Things to do in London this weekend (25-26 October)

Each year, the London Literature Festival aims to bring together readers of all ages to ‘celebrate the power of the written and spoken word’, with a big-name celebrity curator leading the charge. And excitingly, the 2025 edition will have singer-songwriter Rebecca Lucy Taylor (aka Self Esteem) in the hot seat. Elsewhere, there’ll be appearances from massive literary and cultural figures including Sebastian Faulks, Jimi Famurewa, Zadie Smith, Adam Buxton, Malala Yousafzai, Claire-Louise Bennett, Reese Witherspoon, Harlan Coben, Sayaka Murata, Chris Kraus, Alexis Wright, Bora Chung and Simon Armitage. As ever, there'll be plenty of opportunities for kids to get involved too, with events with the children’s laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce and a run of Mog the Forgetful Cat.

Doc’n Roll Film Festival shines a spotlight on some of the movers and shakers who’ve lit up the music world with intriguing and eclectic sounds. This year, the programme covers a wealth of genres and scenes, and takes over the capital’s cinema staples like the Barbican, BFI Southbank, Dalston's Rio and more. The fest kicks off with I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol, punk legend Glen Matlock’s cinematic memoir. The subversive mood continues with How Tanita Tikaram Became A Liar, an anti-documentary directed by filmmaker Natacha Horn, who is also this maverick music icon's wife. Rockers Don't Stop plunges us into the world of 1980s dance pioneers, Not Indian Enough is an exploration of King Khan's roots in indigenous Canada and the devastating impacts of colonialism, and Boy George & Culture Club is a new look back at a storied London scene. 

Hausu lives in the grand, Grade II-listed, one-time ticket office of Peckham Rye train station, meaning its hilariously spacious bathroom dates back all the way to 1865 and is covered with intricate Victorian tiling. Head chef Holly Middleton-Joseph does her thing in a sunken kitchen where you can gaze upon chefs at work. Named after a cult 1970s Japanese horror film, Hausu took over from Peckham institution the Coal Rooms and showcases Middleton-Joseph’s wilfully unique brand of cookery, which draws as much upon high-octane Asian cuisine as it does cheffy, Euro-centric small plates, such as Hausu’s rightly notorious prawn toast – a juicy, scallop-injected powerhouse – and zingy lemon butter noodles plonked on an oozy miso and confit garlic sauce. Finish with the toasted rice ice cream, which is just the right side of sweet. 

Last decade Bryony Kimmings was an enchanting, amusing and provocative regular presence on our stages, with a run of funny, inventive, deeply personal and visually arresting shows. Bog Witch is quintessential Kimmings, using funny songs, fun costumes and unfiltered, matey honesty to describe the latest chapter in her life: living off grid after falling for Will, an eco-warrior. That said, Bog Witch proves disarming in being more diaristic than narrowly focussed on the headline topic. As illustrated by Will Duke’s beautiful shadow puppet-like projections, it’s really about the turn of an eventful year in Kimmings’s life. It’s beautifully wrought and just generally a joy to have Kimmings back.

★★★★ 'Frameless has managed to create something genuinely exciting' – Time Out

Escape reality through maximum immersion and experience 42 masterpieces from 29 of the world’s most iconic artists, each reimagined beyond belief, through cutting-edge technology. Situated in Marble Arch, Frameless plays host to four unique galleries with hypnotic visuals and a dazzling score. Enjoy 90 minutes of surreal artwork from Bosch, Dalí and more for just £24!

Get £24.80 tickets (originally £31), only through Time Out Offers.

The king of creature features, Guillermo del Toro resurrects Mary Shelley’s literary creation in all its full-on gaudy gothic glory. Oscar Isaac is Baron Victor Frankenstein, who is rescued from a monster on the ice by the crew of a ship of polar explorers. He is a man with a tale to tell of how he got there: but, like Dewey Cox in Walk Hard, he has to start at the very beginning: with a childhood of a bad daddy (Charles Dance) and grief that drives an ambition to conquer death itself. From anatomy theatres to graveyards, Victor proceeds, a floppy-haired Byronic hero aided not by Igor but Christoph Waltz’s Herr Harlander, an arms dealer who is willing to fund Victor’s scientific research for his own ends. As with The Shape of Water, del Toro makes no secret of where his sympathy lies and who the real monsters are, but there are surprises here. Not least of which is how moved you might feel in the end. 

From top secret D-Day documents, to hidden treasure maps, Secret Maps at the British Library will explore the relationship between mapping and secrecy, showing how maps from the 14th century to the present day were used to conceal knowlegde, control populations and create power. Visitors will see charts used by governments, armies, businesses, organisations, communities and individuals, and explore how these mysterious cartographies were used to disseminate, and hide, information, and sometimes purposefully decieve people. From a destroyed Ordnance Survey map from the General Strike of 1926, to landscapes that have been erased from official histories, Secret Maps will provide a new insight into the power of spatial information. 

This five-day film fest is all about young, up-and-coming filmmakers from around the world. The 10th edition of London Breeze Film Festival (formerly Barnes Film Festival) takes up residence at Riverside Studios, Covent Garden's Garden Cinema, Cinema in the Arches and Irish Cultural Centre to showcase exciting new talents. It opens with documentary Shoot The People, which follows celebrated photographer and Oscar nominated filmmaker Misan Hariman as he documents protest movements around the world, and questions whether his work can effect change. Other films include The Summer Book, an adaptation of Moomin creator Tove Janssen's memoir of the same name, sci-fi drama Phase, and The Song Cycle, which charts a cycle ride from Ireland to Glastonbury.

An award-winning slice of life set on Paris’s margins set over 48 helter-skelter hours, Souleymane’s Story is the latest in a series of social realist dramas to tackle Europe’s migrant crisis from the perspective of African migrants. The Dardennes’ Tori and Lokita (2022), Alice Diop’s Saint Omer (2023), and Matteo Garrone’s fantastically-tinged Io Capitano (2024) have shared the stories behind the sensationalist headlines – and here’s another one to bring deep humanity and insight to this political football. Here, French director Boris Lojkine follows twenty-something protagonist, Souleymane Sangaré (Abou Sangaré) from Guinea who has become a cog in Paris’s exploitative gig economy, cycling frantically to deliver food orders to apartments across the city and thrusting bags of takeaway into the hands of Parisians who barely notice him. It’s a tough, unsparing and often heartbreaking look at life for the migrants who make the online world tick, and a jolt for those of us who use it unthinkingly.

As usual, beloved central London repertory cinema The Prince Charles will be showing more frightening films than Dracula has had bloody dinners during month-long season of spooky cinema this October. The wildly eclectic programme features almost 100 titles this year, encompassing everything from horror classics to niche B movies, all-night marathons and, of course, its famous Sing-A-Long-A Rocky Horror Picture Show (Oct 31 and Nov 1). Highlights of the programme include the original 1977 Suspiria, the original 1922 Nosferatu performed with a live score and several all-night marathons, including all six Final Destination films (Oct 25).

Taking place across The Place, Sadler’s Wells, the Barbican and more, the massive annual contemporary dance festival returns to London, bringing groundbreaking artists from Colombia, Taiwan, Cyprus, Spain and Brazil. Sadler’s Wells East will stage Bogotá by Andrea Peña & Artists, an intense choreography inspired by Colombia’s political and spiritual heritage; see a bold flamenco duet at Change Tempo at the Barbican Pit; and a day takeover of Brixton House will see DJ sets, workshops led by Jamaal Burkmar and Kenrick ‘H20’ Sandy as well as in queer salsa. Plus much more across the month. 

Get a dose of hip hop history at Somerset House this autumn, where the first major solo exhibition from British photographer Jennie Baptiste will be displayed. Having photographed everyone from NAS, to Jay Z, Estelle and Biggie Smalls, Baptiste’s work spanning the last three decades has been at the forefront of R&B, hip hop, fashion and youth culture, as she documented the influence of Black British communities on culture and art from the 1990s to today. 

Frieze Sculpture returns for another year, transforming Regent's Park, one of London's prettiest green spaces, into a massive outdoor gallery. Expect massive sculptures curated by Fatoş Üstek, on the theme of ‘In the Shadows’, which means they'll be engage with the idea of darkness from many perspectives, whether that's inner darkness or the interplay between light and obscurity. The exhibition will be complemented by a programme of performances and talks, all free to the public.

Tracy Letts’s 2018 play embraces and subverts bio-drama cliches. It’s the story of an alcoholic woman who lives a hard life, largely as a result of being the daughter of an alcoholic woman who also lived a hard life. Did Mary Page Marlowe ever have a chance? What sets it apart is the way Letts has chosen to tell the story. Instead of a linear narrative, Mary Page Marlowe covers the eponymous midwestern Boomer’s entire life in 11 scenes that run in a non-linear fashion and rather than a single big central role, the title part is performed by five actors. Two of the Mary Pages are famous – Andrea Riseborough and Susan Sarandon and chopping and changing lead actors without aligning their performances creates an exquisite corpse of a life story, that speaks to the idea that none of us are one single person throughout our lives. It’s a smart piece of writing. 

Cecil Beaton was a jack of all trades and master of many, bringing his inimitable touch to the worlds of fashion illustration, photography, costume design, writing and more. While most exhibitions covering his glittering career touch on all sides of his creative world, none has ever looked solely at his ground-breaking fashion work – until now. ‘Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World’ will do just that via some of his most dazzling outfits that defined the Jazz Age or shone on screen in the likes of ‘My Fair Lady’.

The producers of Kew Gardens’ beloved Christmas trail are behind this spooky-themed train for Halloween, which leads people on an illuminated path through the iconic botanical gardens. Expect eerie illuminated trees, ghoulish installations, fire performers and more, with a troupe of actors on hand to stoke up our horrors (in a family-friendly way, of course).

This renowned annual photography exhibition returns to the Natural History Museum for its 61st edition, showcasing the very best entries of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. On display are images of the most extraordinary species on the planet captured by professional and amateur photographers. This year’s entries are TBA right now, but the winners are reliably spectacular – pictured is last year’s champion Shane Gross, whose mesmirising underwater shot of western toad tadpoles involved snorkelled for hours in a lake on Vancouver Island, making sure not to disturb fine layers of silt and algae at the bottom. Don’t miss what is always a highlight in the NHM’s calendar.

Like many of Shakespeare’s deeper cuts, Troilus and Cressida is a bizarre (bordering on broken) play that is clearly only performed (sporadically) in the twenty-first century because of who its author is. It’s handy to appreciate the historical context of Shakespeare’s cynical remix of the Iliad. The late Elizabethans really dug the Trojan War. And they also dug the tale of Troilus and Cressida, a tragic love story set during said conflict that was invented in mediaeval times that has faded into obscurity bar this one play. Owen Horsley’s production turns the whole thing into something that resembles a demented reality TV show, as Achilles’s dishevelled, dishonourable Greeks square up to Hector’s slick tracksuit-clad Trojans. It’s a rewarding production, an engaging mix of jet-black cynicism and unfettered silliness.

South London's much loved literary knees-up is back this October with a stellar 10-day line-up packed with events from over 100 speakers. Big names including Rupert Everett, Jung Chang, Irvine Welsh, Lemn Sissay, Jay Rayner, and Anthony Horowitz will make an appearance, ready to hobnob with their fans in intimate talks. There'll also be an emphasis on politics and misinformation this year, with experts including Tim Berners-Lee and Nick Clegg. Plus, a partnership with Lahore Literary Festival will showcase South Asian creatives, with speakers including broadcaster Reeta Chakrabarti, Women’s Prize shortlisted authors Nussaibah Younis and Sanam Mahloudji.

At the National Theatre last Christmas, Max Webster’s vividly queer take on Oscar Wilde’s magnum opus featured Ncuti Gatwa as the dashing young protagonist Algernon Montcrieff. In this West End Cast Gatwa’s replacement is fellow Russell T Davies alumnus Ollie Alexander, and he plays Algie with a waspish dandyishness that feels childish, not adult, a little boy roleplaying his whirlwind romance with Jessica Whitehurst’s bolshy Cicily. Likewise, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett‘s Jack is basically a gigantic overgrown puppy, wagging his tail in delight at the attentions of Kitty Hawthorn’s Gwendolyn, but with zero sexual intent. It’s a funny, fresh, irreverent way of tackling Wilde’s comedy. 

One hundred years ago, a strange curtained box appeared on Broadway in New York City. If you went inside and slotted in 25 cents, you’d emerge with eight sepia tinged photos of yourself in a matter of minutes. It was the Photomaton – the world’s first fully automated photobooth. Fast forward to the 21st century and photobooths are in bars, train stations, cinemas, record shops and on streets all over the world. The Photographer’s Gallery is marking a century of the machines with Click!, an archival exhibition exploring their imperfections, their quirks and their most famous fans. Naturally, there’ll be a working photobooth for visitors to take their own snap.

‘Nigerian Modernism’ celebrates the achievements of Nigerian artists working on either side of a decade of independence from British colonial rule in 1960. As well as traversing networks in the country’s locales of Zaria, Ibadan, Lagos and Enugu, it also looks further afield to London, Munich and Paris, exploring how artistic collectives fused Nigerian, African and European techniques and traditions in their multidimensional works.

Love sushi, dumplings or noodles? Inamo’s got you covered. This high-tech spot in Soho or Covent Garden lets you order from interactive tabletops, play over 20 games while you wait and even doodle on your table. Then it’s all you can eat pan-Asian dishes like Sichuan chicken, red dragon rolls and Korean wings with bottomless drinks. Usually £113.35, now just £33 or £26 if you're in early at the weekend!

Get Inamo’s best ever bottomless food & drink brunch from only £26 with Time Out Offers.

Imagine indulging in all the dumplings, rolls, and buns you can handle, crafted by a Chinatown favourite with over a decade of culinary excellence. Savour Taiwanese pork buns, savoury pork and prawn soup dumplings, and luxurious crab meat xiao long bao. To top it off, enjoy a chilled glass of prosecco to elevate your feast. Cheers to a truly delightful dining experience at Leong’s Legend!

Peter Doig is one of the greatest living painters, an artist whose approach to hazy, memory-drenched figuration has had an enormous impact on the visual landscape of today. For his show at the Serpentine, he’s going well beyond the canvas, filling the gallery with speaker systems to explore the impact of music on his work. Does DJ-set-meets-art-exhibition sound like your idea of hell? Mine too, but it’s Doig, so it just might work. Maybe.

Charge the steins! You don’t have to travel all the way to Germany for a lederhosen-clad knees-up this Oktoberfest – and you don't even have to wait until October. Munich’s world-famous beer festival is very much on in London with big steins of beer, platters of excessively long wurst and loud oompah bands blowing brass like they don’t give a schnitzel. You’re sure to get a warm willkommen at one of these London Oktoberfest events. 

This huge show at Tate Britain is the most extensive retrospective of Lee Miller’s photography in the UK, celebrating the trailblazing surrealist as one of the 20th century’s most urgent artistic voices. Around 250 vintage and modern prints will be on display – including some previously unseen gems – capturing the photographer’s vision and spirit.

London Month Of The Dead’s annual programme returns this spooky season to get you in the mood for Halloween with a programme of more than 60 fascinatingly macabre events investigating our city’s relationship with death. The line-up offers a plethora of ghostly tours that will take you around crypts, cemeteries, undertakers, execution sites and other eerie locations across the city, alongside talks exploring everything from the study of human decomposition and the psychology of fear to the theme of murder in art. There’s also an immersive workshop where you can try your hand at some forensic anthropology and a screening of the original Nosferatu with live musical accompaniment. 

Kerry James Marshall is an artist with a singular vision. He has become arguably the most important living American painter over the past few decades, with an ultra-distinctive body of work that celebrates the Black figure in an otherwise very ‘Western’ painting tradition. This big, ambitious show will be a joyful celebration of his lush, colourful approach to painting.