Things to do in London this week

Mexican architecture firm LANZA atelier has been chosen to design this 2026 Serpentine Pavilion, which features a ‘crinkle-crankle’ wall. Traditional structures seen in English architecture from the 18th century, these wavy partitions temper climate, create shelter, and are ideal for growing fruit. And fittingly, they’re also known as serpentine walls. The prestigious architectural commission celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2026, with a landmark series of talks programmed in collaboration with the Zaha Hadid Foundation. 

London is a famously green city – nearly half of its many square miles is parks, heaths and other open space. A lot of that open space, though, consists of private squares and gardens, most of which we never get to see, never mind hang out in. London Open Gardens Weekend is here to address that, prising the keys out of the capital’s secretive gatekeepers to fling open more than a hundred secret green spaces. The event exclusively reveals some of the city’s least-seen spaces: historical, traditional, contemporary and experimental, across all four corners (and the middle bit) of London. They include formal gated garden squares, rooftop terraces with commanding views of the city skyline, community allotments and wildlife havens.

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It’s always a pleasure to see folks evolve and mature. With The Golden Tooth, the duo behind puckish scenester bistro Papi have levelled up to gastro greatness. Unlike Papi, The Golden Tooth is simply a pub; the ideal blank canvas for the regal cookery and wondrous wine choices of the Papi chappies, aka chef Matthew Scott and sommelier Charlie Carr. The first menu highlight is chunky beef tartare, bound together with a creamy tonnato dressing, and topped with a gleaming egg yolk. Next comes plump mussels resting provocatively under a silky sheet of semi-sheer lardo, a stargazy pie featuring a prawn’s head poking out of the golden pastry, and a Montgomery cheddar custard tart as wobbly as the very best Basque cheesecake. This is powerful and intense food. The Golden Tooth is truly great.  

There’s something irresistably fascinating about seeing into artist’s studios – messy materials, stacks of canvases, and a peek behind the curtain into the work spaces for some of the world’s best creative minds. To coincide with the Courtauld’s major Barbara Hepworth exhibition, the gallery is running a companion show of photographs taken by Paul Laib offering a look inside Hepworth’s London studio that she shared with Ben Nicholson in the 1930s. 

They grow up so fast! One of London’s best grassroots clubs, The Cause, is turning eight this summer, and to celebrate they will be going hard for a full day at the Docklands venue. First opening in Tottenham Hale in 2018, now the club – known for having some of the best house and techno programming in the city – is now firmly situated in its brilliantly DIY venue at 60 Dock Road in Silvertown. For the big day, world-class DJs like Prosumer, Sweely, Chez Damier and Planetary Assault Systems will be stepping into the booth. Pace yourself: this party, spread over eight different rooms, will go non-stop for 24 hours. 

You might have heard of the Great Exhibition, an extravaganza of world riches and inventions that drew six million visitors to Hyde Park in 1851. Prince Albert used those funds to help develop the V&A, the Natural History Museum, the Royal Albert Hall. The 21st century’s answer to the Great Exhibition returns with many of London’s most esteemed museums coming together to mark the 175th anniversary of the original Great Exhibition. Exhibition Road in South Ken will be closed to cars and come alive with fun interactive experiments, mind-bending technology, music, dance, art, live science shows and parades. Highlights this year include gingerbread and sand recreations of the original crystal palace, robot football, origami spacecraft, giant roaming Indian puppets and a session baking a brownie that mirrors the surface of Mars. Plus, it’s all free to attend. 

As the sun goes down this summer, explore after hours at London Zoo for an unmissable evening, that's just for adults. From 6 pm every Friday evening in June and July, guests are invited to come and see the Zoo in a different light, without the kids around.

Explore a world of wildlife in the heart of the city with talks, games and over 8,500 amazing animals. After you’ve worked up an appetite, discover the street food market serving up fantastic flavours from across the globe, with plenty of choice for herbivores and carnivores. Then grab a drink from one of the watering holes or the cocktail garden and chill out surrounded by relaxing music.

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The sign from the London Astoria, the sound monitor from the Haçienda and the hefty metal doors from The End are just some of the relics you can see at the V&A’s new display that shines a light on some of the UK’s closed-down music venues. Compiled from an open call-out, the museum has curated a free exhibition that spotlights 50 former independent venues through more than 150 objects, including photographs, band merch, clothing, flyers and posters. It also explains the issues facing grassroots nightlife while managing not to be preachy about them. After completing an interactive quiz at the end of the exhibit, you’ll be sent on your merry way to your next night out at one of five UK venues – long may they live!

Peckham Fringe returns for its fifth year with over 20 productions created by local artists and members of Peckham’s community, scheduled across five weekends in May and June. Split between Theatre Peckham and Canada, expect plenty of inventive, enthralling storytelling from the eclectic programme, with plays addressing everything from Filipino migration, radicalisation, AI therapy and protest. Check out the full line-up here. 

Be warned: you will almost certainly leave Power Ballad unable to get the title song and its catchy chorus out of your head. In fact, this cheerful earworm could be the movie’s most memorable element. That said, there’s always space for an easygoing comedy-drama like this one. Who wouldn’t want to spend a couple of hours with Paul Rudd in melting-down mode?Director John Carney, who co-wrote the script with Peter McDonald, doesn’t stray far from the modest dreams of his own global smash, the 2006 musical romance Once. But if Power Ballad is too slick to recreate that film’s organic authenticity, it does benefit from the extra polish. This is a crowd-pleasing wedding band of a movie, but a high-quality one. 

In cinemas worldwide Fri May 29.

Entertainment people Ralph are putting on four pumping summer parties between June and September. The brand’s yard will fill with music and entertainment for the occasions with 60-second portraits from cult artists, catering from the likes of Max’s Sandwich Shop and Four Legs, pizza from Homeslice, DJ sets from Alexis Hot Chip and Third Man Records, and a never-ending supply of alcoholic and soft drinks. And get this: it’s free entry, free food and free drinks the entire evening. How on earth could you say no to that? Just reserve a spot here. 

The National Portrait Gallery’s summer 2026 exhibition is turning the spotlight on one of the twentieth century’s biggest icons. Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait will be a real blockbuster, exploring the legacy of one of Hollywood’s most alluring figures through works by some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists and photographers, including Andy Warhol, Cecil Beaton, Marlene Dumas, Milton Greene and Eve Arnold. 

Tucked inside the Pan Pacific London hotel, Ginger Lily Bar & Lounge makes a very good case for slowing down over the weekend. Available on Fridays and Saturdays, the experience pairs elegant surroundings with half a bottle of Taittinger champagne, served as sunlight pours through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

On the table, expect freshly baked scones, delicate pastries and neat finger sandwiches prepared by the pastry team. A selection of Newby teas and tea-infused mocktails rounds things off nicely, creating an easy, indulgent way to spend an afternoon in the City.

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Founded by local artists in 2025, Hackney Art Week is back, and this year it’s bigger than ever. Over 10 days, the extravaganza will host exhibitions, markets, workshops, performances, immersive installations, street parties and even an art treasure hunt, bringing together 60 artists and creatives at 50 venues across Dalston, Clapton, London Fields, De Beauvoir, Stoke Newington, Haggerston and Hackney Wick. Venues involved include Raleigh Chapel, Chats Palace, The Rose Lipman Building, St Augustine’s Tower, ESEACC at The Old Bath House, as well as pubs, bakeries, delis and other much-loved Hackney spots. 

‘Surreal’ is a word that, through a century of overuse, has lost most of its original meaning. Sci-fi horror Backrooms is a very accurate sense, utterly surreal. Its landscape is a vast, labyrinthine interior of harshly lit, mustard-tinted rooms and corridors, where furniture and unexpected objects meld disturbingly with the floors, walls and low ceilings. The film mirrors the way our subconscious slightly misremembers mundane architecture in dreams, with its masterful production design weaving a netherworld of soulless, sunless office spaces in which horrible things could lurk around any of its infinite blind corners. Think Stranger Things’ Upside Down by way of Severance. It’s hard not to recommend as a genuinely surreal horror experience. This is very much a journey into the heart of the uncanny valley.

In cinemas worldwide Fri May 29.

Coinciding with London Gallery Week in which more than 100 of the city’s contemporary galleries are offering free entry, Mount Street’s resident creatives are putting on a fortnight of art, publishing, fashion and food. Among the goings on, publishers Thames & Hudson will set up a pop-up bookshop with rare and vintage editions, signed and limited runs and a lineup of talks, signings and events with authors and artists, artist Kathryn Maple will lead a public sketching workshop in Mount Street Gardens and By Walid will display a tremendous collection of homeware, sculpture and clothing made entirely from salvaged materials. 

Two-time RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon has touched down in London to play icon of the silver screen, Judy Garland. If you’re a fan, you’ve probably seen Monsoon impersonate Garland before, but this is a different thing entirely, because End of the Rainbow is a proper two-act play (by Peter Quilter). There’s zero audience interaction, but a handful of songs breaking up what is in fact the pretty depressing story of Garland’s demise. Quilter’s play is set months before Garland’s early death in 1969 from an accidental drug overdose. Monsoon earns her stripes as Judy. Impish and sassy, but with a slow drawl, she reels off stories from her past with glee. In Jinkx Monsoon, another star rises.

Could the West End transfer of Ava Pickett’s 1536 really live up to all the hype? The answer, thankfully, is: yes, and then some. Co-produced with Margot Robbie’s production company, director Lyndsey Turner has crafted a heady, sensory experience, one that is jolted forward by faultless performances from the female leads. The 110-minute one-act run time might raise eyebrows, yet the show never loses pace, and refuses to overcook things either. 1536 is a once-in-a-blue-moon theatrical experience. I laughed. I cried. I probably could have screamed too. Pickett’s play is a tour de force, and 1536 one of those theatrical moments that stays with you for a very long time.

Celebrate the Year of the Horse in Chinatown with a feast that keeps the good fortune flowing. Tucked in the heart of Chinatown, Leongs Legend is a long-running Taiwanese favourite offering 45 percent off its bottomless dim sum and prosecco brunch, with 90 minutes of unlimited handmade dumplings and a glass of fizz from a very enticing £24.95. Expect plent of baskets (over 40 dishes) of xiao long bao, and a lively, teahouse-style setting that makes it an obvious pick for ringing in the lunar celebrations with friends.

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If you’ll always carry a torch for your teenage celeb crush, then this one’s for you. From the internet’s impact on beauty trends to all things cute and cuddly, Somerset House has a history of delving into contemporary pop cultural trends with its exhibition programming, and it continues in a similar vein with its spring 2026 exhibition. In Holy Pop! Somerset House will explore the power of fandom and the world of modern shrines. Through art, memorabilia, letters, photographs, and interactive installations, the pay what you can exhibition will uncover the rituals of idolisation, showing how fandom shapes identity, values, and community.