The Time Out London blog team

If you’re planning a picnic at one of London’s best-loved green spaces this weekend, watch out for unexpected farmyard creatures. Sheep are roaming Hampstead Heath, thanks to a conservation grazing scheme. Adding a tad more biodiversity to London’s wonderful city farms and ecosystem of pesky pigeons and foxes, Hampstead Heath is currently borrowing five rare-bred Norfolk Horn and Oxford Down ewes. The sheep come courtesy of east London’s Mudchute City Farm, one of Europe’s biggest city farms, and you’ll be able to see them grazing from 8am to 7pm until Monday September 15. Experts remind us that having these wooly mammals on the Heath is not just a wholesome gimmick, but an effective method of maintaining one of London’s most beloved green spaces. They will maintain habitats without the need for heavy, clunky machinery that is often both an eyesore and harmful to sensitive ecosystems.  Photograph: City of London Corporation Alderman and Sheriff Gregory Jones, chair of the City of London Corporation’s Hampstead Heath, Highgate Wood and Queen’s Park Committee, has commented saying the project will provide a ‘nod to Hampstead Heath’s rich heritage while providing real benefits for biodiversity.’ Members of the committee warn London’s dog owners (especially of sheepdogs) to keep their furry-friends leashed around the grazing area (on anthill site on the Heath’s Extension) to ‘ensure the safety and welfare of these animals’. We wouldn’t want to end up with a dog-on-sheep...

The summer holidays are well and truly over, and London’s cultural institutions are very much in ‘back to school’ mode this month, with loads of great exhibition openings across September and new season announcements coming thick and fast. The Tate, the Courtauld and the National Portrait Gallery have already announced their 2026 seasons, and now it’s the turn of celebrated arts institution Somerset House.  Ahead of its 25th birthday celebrations this weekend, the venue has shared details of its 2026-2027 culture programme, including major exhibitions, another big birthday celebration and the return of some of the venue’s best-loved seasonal events.  Following the closure of the venue’s winter exhibitions on Jennie Baptiste and Wayne McGregor, and the ever-popular Skate at Somerset House, the 2026 programme kicks off with the annual Spring commission in the venue’s neoclassical courtyard.  Created by German-Scottish artist and researcher Dana-Fiona Armour, Serpentine Currents (Feb 19-Apr 26) will feature large-scale serpentine structures derived from 3D scans of endangered sea snake specimens, illuminated by light patterns triggered by oceanographic data, addressing the looming threat of marine ecosystem collapse. Cheerful stuff! Photograph: Anne Tetzlaff This is followed by the return of Somerset House Studios’ biannual experimental music and sound series Assembly (Mar 25-28), which returns over four days in early spring with a programme of new commissions and live...

Here’s a home truth. A recent study showed that you’d need to be earning at least £110,000 a year as a household to be in with any chance of buying an average house in London’s Zone 1 or 2. That’s no easy feat.  That’s why people make the move to commuter towns – to save on the cost of living in London without giving the city up altogether (there’s constant flow of fantastic stuff happening here, after all). And handy new research by real estate company Savills has now discovered which three commuter towns offer the best value of all. It looked at the average price of properties within five kilometres of a railway station and season ticket costs in 350 different locations and compared that total to the average cost of owning a property in Zone 2. It also looked at the Index of Multiple Deprivation — which looks at things like crime rates, employment and education — to filter 'locations in the least deprived 20 percent in their wider region'.  After all that assessment, three areas emerged as the ‘best value’ commuter towns within around 30 minutes of the Big Smoke. Here’s a closer look at them.  Shenfield, Essex In the posh Essex town of Shenfield, you’re looking at around £427,000 for an average three-bed home and £4,008 for a year-round season ticket. That would save around 45 percent compared to what you might spend in Zone 2.  It’s a 51-minute journey on the Lizzie line to Bond street or a 23-minute journey to Liverpool Street on mainline services. In the town itself,...