London

Parks, gardens and animals
Spring has sprung and so spend the weekend outdoors revelling in the atmosphere of renewal – whether you want to sit in a park, find a secret garden – or create your own verdant paradise with a trip to one of London's best garden centres.

To see Easter in action take a trip to one of London's city farms and bask in the season of spring chickens and baby lambs. Meanwhile London Zoo's exciting new Animal Adventure attraction opens at Easter, promising a chance for children to immerse themselves in the sights, sounds and smells of the animal kingdom. Feature continues

Free Easter events
Easter is the perfect occasion for Londoners to explore the city for free. Go on one of our spring walks, or head down to the London Eye, where they're re-imagining London landmarks in chocolate. To witness an alternative Good Friday tradition, head east to the Widow's Son Inn for the annual Hot Cross Bun Ceremony – a quirky tradition that involves adding to a collection of 150-year-old buns.
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Museums and attractions
Kew Gardens is always a safe bet, especially as Kew Palace opens again on April 10. Also recently reopened, the Monument's 311 steps give you some of the best views of London. There's a ton of spring exhibions in London's major museums, including Darwin, Shah 'Abbas and  Baroque, while inventive kids will love Wallace & Gromit at the Science Museum. For something more Easter bonnet-oriented, then head to the Stephen Jones-curated Hats at the V&A, for an eclectic headgear retrospective.
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Art
London has already enjoyed some world-class art shows this year; highlights include Picasso at the National Gallery and Gerhard Richter round the corner at the National Portrait Gallery. Recent openings include Turner and Rothko at Tate Britain, and Sickert in Venice at Dulwich Picture Gallery.
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Family-friendly Easter events
Circus lovers should head to Zippo's Circus, who pitch up on Blackheath with their travelling horse-drawn ensemble. Fans of wookies and orchestras should get themselves to the O2 for the premiere of cinema-meets-classical music extravaganza Star Wars: a Musical Journey. Creative kids will love the Barbican's Animate the World festival. We've also got a round up of the best Easter egg hunts in London.
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Food and drink
Supersize your standard weekend pub routine and head for a London gastropub. The Charles Lamb has everything that a neighbourhood boozer should, plus excellent reasonably priced grub, while the Bull & Last has 'Heath-side brews and rustic cooking. Narrow is an old dockmaster’s house given a professional polish by Team Gordon Ramsay.
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Easter clubbing
Start the weekend as you mean to go on with Thursday night's Secret Sundaze event, where they've got the hotly anticipated UK debut of 'A Critical Mass' by Innervisions, and the mighty Horse Meat Disco. Saturday night's epic Tranz-Mission 2009 - The Return keeps the momentum going, while Circo Loco take over legendary venue Heaven on Sunday.
More in our clubbing roundup