The Time Out London blog team

Sometimes, genuinely good free events going on in London are few and far between. Of course, when that happens, you can always just do one of the many, many great things that are free all year round. But there are other times when the events that don’t cost any money are simply the best things going on in the city full stop. This weekend is one of those times.  The next three days are going to be an absolute belter for free stuff. There’ll be a load of free gigs celebrating Record Store Day, a packed after-hours programme at the British Museum and, most exciting of all, the grand opening of the V&A East Museum, one of Time Out’s best new things to do this year. Without further ado, here are all the key details. RECOMMENDED: 📍 All of the best things to do in London this weekend. The best free things on in London this weekend, April 17-19 2026  1. Be the first through the doors of the all-new V&A East Museum The wait is over! This weekend, a decade after it was first put forward, the V&A East Museum finally opens its doors to the public on Saturday. And just like the museum’s grand outpost in Kensington, the permanent collection is completely free to see. Here, the free galleries (titled Why We Make) are filled with more than 500 items from the V&A’s collection. They include fashion pieces by Alexander McQueen, Molly Goddard and Vivienne Westwood, artworks by the likes of Rene Matić, Carrie Mae Weems and Tania Bruguera, photographs by Jamie Hawkesworth, ceramics by Bisila...

Next week London could be hit by the city’s first tube strikes since last September, but this weekend the city’s transport network also will not be running as normal. Rather than strikes, this disruption will be the result of planned closures and service alterations. But don’t let travel disruption deter you from getting out and about in London this weekend. There’s tonnes of exhilarating stuff to explore in the city, from the V&A’s brand new museum in Stratford to newly opened theatre productions of Inter Alia and A Doll’s House. Planning on travelling around London this weekend? Here’s what you need to know about train and tube closures in the city on April 18-19 2026. RECOMMENDED: The best things to do in London this weekend. London travel disruption and tube closures, April 18-19 2026 District line On Saturday April 18 and Sunday April 19, no trains between Earls Court and Ealing Broadway/Richmond. Piccadilly line On Sat Apr 18 (from 1.30am) and Sun Apr 19, no trains between Hyde Park Corner and Acton Town. Closure includes Saturday night tube. Eastbound trains will not call at Barons Court until June. When travelling east, go one stop west (to Hammersmith) and bounce back east. DLR On Sat Apr 18 and Sun Apr 19, no service between Shadwell and Bank. On Sun Apr 19, no trains between Poplar/Stratford and Beckton/Woolwich Arsenal. Mildmay line On Sun Apr 19, no trains between Willesden Junction and Richmond. A reduced service will run between Stratford and...

There was a moment, in 2019, when the words ‘mirror margarita’ were echoing through every corner of east London. Mexican bar Hacha was fresh on the scene, and its signature see-through serve was making a stir. The bar debuted as the capital’s first ‘agaveria’, pouring mezcal, tequila, soto and raicilla – all spirits made using Mexico’s native agave plant – plus a back bar stocked with 25 spirits in regular rotation. Now, after seven years as a Dalston staple, Hacha will be closing the bright blue doors to its OG Kingsland Road site later this month.  Deano Moncrieffe, the bar’s founder and a veritable pro on all things agave, took to Instagram to announce that the bar’s last day in Dalston will be April 25 – seven years to the day since it opened.  The news comes just months after Hacha announced that it was being turfed out of its second site in Bermondsey in October. Its south London bar had shifted to the Bermonds Locke Tower Bridge hotel seven months earlier, transferring from Brixton Market, where it had resided for the previous three and a half years. ‘Over the past five years, Hacha has operated as a two-site business, and continuing in our current form with only Dalston is no longer sustainable,’ Moncrieffe said on Instagram. Don’t get too weepy over the news, though, because Hacha isn’t gone for good. Its founders are seeking out a new, larger venue, having outgrown their current space.  ‘It’s just the end of this particular chapter, but not the end of the story,’...