even have a conductor handing out facsimile tickets. FREE, 13 June 2026

FOLK FESTIVAL: Magpie's Nest Festival is a one-day folk and roots festival at Cody Dock with main-stage and intimate acoustic performances from Kate Griffin & Matchume Zango, Ruth Lyon, Sarah Jane Scouten, Caraway, Craven, Old Spot, Âellin, Siwan Catrin, Pearl Fish, plus spoken-word from Naomi Wood and Lalah-Simone Springer. Sounds like a very chilled afternoon/evening. 13 June 2026

Sandra Oh stars in The Misanthrope

BMW CLASSICS: The London Symphony Orchestra gives a free outdoor concert in Trafalgar Square, performing works by Holst, Drewett and Elgar. If the sun's shining on the day it's likely to be popular, so arrive in plenty of time to get a space. FREE, 13 June 2026

FOOD SEASON WEEKENDER: The British Library opens its Food Season with two days of talks and panels featuring foodies including Ruthie Rogers and Simon Russell Beale, sessions on the Silk Roads, seaweed, the legacy of Edna Lewis, food photography with Vittles and a Firepower panel on women and BBQ (including former Londonist food editor Helen Graves). 13-14 June 2026

WANDSWORTH PRISON MUSEUM: A rare chance to visit the small but fascinating Wandsworth Prison Museum, as it holds an open weekend. View more than 470 objects charting the prison's history, with displays relating to Oscar Wilde, Jack the Ripper, John Haigh, the Kray twins, William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw) and Ronnie Biggs. 13-14 June 2026

ADRIAN LESTER: Renowned actor Adrian Lester stars as the title character in a West End transfer of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac at the Noël Coward Theatre, following a sold-out run with the Royal Shakespeare Company. A soldier who believes himself too ugly to be loved, but helps a handsome soldier win the heart of Roxane, who he himself also loves. 13 June-5 September 2026

HOT MESS: Multi award‑winning climate change musical Hot Mess transfers from the Edinburgh Festival to The Other Palace for a limited summer season, imagining a fraught romance between Earth and Humanity. 13 June-6 September 2026

Catch Les Misérables in Concert. Image: Danny Kaan

WORLD NAKED BIKE RIDE 2026: If you're prudish, you may wish to avert your eyes as the World Naked Bike Ride pedals into town. Cyclists let it all hang out as they ride in a group on one of several pre-agreed routes, all converging near Wellington Arch. Don't forget your suncream. Note: in 2026 it takes place on a Sunday instead of a Saturday for the first time. 14 June 2026

MARYLEBONE SUMMER FESTIVAL: A one-day street festival along Marylebone High Street, Marylebone Summer Festival offers live music on the main stage, dog show Bark in the Park, a wellness zone, and a children's area with rides and activities. The event raises funds for Young Westminster Foundation. 14 June 2026

BRIDGES OF LONDON WALK: Sign up to walk six miles across eight London bridges in aid of charity Lymphoma Action. Join the route in person and walk from Vauxhall Bridge to Tower Bridge, or sign up to walk a similar distance remotely, in your own local area. 14 June 2026

MUSIC IN CHURCHES: 15 concerts of classical, choral, chamber and jazz music take place at churches around the Square Mile, including  St Giles Cripplegate and St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate. This year's Summer Music in City Churches has a theme of Around The World, and some of the concerts take place at lunchtime, so worth bookmarking if you work in the area. 16-26 June 2026

SANDRA OH: Sandra Oh stars as Alice in Martin Crimp's reworking of Molière’s The Misanthrope at the National Theatre. Successful author Alice faces intense criticism and backlash as she grows bolder in speaking up for the causes she believes in. 16 June-1 August 2026

Soapbox racing comes to Ally Pally. Image: Red Bull Content Pool

ROYAL ACADEMY SUMMER EXHIBITION: A highlight of the London art calendar, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition brings together established and rising artists to display their work. Prints, painting, film, photography, architectural works and sculpture all jostle for attention. Full 2026 details TBC. 16 June-23 August 2026

TASTE OF LONDON: Foodies: head to Regent's Park for Taste of London, the huge culinary festival which brings dozens of London's best-known restaurants together to feed hungry visitors. It's also a chance to discover up-and-coming London chefs and food businesses, take part in tastings and watch masterclasses. 17-21 June 2026

CAPITAL CRIME: Love a good crime thriller book? Head to the Leonardo Royal St Paul's for Capital Crime, a lit festival celebrating the genre. Authors Elly Griffiths, Claire Douglas Lisa Jewell and Sabine Durrant are some of 80+ names scheduled to take part in 30 events across three days. 18-20 June 2026

IDEAS FESTIVAL: The British Academy's three‑day Ideas Festival brings researchers, fellows and guest speakers together for panels, debates and interactive exhibits exploring history, politics, culture and technology. FREE, 18-20 June 2026

LES MISERABLES CONCERT: A concert version of Cameron Mackintosh's Les Misérables comes to the Royal Albert Hall for just six performances. The impressive cast includes features Alfie Boe, Samantha Barks, Shan Ako and Matt Lucas, and the Royal Albert Hall is offering a Parisian-inspired afternoon tea throughout the month too. 18-21 June 2026

West End Live is a HUGELY popular free event. Photo: Danny Kaan

GRINDR THE OPERA: Grindr: The Opera! is a musical parody that turns the Grindr app into an operatic satire, following four men — Devon, Tom, Jack and Don — as they navigate modern gay dating. See it at the Union Theatre. 18 June-19 July 2026

SEA LANES CANARY WHARF: New lido Sea Lanes Canary Wharf opens, offering year-round open water swimming in a 50m-long natural water pool, floating in Eden Dock alongside saunas and changing rooms. From 19 June 2026

SOAPBOX RACE: Teams from around Britain bring homemade, non-motorised soapbox cars to race down the famous Alexandra Palace hill — judged on speed, creativity and performance. You're too late to register to take part, but tickets to watch the mayhem are still available. 20 June 2026

START OF THE LINE: New one-day music, arts and culture festival Start Of The Line takes place at Morden Park. Soul II Soul headline the main stage, with support from The Hoosiers and Billy Nomates, and various other performances and family-friendly activities throughout the day. 20 June 2026

WATERLOO DAY: The Battle of Waterloo and its aftermath are the subject of Waterloo Day at Apsley House, the former home of the Duke of Wellington. Historians Dr Graeme Callister and Michael Rayner guide visitors through the dramatic events of the battle, with other talks and reenactments going on throughout the day. 20 June 2026

OKINAWA DAY: London's annual Okinawa Day celebrates the music, dances and food from the islands of the Ryukyu archipelago in southern Japan. Head to the Blue Market in Bermondsey for Ryukyu Classical Music, sanshin folk-song performances, traditional Eisa dance and Ryukyu karate demonstrations. FREE, 20 June 2026

Not pictured: the flare incident. © Rah Petherbridge

WEST END LIVE: For one weekend each June, stars from London's current West End musicals perform FOR FREE on a pop-up stage in Trafalgar Square. West End Live is an incredibly popular event, so you'll need to arrive very early to be in with a chance of getting in. FREE, 20-21 June 2026

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: A new outdoor production of Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream opens at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, telling the enchanting story of a bitter dispute in the fairy kingdom, and four fleeing lovers who find themselves in an enchanted forest. 20 June-18 July 2026

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR: Eurovision star Sam Ryder assumes the role of Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Palladium. Tyrone Huntley, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Simon Russell Beale, Richard Armitage, Boy George, Layton Williams and Julian Clary are also among the cast. 20 June-5 September 2026

FATHER'S DAY: Consider this your reminder to pick up a card, and maybe a box of chocolates or a new book, for your dad on Father's Day. 21 June 2026

FOOTBALL PLAY: The 'Flarewell' tour of football play Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Ar*e for England comes to the Garrick Theatre for one night only, your last chance to see it in London. The show looks at the darker side of football culture, and was inspired by the infamous picture of the England fan who wedged a lit flare in his buttocks before the Euro 2020 final. 21 June 2026

Admire works by Japanese female photographers. Image: KATAYAMA Mari bystander #014, 2016 Courtesy the artist and Aperture

JAPANESE FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS: In addition to the Kyotographie exhibition at Japan House (above), The Photographers' Gallery's summer exhibition displays the work of 27 Japanese women photographers, from the 1950s to the present. More than 200 photographs, videos, installations and rare photobooks are on show, in a bid to rebalance a history too often told through a single, male-dominated lens. 24 June-27 September 2026

PUBS PUB QUIZ: Think you know your London pubs/drinks? Put your booze nous to the test at this pubs pub quiz, hosted at the George Inn in Borough by Londonist's Will Noble, who recently published a Historical Pubs of London Map. This is the map's official launch, and quiz tickets include a copy. 25 June

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Aaron Sorkin’s stage adaptation of Harper Lee's novel To Kill A Mockingbird returns to the West End at Wyndham's Theatre starring Richard Coyle as Atticus Finch. 25 June-12 September 2026

FRIDA KAHLO: Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is the subject of a new exhibition at Tate Modern, featuring over 30 of her works to delve into how she became one of the most influential artists of all time, not to mention a cultural phenomenon. Some of Kahlo's garments, jewellery, photographs and memorabilia feature, along with 200 works by her contemporaries. 25 June 2026-3 January 2027

FUSE INTERNATIONAL: For nine days, performing arts festival FUSE International takes over Kingston, with a programme of music, theatre, dance, comedy, visual arts, spoken word, circus and more. Highlights include a Pride in Kingston weekend celebrating the local LGBTQIA+ community, and a Battle of the Bands highlighting local musical talent. 26 June-5 July 2026

SPITALFIELDS MUSIC FESTIVAL: The 50th anniversary edition of Spitalfields Music Festival presents contemporary music, opera, choral works, walking tours and community projects across London's East End. Highlights in the programme include soprano Carolyn Sampson, the New European Ensemble's Seasonal Quartet with writer Ali Smith, the Carice Singers, and concerts at venues ranging from neighbourhood spaces to the Tower of London. 26 June-8 July 2026

Several concerts are scheduled as part of Spitalfields Music Festival

HORNIMAN BIRTHDAY PARTY: Forest Hill's Horniman Museum celebrates its 125th birthday with a free (but ticketed) day of events. Watch local and young musicians and DJs across three stages, plus arts and crafts, Smallympics, object handling, a storytelling tent, tours and trails, and street food stalls — all with top-notch views of the London skyline. FREE, 27 June 2026

RUGBY DOUBLE HEADER: Rugby team Barbarians play Wales in a double-header matchday at Twickenham. One ticket covers both the men's (KO 2pm) and women's (KO 5pm) fixtures — each match runs for 80 minutes. 27 June 2026

CORDON BLEU FESTIVAL: Le Cordon Bleu's Summer Festival in Bloomsbury offers 18 hands-on culinary workshops, wine and beverage tastings, and eight guest-chef demonstrations. Workshops are led by Le Cordon Bleu Master Chefs and visiting chefs including Michael Kwan and Masaki Sugisaki, with tastings from brands such as the Peruvian Embassy Pisco Bar, Brindisa and Lauden Chocolate. 27 June 2026

BST HYDE PARK: Maroon 5, Mumford and Sons, Pitbull and Lewis Capaldi are among the headliners at this year's BST Hyde Park, commandeering a corner of Hyde Park for a fortnight. On non-gig days, the Open House programme takes place (unrelated to Open House London), with free entertainment spanning live music, film and sports screenings, and loads more. 27 June-12 July 2026

BUS MUSEUM FESTIVAL: Venture a smidge beyond the London border into Surrey for Summer Festival at the London Bus Museum. View a range of heritage vehicles, take tours of the local area in a 1950s/1960s RT or Routemaster bus, and shop for books, models, old uniforms, badges and memorabilia. 28 June 2026

BST Hyde Park is a staple of summer in London. Image: Tom Hancock

WIMBLEDON 2026: The biggest fortnight in tennis is back. If you can't make it to SW19 yourself, fear not — plenty of places around the capital show the action on big screens, often for free. Here's our guide to where to watch Wimbledon, which we'll update for 2026 when details are announced. Want to get closer to the action? Learn all you need to know about joining 'The Queue' for on-the-day tickets. 29 June-12 July 2026

SUMMER SCIENCE EXHIBITION: The Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition is suitable for all ages, and showcases the latest research from across the UK, through hands-on activities, talks and interactive exhibits. Topics this year include the mysteries of lightning, super computers, and the secrets of the universe. FREE, 30 June-5 July 2026

ROSES AND LAVENDER: Make time to smell the roses this month, as they bloom all over town. Visit one (or more) of these eight beautiful places to discover roses in bloom in London. If you're willing to travel a bit further afield for your outdoor fix, plan a trip to one of these pretty purple lavender fields near London — plus one within London itself.

MUSIC FESTIVALS: As summer heats up, so does the London music scene: peruse our guide to the best music festivals in London 2026 (some of which we've already highlighted above) and get booking.

OUTDOOR CINEMA: It wouldn't be summer in London without an onslaught of pop-up outdoor cinemas and rooftop film screenings. Some are open in June, and others make an appearance later in the summer. Here's the full guide to outdoor cinema in London.

OUTDOOR CULTURE: In addition to film screenings, theatre shows, live music — and even art — go al fresco for summer in London. Have a look at our guide to outdoor culture in London this summer.

London exhibitions and shows closing in June 2026

Last chance to see Flush at the Arcola Theatre

A few things are closing this month too. June 2026 is your last chance to see:

FLUSH: An ensemble comedy-drama, set entirely in a women's bathroom in a London club, where 16 women trade confessions over the course of a single night. See it at Arcola Theatre. Until 6 June 2026

SHERLOCK HOLMES: The Regent's Park Open Air Theatre's new adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. Set in London in 1890, the production follows Holmes and Watson as they pursue a deadly conspiracy. Until 6 June 2026

THE LAST MAN: A one-person musical about solitary survival, The Last Man at Southwark Playhouse Elephant follows a lone occupant of bunker B-103 after a devastating virus, mixing live rock music with video-diary elements and dark humour. Until 13 June 2026

ROMEO & JULIET: Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe star in Shakespeare's classic love story Romeo & Juliet at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Hey, if it's good enough for Taylor Swift... Until 20 June 2026

Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe star in Romeo & Juliet

KINDRED: Kindred at the Bethlem Museum of the Mind looks at how community and lived experience shape responses to mental distress, presenting works from the museum's collections and highlighting themes of memory, identity and social connection. FREE, until 20 June 2026

INTER ALIA: Last chance to see Rosamund Pike headlining Suzie Miller's legal play Inter Alia at Wyndham’s Theatre. Pike plays Judge Jessica Parks as her professional and personal life collide. Until 20 June 2026

SKATE 50: Celebrate 50 years of the Southbank Undercroft at exhibition Skate 50, showing documentary photographs and films of the space throughout its history, and its place in British skateboarding culture. Until 21 June 2026

Undercroft Skate Space, 1978 © Tim Leighton Boyce/Russ Howell Southbank. Image courtesy The Read and Destroy Archive

WOMEN IN PRINT: William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow presents Women in Print: 150 Years of Liberty Textiles, a survey of more than 100 works that traces the role of female designers at Liberty. Until 21 June 2026

WHODUNNIT UNREHEARSED: Park Theatre stages a Wild West murder‑mystery in which a different celebrity becomes the unrehearsed sheriff each night. Guest sheriffs so far this run have included Anne‑Marie Duff, Toby Jones, Katherine Parkinson and Simon Pegg. Until 27 June 2026

VANBRUGH: A major exhibition at Sir John Soane's Museum brings together drawings and objects including Vanbrugh's plans for Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, including never-before-exhibited material from the V&A. FREE, until 28 June 2026

MR DOODLE: The Heath Robinson Museum's current exhibition brings together single line drawings and large-scale works by artists including Mr Doodle, Damien Hirst, Glenn Brown, Jake Chapman, Frank Auerbach, Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. Until 28 June 2026

In desperate need of somewhere to cool down? Read our guide to how to survive a heatwave in London.

Jeppe Hein's Disappearing Rooms are a staple of hot days in London. Photo: Shutterstock

Indulge your inner kid by splashing around in one of these refreshing play fountains — ideal for cooling off in a London heatwave. Just remember to pack a towel and spare clothes. Need to fully immerse in water? Check out our pick of the best lidos and outdoor swimming pools in London, or if it's reaaallly hot, peruse our guide to surviving a heatwave in the capital.

Jeppe Hein's Appearing Rooms, Southbank Centre

Find the water maze outside Southbank Centre every summer. Image: Owen Billcliffe

First installed in 2006, and returning annually pretty much ever since, Jacob Hein's aquatic structure Appearing Rooms is the big daddy of London's play fountains. Jets send walls of water high into the air creating 'rooms', which disappear as quickly as they emerge. For kids, it's about getting as wet as you can, as often as possible — even if it's not 'fountain weather'.

Open 17 June-31 August 2026, Wednesday-Sunday. Free, no booking required.

Diana Memorial Fountain, Hyde Park

Ooh, lovely. Image: Shutterstock

Located in Hyde Park, the Diana Memorial Fountain is made of 545 pieces of Cornish granite, forming an oval 'stream' in the surrounding grass.

There are three bridges you can cross into the centre without getting your feet wet: but really, it's a great place for kids (and grown-up kids) to paddle. The two sides represent the two facets of Diana's life: happiness in the calmer pool; and turmoil in the choppy waters.

These days, Royal Parks ask visitors to sit on the edge and refresh their feet, rather than walk through the memorial. Note that a queuing system is in place on very busy days (usually hot days, when the fountain is most in demand).

Open all year (except in extremely cold or severe weather, for safety reasons). Opening times vary throughout the year, see website for details. Free, no booking required.

Granary Square fountains, King's Cross

Granary Square: where kids get wet before you can stop them. Photo: Londonist

Granary Square features 1,080 individually controlled and lit water jets. The result is a brilliant splash park for kids of all ages; the perfect way to cool off on a warm day, and one of the best things to do with kids near King's Cross station.

The fountains start off mellow first thing in the morning, becoming more boisterous as the day goes on (a bit like kids). After dark, the fountains' personalities change again, with the addition of colours to the seemingly random squirt patterns.

Open in warm weather. Free, no booking required.

More London/London Bridge City fountains

Cool off right by the river. Image: Shutterstock

There was outcry back in 2018 when one of London's most infamous water features, The Rill, was filled in. The gullies of water ran through the More London/London Bridge City estate, and though they've gone, the more kid-friendly fountains down by the river — an installation officially known as 'The Riverside' — are still in situ. 200 water jets form the play fountains, which spring up at surprising intervals — to the surprise of one mini Londonist team member recently.

The result is an odd mash-up of suits on mobile phones marching between meetings, and south London parents hollering at soggy, squealing kids. It's always fun to keep an eye out for any newbies/tourists caught out by the deceptive 'water benches' nearby too. Pick your picnic spot carefully.

Open all year. Free, no booking required.

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park fountains, Stratford

Cool off in the Olympic Park. Image: Shutterstock

Head to the south of the Olympic Park to find the Waterworks Fountains outside the ArcelorMittal Orbit and near the London Stadium. 195 individually controlled jets form walls of water, and a maze to splash through and cool off.

In the north of the Olympic Park, the Tumbling Bay playground has rock pool-style bodies of water, along with a hand pump where children can pump water into a series of shallow pools and tributaries. No fountains, but still plenty of water to keep them happy on a warm day.

Open March-October, 10am-5pm except major event days such as West Ham United home matches. Free, no booking required.

John Madejski Garden fountains, V&A Museum

© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

At the inner courtyard at the V&A in South Ken, you'll find a calming elliptical pool dotted with the occasional fountain water jets, and shallow steps ideal for plonking yourself down on.

It's a fantastic space to sit and enjoy some tranquility after the bustle of the museum — on hot days, it makes for a sophisticated, secluded paddling pool, ideal for refreshing your feet. Note that running, splashing, swimming, and sitting in the water are not permitted, and you must remain fully clothed at all times.

Free, no booking required.

Edmond J Safra Fountain Court, Somerset House

When the Somerset House courtyard isn't hosting events, it's home to a set of fountains. Image: Shutterstock

The 55 jets that make up the playful Edmond J Safra Fountain Court inside Somerset House aren't always available to splash around in, as the courtyard is often used for special events such as film screenings and comedy festivals in summer.

Check out the Somerset House website before you visit to avoid disappointment.

Free entry, no booking required.

Russell Square Gardens fountain

Small, but worth knowing about on a warm day. Image: Shutterstock

The pretty garden in Bloomsbury's Russell Square gained a fountain when it was re-landscaped in 2002. It gushes from the centre of the square: small, yes, but still offering a perfect paddling opportunity for kids and kidults alike.

Free, no booking required.

Leicester Square Fountains

Image: Shutterstock

Following a couple of spruce-ups (in 2012 and 2014), Leicester Square now boasts a lovely play fountain surrounding the statue of Shakespeare in the centre. Cool off while watching celebs get sweaty in their tuxes at film premieres across the road. The area gets very busy during summer tourist season, so not somewhere to head if you're after cooling respite from the crowds.

Free, no booking required.

Elephant Springs, Elephant and Castle

Image: Charles Emerson

Part of the new(ish) Elephant Park development, Elephant Springs is crafted from igneous porphyry stone in an organic-looking way, featuring miniature waterfalls, mounds, ravines and babbling streams. Like all the best play fountains, it encourages interaction: kids can use hand-operated pumps, and block certain channels, diverting the water flow. Adults who prefer to stay dry can watch from the comfort of hammocks dotted around the edge of the fountains.

Free, no booking required.

Play fountains at Duke of York Square, Chelsea

We'd never noticed the play fountains sunk into the ground at Duke of York Square, until we saw a toddler playing in them during a particularly warm edition of Chelsea in Bloom. Head to the entrance of Saatchi Gallery and follow the wall a few metres along to the right. Happily, there's a bench right in front of it for parents to watch while children have their fun.

Free, no booking required.

Fountains at Arena Square, Wembley Park

Union Square has a children's paddling pool. Photo: Wembley Park

The triangle of land out the front of Wembley Arena (used for queuing and security on event days), Arena Square has its own set of fountains which are switched on for warmer days — look for the smaller triangle in the centre of the area. A few minutes' walk away, on the other side of Wembley Stadium, the newer Union Park has a children's paddling pool, as well as ponds with their own fountains (strictly no swimming in those, but we've got fairly drenched just walking past them on a warm day when the wind's been blowing the right/wrong way).

Free, no booking required.

Aldgate Square play fountains

Aldgate Square's hooped spurts are quite unusual. Image: Matt Brown

Not the largest fountains in our list, but Aldgate Square's hooped spurts are quite unusual. The water flow of each arch is so smooth, it appears to be static — a phenomenon known as laminal flow. The larger arcs are just about big enough for a mischievous nine-year-old to crawl through, though the water cuts off unpredictably meaning that a soaking is possible. At night, the fountains glow like fibre optics. Hard to remember now that this pleasant plaza was once a roaring gyratory.

Free, no booking required.

Wall Fountain, St Paul's Cathedral

Image: Matt Brown

One of the oldest fountains on the list, this easily missed feature near St Paul's was created in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations. While paddling in the knee-deep pool is not actively encouraged, it's not prohibited either, a fuzzy state that means the water is usually not so crowded as other pools. The adjacent lawn, meanwhile, is a tempting place for sunbathing, all backdropped by the dome of St Paul's.

Free, no booking required.

Fellowship Square fountains, Walthamstow

With added lighting and music, this is a Disneyfied experience. Image: Matt From London

Throughout the summer months, you can dance among choreographed jets of water shooting up through Fellowship Square, and backdropped by the art deco Walthamstow Town Hall. With added lighting and music, this is verges on a Disneyfied experience — and the programme of gentle, and more fulsome, jets means that kids of all ages can happily frolic amongst them. On from around 9am-9pm, the 12-hour water show is bookended by a tranquil 'reflection pool'. A handy chalk board shows the schedule in full.

Free, no booking required.

The Mathematics Gallery at the Science Museum. Image: Matt Brown

London has always been a hub of research, but it's also one of the best places in the world to learn about science and its history.

No city on Earth can quite match London's scientific chops. Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Rosalind Franklin, Michael Faraday, Alexander Fleming, Edward Jenner... all worked or lived in the capital. Our big institutions such as Imperial College, UCL and King's, and more recently the Francis Crick Institute, have made key contributions to scientific progress.

That heritage is celebrated across the city in numerous museums, plaques and statues. But London is also well blessed with venues that put on talks about the current cutting edge.

Below, we've listed out the most important venues with a scientific, medical or engineering flavour.

Charlie D, in the Natural History Museum. Image: Matt Brown

Museums and galleries

Science Museum: Scarcely needs an introduction. A temple of science, ranging from steam power to space flight. The museum also puts on regular talks and events, including a monthly Lates evening for adults. Kids, meanwhile, can spend an entire day exploring the Wonderlab gallery. South Kensington, FREE (Wonderlab £££)

Natural History Museum: The other big hitter in South Ken, the NHM naturally focuses on the natural world. The dinosaur galleries are permanently packed, but head to the upper floors for quieter spaces on mineralogy, mammals and more. The annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year show remains super-popular. The building's flamboyant architecture is worth the trip alone. South Kensington, FREE

Wellcome Collection: A museum and library with a health and medicine slant. The main gallery puts on themed, temporary exhibitions that combine scientific heritage with art and cultural objects. Upstairs lie permanent galleries and the wonderful library. Euston Road, FREE

NOTE: The Royal Observatory is currently closed for refurbishment. In the meantime, the Astronomers Take Over gallery is open down the hill at the National Maritime Museum, featuring a planetarium experience.
Royal Observatory: The home of time and space features multiple galleries examining our place in the cosmos, and the stories of those who helped unravel the mysteries of the universe. Book into the Peter Harrison Planetarium for a cosmic show, and straddle the Prime Meridian. Greenwich, £££

Horniman Museum: A multi-themed museum, perhaps most famous for its natural history collection, which includes the renowned 'over-stuffed walrus'. Visitors can also enjoy an aquarium, galleries on anthropology and musical instruments, and delightful gardens. Forest Hill, mostly FREE

Science Gallery London: Located in an annexe of Guy's Hospital, the gallery showcases art with a scientific, medical or technological slant, usually grouped as part of a themed exhibition. Closing late 2026. London Bridge, FREE

Francis Crick Institute: The towering research institute maintains a small gallery with temporary exhibition on a given theme. Exhibitions usually delve more deeply into current research than other venues, and it's a chance to see where medical science is leading before it hits the headlines. (Also a productive place to hang out if your train is delayed.) St Pancras, FREE

Kirkaldy's Testing Works: A recent rebranding from the slightly puzzling 'Kirkaldy Testing Museum'  ("testing what, exactly") makes it more clear that this is a place where industrial materials were tested. Inside, you can see the still-operational machine used to stretch, compress and twist metals to destruction — vital data for architects and engineers. Southwark, £££, prebook only

The famous 'Facts not Opinions' pediment over Kirkaldy's Testing Works. Image: Matt Brown

Brunel Museum: Marc Brunel (with help from son Isambard) engineered the first tunnel under a major river in the first half of the 19th century. The small museum is built into one of the surface buildings at Rotherhithe, and tells the story of this feat of engineering. Visitors also get to descend into the tunnel shaft. Rotherhithe, £££

Specialist medical museums

The list below shows only the larger and more public-facing museums. Many further medical disciplines maintain small exhibitions, neatly compiled on the Medical Museums website.

Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum: Explore the lab where Fleming chanced across the mould that changed the world and saved millions of lives. (The nearby Wetherspoons pub also has a small display about the breakthrough, as well as a penicillin-themed carpet!) Paddington, FREE

Bart's Hospital Museum: A small museum chronicling the rather large history of Bart's, which goes back some 900 years. Among the medical exhibits, look out for the plaque celebrating the first meeting of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, which (in the fictive universe) happened right here. The hospital also houses a Pathology Museum, only open to the public for special events. Smithfield, FREE

British Optical Association Museum: London's most central museum (metres from the official centre at Charing Cross), this small but professionally focussed museum looks at the history of glasses, lenses and optical devices. Includes celebrity spectacles. Charing Cross, FREE (but pre-book)

Faraday Museum: The Royal Institution in Mayfair has a peerless history of scientific discovery. 10 of the chemical elements were first isolated here, in laboratories ran by Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday. The building presents some of its historic apparatus in the Faraday Museum, located in the lower-ground floor. Mayfair, FREE

Florence Nightingale Museum: Attached to St Thomas's Hospital, this excellent museum describes the history of nursing, with sizeable displays about the profession's most famous pioneer, Florence Nightingale. Lambeth, £££

Grant Museum of Zoology: Attached to UCL, the much-loved Grant Museum is like a pocket-sized Natural History Museum, without the crowds. Thousands of stuffed and bottled specimens, including the famous jar of moles, are arranged haphazardly around this cabinet of natural curiosities. Bloomsbury, FREE

Hunterian Museum: The museum of the Royal College of Surgeons tells the history of surgery and anatomy, including the advances made by John and William Hunter. The recently updated galleries feature thought-provoking specimens and representations of the human body. Holborn, FREE

The Hunterian Museum reopened in 2023 with a completely new look. Image: Matt Brown

Museum of the Mind: Bethlem Royal Hospital is the successor institution to the notorious Bedlam hospital, founded in medieval times for the (supposed) care of the mentally ill. Its history is told in the Museum of the Mind, which also stages excellent temporary exhibitions about psychiatric healthcare now and in the past. Beckenham, FREE

Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret: The London museum with the longest name? It's certainly one of the more peculiar cultural spaces, lurking in an old church tower. Learn about surgical practice in the times before anaesthesia, in a place that saw its fair share of amputations and the like. London Bridge, £££

Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum: Learn about the pharmacist's trade past and present, in this excellent exhibition of powders, pills and unguents. Among the intriguing exhibits is an electric hairbrush, cherry toothpaste, and bear grease (for baldness). Near St Katharine Docks, FREE

Talks, events and festivals

The ancient Barnard's Inn Hall, home to free lectures about science and other topics. Image: Matt Brown

Great Exhibition Road Festival: This annual event in June sees Imperial College and the various South Ken museums put on a big old street party, themed around science, technology and innovation. There's almost too much to see, as you explore not only Exhibition Road itself, but the university campus, museums and surrounding streets. South Kensington, FREE

Gresham College: Usually held at Barnard's Inn Hall in Holborn, the college puts on regular free talks for the general public on a wide range of themes. Astronomy is a pet subject, with some top-notch speakers over the years (centuries). Holborn (usually), FREE

Nerd Nite London: Occasional shows where three 'nerds' talk about their pet subjects, sometimes with a science theme. Various venues, £££

Pint of Science: An annual jamboree (in May) of science, matching up research scientists with pub function rooms. Hear about cutting-edge science over a pint or a glass of vino. Various venues, £££

The Royal Institution might look a bit intimidating, but they're super-friendly on the inside. Image: Matt Brown

Royal Institution: Founded in 1799, the RI would be a shoe-in as London's oldest science venue, were it not for the similarly named Royal Society (see below). The RI is most famous for the Christmas Lectures aimed at teenagers, but they have a year-round programme of lectures from leading scientists in that famous mauve theatre. Mayfair, £££

Royal Society: The august institute, founded in the time of Newton and Wren, puts on free public lectures throughout the year. Its big event is the Summer Science Exhibition, a multi-day event at which research scientists show off their discoveries and kit to the general public — ask them anything you like. St James's, FREE

Free things to do in London this week.

Last chance to see Water Pantanal Fire at the Science Museum © Lalo de Almeida

Do half term on the cheap

With children off school this week, parents and carers will be needing our things to do in half term guide. It's packed full of shows, events, exhibitions and activities, and — helpful if you're on a budget — has a whole section dedicated to free things to do for all ages.

See this thought-provoking environmental exhibition

This week is your last chance to see Water Pantanal Fire, a free photography exhibition by Lalo de Almeida and Luciano Candisani, at the Science Museum. Focus is on the Pantanal, the world's largest wetland which is spread across Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay.

More than 60 images are on show contrasting the Pantanal's rich wildlife with the drought and wildfire damage threatening the region. As it's half term, the museum will be very busy so booking in advance is strongly recommended.

Until 31 May.

Get your fill of football shirts

The London Jersey Gallery stages the final week of its independent pop-up exhibition, From Woolwich to the Emirates – 140 Years of Shirts, at the Weaver's Arms in Canonbury.

Curated by football historian Abdul Rashid Zakari, the free display brings together historic kits to show the evolution of design, notable eras and collectors' culture, while exploring the history of local team Arsenal.

Until 31 May.

Get a free margarita down ya

Free margs for bank holiday Monday... if you're speedy! Image: Seven Dials Market by KERB

Oh... Marg... Od. Bar Nana (see what they did there?) on the ground floor of Seven Dials Market is giving away 100 El Rayo margaritas on bank holiday Monday. The bar opens at 12pm, and it's first-come first-served. Get there early — imagine they'll be gone faster than you can yell "Tequila!"

25 May.

Celebrate 100 years of Gunnersbury Park

Head west on bank holiday Monday, for free, family-friendly celebrations marking 100 years of Gunnersbury Park.

The open green space holds a community day of music, dance and heritage, with live performances from Jasper Squire, Green Ribbon Club and the Orchard Jazz Quartet, plus swing dance workshops.

Browse a community market of 30+ stalls, take tours of the Gunnersbury Park Museum, or join in with a whole selection of other activities and entertainment. Note that although events are free, some require booking.

25 May.

Swing a crazy golf freebie

Swingers West End celebrates eight years in business, with free golf games. Image: Swingers

What to do once you've drained your free bank hol Monday marg (see above)? The savvy savers among you will have booked a free round of crazy golf at Swingers West End. The offer celebrates eight years of the Oxford Street venue, and there are also DJS, prizes, balloons and (careful now) cheap margaritas. Slots can be reserved now (select Monday 25 May and choose "Crazy Golf"), but they're limited, so hurry!

25 May.

Learn how to grow edible plants

If you work in the Waterloo area, head down to Lower Marsh on Tuesday lunchtime for a free hands-on gardening workshop. Learn how to grow and care for edible plants, get tips on herbs, vegetables and seasonal planting — and take a plant home with you.

26 May.

Get an insight into Tracey Emin's career

My Bed is arguably Emin's most famous work. Photo: Londonist

Coinciding with the current (paid) Tate Modern exhibition, Tracey Emin: A Second Life, Arts Society lecturer Frank Woodgate gives a free talk about the show. He covers key works from throughout Emin's career, including My Bed and the tent All the People I Have Slept With. Watch in person at Guildhall Library, or online.

26 May

Catch a free lunchtime string concert

Trinity Laban's Sinfonia Strings performs side‑by‑side with musicians from the Duchess of Edinburgh's String Orchestra, directed by Ofer Falk, in a free lunchtime concert on Thursday.

The performance, at St Alfege Church in Greenwich, includes Holst's St Paul's Suite, movements from Warlock's Capriol Suite, Coleridge‑Taylor's Novelletten and Britten's Simple Symphony.

28 May.

Check out Newport Street Gallery's new exhibition

Jack White in the Studio, Photographed by David James Swanson © The Artist

Newport Street Gallery presents White Stripes legend Jack White's first public exhibition, These Thoughts May Disappear, featuring sculptures from found objects, interactive works, installations and furniture-design pieces, including a remake of White's 2015 sculpture The Red Tree.

29 May-13 September.

Watch a free open-air concert

As the Opera Holland Park season gets underway properly, it continues its Songs on the Steps programme of free concerts. On alternate Fridays for the next couple of months, performers from the company give free recitals on the open-air steps in Holland Park, alongside the main venue.

Everyone's welcome, and the show lasts about 40 minutes, so pack a picnic blanket and your lunch, and watch some new and familiar songs and arias performed by artists at the top of their game.

29 May.

Celebrate 60 years of the BT Tower

Image: Sam LEGEND

To mark 60 years of the BT Tower, artist‑researcher Jordan Rowe and cultural historian Dr David Anderson lead a free walking tour tracing sightlines to the famous tower from parks and squares. The walk begins at Goodge Street station and takes a gentle route from Fitzrovia to Primrose Hill, exploring the clear, uninterrupted radio path the building relied on when it was used as a telecommunications beacon.

29 May.

Take a tour of a beautiful private library

Join Stuart Baines, former chair of the Highgate Literary and Scientific Institutions's Library Committee, for a free guided tour of the society's Library & Members' Room, located just off Highgate High Street.

The tour explores the building's history, notable features of the library and its collections, and how the little-known space is used today.

29 May.

Stay late at the National Portrait Gallery

As its current (paid) exhibition Catherine Opie: To Be Seen draws to a close, the National Portrait Gallery stays open late on Friday for a gallery‑wide evening of workshops, performances, talks and films.

Highlights include a play‑for‑fun poker night, smartphone photography workshops, zine‑making, a live DJ and guided tours. Entry is free, though donations are welcome.

29 May.

Celebrate Eid in Trafalgar Square

Image: Greater London Authority/Caroline Teo

The Mayor of London’s free festival Eid in the Square festival celebrates Eid al-Adha in Trafalgar Square with a full programme of main-stage performances, talks and family activities.

Hosts Nadia Ali and Juwayria Ghazali lead a programme that includes music from the London Arab Orchestra, Khan Brothers Qawwali, Isam B and AmenA, plus community stalls, food traders, an immersive installation by Everyday Muslim, children's workshops and fencing sessions from Muslim Girls Fence.

30 May.

Treat your ears to some free jazz

The Garden Café within the Flower Station in Finchley launches a new live jazz event, taking place every other Sunday from this week. Head to the plant-filled, sunny sanctuary at the edge of Hampstead Garden Suburb for an afternoon of smooth tunes.

31 May.

Hot Rod Diner dials the Americana up to 100 Photo: Londonist

Eating healthily is all well and good, but sometimes you just want to go all in. Burgers and hot dogs, accompanied by loaded fries and onion rings — washed down with a thick, creamy shake. And is it just us, or does that taste all the better accompanied by a heady dose of retro Americana?

Yep, we're talking classic American diners with vintage Pepsi ads on the walls, a working jukebox, and, more often than not, a life-size fibreglass Elvis strutting its stuff in the corner. Sadly, such places are a dying breed  (RIP, JB's Brighton), but the restaurants below all commit to the All-American theme, HARD — and dish up above average food, too. You may need to loosen your belt after reading this...

Hot Rod Diner, Northfleet, Kent

Shakes so thick, you won't need dessert. Photo: Londonist

Describing itself as an "authentic 1950s rock 'n' roll diner", Hot Rod wouldn't look out of place in Grease. It's certainly one for the petrolheads, what with its undercover parking often home to some serious sets of wheels. Head below the neon sign and step inside for more motoring memorabilia; Route 66 signage, vintage Shell petrol pumps, and the exterior of a Cadillac mounted on the wall. Chequerboard floors, vintage adverts and leather booth seating complete the diner experience.

It's home to about a dozen tables indoors, with more outside on the deck in good weather. The menu is standard diner fare done well, but be warned: the hot dogs are loooong, the sides loaded, and the burgers, towering. The thick, creamy milkshakes are a meal in themselves, and though we've never had room for dessert on our visits, the sundaes come highly recommended.

Hot Rod Diner, 79-84 High Street, Northfleet, Kent, DA11 9HJ.

Grumpy's Diner, Southend, Essex

Image: Grumpy's Diner

In early 2024, Southend lost the legendary Bobby Jo's Diner, but a few streets back from the seafront, Grumpy's Diner has been serving up American goodness by the plateful since 2014.

Styled on the 1950s, the restaurant's exterior sign is mirrored like an Airstream, while inside, a black and white chequerboard floor leads you to a series of baby pink and baby blue leather booths, with the walls painted to match — at least, the parts of the walls which aren't covered in framed snaps of Harley Davidsons and Marilyn Monroe, or car license plates from a whole array of US states. The wall-mounted red car has us puzzling if they've gone halves, quite literally, with Hot Rod (top picture).

You'll know when you've found the right place. Image: Grumpy's Diner

They take food seriously here, as evidenced by the various eating challenges, including The Mac Attack (polish off 2kg of mac 'n' cheese plus 500g of smoky barbecue pulled chicken, 500g of Grumpy’s chicken strips and two full garlic bread baguettes in 45 minutes), and The Boss Dog (four hotdogs with buns and toppings, plus fries and 16 onion rings in just 25 minutes).

A sweet tooth doesn't rule you out either: The Brownie Sensation gives you 35 minutes to tackle 1.75kg of triple chocolate brownie, 100g of mini marshmallows, 100g Flake dust, 100g brownie bits, 100g Oreo dust, 100g Fudge pieces, 100g crushed Oreos, 100g whole Oreos, and 100g Flake pieces).

Each of these challenges, by the way, is for a single person — not a group. Makes our order of a Tower Burger washed down with a chocolate & peanut butter shake rather tame in comparison. Boozy milkshakes, cocktails and mocktails are available too.

Grumpy's Diner, 759 Southchurch Rd, Southend-on-Sea SS1 2PP.

Max's Diner aka The Chapel Diner, Horsham, Sussex

Photo: Londonist

You could drive up and down Langhurst Wood Road, just outside Crawley, your whole life, and never know that Max's Diner is there. It's set back from the main road on the Graylands Estate, a peaceful area of residential and commercial properties, and... a chapel.

It's that chapel, diminutive in size and clad in white weatherboarding, with a weather vane on top and an American flag flying on one side, that we're interested in. It's home to Max's Diner — also known as The Chapel Diner — a restaurant specialising in American food and serving breakfast and lunch.

Max's Diner is small, but it packs a lot in. Photo: Londonist

First things first; because of the size of the place — a mere handful of tables inside and half a dozen picnic benches in a garden round the side — it's a bookings-only restaurant, so you can't show up on a whim. But it's worth it. Inside, a working traffic light hangs where the altar must once have been, with vintage gasoline pumps and a jukebox taking up a considerable percentage of the floor place. Seating takes the form of red and white leather booths, though it's fairly packed, so not somewhere for a private conversation.

Photo: Londonist

It beggars belief that they've managed to squeeze a kitchen back there too, but they're sending out plates full of burgers, ribs, chicken and hot dogs from somewhere. If you're around a bit earlier, breakfast options range from a full English to pancakes and waffles, and there's a whole separate veggie and vegan menu. They make their milkshakes with real ice cream, and pile them high with whipped cream.

Max's Diner, The Chapel, Graylands Estate, Langhurst Wood Road, Horsham, RH12 4QD.

H's American Diner, Eastbourne

Image: H's Diner

H's American Diner, known as Harleywood under previous management (and it's only as we type that, we realised what they did there...) has been in business since 2011, serving up corndogs, ribs, wings, and burgers with names like Muscle Beach, Empire State, and Viva Las Vegan. Though that menu suggests a geographical spread, H's heart is very much in the Lone Star State.

Image: H's Diner

The drinks menu runs the full gauntlet of milkshakes and an impressive selection of soft drinks — or as they call them, Designated Driver Drinks — including UK rareties including Mountain Dew, various Fanta flavours, and Jarritos Mexican Cola. Non-drivers are well catered for, with a range of spirits to rival most bars in the area, plus beers, cocktails and bubbly.

H's American Diner, 246 Terminus Road, Eastboune, BN21 3DE.

Bungalow Diner, Colchester, Essex

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"Drive in, dine in, drink in" reads the slogan for this Route 66-inspired, which sits alongside the A12 rather than the Mother Road. It's not actually a drive-thru, but nor would you want it to be, for then you'd miss the heady dose of nostalgia which lies beyond the red and white entry canopy.

Slide into a similarly red and white leather booth and dine on burgers, pizzas, pancakes and shakes, with live music every Friday night, and other events throughout the week.

Bungalow Diner, 45 London Rd, Marks Tey, Colchester CO6 1DY.

Mollie's Diner, Oxfordshire

Image: Mollie's Motel and Diner

How to describe Mollie's? The sophisticated older sibling to the other diners on this list; playful, but selectively so. Sure, it's got its name up in lights outside, and bar stools at the counter. But there's also soft-toned lighting, wood-panelled walls, and not a jukebox or vintage poster in sight.

The menu too, is less in-your-face than other eateries of the genre. You'll still get your burgers, hot dogs, fries, and mac 'n' cheese here, but it's tempered with salads, salmon and all-day eggs dishes. The dessert menu has a distinctly American flavour too: apple pie, lemon meringue pie, baked cheesecake.

Milkshakes and floats are available, and there's an extensive alcohol list, featuring classic cocktails, beer, wine and spirits, and you can opt to spike your shake if that's how you like it. Don't hold back — there's a motel next door where you can sleep it off (rooms designed by the Soho House team, natch), which gives you a chance to sample the breakfast menu too.

Mollie's Motel & Diner, Shrivenham Road, Buckland, SN7, 8PY. There's a second venue at Cribb's Causeway, Bristol, and a third up in Manchester.

Potty's Diner, Potter's Bar, Hertfordshire

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Located on a busy crossroads just a whisker from the M25 and Greater London, Potty's Diner (also known as Potty's Pancakes, which previously had a branch in Cockfosters too) describes itself as "a quirky and cool nod to the Classic American Diner from the 50s dining booths, large murals and Marilyn taking centre stage".

All-day breakfast sits on the menu alongside speciality burgers with Vegas-inspired names, racks of ribs, hot dogs, and the occasional salad. The dessert menu is just as extensive as the main one, spanning sundaes, eight different types of cookie dough, froyo, plus the pancakes, waffles and crepes which are Potty's speciality— and which, by the way, are served in absolutely towering stacks.

Silhouetted portraits of Marilyn, Elvis and co watch over diners.

Potty's Diner, 2 Bar­net Road, Potter Bar, EN6 2QS.

Back Inn Time, Chelmsford, Essex

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Another one that's slightly different from others on this list. You won't find chequerboard floors, leather booths or decorative Cadillacs at Back Inn Time. It's still an American diner, but decorative focus is on the South West of the ole' USA, so think wood panelling, etched stained glass, and Tiffany-style glass lamps hanging low from the ceiling — and, if you're anything like us, the theme tune from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly playing on a loop in your head while you dine.

The menu is all about American comfort food, spanning the entire breadth of the country — and down into Mexico — from nachos and burgers, to fajitas, prime steaks, chicken wings, and New York-style cheesecake.

Back Inn Time, Victoria Road, Chelmsford, CM1 1NY.

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The latest book by Paul Talling — the man behind Derelict London — is an epic pub crawl of London's drinking establishments which have bitten the dust. But within this sad story, there's a more positive narrative; the pubs that've risen from the dead, and in many cases, are now in finer fettle than they've ever been before.

Here, Paul takes us to 10 such resurrected boozers.

1. Clayton Arms (now the Prince of Peckham), Peckham

2015.

The Clayton Arms has a history tracing back to at least 1867. A tragic incident occurred at the pub in 1948 when a patron, Mrs. Annie Newson, mistook the door to the wine cellar for the ladies' restroom. She fell down the stairs and later died in the hospital.

During the 2011 riots, the pub was ransacked by a group of 50 youths, leaving it in a severely damaged state. This decline ultimately led to its closure in 2013.

Now.

The pub briefly reopened in 2015 as the Dolls House which was part cocktail bar/gastro pub with a members club type private area. It promptly closed and re-opened again in 2016 as the Clayton Arms before being taking over by businessman Clement Ogbonna who sold his flat to finance the venture renaming it the Prince of Peckham. The name is inspired by 90s TV show, Desmond's and its character Lee 'The Peckham Prince' Stanley.

The Prince of Peckham has been a roaring success and recently Time Out magazine voted it the 19th best pub in London. It's been used to film TV programmes such as Sky's drama, Temple, as well as being used for numerous commercials, music videos and photo shoots.

Prince of Peckham, 1 Clayton Road, Peckham, SE15 5JA

2. Greyhound, Sydenham

2008.

An inn has occupied this site since at least 1730, originally serving as a meeting spot for local hunters when the surrounding area was an ancient forest. Greyhounds were used for hunting here, valued for their speed and sharp vision. Business at the Greyhound Inn thrived with the construction of the Croydon Canal, which operated from 1807 to 1836. The inn offered refreshments to the navvies who built the canal and served as a rest stop for those using the canal for work or leisure. An early painting depicts pleasure boats moored at a landing stage near the inn.

Now.

In the 1990s, the Greyhound was renamed the Fewterer and Firkin, but reverted to its original name in 2001. The pub later closed as plans emerged for a development of flats, and it caught fire while vacant later that same year. In 2012, the 18th century building was demolished without authorisation, leaving only the front wall standing. The construction company was fined by the council, and the pub was subsequently rebuilt and reopened in 2018.

Greyhound, 313-315 Kirkdale, Sydenham, SE26 4QB

3. Hope & Anchor (now Cafe Koko), Camden Town

2014.

The Hope and Anchor opened in the 1860s. The name comes from the Epistle to the Hebrews of the New Testament: "We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope."

By 1900 the Camden Theatre opened which gave the pub increased trade. Over the years the Theatre changed into a nightclub, now Koko. During recent decades the pub's staff and locals endured clubbers popping in for a drink but were pretty hostile to the ones in the queue solely coming in to make use of their toilet facilities. In fact, the pub often seemed hostile to any passing trade. Old school Camden was quite rough and ready but some of the regulars of this pub were quite abrasive right up until its closure in 2013. I used to come here after walking tours but ceased to visit after a near altercation at the pool table when heading to the gents toilet. In happier times bands like Madness and Radiohead had been known to stop off at the pub before a gig.

Now.

After abortive plans to convert it into flats the pub has been renovated and reopened in 2022 as Cafe Koko, a tap bar and pizzeria. It's certainly friendlier than the old place, though quite upmarket.

Cafe Koko, 74 Crowndale Road, Camden Town, NW1 1TP

4. Jolly Sailor, South Norwood

2021.

The pub has a rich history, first opening in 1810 alongside the newly completed Croydon Canal and later being rebuilt in its current form in the late 1860s. Legends surround the pub, including tales of a haunted cellar once used by smugglers to stash contraband, and the original building even featured a boxing gym upstairs. In 1828, the London and Sporting Chronicle reported on a notorious prizefight between Ned Savage and Peter Sweeney, who trained at the Jolly Sailor, a bloody match held on the canal banks that shocked the local community.

The Croydon Canal, however, proved a financial failure and closed in 1836. A railway line from London Bridge to Croydon was constructed, roughly following the canal's path. South Norwood's first station opened in 1839 and was initially named The Jolly Sailor after the pub, before being renamed Norwood in 1846 and the current name of Norwood Junction by 1856.

Now.

The Jolly Sailor closed in late 2019. A harsh review on Beer in the Evening described it as "a local pub for local people, like the Slaughtered Lamb in American Werewolf," though in my experience, it was a cozy little pub, and the landlady, Val, was friendly, even inviting me to a free BBQ shortly after. The only downside was the 1990s blue and purple lighting. Popular with Palace fans on game days, the pub featured football on TV, a darts board, and a pool table. Evenings included karaoke and occasional live bands playing ska and reggae. After a period of uncertainty, the Jolly Sailor reopened in 2023.

Jolly Sailor, 64 High St, South Norwood. SE25 6EB

5. Kensington Park Hotel (now the Knight of Notting Hill), Ladbroke Grove

2018.

The Kensington Park Hotel, widely known as the KPH or "Keep Paddies Happy", was built during the 1860s, catering to Irish labourers who built Notting Hill. In 1956 a 19-year-old labourer from Dublin who had been performing songs in the saloon bar left the pub and was found stabbed to death on the pavement a few yards away. In 1929 a theatre was opened on the first floor of the KPH, where Tom Jones sang his first London concert in 1960.

Now.

One regular drinker here was Timothy Evans, who was wrongly hanged in 1950 for murders committed by serial killer John Christie at 10 Rillington Place. Other regulars over the years have been Oswald Moseley, Cerys Matthews, Eddie Izzard and members of The Clash and Thin Lizzy.

The survival of the pub had been in doubt for over a decade. The landlord who ran it for 40 years became too ill to run the pub and management was, in 2013, handed over to music venue and festival entrepreneur Vince Power though a new freeholder set about terminating the lease. After closure in 2017 the KPH reopened two years later but had closed down again by 2022. The pub reopened as the Knight of Notting Hill in 2023.

Knight of Notting Hill, 139 Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill W10 6HJ

6. Lord Napier (now Lord Napier Star), Hackney Wick

2018.

This pub opened in 1865 as The White's Arms, named after its original owner, Mr. White, but was soon sold and renamed the Lord Napier. Together with the nearby Lea Tavern — demolished 15 years ago — it was one of two 19th century pubs serving a district of Victorian houses and industrial sites. Across the street stood a distillery operated by the Carless, Capel & Leonard Company, a leading British producer of American crude oil. The company is best remembered today for coining the trade name "petrol" in the 1890s to market its fuel.

The adjacent railway station, visible in the background of this photo, has a dark history. In 1864, the body of Thomas Briggs was discovered on the line between Bow and Hackney Wick: while aboard the train from Fenchurch Street, he had been robbed and murdered by a German man named Franz Müller.

Now.

The Lord Napier finally closed in 1995. Along with the adjoining two derelict houses, it is one of the sole survivors of the original 19th century development. The pub was squatted for many years and was noted for its rave parties, becoming a Hackney landmark thanks to the colourful street art on its walls. But the area has rapidly gentrified, and the pub reopened in 2021 as a lively and successful pub.

Lord Napier Star, 25 White Post Lane, Hackney Wick, E9 5EN

7. Red Cow (now the Copper Tap), Peckham

2015.

The history of the Red Cow in Peckham goes back over 200 years. Peckham was mostly a farming community and drovers used Peckham as a stopping place before going onto the markets of London. Their herds were put out to graze while the drovers took refreshments at the various inns. Rebuilt in Victorian times, the Red Cow stood here as a grand three-storey pub at the junction of Peckham High Street and Consort Road (originally called Cow Walk) until being demolished in the late 1960s to build a housing estate. The replacement pub sits beneath a local authority housing block.

Now.

During the early 1980s the landlord of the Red Cow was Joey Singleton, a former British light-welter champion, winner of the Lonsdale Belt and known as "Joey the Jab" to his friends.

The Red Cow, which had a typical estate pub vibe, closed in 2015 but reopened only a year later after refurbishment to give it a more rustic feel, and was renamed the Copper Tap.

Copper Tap, 190 Peckham High Street, Peckham, SE15 5EG

8. Star of the East, Limehouse

2018.

The Star of the East, built in the 1840s and Grade II listed in 1973, has a fascinating history. During Victorian times, it served as a venue for coroner's inquests. From the 1870s into the 20th century, the pub was managed by the Baxter family. In its early years, Mr. H.W. Baxter drew visitors by showcasing an unusual attraction: the purported 2,000-year-old Peruvian mummy of a teenage girl.

Now.

The pub closed down in 2008, reopened, then limped on until 2016. Most of the times I went in this place it was pretty dead with a couple of regulars and the pub cats. Sometimes very friendly though I stopped going there as the lager didn't taste right, the Guinness was lumpy and the red wine was terrible.

After renovation the pub reopened, and it is very different to the old days, having been reinvented as a gastro pub.

Star of the East, 805A Commercial Rd,Limehouse, E14 7HG

9. Well & Bucket, Bethnal Green

2011.

The Well & Bucket goes back to the early 19th Century when this road was originally called Church Street. According to What's in a London Pub Name? by James Potts and Sam Cullen, the name Well & Bucket is thought to originate from the fact there was a well by the site of the pub, which potentially even supplied the water to help make the beer here.

Now.

During the 1970s the Stage newspaper described the pub as the "cheerful little Well & Bucket" and several articles talk about when singers and comedians performed charity shows. Live music became a mainstay of the pub when it was renamed the Stick of Rock in 1988, run by Steve Bruce the drummer from Cock Sparrer who hosted metal and punk bands here, including Tenpole Tudor, U.K. Subs, Demented Are Go, The Adicts and Blitz. The popularity of the venue led to Steve getting offers to reform Cock Sparrer, which he did and they performed a warm up gig/rehearsal in the pub in 1992 just before playing the 2,000 capacity Astoria that evening. They're playing gigs around the world to this day.

The Stick Of Rock closed in 1993. The ground floor was later used as a leather wholesalers who had vacated by 2011, before being converted back to the Well & Bucket in 2013.

Well & Bucket, 143 Bethnal Green Road, Bethnal Green E2 7DG

10. Tipperary, Fleet Street (reopening again in 2027)

2023.

The Tipperary was declared as 'London's original Irish pub' on signage by the door — though, that's incorrect, as I'll explain in a minute. For many years it was a well-known haunt for editors and journalists, alongside barristers from the nearby chambers.

2024.

Originally there was a 15th century inn here called the Boar's Head adjacent to the site of a Carmelite friary known as Whitefriars. Although the front of the pub is early 20th century, the main building dates from 1667 after being rebuilt after the Great Fire of London. Dublin based Mooney's Irish House acquired its first pub in London in 1889 on The Strand, and the Boar's Head was its fourth London outlet, taken over in 1895. The pub was renamed The Tipperary in 1968. The pub claimed to be the first pub outside Ireland to have bottled Guinness, and later draft, though Guinness was actually exporting to inns in Bristol from earlier that century in both cask and bottle.

The pub shut in 2020, having struggled to cope with the lack of office workers in the City. However, with workers returning, the pub reopened in 2024. Since then it has closed once again, but plans are afoot to reopen once more in 2027.

Tipperary, 66 Fleet Street, Temple, EC4Y 1HT

London's Dead Pubs by Paul Talling, published by Damaged Goods on 25 June 2026 — available for pre-order now.

We featured this book because we know it's the kind of thing our readers will enjoy. By buying it via links in this article, Londonist may earn a commission from Bookshop.org — which also helps support independent bookshops.

All images in this article © Paul Talling.

Members of the triumphant 1966 England World Cup squad lift the trophy, in this group statue near West Ham's old ground. Image: Matt Brown

With another football World Cup imminent, we look at which London clubs have supplied the most players over the decades.

Thomas Tuchel has announced the 26-strong squad for the 2026 (Men's) World Cup Finals. Eight of those players, almost a third, are drawn from London clubs. New Premier League champs Arsenal dominate with four players (Eze, Rice, Saka and Madueke). Brentford, Chelsea, Palace and Spurs are all sending one player. Of these, Jordan Henderson becomes the first Brentford player to feature in an England World Cup Squad.

For a bit of fun, we thought we'd tally things up across all previous World Cups to see which teams have contributed the most.

The tournament dates back to 1930, though England did not participate until 1950. Since then, they've only missed three finals (1974, 1978 and 1994), and this year (2026) will be their 17th finals.

We've crunched the numbers for every tournament and worked out which clubs contributed the most players to the England football team over these 17 tournaments.

The top 10 clubs for England squad members 1950-2026

London clubs shown in bold font.

1. Man Utd (45)
2. Spurs (39)
3. Liverpool (34)
4. Arsenal (27)
5. Chelsea (26)
6. Man City (22)
=7. Everton (16)
=7. Newcastle (16)
=7. West Ham (16)
10. Wolves (13)

A good showing for the capital, with Spurs way ahead of other local clubs, but itself beaten into second by Man Utd. Note: individual players can count more than once towards their club's tally, if they were sent to multiple World Cups.

The top 8 London clubs for England squad members 1950-2026

1. Spurs (39)
2. Arsenal (27)
3. Chelsea (26)
4. West Ham (16)
5. Fulham (6)
6. QPR (3)
7. Crystal Palace (2)
8. Brentford (1)

These eight are the only London clubs to send English players to the World Cup .

It could happen! Harry Kane contributed twice towards the Spurs tally (2018 and 2022), but now plays for Bayern. Image: Matt Brown

The top 10 clubs for England squad members, 2002-2026

If we instead look at more recent 'form' and tally only the seven World Cups this century, then a surprisingly consistent ranking emerges:

1. Man Utd (21)
=2. Liverpool (18)
=2. Man City (18)
=2. Spurs (18)
5. Arsenal (17)
6. Chelsea (15)
7. Newcastle (8)
8. Aston Villa (7)
9. Everton (7)
10. West Ham (6)

Spurs remain the highest ranked London club, with Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham following in the same order as before. At time of writing, Spurs are still in danger of relegation to the Championship, which would mean that London's most successful club (in the admittedly tenuous terms of sending players to World Cups) could be second tier.

150 of M.C. Escher's works land in London this summer. Image: M.C. Escher: The Exhibition

Prepare to squint: 150 mind-bending works by M.C. Escher come to Somerset House this summer.

Few people are unaware of the late Dutch artist Maurits Cornelis Escher — or at least his tessellating, metamorphosing, paradoxical — and often downright head-scratching — artworks, including Drawing Hands, and the 'impossible staircases' as depicted in Ascending and Descending, and Relativity.

All of the above, and many more feature in the un-puzzlingly-titled M.C. Escher: The Exhibition, landing at Somerset House's Embankment Galleries from 6 June-6 September 2026.

The show uses both originals and digitally enhanced projections. Image: M.C. Escher: The Exhibition

As well as exhibiting original sketches, lithographs, etchings, mezzotints and woodcuts, the show dabbles in the interactive, with projections bringing elements of Escher's work to life — altogether fitting seeing as his work has directly influenced filmmakers like Christopher Nolan. Fingers crossed this interactive element also sates the critic of London's last major Escher show, back in 2015, who claimed there was "no real difference between seeing the works here in the flesh, and seeing them reproduced in a book or online."

Should be a good summer show to get to — assuming entry doesn't involve an infinitely looping set of stairs.

M.C. Escher: The Exhibition, Embankment Galleries, Somerset House, 6 June-6 September 2026.

Dive right into London's finest outdoor pools and lidos. Parliament Hill Lido. Image: Tom Page from London, UK via CC BY-SA 2.0

Looking for a lido or in need of an outdoor pool in London? As the weather heats up, these swimming pools and ponds across the capital become popular for cooling off, so we recommend booking in advance where possible. And if the weather's not quite so warm? Plenty of London's outdoor pools are heated. Read on to plan your next al fresco dip.

Brockwell Lido, Herne Hill

Open all year, unheated.

Brockwell Lido is VERY popular in warm weather. Image: David Sim via CC BY 2.0

The inspiration for Libby Page's 2019 debut novel The Lido, Brockwell Lido is a bona fide local legend. Located in the corner of Brockwell Park, and surrounded by low line art deco redbrick walls, the unheated 50m pool has a dedicated army of year-round swimmers, though naturally it's more popular in the summer, queues stretching around the block on balmy days.

For fair weather swimmers, summer season tickets are available, running from April-end of September. Those made of sturdier stuff can buy annual passes and keep ploughing up and down all year.

There's also a gym and fitness centre on-site, with the added bonus of an outdoor sauna available during the winter season. The Lido Cafe is open all day, serving hot and cold food and drinks.

Brockwell Lido, Brockwell Park, Dulwich Road, SE24 0PA. Currently operated by Fusion, which went into administration in April 2026 so a new operator is currently being sought — check the Lambeth Council website for latest updates before you visit.

London Fields Lido, Hackney

Open all year, heated.

London Fields originally got this pool in 1930, though it was closed for several years. London Fields Lido. Image: Peter Smith via CC BY 2.0

Head east to London Fields for a 50m long, heated outdoor pool — kept at about 25°c all year round. It's floodlit too, making morning and evening swims all the more appealing, and there's often a spectacular sunrise to be enjoyed from the water.

Though there's been a pool here since 1930, it was left closed for several years until a campaign by locals saw it reopened in 2006, with the changing rooms and lockers around the perimeter of the pool painted in eye-catching primary colours.

There are usually around four lanes dedicated to fitness and lane swimming all day, with the rest of the pool given over to more casual activities, or swimming lessons. Hoxton Beach operates the refreshment kiosk, selling hot and cold drinks, cakes, falafel and salads, and an additional kiosk opens on the Sun Terrace during summer months. That Sun Terrace acts as a sub bathing area, with outdoor yoga sessions also held.

For swimmers with physical accessibility requirements, London Fields Lido is one of the better options in the capital. The whole building, from entrance through to poolside, is ramp accessible, and the pool itself has a hoist and a ramp for getting in and out. There are disabled toilets and changing facilities too.

London Fields Lido, London Fields West Side, Hackney, E8 3EU.

London's largest lido: Tooting Bec Lido, Streatham

Open all year for members, summer only for non-members, unheated.

Tooting Bec Lido has recently had a refurb. Tooting Bec Lido, entrance. Image: Rwendland via CC BY-SA 4.0

The main pool at Tooting Bec is a seriously impressive 90m long, and there's also a 19m long paddling pool for younger swimmers, making Tooting Bec Lido the largest outdoor lido in the UK (and one of the oldest — it's been around since 1906, and reopened after extensive renovation in April 2024). Bear in mind that it's not heated.

There's a cafe and a picnic area so you can make a day of it in the balmy summer months, and the pool is fitted with a hoist to help disabled swimmers into the water. The public season runs April-September, and although the lido remains open all year, you'll need to become a member to use it in the winter months. Don't be put off though; the club welcomes members of all ages and abilities, whether you fancy doing casual laps a few times a month, or you're carving up the water every day of the year.

Tooting Bec Lido, Tooting Bec Road, SW16 1RU. Membership via South London Swimming Club.

Parliament Hill Lido, Hampstead Heath

Open all year, unheated.

Open-air swimming on Hampstead Heath? Yes please! Lido, Parliament Hill Fields (1938). Image: Julian Osley via CC BY-SA 2.0

Located at the south-eastern tip of Hampstead Heath, the unheated, Grade-II listed Parliament Hill Lido was first opened in 1938, and is now open to the public 365 days a year.  The 60m long pool draws crowds from all over on summer days, and diving is allowed in certain areas at certain times. Food and drink can be bought at the Lido Cafe, operated by Hoxton Beach.

A smaller pool for under-fives sits to the side of the main pool. With the mansion blocks of Gospel Oak overlooking the pool on one side, and the huge expanse of Hampstead Heath on the other, Parliament Hill Lido really does occupy a stunning spot.

Season tickets are available, including passes which allow you to combine dips at the lido with swims in the Ponds on nearby Hampstead Heath (details on these below).

Parliament Hill Lido, Parliament Hill Fields, Gospel Oak, NW5 1LT.

London's most central lido: Oasis Sports Centre, Tottenham Court Road

Open all year, heated.

An outdoor lido in Covent Garden? Yes, really. Photo: Matt Brown

Central London's only heated outdoor pool, this one comes with the added bonus of being located on a sun terrace. The pool is just one part of the Oasis Sports Centre, which also houses a gym, indoor pool and exercise studios.

The 25m long outdoor pool is surrounded by a patio area and sunbathing deck, with the added bonus of a sauna nearby. Sure, views of the rooftops of Covent Garden mean you can't quite imagine you're in the south of France, but from the street below, you wouldn't even know the pool was there.

Oasis Sports Centre, 32 Endell Street, WC2H 9AG.

Charlton Lido

Open all year, heated.

Take your swim outdoors in Charlton. Charlton Lido deep end. Image: Crookesmoor via CC BY-SA 4.0

Charlton Lido and Lifestyle Club has all the equipment and classes a gym fanatic might need, but we're here to talk about the outdoor pool. 50m long, heated, surrounded by a sun terrace in the summer months, with drinks available to buy from Coffee Corner in June-September. There are always at least a couple of lanes dedicated to fitness swimming, and you'll need to book your swim in advance. Members can take part in classes such as aqua aerobics in the outdoor pool too. A brand new outdoor sauna is set to open in June 2026.

Charlton Lido, Hornfair Park, Shooters Hill Road, SE18 4LX.

Hillingdon Lido (formerly Uxbridge Lido)

Open May-October, heated.

Hillingdon Lido offers a 50m outdoor pool. Image: Mary Turner via creative commons

They take their swimming seriously in Hillingdon; the fitness centre boasts both a 50m indoor pool AND a 50m outdoor pool (open 4 April-31 October 2026). The Grade-II listed, heated open-air offering has plenty of paving around the edge for soaking up rays, and fountains at either end, lending a playful vibe. A gym, football pitches, fitness studios and athletic track can also be found on-site, if that's your bag. Us? We're all about the pool.

Hillingdon Sports & Leisure Complex, Gatting Way, Uxbridge, UB8 1ES.

Finchley Lido

Open summer only, unheated.

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After an extensive refurb in 2019, Finchley Lido Leisure Centre's three swimming pools are looking better than ever. The outdoor pool's opening is weather dependent (open from 23 May 2026), when you can indulge in open-air swimming followed by a relaxing afternoon in the garden area or an ice cream from the snack hut.

The indoor offerings (open all year) comprise a 25m pool (with hoist for accessibility) and a leisure pool complete with wave machine and rapids. Unlike many leisure centres, there's plenty of natural light inside, meaning you can *almost* convince yourself you're outside, without having to brave the unpredictable British weather.

Finchley Lido Leisure Centre, Great North Leisure Park, Chaplin Square, Finchley, N12 0GL.

Moonlight outdoor swimming: Hampton Pool

Open all year, heated.

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Hampton Pool is well-known for its moonlight swims, taking place in the summer months. Not a night owl? During the day, two outdoor pools are available — a 36m one for the adults, and a 12.5m one for learners and toddlers. They're heated year-round, with a mechanical chair to help anyone with accessibility issues. There's also a grassy area next to the water for a post-swim sunbathe. You're right on the edge of Bushy Park too.

As well as the moonlight and Christmas Day swims, Hampton Pool offers other special events including picnic concerts in the summer months.

Hampton Pool, Bushy Park, off the High Street, Hampton, Middlesex, TW12 2ST.

Park Road Lido, Crouch End

Open all year, heated.

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You're spoilt for choice pool-wise at Park Road. In addition to the 50m lido, there's also a 25m indoor pool, a teaching pool, paddling pool and... drumroll please... a diving pit.

If you're willing to brave it, the outdoor pool holds sessions in the winter months. More of a fair-weather bather? You'll enjoy the grassy area on two sides of the pool.

In recent years, the Lido had faced a few maintenance and staffing issues, but Haringey Council has now taken over operation of the facility, and is working with the Park Road Lido User Group to get things back on track.

Park Road Lido, Park Road, Hornsey, N8 8JN

Pools on the Park, Richmond

Open all year, heated.

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With a main and indoor teaching pool, and an outdoor pool in the summer months, Pools on the Park is one of west London's finest (and least-known) swimming facilities. The open-air 33m pool comes with a hoist to help disabled swimmers, and the added bonus of an adjacent garden area to explore.

Pools on the Park, Old Deer Park, Richmond, TW9 2SF

New for 2026: Sea Lanes Canary Wharf

Open year-round, unheated.

Toeing the line between 'lido' and 'wild swimming, Sea Lanes Canary Wharf opens in Eden Dock in June 2026, offering a 50m natural water pool floating in the docks, beneath the skyscrapers. Saunas, changing rooms and toilets are also part of the new complex, which is being dubbed "London's First National Open Water Swimming Centre" and is run by the team behind the magnificent Sea Lanes on Brighton Beach.

Pool hoists, a ramp into the pool, and accessible saunas, changing rooms and toilets are available.

You can get a membership — including Swim, or Swim & Sauna options — with the chance to add on a "Wetsuit Concierge" service, meaning they'll have your swim gear washed, dried and ready for your next swim. You don't have to be a member to have a dip — it's £10 per session on a pay-per-swim basis.

Sea Lanes Canary Wharf, Eden Dock, E14 4HJ. Open from 19 June 2026, after which it'll be open year-round.

Wild swimming spots and ponds in London

Prefer your swimming spots with fewer tiles and more ducks? Read on. All are unheated, obviously.

Hampstead Bathing Ponds, Hampstead Heath

Open all year.

Swim in nature on Hampstead Heath. Photo: Matt Brown

The Ladies', Men's and Mixed Bathing Ponds on Hampstead Heath are the stuff of legend, and due to a quirk in the political management of London, Hampstead Heath's ponds are operated by City of London Council, in collaboration with the Parliament Fields Lido (above).

All three are natural bathing ponds (so yes, ducks, yes, weeds, and yes, on the chilly side), but that does mean that they're open to strong swimmers only, age 8+ — and younger swimmers have to do a swimming test to prove their competency before they're allowed in.

Changing room and shower facilities vary between ponds but are generally limited, and there are no locker facilities available at any of the ponds — your local leisure centre this isn't. But for swimming in nature, this is London's finest offering.

Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds. Mixed pond is on the south side of the heath, while the Ladies' and Men's Ponds are towards the eastern side.

Serpentine Lido, Hyde Park

Public swimming summer only.

Take a dip in The Serpentine Image: Oast House Archive via CC BY-SA 2.0

Best-known for its famous Christmas Day swim, the Serpentine Lido is in fact open year-round. At 100m long by 30m wide, it's a whopper — and a beauty too, located in the Serpentine lake and overlooked by the gorgeous pavilion-style cafe and Serpentine Bridge. (Look out for geese though!)

To take part in that festive swim itself, you must be a member of the Serpentine Swimming Club, apparently the oldest club of its kind in Britain. They also hold various other races and events throughout the year.

Serpentine Lido, Hyde Park

If you're more into open water swimming — which comes with its own set of dangers, and should only be attempted by confident swimmers — try West Reservoir Centre in Green Lanes or Beckenham Place Park.

Mapped: London's best lidos and outdoor swimming pools for summer

Find your nearest spot in the capital for a refreshing dip: we've mapped the above pools to help you plan your summer.

Looking for a lido further afield? Take a look at our guide to outdoor pools surrounding London — ideal for a day trip out of the sweltering capital.