The Time Out London blog team

A free artist-led festival is coming to south London next month. WePresent, a celebration of creativity from the people behind WeTransfer, is taking over Peckham’s Copeland Gallery from May 8-10.  The three-day fest takes in panel talks from artists and directors, as well as showing work from the arts platform’s commissions and collaborations.  Centrepieces of the event include an exhibition called ‘On Belonging’, showcasing work ‘themed around belonging and identity’, and a library room featuring work like NOUR, a poetry book made in collaboration with the artist Mustafa. There’s also a cinema showing short films. It should be a must-attend event for students and creative Londoners looking for inspiration and connection.  And because creativity is thirsty work, there’ll be complimentary cocktails from Peckham Social from 5-7pm each day. Sela Rose will be providing free brunch each morning and Happy Endings’ ice-cream sandwiches will be on offer too.  WePresent has helped cultivate the talents of filmmakers like Akinola Davies Jr. (My Father’s Shadow) and Amrou Al-Kadhi (Layla), and commissioned The Long Goodbye, an Oscar-winning short film starring and co-written by Riz Ahmed (below). Follow WePresent on Insta for more info. ‘It’s outrageous to be mentioned alongside Moonlight’: Akinola Davies Jr on My Father’s Shadow. The future of this beloved south London lido has been saved.

A new list of the very best bakeries in Britain has been published, and three London-based bakehouses have made the list. The Telegraph’s ranking spans England, Scotland and Wales, and focuses on independent and artisan bakeries. ‘Some are noteworthy for their ethical practices and imaginative flavours, others for their unexpected locations,’ says the piece. ‘... they are all friendly and welcoming, imparting a genuine passion for their craft.’ The trio of London bakeries are made up of one in central London and two in south London. The central London spot is Miel on Warren Street in Fitzrovia. The bakery is run by pastry chef Shaheen Peerbhai. Most of Miel’s ingredients are sourced with care from France (Normandy flour, Charentes butter, Valrhona chocolate), and all the pastries and breads are baked small-batch throughout the day. The newspaper praised the bakery’s striped hazelnut gianduja croissant.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Miel Bakery (@mielbakery) In south London, the ‘sleek’ Mahali & Co on Battersea Park Road was included. Opened in 2024 by Ru-Yan Foong and Miguel Jocson, The Telegraph explained that here ‘Viennoiserie takes its cues from the owners’ Chinese and Filipino heritage’, with the writer recommending getting your hands on their miso and white chocolate cookies, and pineapple and lime Danish pastry.    View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mahali & Co (@mahaliandco) The other south London spot...

Last year, we reported on a thinktank that said housing in London has become ‘impossibly unaffordable’. If you’re a Londoner, you’ll know exactly what we were talking about. This is down to a myriad of factors, of course, but the housing shortage is a big one. A whopping 10,000 proposed new homes in and around Billingsgate Fish Market may be – ahem – a drop in the ocean, but Tower Hamlets Council would no doubt argue that every little helps.    The council has explained, in a new pamphlet promoting the area to developers, that it’s working with the City of London Corporation on the project. And don’t worry: the fish market isn’t disappearing completely; it’s moving from Poplar to the Royal Docks in Newham, as we reported at the end of last year. Naturally, given the speculative nature of the plans, it’s not clear when development might begin, but the pamphlet suggested that the council is asking developers to consider the site as a prospect for 2026. Councillors for Aspire, the local leading political party, approved the promotional pamphlet last week (on March 24).  Dubbed Future Places, the pamphlet explained that the collaboration would seek to ‘bring forward the redevelopment of the site that will create a significant new mixed-use quarter with improved connectivity between Canary Wharf and South Poplar, providing thousands of homes and jobs’. It added: ‘This is the single biggest opportunity for growth in the borough, creating a whole new mixed-use neighbourhood that...