London events in July

It may feel like barely any time has passed since we were red in the face cheering on the England men’s football team against Italy in the Euros 2020 final. Now we can relive the anxiety of watching England play all over again at the UEFA Women’s Euros. 

The lads didn’t win last year, but England’s women are hoping to do better in 2022 and get to the final at Wembley on Sunday July 31. If you haven’t been able to get your hands on tickets, no sweat. There are plenty of screens popping across the capital where you can see all the action in blistering HD glory. Here’s a list of spots that will be showing the matches across the city. 

Body Movements celebrates LGBTQ+ people in dance music, taking place across 16 east London venues, including Colour Factory, Crate, Number 90 and The Yard. The festival won Time Out London’s ’Best New Event’ in our 2021 ’Best of the City’ awards – make sure it’s on your bucket list for 2022. 

The line-up includes Adonis, Daytimers, Big Dyke Energy, Pxssy Palace, TechnoMate

The most famous classical music concert series on the planet. This year it’s celebrating its 150th anniversary with 84 concerts over 57 days with over 3,000 musicians. This year the event will see the return of international orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Australian World Orchestra and the newly formed Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra. It will also feature a large-scale repertoire not heard at the festival since 2019.

There’s still a chance to bag tickets for ‘The First Night’, which will feature a moving rendition of Verdi’s mighty ‘Requiem’, the massed voices of the BBC Symphony Chorus and Crouch End Festival Chorus as well as young soloists including BBC Cardiff Singer of the World prize-winning soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha and rising British-Italian tenor Freddie De Tommaso.

The V&A’s ambitious new exhibition is a triumphant attempt to complete the near-impossible task of capturing an entire continent through its fashion. Incorporating textiles, design and still and moving images, ‘Africa Fashion’ takes visitors on a compelling journey from the 1960s to the present day in a bid to reshape existing geographies and narratives of style.

It feels like a glorious celebration. You leave this beautiful show with its vision for the future, an Afrotopia, where ‘Fashion is a space for imagination, for hope, for pain, for aspiration. African fashion creatives use their work to actualise a more equitable and sustainable future in which we all thrive.’ Satisfyingly, this exhibition is cut from the same cloth.

The gorgeous Garden Museum is celebrating Frances Hodgson Burnett’s iconic children’s classic ‘The Secret Garden’ in an immersive exhibition. See how different artists’ have brought the words to life through illustrations from the past hundred years and discover the true story that inspired the book. 

Did a visit to see Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ at the National Gallery fail to provide your flower fix? Get neck-deep in heliotropic heaven at these golden fields full of custard-yellow blooms. 

Every year, the Serpentine Pavilion shows up to herald the start of summer, and it’s back again for 2022, designed this time by American artist Theaster Gates. But, this isn’t the pavilion of classic idyllic English summers. This is a serious, stark, austere business. 

The ‘Black Chapel’, is an imposing, cylindrical building. The inspiration at the heart of the work is the Rothko Chapel, a prayer space in Texas, with art by abstract expressionist master Mark Rothko. Gates’s building follows a similarly meditative template, creating a space for quiet contemplation, like being inside a giant vase, but in a very very relaxed way.

It might all be serious and contemplative, but it won’t be quiet. Over the course of the summer, the pavilion will host a series of concerts – including performances by jazz drummer Moses Boyd and the London Oratory Choir, who will be doing some Gregorian chanting, apparently – as well as tea ceremonies and clay workshops.

The confusingly named ‘Warner Bros Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter’ in Watford lets fans walk among sets used in the films. Now you can actually step into Professor Sprout’s greenhouse. Visitors will get the chance to mess around with a potted Mandrake and experience the Great Hall to the Frog Choir scene as seen in ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’. 

When the sun’s out and the weather’s at its summery best, hiding away in a dark, stuffy room isn’t the most appealing option. Thank god then, for outdoor cinemas letting us get our film fix under the stars and with a sweet summer breeze in our hair.

London is home to some brilliant alfresco movie spots, which will be popping up all over the city in 2022, everywhere from docks and parks to rooftops and manicured gardens. Here’s a list of our favourites. 

The Strand institution is bringing back its outdoor gig series after two years. The line-up for the 11-day 2022 edition looks absolutely mega. Brit Award Best Newcomer winner Londoner Arlo Parks is performing hits from her poetic, soulful and excellent debut album ‘Collapsed in Sunbeams’. Catchy Canadian songstress Carly Rae Jepsen will be bringing her effervescent pop to London for the occasion. Angular Bristolians Squid will be twitching their tentacles. And on a (hopefully sunny) Saturday evening to remember, multi-platinum US singer-songwriter John Legend will be taking to London’s most scenic stage.

It may be known for its sleepy scent and soothing properties, but there’s nothing dozy about the explosion of colour happening right now in London’s lavender fields. Here are the best places to treat your eyes and nose to this year’s epic summer blooms.

It’s going to be very very hot indeed this week. So, there’s no better time to cool off in one of London’s brilliant outdoor swimming pools. Here’s a list of our favourite alfresco bathing spots, however, our desire to paddle around under a sunny sky does mean that it’s important to book ahead if you want your open-air swim fix. So no rocking up to try your luck. 

Moved from Alexandra Palace, an all-female indie rock line-up is taking over the London Palladium for this extra-special gig at an iconic London venue. Connie Constance and Nadine Shah will take to the stage before the legendary singer-poet Patti Smith, aka the ‘Godmother of Punk’, fills the stage with unconventional and unapologetic rock.