This weekSat 5 to Fri 11 SeptemberUpdated Fri 4 Sep, 22:58
Things to do in London this week: Sat 5 to Fri 11 September
Seven days of London: gigs, openings, exhibitions, one-night things. Rewritten every Monday.
Rewritten every Monday for the week ahead. Book the top of the list, walk into the rest.
Write the week’s opening here: what is on, what is new, what closes on Sunday.
Saturday
5 September-
Markets Free
Totally Thames: river festival, whole programme
Until 30 Sep
A month of walks, boat trips, art on the foreshore and one super-choir on the river. Most of it costs nothing and needs no booking.
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Food and drink From £5
Late night food: Brick Lane Beigel Bake
Until 30 Sep
Open every hour of every day. Salt beef with mustard and pickle at 03:00 is the correct order and the queue moves fast.
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Sport From £4.50
Open air swimming at Hampstead Ponds
Until 30 Sep
September is the good month: the water is still warm from August and the summer crowds have gone. Cash or the app at the gate.
-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Museum of London Docklands
Until 30 Sep
A Georgian warehouse on the quay with the best account of the docks and the slave trade in the city. Always free, rarely busy on a weekday.
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Comedy From £15
Comedy at the Soho Theatre
Until 20 Sep
Three rooms, most shows an hour, tickets from fifteen pounds. The downstairs bar runs late. Book the 21:30 slot if you want the room that has already had a drink.
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Theatre From £15 Selling fast
Old Vic evening performance
Until 27 Sep
Day seats go on sale at 10:00 online and there are usually returns at the box office an hour before curtain.
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Free
Crossrail Place Roof Garden
Until 4 Sep
A garden under a timber lattice roof on top of the station, planted either side of the meridian with species from the hemisphere they belong to. Free, open early, and covered.
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Sport Free
Dogs on Hampstead Heath
Until 4 Sep
Eight hundred acres, off lead almost everywhere, and the one swimming pond dogs are allowed in is not one of the bathing ponds. Busiest at the Parliament Hill end on a weekend morning.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Westminster Cathedral
Until 4 Sep
Neo Byzantine, still unfinished above the arches, and free to walk into. The campanile lift is ticketed and gives one of the least crowded views in central London.
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Food and drink Free
Leadenhall Market
Until 4 Sep
A Victorian covered market in cream and burgundy, free to walk through and open to the street. Busy with the City at lunch and almost empty at the weekend, which is when to photograph it.
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Free
Parliament Hill viewpoint
Until 4 Sep
A protected view all the way to the City, which is why nothing is allowed to be built in front of it. Ten minutes up from Gospel Oak and worth doing an hour before sunset.
-
Sport Free
Dogs in Richmond Park
Until 4 Sep
The largest of the royal parks and the one with the deer, which is why dogs must be on a lead in May and June and in September and October. The gates open and close with the light.
-
Sport Free
Dogs in Battersea Park
Until 4 Sep
Flat, walled, and small enough to do a full circuit in half an hour, with the river along one side and a cafe at each end. The one park on this list you can reach on foot from a station.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Southwark Cathedral
Until 4 Sep
Free, next door to the market, and almost always empty by comparison. Shakespeare's brother is buried here and there is a memorial to the man himself along the south aisle.
-
Free
St Dunstan in the East
Until 4 Sep
A Wren church bombed in 1941 and left as a ruin with a garden planted inside it. Free, open from eight, and quietest before the City arrives. The tower is still standing.
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Free
St James’s Park, free all day
Until 4 Sep
The oldest of the royal parks and the one with the pelicans, fed near Duck Island in the afternoon. The bridge gives the view down the lake to Horse Guards that ends up on the postcards.
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Free
The Italian Gardens, Kensington Gardens
Until 4 Sep
Four basins and a pump house Albert built for Victoria, at the Lancaster Gate corner of the park. Best in the hour before the fountains go off for the night, when the light comes across the water.
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Free
The Kyoto Garden, Holland Park
Until 4 Sep
A Japanese garden given to the borough in 1991, with koi, a waterfall and peacocks that have no fear of anyone. Free, and quietest before the school run ends.
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Sport Free
Towpath walk: Paddington Basin to Little Venice
Until 4 Sep
Twenty minutes of canal that most people who work here never walk. Comes out at the pool where three waterways meet, with the narrowboats and the puppet theatre barge.
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Exhibitions From £32
Churchill War Rooms
Until 4 Sep
The bunker left as it was on the day it closed in 1945, down to the pins in the map. Book a slot: it sells out, and the queue on the day is outdoors.
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Exhibitions From £30
Westminster Abbey
Until 4 Sep
Ticketed for sightseeing, free if you come to a service, and Evensong is sung most weekday afternoons in term. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries are up in the triforium, which most visitors miss.
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Free
Carnaby Street and the courts
Until 4 Sep
The street itself takes five minutes; Kingly Court behind it takes an afternoon. Three floors of a courtyard with the roof open in summer and closed in winter.
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Exhibitions From £24
Frameless
Until 4 Sep
Four rooms of projected painting, floor to ceiling, under Marble Arch. Permanent rather than a touring show, so there is no rush, and quietest in the first hour of the day.
-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Kenwood House
Until 4 Sep
A Robert Adam house at the top of the Heath with a Rembrandt self portrait and a Vermeer in it, and no admission charge. The library is the room people stand in longest.
-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the Design Museum
Until 4 Sep
The permanent collection upstairs costs nothing and takes about an hour. The building is the old Commonwealth Institute, and the roof is worth standing under before you look at anything.
-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the Natural History Museum
Until 4 Sep
Free, permanent, and busiest between eleven and three. Go at opening or after four and Hintze Hall is almost yours. Timed tickets are free but worth booking at the weekend.
-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the Science Museum
Until 4 Sep
The permanent galleries cost nothing. Making the Modern World runs the whole length of the ground floor and is the one to see if you only have an hour.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the V and A
Until 4 Sep
Seven miles of gallery, free, and nobody sees it all. The cast courts and the John Madejski Garden are the two most people remember, and the garden is a good place to stop rather than leave.
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Exhibitions From £25
Kensington Palace and the sunken garden
Until 4 Sep
The state apartments are ticketed, but the sunken garden outside them is free and is the bit most people photograph. Go on a weekday morning and the King's Staircase is almost empty.
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Free
Leake Street Arches, the legal graffiti tunnel
Until 4 Sep
A road tunnel under the station where painting the walls is allowed, so it looks different every week. Bring a torch for the far end and expect the smell of aerosol.
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Exhibitions From £11
Leighton House, the Arab Hall
Until 4 Sep
A Victorian painter built himself a house with a domed hall of Damascus tiles in it, and it is still there. Small, so an hour does it, and rarely busy.
-
Exhibitions Free
Outernet London
Until 4 Sep
Four storeys of screen wrapped around a public hall by Tottenham Court Road station, free to walk into. What is on changes constantly; five minutes is usually enough.
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Free
Sky Garden
Until 4 Sep
Three floors of planted terrace at the top of the Walkie Talkie, free but booked in advance and the slots go about three weeks out. Sunset slots go first. Photo identification on the door.
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Free
Street art on Brick Lane
Until 4 Sep
The walls change every few weeks, so the walk is different from the one anybody photographed last year. Start at the Truman Brewery and work north up the side streets.
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Free
The floating pocket park, Merchant Square
Until 4 Sep
A garden built on a pontoon in the basin, open to anyone. Small, and that is rather the point: it is a place to sit on the water in the middle of a building site of a neighbourhood.
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Sport From £34
Turkish baths at Porchester Spa
Until 4 Sep
A 1929 Turkish and Russian bath house run by the council, so it costs a fraction of the spa hotels. Check which days are mixed and which are single sex before you go, because it changes through the week.
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Exhibitions From £45
The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience
Until 4 Sep
The television set rebuilt under Shaftesbury Avenue, played in teams of up to eight with a maze master shouting at you. Ninety minutes, and you do need to book.
-
Food and drink From £14
Crazy golf at Swingers, West End
Until 4 Sep
Two nine hole courses under a glass roof with street food traders around the edge. Over 18s in the evening, and booking is effectively required at the weekend.
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Talks From £12
Planetarium show at the Royal Observatory
Until 4 Sep
The only planetarium in London, in a cone of bronze angled at the pole star, with a live astronomer rather than a recording. Shows run through the day and last about half an hour.
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Food and drink From £6
The Spaniards Inn
Until 4 Sep
A 1585 coaching inn at the top of the Heath with a walled garden, a dog wash at the door and a long history of letting them in. Low beams, so mind your head rather than the dog.
-
Gigs Free
Free lunchtime concert at St Martin-in-the-Fields
Until 25 Sep
Free classical recitals most weekday lunchtimes, no booking, retiring collection. Forty-five minutes and the best-value hour in central London.
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Food and drink From £6
Netil360 rooftop, Hackney
Until 4 Sep
A roof above a car park in London Fields with the whole City skyline lined up in front of it. Small, so it fills on a warm evening; the view is the reason rather than the drinks list.
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Food and drink From £12
Darts at Flight Club, Shoreditch
Until 4 Sep
Darts with the scoring done for you and a camera on the board, booked by the oche rather than the person. Cheaper before six and on a weekday, and it does run late.
-
Clubs From £6
Rooftop at the Bussey Building
Until 4 Sep
Peckham's roof bar, up several flights above the old cricket bat factory, looking back at the city from the south. Runs late at the weekend and the yard below keeps going after it shuts.
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Food and drink From £6
The George Inn, the last galleried coaching inn
Until 4 Sep
The only galleried coaching inn left in London, owned by the National Trust and still working as a pub. The yard fills early on a warm evening.
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Free
Evening at the Brompton Oratory
Until 4 Sep
An enormous Italianate interior a minute from the museums, free to walk into, and almost always quiet. Sung services are listed on the door.
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Gigs Free
Southbank Centre: free foyer music
Until 27 Sep
Free live music in the Clore Ballroom most evenings, no ticket, and the bar overlooks the river. Turn up and sit on the steps.
-
Sport From £12
Public skating at Queens Ice and Bowl
Until 4 Sep
A full size rink under Queensway, open sessions most of the day and into the evening. Skate hire is included in the session price. Book ahead at weekends, because it fills with birthday parties.
-
Free
Evening walk: Kensington Gardens to the Round Pond
Until 4 Sep
The pond sits on the axis of the palace, so the view back at it in low light is the one the garden was laid out to give you. Twenty minutes from the High Street.
-
Theatre From £25
Official London Theatre Week
Until 13 Sep
Fixed price seats across most West End houses for the fortnight, booked through the official site with no fee. The cheapest bands go first and the best seats are usually midweek.
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Free
Stargazing in Richmond Park
Until 31 Oct
The darkest sky inside London, far enough from the centre that the Milky Way is occasionally there. The park closes at dusk in winter, so this is a late summer and autumn thing.
-
Free
Waterloo Bridge at dusk
Until 4 Sep
The only crossing with both the City and Westminster in one turn of the head. Built largely by women during the war, which is why it is sometimes called the Ladies Bridge.
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Film Late
Rooftop cinema season, last screenings
Until 13 Sep
The last two weekends of the outdoor season. Take a coat, the roof is colder than the walk there suggests.
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Free
Stargazing on Hampstead Heath
Until 4 Sep
As dark as central London gets, which is not very, but Parliament Hill has the horizon and the local society runs public evenings on the hill through the winter. Take a torch and a coat.
-
Free
Chiswick House and Gardens
The gardens are free and open daily, the villa is ticketed and seasonal. The conservatory camellias are the February reason to come.
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Free
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Five hundred acres of parkland around the venues, free, with the waterways and the ArcelorMittal Orbit in the middle of it.
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Food and drink From £25 return
A day in Brighton
Until 4 Sep
An hour from Victoria or London Bridge and the most reliable seaside day out from London. The Lanes when it rains, the pier when it does not, and the last train back is late.
-
Food and drink Free
Brixton Village and Market Row
Covered arcades of small kitchens and shops off Coldharbour Lane. Busiest from six, and it runs late for a market.
-
Markets Free
Broadway Market
Saturday street market with London Fields alongside it for the afternoon and the good bookshop at the top of the street.
-
Markets Free
Portobello Road Market
The Saturday antiques market is the famous one and runs the length of the road. Go before eleven or accept the crowd.
-
Markets Free
Ridley Road Market
A working street market, not a curated one: fruit and veg, fabric, fish, and prices that are not aimed at visitors.
-
Food and drink From £30 return
A day in Whitstable
Until 4 Sep
An hour and twenty from St Pancras or Victoria, oysters on the harbour and a shingle beach with the huts on it. Go on a weekday: the town is small and summer weekends fill it.
-
Food and drink Free
Battersea Power Station
The turbine halls reopened as shops and kitchens, with the chimney lift if you want the view. The river walk outside is free.
-
Food and drink Free
Coal Drops Yard
Victorian coal sheds rebuilt as shops and kitchens, with the canal on one side and Granary Square on the other.
-
Theatre From £15
Day seats and returns in the West End
Until 13 Sep
Most houses hold a few seats back for the morning of the show at the box office. Turn up at ten, expect a queue for anything popular, and take cash for the smaller theatres.
-
Markets Free
Greenwich Market
Under a Victorian roof, trading most days, and the best of the London markets for actual presents rather than mulled wine.
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Exhibitions From £14
Handel Hendrix House
Two musicians, two centuries apart, in adjoining Mayfair houses. Handel wrote Messiah here and Hendrix lived next door.
-
Markets Free
Maltby Street Market
A narrow run of arches near Bermondsey doing some of the best street food in London. Smaller and considerably less crowded than Borough.
-
Exhibitions Free
Saatchi Gallery: free entry
Contemporary art off the King's Road, free to the permanent displays, with ticketed shows alongside.
-
Exhibitions From £14
The Foundling Museum
The story of the Foundling Hospital, and Hogarth and Handel's part in it. One of the most affecting small museums in the city.
-
Exhibitions Free
White Cube Bermondsey: free entry
One of the largest commercial galleries in Europe, free to walk into, on Bermondsey Street.
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Free
A walk through Hampstead village
Until 4 Sep
Lanes that were a hill village before London reached them, and still read like one above the high street. Flask Walk and Holly Mount are the two to take if you only take two.
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Seasonal From £11
Alexandra Palace ice rink
A permanent rink inside the palace, open most of the year rather than only at Christmas, which makes it the reliable one.
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Talks From £14
Highgate Cemetery: guided tour of the West side
Until 27 Sep
The West side is guided access only, twelve to a group, and the guides are the reason to go. Book ahead; the weekend slots fill a week out.
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Exhibitions From £14
Strawberry Hill House
Horace Walpole's gothic villa, white and battlemented, with a flower festival each September that caps numbers.
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Free
Walking the heath to Greenwich Park
Across the open heath and down through the park to the river, about forty minutes, with the best view in south London on the way.
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Food and drink From £35
Bottomless brunch in Soho
Until 4 Sep
More bottomless brunch per square yard than anywhere in London, and the offers change often enough that the street is the reliable part rather than any one room. Book: Saturdays go.
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Food and drink From £28
Bottomless brunch in Brixton
Until 4 Sep
The market halls do it best and cheapest, and you can walk between three sittings in five minutes if the first is full. Two hours is the usual limit.
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Food and drink Free
Mercato Metropolitano
A former paper factory turned food market, with a bar in the middle and space to sit, which is rarer than it sounds.
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Food and drink Free to walk
The Bermondsey Beer Mile
Saturday is the day nearly all the brewery taprooms in the arches open at once. Start at the South Bermondsey end and walk north, and drink halves.
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Free
Riverside walk to Chiswick
West from Hammersmith Bridge past three old pubs on the water. Flat, about an hour, and better at low tide.
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Food and drink From £10
Ping pong at Bounce, Old Street
Until 4 Sep
Tables by the hour in a basement that used to be a ping pong hall, which is a rare thing to be able to say. Loud after nine and quiet before seven.
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Exhibitions Free
Tate Modern: late opening
Tate Modern now stays open to nine every Friday and Saturday, free, which turns the Turbine Hall into the best free evening on the South Bank.
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Theatre From £10
Almeida Theatre
Three hundred seats off Upper Street, and a hit rate that larger houses would like. Day seats go online in the morning.
-
Film From £14
A screening at the BFI IMAX
Until 4 Sep
The biggest screen in the country, in a glass drum in the middle of a roundabout. Worth it for something shot on film stock, less so for anything upscaled.
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Clubs From £18
Jazz Cafe: late night session
The club night after the gig, Friday and Saturday, running to three. Camden Town station shuts before it ends, so the Northern line Night Tube from Mornington Crescent or a walk to Chalk Farm.
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Clubs Varies
Dalston late: the Windrush line runs through
Dalston runs later than almost anywhere in London on a weeknight, and the Windrush line on the Overground runs overnight at weekends.
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Gigs From £12
Ronnie Scott’s: the Late Late Show
The late show at Frith Street starts about a quarter past eleven and runs to three on Friday and Saturday. Cheaper than the main sitting: twelve pounds in advance, more on the door, half price for students.
Sunday
6 September-
Markets Free
Columbia Road Flower Market
Sunday only. Go at 08:00 for the choice or after 14:00 for the shouting and the two-for-a-tenner end of the day.
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Free
Marble Hill and the river
A Palladian villa in parkland on the Thames, free grounds, and the foot ferry to Ham House on the other bank.
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Free
Wimbledon Common
Eleven hundred acres of it, with the windmill museum in the middle and enough paths to get properly lost.
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Exhibitions From £30 return
A day in Margate
Until 4 Sep
An hour and a half from St Pancras. Turner Contemporary is free, the sand is the best within reach of London, and the old town is a short walk from the station.
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Markets Free
Alexandra Palace farmers market
Sunday morning on the terrace with the whole city below it. Free to walk round.
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Markets Free
Blackheath farmers market
Sunday morning by the station, at the edge of the heath. Small, and the walk across to Greenwich afterwards is the point.
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Markets Free
Brick Lane Sunday Market
Several markets at once through the Truman Brewery and the yards around it, plus vintage halls and street food. Before eleven if you want to move.
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Talks Free
Little Venice to Camden canal walk
An hour and a half along the towpath past the zoo aviary and out at Camden Lock. Flat, free, and better on a Sunday morning before the market fills.
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Exhibitions From £18
Royal Observatory Greenwich
The Prime Meridian, the time ball and a planetarium. Ticketed, though the park and the view below it are free.
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From £13
Chelsea Physic Garden
London's oldest botanic garden, walled and hidden behind the Embankment. Small, and the point is to sit in it.
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Exhibitions From £9
Museum of Brands
A tunnel of consumer packaging from the Victorians to now, which is far more interesting than it sounds.
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Pick Markets Free
Tidefest at Strand on the Green
Free river festival on the foreshore: kayaking and paddleboarding taster sessions, boat trips, dance workshops and a street party. The road closes at 11:30 and the party runs one until four, with games and art for children through the afternoon.
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Exhibitions Free
Barbican Conservatory, Sunday opening
Two thousand species of plant under glass above the theatre, open only on selected Sundays. Free but you book a slot, and they go on the Wednesday before.
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Food and drink From £30
Bottomless brunch in Shoreditch
Until 4 Sep
Cheaper than Soho and longer sittings, mostly around Redchurch Street and the Boundary. Sundays run into the evening here in a way they do not further west.
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Free
Granary Square fountains and the canal
A thousand fountains in the square, the steps down to the canal, and the walk east to Camden along the towpath. Free.
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Food and drink Varies
Strand on the Green
Three old pubs on the towpath at Chiswick, best at high tide when the water comes up to the doorsteps.
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Food and drink From £11
Bowling at All Star Lanes, Brick Lane
Until 4 Sep
Four lanes in a basement done out as an American diner, which sounds worse than it is. Booked by the lane for up to eight, and the kitchen runs as late as the bowling.
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Free
Elephant Park in the evening
The new park at the centre of the redevelopment, with the older estate around it. Free, and the best place locally to sit outside.
Monday
7 September-
Exhibitions From £28 return
A day in Oxford
Until 4 Sep
An hour from Paddington or Marylebone. The Ashmolean and the Pitt Rivers are both free, and most colleges let visitors in for a few pounds in the afternoon.
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Free
Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace
Until 4 Sep
Free, and busier than anything else on this list. It does not run every day and it is called off in bad weather, so check the Household Division calendar the morning you go.
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Food and drink From £7
Lower Marsh Market
Until 4 Sep
A weekday street market that has been there since the 1850s, now mostly hot food at lunch. Quieter and cheaper than Borough, and five minutes from the same trains.
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Food and drink From £8
Lunchtime in Leadenhall Market
Until 4 Sep
The traders under the roof are mostly food at midday, and the pubs put their tables out under the ironwork. Weekdays only: most of it shuts by early evening and all of it at the weekend.
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Gigs Free
Free lunchtime concert at St Martin-in-the-Fields
A free lunchtime concert on Trafalgar Square with a retiring collection. No booking, no ticket, and frequently excellent.
Tuesday
8 September-
Exhibitions From £26 return
A day in Cambridge
Until 4 Sep
Fifty minutes from King's Cross, which makes it the closest of the university towns. The Fitzwilliam is free and punting is the thing everyone does and nobody regrets.
-
Gigs Free
Free lunchtime concert at St Martin-in-the-Fields
A free lunchtime concert on Trafalgar Square with a retiring collection. No booking, no ticket, and frequently excellent.
-
Theatre From £25
Evening performance at the Victoria Palace Theatre
Until 4 Sep
A Matcham house from 1911, restored to the gilt and then some. Day seats and returns go at the box office in the morning, which is the cheapest way in.
Wednesday
9 September-
Food and drink From £8
Borough Market, full market days
Until 4 Sep
The full market runs Wednesday to Saturday, and Wednesday is the one where you can actually reach a stall. Monday and Tuesday are limited, which catches people out.
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Exhibitions Free
The Fitzrovia Chapel, open to visitors
Until 4 Sep
All that survives of the Middlesex Hospital: a gold mosaic chapel standing on its own in a new square. Free, and open on set days in the middle of the week rather than daily, so check before crossing town.
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Food and drink Free
Exmouth Market street food
Weekday lunch stalls along a pedestrianised street, with the permanent restaurants either side of them.
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Free
The Rolling Bridge at Merchant Square
Until 4 Sep
Thomas Heatherwick's footbridge curls up into an octagon instead of lifting. It runs to a published timetable posted at the square, and the whole thing takes about three minutes.
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Theatre From £25
Evening performance at the Apollo Victoria
Until 4 Sep
An art deco cinema turned musical house, and one of the few West End auditoriums where the building is worth arriving early for. Straight across from the station.
Thursday
10 September-
Pick Exhibitions From £25 Sold out
The Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum
Until 11 Jul
Seventy metres of it, in Britain for the first time in nine hundred years, opening on the 10th and staying until July. The first release, to 31 December, has sold out; tickets for January to March go on sale on 21 October. The last weekday slot in term time is the cheap one at twenty-five pounds rather than thirty-three.
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Exhibitions Free
Museum of the Order of St John: free entry
Free, and behind a Tudor gatehouse most people walk past. The story of the Order and of the ambulance service that came out of it.
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Exhibitions From £18 Selling fast
Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival
Until 13 Sep
Florists from across the country fill Horace Walpole's gothic villa with installations for four days. Numbers are capped to protect the building, so book rather than turn up. Adults thirty pounds, students twenty-three, children eighteen.
-
Exhibitions Free
Wellcome Collection: free entry
Free, on Euston Road, and the best small exhibitions programme in London. Open late on Thursdays.
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Exhibitions From £10
Fashion and Textile Museum
Zandra Rhodes's bright pink museum on Bermondsey Street, with a changing exhibition programme rather than a permanent collection.
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Food and drink From £6
A pint at the Fitzroy Tavern
The pub that gave the district its name, and the one Dylan Thomas and George Orwell drank in. No music and no screens, which is either the point or the problem depending on your evening.
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Theatre
Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House
Until 15 Oct
Mozart at Covent Garden through to the middle of October. Day seats and standing places go on sale online in the morning and are a fraction of the stalls price.
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Theatre From £12
Battersea Arts Centre
The old town hall on Lavender Hill, rebuilt after the 2015 fire, and the place a lot of British theatre is made before it tours.
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Theatre From £15
Lyric Hammersmith: evening performance
A Victorian auditorium rebuilt inside a modern shell, with a studio upstairs and a long record of taking risks.
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Theatre From £15
New Wimbledon Theatre
An Edwardian house on the Broadway taking the big touring productions, with the circle cheaper and the sightlines fine.
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Theatre From £12
Royal Court Theatre: evening performance
The house that puts on new writing before anywhere else in London, on Sloane Square. Cheaper seats upstairs in the Jerwood Theatre.
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Theatre From £15
Sadler’s Wells East
The dance house's east London building, on the Olympic park, with a programme that leans younger than Rosebery Avenue.
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Theatre From £15
Sadler’s Wells: evening performance
The dance house of record in Britain, on Rosebery Avenue, with the Lilian Baylis studio for the smaller work.
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Theatre From £15
Southwark Playhouse Elephant
A purpose-built theatre that opened in 2023, two rooms, and consistently more interesting than its size suggests.
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Theatre From £16
Wilton’s Music Hall: evening show
Until 20 Sep
The oldest surviving grand music hall in the world, down an alley behind Cable Street. Go for the room as much as the show, and get there early for the Mahogany Bar.
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Theatre From £30
Evening performance at the Menier Chocolate Factory
Until 4 Sep
A small house in a Victorian factory that sends more work to the West End than its size suggests. The dinner and show ticket is decent value and the room seats under two hundred.
Friday
11 September-
Exhibitions From £18 Selling fast
Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival
Until 13 Sep
Florists from across the country fill Horace Walpole's gothic villa with installations for four days. Numbers are capped to protect the building, so book rather than turn up. Adults thirty pounds, students twenty-three, children eighteen.
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From £40 return
A weekend in the Cotswolds
Until 4 Sep
Moreton-in-Marsh is ninety minutes direct from Paddington and you can walk out of the station into the countryside, which is not true of most of them. Book beds well ahead in summer.
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Exhibitions Varies
Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House on Piccadilly, open late on Fridays, with the courtyard free to walk into whatever is on inside.
-
Gigs Free
Free lunchtime concert at St Martin-in-the-Fields
A free lunchtime concert on Trafalgar Square with a retiring collection. No booking, no ticket, and frequently excellent.
-
Food and drink Free
Peckham Levels
Six floors of a multi-storey car park turned into kitchens, studios and a bar, with the roof above it.
-
Food and drink Varies
Clerkenwell after work
The design district empties of studios at six and fills with people eating. Quiet at the weekend, which is the appeal.
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Film From £15
Electric Cinema, Portobello
One of the oldest working cinemas in the country, with armchairs and footstools instead of seats.
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Exhibitions Free
Late opening: National Gallery on Friday
The National Gallery stays open to nine every Friday and the rooms are close to empty after seven. Free, and the best way to see the collection.
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Film From £9
Ritzy Picturehouse, Brixton
The old picture house on Windrush Square, five screens, and a bar upstairs that has been part of Brixton's evening for decades.
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Exhibitions Free
Tate Modern: late opening
Tate Modern now stays open to nine every Friday and Saturday, free, which turns the Turbine Hall into the best free evening on the South Bank.
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Film From £9
Rio Cinema, Dalston
A 1915 art deco cinema on Kingsland High Street, independent and still doing late shows.
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Gigs Varies
Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith
The art deco hall that has taken the big touring shows since 1932. Doors usually at seven, and Hammersmith station is a two-minute walk.
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Gigs From £15
Kings Place: evening concert
Two halls behind the Guardian building, with a classical and jazz programme and a canal-side bar.
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Gigs Varies
Union Chapel
A working Victorian chapel that is also one of the best rooms in London to hear anything acoustic. Pews, so bring a cushion.
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Comedy Selling fast
Jimmy Carr: Laughs Funny
Until 13 Sep
Three nights at the Palladium on the current tour. Not the room for anyone who dislikes being spoken to from the stage.
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Clubs Varies
Brixton late: the Victoria line runs all night
Brixton is one of the few places in south London that genuinely works at three in the morning, because the Victoria line runs overnight on Friday and Saturday.
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Clubs From £18
Jazz Cafe: late night session
The club night after the gig, running to three. Camden Town station shuts at busy times, so plan on Mornington Crescent or the walk to Chalk Farm.
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Gigs From £12
Ronnie Scott’s: the Late Late Show
The late show at Frith Street starts about a quarter past eleven and runs to three on Friday and Saturday. Cheaper than the main sitting: twelve pounds in advance, more on the door, half price for students.
Free this week
All free eventsRunning late
Everything after 23:00Listings are checked by us before they go in and re-checked when this page is rewritten. Times and prices can change on the night; the venue link on each event is the one to trust. How we choose what goes in.