Things to do in London this week

If you’re a carnivore with a big appetite for BBQ, Meatopia has your name written all over it. The boozy food fest is a veritable utopia for meat lovers, with 50 chefs invited down over four days to cook up a storm. This year's highlights include Andrew Clarke of renowned live fire restaurant Acme Fire Cult, rave-reviewed Manchester spot Stow's chef Jamie Pickles, and Michelin-starred dining concept HUMO. Book your tickets here, but be warned – they don’t include food, and the queues here can be lengthy, so it’s best to arrive early with your ‘meatbuck’ tokens at the ready.

There are few more striking spots to catch a movie than the iconic surrounds of the Barbican Sculpture Court. As usual, the City of London’s temple of the arts has an inventively curated line-up in store for the final week of August. Cineastes can revel in the cult sci-fi extravaganza that is David Lynch’s 1984 ‘Dune’, while music lovers have an outdoor screening of Björk’s mesmerising new concert movie ‘Cornucopia’. Standard tickets are £18 (£12 for under-25s and £10 for under-18s) and there’s street food to feast on while you sit back, relax and enjoy the show. 

Part of an ongoing series of group exhibitions featuring artists not represented by the gallery, this show will see three painters – Koak, Ding Shilun and Cece Philips – fill Hauser & Wirth’s vast Savile Row space with windows into imagined interiors. All taking domestic architectures as their starting point, each artist’s work becomes a meditation on the psychology of space.

Applebee’s has been doing its quietly impressive thing since 2000. Starting life as a fishmonger, it casually morphed into a cutesy family-run seafood restaurant. To celebrate its 25th anniversary, Applebee’s had a bit of an interior spruce up in 2025, and is now a light, bright space in which to plough through a superlative seafood offering from executive chef, Frankie van Loo. Super-sustainable, the menu at this Borough Market mainstay charges regularly, depending on what the Devon and Cornwall dayboats have brought to Brixham Fish Market. Our oysters were hearty and fresh, a starter of wild seabass ceviche came meaty-thick, brown crab rarebit was delightfully chunky and we clock a massive fish and chips complete with a tower of tartate. 

Immersive entertainment franchise Secret Cinema has taken things back to basics, putting the classic 1978 film musical at the heart of this evening. In Secret Cinema’s Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical, the original film is shown on large screens dotted around the cavernous new Battersea Park venue Evolution, which has been lavishly tricked out to serve as Rydale High. Then there are live actors who pop up to take over singing and talking duties in key scenes. The live band is a nice touch. It’s a good natured and lively, geed along by well-drilled actors, with a funfair to boot!

Looking for a wholesome, creative night out that doesn’t involve a hangover (unless you BYOB)? Token Studio in Tower Bridge offers relaxed, hands-on ceramics classes where you can spin, shape and decorate your own pottery piece. Whether you fancy throwing a pot on the wheel (£32) or painting a pre-made mug or plate (£23), it’s the perfect mix of fun, mindful and surprisingly therapeutic. And to top it all off, you can sip while you sculpt as it’s BYOB and super chill.

Buy a Token Studio session from just £23, only through Time Out Offers. 

Too many book festivals don’t have enough festival. It isn’t that there’s too much emphasis on books (how could there be?) but that there just aren't sufficient opportunities to have fun with your fellow bookworms. But not Queen’s Park Book Fest, which is less a meeting of the literary elite, more village fete. Held, as always, in the public park, it’ll combine literary celebs with stand-up comedy, local history and lectures on pressing issues of the day. And crucially, each day is capped off by a party into the night. Not like a rave but, you know, just a jolly good time. This year, highlights include BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty talking about her new book on women's health, Alan Hollingshurst discussing his latest portrait of modern England, and a rare public appearance from novelist Hanif Kureishi after he became paralysed. Plus, to sweeten the deal there are foodie events including a panel discussion from chefs Thomasina Miers, Ben Lippett, and Yotam Ottolenghi. Delicious!

It’s been 30 years since Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes traded social realist documentary filmmaking for narrative fiction. Active since the 1970s, the Belgian brothers have built up an impressive body of work, largely from intensely naturalistic stories of the poor and dispossessed. Their closest British analogue would be Ken Loach. Now, the two-time Palme d’Or winners bring their tried-and-true methodology to a diverse quintet of teenagers temporarily housed in a residential shelter for young mothers in the directors’ native city of Liège. The Dardennes paint with a bleak brush, yet invariably succeed in finding light in the darkness, their empathy for those from the lowest rungs of society ultimately shining through. It’s a testament to their compassionate lens that we cannot help but root for every one of their characters, even when they inevitably fuck up.

In UK cinemas Friday, Aug 29

Some murder-mysteries – Seven, for instance – immerse you in grisly menace. Others – Memories of Murder –  weave a web of intricate plotting and surprising feints. The Thursday Murder Club, which follows a set of crime-solving pensioners from Richard Osman’s best-selling murder-mystery novels, just wants to plump up a cushion and spin you a cosy yarn with an unusually high body count. For a movie in which people die violently every 30 or so minutes, the stakes are stupendously low, the vibe steadfastly upbeat. Harry Potter veteran Christopher Columbus presides over the mild-mannered sleuthing with an Anglophile affection. Grab your nan, put the kettle on and enjoy some exceedingly fine thesps hamming it up royally. 

Summoning all Dungeons and Dragons fans. Are you ready for four whole days of quests, NPCs and big bad evil guys? Head down to Between the Bridges in the last week of August for the World’s Lair Fantasy Festival. Each day of the festival is split into two parts: ‘Dusk’ and ‘Dawn’. The former lets guests take part in fantasy-inspired workshops like candle painting and calligraphy, watch live DnD actual play and test their knowledge in a fantasy-focused pub quiz. After 6.30pm, the fest turns into an adults-only event, with performances from horror-fantasy podcast Dark Dice and DnD adventuring party Oxventure. Watch out – you may even run into a dragon or two.

Hidden somewhere between a theme park, an escape room and a real-life video game, Phantom Peak isn’t just your average day out. This open-world adventure based in Canada Water invites you to explore a fictional steampunk town at your own pace, chatting to quirky characters, uncovering mysteries and slowly piecing together your own story.

With 11 unique trails, a rotating calendar of seasonal storylines, and a cast of live actors guiding your experience, no two visits are ever the same.

Get discounted adult tickets exclusively through Time Out Offers

British greats Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch revision the 1989, Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas adaptation of the novel The War of The Roses, about a once-happy couple fighting over their dream home during a divorce. Directed by Jay Roach (Bombshell) with a screenplay by Tony McNamara (The Favourite), the movie does have laugh-out-loud moments, some coming from the couple's love-hate banter, others from their US friends, played by Kate McKinnon and Andy Samberg. And yet, despite the comedic might on screen, many of the gags fail to land. The Roses gets off to an enjoyable start, but like the marriage at its centre, the novelty wears off.

In cinemas worldwide Fri Aug 29.

Want a drink? You've come to the right place. This is Time Out’s list of best bars in London, our curated guide to London’s drinking scene, featuring the buzziest bars in the capital right now. These are the 50 places we’d recommend to a friend, because we love drinking in them and have done many, many times over. From classy cocktail counters to delightful dives, London’s got them all.

If you fancy switching things up a bit and find yourself near Borough, why not roll up your sleeves at Comptoir Bakery's London Bridge workshop space? Choose from sessions where you’ll learn to craft buttery croissants and pain au chocolat, the cult-favourite Brionuts, or delicate tartelettes. Expert bakers—trained under culinary legends—will guide you through every step, from mixing the dough to perfecting the fillings. You’ll also nab a slick £20 apron to keep and plenty of fresh pastries to take home. Starting at just £69 per person or £118 for two, with over 30% off, it’s a delicious way to spend a few hours.

Get discounted workshop sessions, only through Time Out Offers

Do you remember when the first Gorillaz album came out? It felt like we were catapulted into a new era of music and visuals. Created by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, Gorillaz is the artificial foursome of bassist Murdoc Niccals, singer 2D, drummer Russel Hobbs and guitarist Noodle, and House of Kong is their fabled homeland. This exhibition, of the same name, lifts a veil on how the group first came together to blow up a pre-digital world with the release of ‘Tomorrow Comes Today’ all the way back in 2000. It documents their past misadventures, musical innovation and ground-breaking virtual performances via an all-new immersive experience.

It’s one of those Fringe successes people dream of mimicking. Since debuting in Edinburgh in 2014, Duncan Macmillan Every Brilliant Thing – co-written with its original star Jonny Donahoe – has earned rave reviews and performed all across the globe. Now it’s on the West End. Over the course of its three-month stint, Donahoe, Ambika Mod, Sue Perkins and Minnie Driver will all take the lead role, but we see Lenny Henry. Dressed in a colourful patterned shirt, he sends smiles soaring across the crowd from the outset. The conversation about mental health has moved on since 2014. Nevertheless, the play’s message still lands today. For all its sorrow, the play gleams with hope. It is a truly brilliant thing.

‘The sleep of reason produces monsters’. The Turner Prize-winning artist Tai Shani’s new commission for Somerset House takes the sleep of reason as its starting point. In the grand Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court, she has installed a ten-metre-tall blue figure, who lays supine, gently breathing with closed eyes. We’re told that this ethereal, childlike giant has slept through ‘warnings of present and imminent catastrophes, political and social disaster and environmental collapse.’ Art with a message often risks being didactic, prioritising its statement over its aesthetic experience. Here, though, is a deft balance of content and form: a nuanced message, contained within immediately impressive and accessible art.

Jean-Francois Millet was an artist of the people. Born to a farming family, he spent his life painting rural workers and the conditions of their labour. This exhibition, marking the 150th anniversary of his death, presents an impressive array of his work, which went on to inspire Vincent van Gogh among other artists. Heads down and backs bent, there is a melancholic, weathered beauty to Millet’s characters.

In the Hayward Gallery’s HENI Project Space, two Iranian-Canadian artists are having fun with language. Sculpture, video and found objects all find their place in this playful exhibition that juxtaposes words and images to show us the precarity of truth and meaning in today’s world. From a hyper-realistic sculpture to a repurposed electric motorway sign, Ghazaleh Avarzamani and Ali Ahadi find many ways to combine the quotidian with the uncanny.

Another year, another spectacular line-up of classical music. In 2025, the orchestral extravaganza will feature 86 concerts across eight weeks, with over 3,000 artists taking to the stage, with the majority of the action taking place inside the grand surroundings of London’s Royal Albert Hall. This week, look out for an all-night prom running from 11pm to 7am featuring cellist Anastasia Kobekina, pianist Hayato Sumino and Norwegian ensemble Barokksolistene, a The Planets and Star Wars prom with music from John Williams’ Star Wars score and Holst’s The Planets and Edward Gardner conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra.