Things to do in London this week

Every year, the EFG London Jazz Festival brings together the best and brightest of the genre in venues across the city, from the capital’s arts venues like Southbank Centre and Barbican, to atmospheric gig spots like Village Underground and Union Chapel. This year is no different. The 2025 line-up promises a bounty of bops, whether you’re looking to discover new artists on the scene or want to witness some legends in action. As well as tons of concerts every day, there’s also sessions, workshops, talks and more to take part in and enjoy. 

Amazing news for lovers of neat symmetry, loud primary colours and twee outfits. West London’s Design Museum will be staging a blockbuster show delving into the iconic aesthetic of another of Hollywood’s most distinctive auteurs, the Texas-born Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning director Wes Anderson. The film director’s first official retrospective promises to be a different beast. A collaboration between the Design Museum and Cinémathèque Française, it has been curated in partnership with Wes Anderson himself and his production company American Empirical Pictures and follows his work from his early experiments in the 1990s right up to his recent Oscar-winning flicks, featuring original props, costumes and behind-the-scenes insights.

Adoh! (Sri-Lankan for ‘oi!’) is loud. Sat on Maiden Lane in frenetic, tourist-packed Covent Garden, this Sri Lankan spot from Kolamba duo Eroshan and Aushi Meewella fits right in. Its goal is to emulate the rapid, chaotic energy of Colombo and its street food culture. The decor is raucous – the tables a striking shade of red and the walls busy with storybook murals depicting hand-painted trucks of South Asia. As for service, it’s full speed ahead. The menu features a blend of authentic bits (isoo vadai, mutton rolls or roti and curry) and some milder hybrid dishes (fried chicken and curry leaf waffles are best suited to less adventurous members of your party). The must-order main? The crab kothu, a late-night classic in Sri Lanka. These are comfort dishes lifted from the late-night stalls of Colombo. 

Halloween is over, but witches are still haunting the Kiln Theatre. Well, alleged witches, the victims of the 1633 Pendle Witch Trials, whose half-known stories have been set to music by composers Rebecca Brewer and Daisy Chute. It’s a very rare thing: a brand new musical that isn’t based on an existing book or film, with an original score and, rarest of all in musical theatre, an entirely female cast and creative team. You can put it in a bracket with Sylvia and Six as a defiant feminist retelling of history, but it’s doing its own thing in a weird and interesting way.

It’s weird, in the year 2025, that it seems necessary to point out that the Nazis were bad. But Nuremberg, an old-fashioned and satisfyingly complex morality tale in the guise of a courtroom drama and spy thriller, does that job in impressive style. Supercharged by James Vanderbilt’s smart script and snappy direction, and with an on-form cast, it plots a course through the immediate aftermath of World War II and into the legal nightmare of holding its German perpetrators to account. Russell Crowe plays avuncular Nazi second-in-command Hermann Göring, and delivers his best performance since The Nice Guys a full decade ago, while Rami Malek returns to something like Bohemian Rhapsody form as the American psychologist, Douglas Kelley, who is sent to the Allies’ high security Nuremberg prison to evaluate Göring and his fellow Nazis. It lends authenticity and intellectual rigour to this extraordinary, century-defining event. 

Looking for a wholesome, creative night out that doesn’t involve a hangover (unless you BYOB)? Token Studio in Tower Bridge offers relaxed, hands-on ceramics classes where you can spin, shape and decorate your own pottery piece. Whether you fancy throwing a pot on the wheel (£32) or painting a pre-made mug or plate (£23), it’s the perfect mix of fun, mindful and surprisingly therapeutic. And to top it all off, you can sip while you sculpt as it’s BYOB and super chill.

Buy a Token Studio session from just £23, only through Time Out Offers. 

The third Thursday of November might not mean much to you, but for the wine world, it’s one of the most exciting days of the year. It marks Beaujolais Nouveau Day – the day that the first vintages of wine produced in the Beaujolais region of France are released. Beaujolais Nouveau is a simple, fruity red known for being the world’s ‘fastest’ wine. It’s a ‘vin de primeur’, best consumed as soon after harvesting as possible. It’s illegal to sell ‘Bojo’ before 12.01am on Beaujolais Nouveau Day, so when that time finally does roll around, wine lovers rush to get their hands on a bottle and festivities erupt all over France and beyond. London’s wine-lovers have started celebrating too. Every year, some the capital’s finest restaurants and wine bars host tastings, suppers and parties to welcome the newest batch of Beaujolais. This year, Bojo Novo falls on Thursday. Here are all the best places in London to celebrate. 

Director Matthew Dunster and a top-notch creative team do a pretty damn good job of finding a way to stage the titular Games of Suzanne Collins’s smash 2008 YA novel The Hunger Games, deploying aerial work, pyro, video screens, some tightly drilled choreography, the odd song and a highly mobile, rapidly changing set, creating a sequence that’s coherent and gripping. It’s hard not to admire the quixotic but skilled attempt to translate something so action-packed to the stage. Dunster is not a subtle director, and in many ways that suits Collins’s novel. He picks out the themes of class oppression between the gaudy dandies of the Capitol and dirt-poor folk of District 12 with day-glo aplomb. Smartly, the set of the in-the-round show is steeply raked to resemble a sports stadium and the audience is cast as spectators. A lot of creative talent has been poured into this. 

This traditional fair will help you have a very Scandi Christmas with its stalls selling all sorts of festive Swedish treats, gifts, and decorations. A pop-up café in the church hall will serve open sandwiches with meatballs and cheese and the Swedes' take on mulled wine: glögg. On Sunday, join a special short service at the church ahead of the market opening. 

Hannah Doran’s drama about small-time tragedy among immigrant Americans in the age of Trump is set in Cafarelli & Sons, an NYC butcher’s shop that’s been in the family of owner Paula (Jackie Clune) for decades. She’s a badass with a heart of gold and has a benign tendency to hire staff with criminal records who other employers wouldn’t touch. Business is struggling, though, and only one of staff members JD (Marcello Cruz) and Billy (Ash Hunter) will be hired permanently at the end of the summer. When it kicks into gear, it becomes a taut thriller that’s also an ode to America’s open-heartedness and immigrant-based spirit. There’s also a solid cast. It’s a solid play that grows in stature. 

Dreaming of a kitsch Christmas? New York’s famous Miracle on Ninth Street bar is popping up in London for its seventh year, ‘50s Christmas decorations, nostalgic accessories and creative new spins on beloved cocktail favourites in tow. Past years have seen the bar slinging the likes of a Snowball Old Fashioned or a Christmapoliton, which includes cranberry sauce and absinthe mist – a take on Christmas trimmings that’s not for the faint-hearted. If you’re failing to get into the Christmas spirit, this is one great place to find it.

Hidden somewhere between a theme park, an escape room and a real-life video game, Phantom Peak isn’t just your average day out. This open-world adventure based in Canada Water invites you to explore a fictional steampunk town at your own pace, chatting to quirky characters, uncovering mysteries and slowly piecing together your own story.

With 11 unique trails, a rotating calendar of seasonal storylines, and a cast of live actors guiding your experience, no two visits are ever the same.

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Maggi Hambling and Sarah Lucas are good friends. Since meeting on their shared birthday, they have portrayed each other in paint and sculpture, shown their work together multiple times and, perhaps, developed something of a shared sensibility. On the surface, Hambling’s gestural, subconsciously macabre canvases have little in common with Lucas’ euphemistic sculptural assemblages. This year, though, a joint presentation at Sadie Coles HQ and Frankie Rossi Art Projects on Bury Street will tease out hidden commonalities between the two canonical British artists.

Shih-Ching Tsou, long the secret weapon of Anora director Sean Baker since the pair met on a filmmaking course in New York, gets her moment to shine in this directorial debut, a family drama. The connections don’t end there: the pair co-wrote this film and it’s very much in the spirit of Baker’s own 2017 gem The Florida Project, which Tsou produced. Oh, and Baker edits too. Left-Handed Girl pits a young girl’s naivete against the hard edges of adult life, zeroing in on the messy, tender dynamics of mother-daughter bonds. Shot on iPhones (just like Baker’s 2015 breakthrough Tangerine), the result is a gorgeously colourful Taipei-set film that threads drama, comedy and heart, landing as a rare ‘life sucks’ relationship drama with a genuinely uplifting afterglow.

’Tis the season for rampant consumerism, but if all the covetable clobber, shiny new tech and luxury knick-knacks are failing to fill the void, you’d do well to swing by the Choose Love store during your Christmas shopping spree. First set up in 2017 by Help Refugees, the clever pop-up doesn’t peddle fancy beauty products or the latest trainers. Instead, its shelves are filled with emergency blankets, children’s shoes, sleeping bags, toiletries, mobile phone credit, nappies, education supplies and other essentials needed by refugees around the world. Once you’ve bought what you can, the products are distributed via more than 80 projects that the humanitarian aid organisation works with across the globe. After several successful years on nearby Carnaby Street, the pop-up has moved into a department store-sized space on Regent Street for its biggest ever edition this year. Head down to check out a beautifully-designed space which is once again designed by Misty Buckley (The Oscars, The BRIT Awards) and will be set across two floors, with the usual roster of surprise celebrity volunteers working on the tills, and to do your bit to spread some Christmas cheer to those who need it most.

Remember five years ago when, in the deep depths of lockdown, former postman Nathan Evans’ took over TikTok with his version of 19th-century sea shanty ‘Wellerman’? His viral rendition lit us all with a new appreciation for maritime folk songs. Of you want to hear those guttural tones and soothing accapellas in real life, hit up the Sea Shanty Festival at Cutty Sark. Shanty bands from across the UK will convene to sing trad maritime songs onboard the iconic Cutty Sark tea clipper. Listen to the choirs, or join a drop-in workshop to master the shanty yourself. Stick around for the mass sing-along to finish the day. 

Documentary films are some of the most impactful cinema out there; giving us insights into worlds and lives that are often under our radar, and shaping public opinion, inspiring social change, and building communities in the process. This small film festival focuses on nonfiction cinema, with a programme of 10 films reflecting on how memory and time shape our relationships. Starting with Come See Me In The Good Light, Ryan White’s poignant love story about poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley, other notable screenings include a special ‘sneak preview’ screening of King Hamlet, Elvira Lind’s intimate exploration of her husband, actor Oscar Isaac, Brittany Shyne’s debut Seeds, the Sundance award-winning portrait of Black generational farmers in the American South, and Cinema Kawakeb, a documentation of the final days of a crumbling cinema in Jordan. There’s also a shorts program highlighting Palestinian filmmakers, and most screenings will finish with special Q&As. 

If you haven't yet set foot in the Institut Français, housed in an ornate red-brick building in South Kensington, then its annual film bonanza is a great excuse to visit. This November, its French Film Festival returns for its 33rd year with a hefty programme that showcases the freshest and best new films from across the Channel. Taking place across two weeks, this bigger-than-ever edition features more than 76 screenings of 33 Gallic cinematic treats, including plenty of UK premieres of newly released films, a number of which were released to critical acclaim at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. 

Each year, the bright lights of Leicester Square get a little bit more dazzling with its massive festive pop-up, which boasts a Christmas market, tons of scrumptious food and drink, and live entertainment. The square is also switching things up a bit this year, replacing its circus and cabaret venue The Spiegeltent with an ice skating rink. Wrapping around the Shakespeare statue in the centre of the square, London’s newest pop-up skating venue for nine weeks over the festive season, encircled by the market stalls. 

If you fancy switching things up a bit and find yourself near Borough, why not roll up your sleeves at Comptoir Bakery's London Bridge workshop space? Choose from sessions where you’ll learn to craft buttery croissants and pain au chocolat, the cult-favourite Brionuts, or delicate tartelettes. Expert bakers—trained under culinary legends—will guide you through every step, from mixing the dough to perfecting the fillings. You’ll also nab a slick £20 apron to keep and plenty of fresh pastries to take home. Starting at just £69 per person or £118 for two, with over 30% off, it’s a delicious way to spend a few hours.

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