Things to do in London this week

Another hotly anticipated FIFA World Cup is here, along with all the thrills, spills, soaring highs and beer-soaked disappointments it brings. 

Already, 48 teams have been whittled down to 32 (sorry Scotland!) and now it’s time for the knockouts. England fans will be hoping Thomas Tuchel’s boys can kick it up a notch for their Round of 32 fixture against DR Congo on Wednesday July 1, after a group stage that saw them finish in the top spot despite some slightly uninspiring performances. 

And there are plenty more thrilling fixtures due to take place this week besides the England match, including Brazil vs Japan on Monday June 29, France vs Sweden on Tuesday June 30 and Portugal vs Croatia on Friday July 3.  

You need only look at the shelves piled high with unibrowed fridge magnets, tea towels, plant-pots and earrings in the average museum gift shop to know that Frida Kahlo is one of the 20th century’s greatest icons. 

Featuring over 130 works alongside documents, photographs and memorabilia taken from Kahlo’s archives, Tate Modern’s blockbuster summer exhibition Frida: The Making of an Icon will explore how the Mexican painter became the kind of cultural phenomenon whose likeness adorns everything from novelty socks to limited-edition eyeshadow pallets. The first major London exhibition on the feminist icon since the V&A’s fashion-focused 2018 show Making Her Self Up, it will include some of her most iconic paintings, as well as the work of more than 80 fellow artists, from her contemporaries to the later generations she inspired. 

All in all, it promises to be a fascinating exploration of the transformative role of women artists in the 20th century, as well as notions of fandom and the diverse communities who claim Frida as their own. Keep an eye out for the on-sale date as it’s sure to be a hugely popular show. 

The Victory has a rousing origin story. Much-loved local restaurant Franklins was a jewel in East Dulwich’s not insignificant dining crown, but closed earlier this year after 26 years in business. Aghast, the locals rallied, including restaurateur Jamie Younger of the nearby Begging Bowl. Within weeks, the place was his, and suddenly there was a new southeast London gastropub that seemed like it’d been there forever. 

Juicy Honeymoon melon and chopped runner beans with basil, ricotta and the occasional almond has us in giddy raptures. Grilled langoustines, burnished with tomato butter, bring some Cajun energy to the table. And then it’s the main event, a whole roast poulet jaune (that’s a yellow, corn-fed chicken) in two parts, the breast swimming in a creamy marsala sauce dotted with tarragon, and the leg featuring the crispiest of skins. It’s a one-two punch that knocks us out, only to be revived by a martini pudding. 

As well as putting on gigs with a whole bunch of megastars, every year BST Hyde Park also hosts Open House, an eight-day-long event that’s mostly free to attend. This year’s Open House lineup is focusing on fitness – but in a fun way. Grab a chance to run with Olympic superstar Sir Mo Farah, in a 3km distance run around the park, followed by a question and answer session with the long-distance runner (June 30). There’ll also be a chance to join an X-Fight workout session, inspired by martial arts, hosted by Davina McCall, followed by panel talks on wellness and self-confidence. Watch this space for more events as they’re announced. 

Is it art, or is it maths? It’s a question even MC Escher himself couldn’t answer about his own work. While the Dutch printmaker known for his infinite staircases, metamorphosing tessellations and paradoxical buildings was rejected by the art world, he was revered by mathematicians, and is now one of the most famous optical illusionists of all time. The OG creator of images that make you go ‘Huh?’ is going under the microscope in London with a blockbuster exhibition celebrating his life and work this summer. Created by Italian company Arthemisia and the immersive peeps at Fever, MC Escher: The Exhibition has arrived at Somerset House as part of its world tour. If you are a gaga for geometry, are fascinated by fractals, or just have a penchant for the psychedelic, you will find plenty to be engrossed by here. 

BST is back again this summer, bringing some of the world’s biggest pop stars to Hyde Park for its 13th edition. After opening weekend gigs from country megastar Garth Brooks and K-pop icons Ateez, this weekend features three massive gigs headlined by US pop rockers Maroon 5 (Friday 3 July), foot-stomping folksters Mumford and Sons (Saturday 4 July) and New Wave veterans Duran Duran (Sunday 5 July). 

There are some great support acts on the bill too; Jess Glynne and Ella Eyre feature on Friday, The War on Drugs open for Marcus Mumford and co, and Duran Duran are joined by Scissor Sisters, Nile Rodgers & CHIC and Groove Armada DJing. 

And if you’re up for some spontaneous plans, you can still grab general release tickets for all three gigs, starting at £114.35, £124.95 and £99.95 respectively. But hurry, before they’re all gone!

This nailbitingly tense thriller is director Felix Barrett’s second ‘normal’ piece of theatre to open in London in the last year, following West End smash Paranormal Activity.

Barrett is the founder and driving force behind brooding immersive theatre legends Punchdrunk, but his straight plays aren’t so much a case of him moonlighting as a normie director as a fascinating extension of the day job. This adaptation of the Danish film Den Skyldige is about as immersive as sitting in a seat watching a single guy onstage gets, enhanced by an arsenal of disorienting light and sound tricks. 

Russell Tovey wears his heart on his sleeve tremendously well as Joe, a jaded police call centre operator going about his job with surly efficiently, until he gets a call from a woman who has been abducted. Running to just an hour, it’s a gripping story, stylishly told, with a terrific performance from Tovey at its heart. 

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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North London rockers Wolf Alice have graduated from the O2 to an enormous all-dayer in Finsbury Park. The four-piece have spent the past decade evolving from grungy upstarts into one of Britain's most beloved alternative bands, thanks to pop gems like ‘Don’t Delete the Kisses’, the coming-of-age classic ‘Bros’ and the sprawling, cinematic ballad ‘The Last Man on Earth’.

They’re supported by a host of other ethereal indie-pop purveyors, including The Last Dinner Party, Lykke Li, Rachel Chinouriri, Keo, and Florence Road. Yes, you might see us crying in the crowd.

While the Science Museum remains one of London’s quintessential free days out, there’s an ever-growing list of paying bolt-ons for those who are happy to spend a little.

Joining them is Smithsonian Starstruck, a galactic VR experience from America’s prestigious Smithsonian Institution, in which the 360 digital imaginings of some of space’s most stunning and surreal vistas are rooted in hard astronomy, and not the fanciful slop that creeps into several nominally educational London VR experiences I could name. 

We watch the dawn of the universe. We visit an uninhabitable planet strewn with diamonds. We stand before the event horizon of a black hole. It’s visually stunning, and you’ll also learn a decent amount about the phenomena depicted without feeling aggressively lectured. 

If you like space, VR or ideally space and VR, you’ll have a blast.

Besides your office’s annual evening of forced entertainment at an escape room or axe-throwing range, there aren’t many summer events in the city where you’ll find both free entertainement and free food. But podcast creators, magazine makers and general entertainment people Ralph are putting on a series of such parties throughout summer 2026 in their back yard in Bethnal Green, featuring music, entertainment and free scran from some of London‘s best loved brands. This edition features Homeslice pizza, Gipsy Hill beer, hand-drawn portraits from charity Arts Against Knives, and DJ sets from some special guests (previous editions have seen Third Man Records selectors and Alexis from Hot Chip jump on the decks. Sound like a nice way to spend a sunny Thursday evening? Reserve a spot here. 

High Society is, of course, a pure joy, the stage incarnation of a ludicrously frothy Golden Age Cole Porter musical that has a plot you could blow over with a feather, plus some of the greatest songs of the twentieth century. ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’, ‘I Love Paris in the Springtime’, ‘Well Did You Evah’, ‘Let’s Misbehave’, ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ – the banger level is off the chart. With songs as good as these and a cast just as good to match them, you’re in for a very nice evening at the theatre. 

As one of Britain’s most celebrated sculptors of the 20th century, Barbara Hepworth made stunning modern creations inspired by the nature and lanscapes of Cornwall, where she lived. Her abstract shapes often featured smooth ovals, holes, undulating surfaces and strings. This summer the Courtauld will stage an exhibition interested in one aspect of Hepworth’s practice: her obsession with colour, which often came up in her work in unexpected ways. Featuring 20 of her most significant sculptures, alongside 30 drawings, Hepworth in Colour will unite for the first time her early innovative sculptures with colour of the 1940s with major examples of her work with colour from the 1950s and 1960s.

The National Theatre has brought back 2007’s blockbuster War Horse, a show that closed on the West End in 2016 but has lived on via endless tours and a Stephen Spielberg-directed screen adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s source text. It’s still incredible. Number one, the puppets are astonishing. Number two: sure, it’s a reasonably trope-filled story about the First World War, adapted by Nick Stafford from Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 book with a plot that revolves around the doomed British cavalry who discovered they were obsolete in the worst way possible during the early weeks of the conflict. It’s sturdy, unfussy storytelling, but this gives it a purity and timelessness.  The years haven’t touched War Horse, and short of a radical rethink of our attitude to WW1 or, puppets, it’s hard to imagine why it would ever age. 

The Barbican is shining a spotlight on Pan-Africanism in contemporary art, cinema, music and performance in this summer-long creative series, which will feature more than 30 events as well as an art exhibition. Coined in the early 1900s, the umbrella term Pan-Africanism encompasses political and philosophical movements advocating for self-determination, anti-colonial resistance and transnational solidarity among peoples of African descent. Highlights include the central exhibition, Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica with 300 works, including paintings, installations, posters, journals and film. Look out for Carnival dance workshops, Carnival costume-making workshops, late-night parties and live music performances, too. 

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.