Catriona Harrison

Victoria Miro will present the works of three young emerging artists in The Stories We Tell. Through their paintings, Tidawhitney Lek, Emil Sands and Khalif Tahir Thompson, explore memory, identity, family and the body. Lek draws on experiences growing up as a first generation American, born to immigrant parents. Sands paints the human body on large canvases, often in expansive landscapes. Often using family photographs for inspiration, Thompson builds on cultural references and their connection to the modern world. 

Born in a fishing village in Denmark in 1859, Anna Ancher painted and memorialised life on the coast, cementing herself as a Danish household name. Now Dulwich Picture Gallery brings Ancher’s work to a UK audience in her first ever British exhibition, which will showcase over 40 of her luminous paintings, many of which are reminiscent of the coastal community where she grew up. Also featuring in the exhibition will be four of Ancher’s contemporaries: Marie Luplau, Emilie Mundt, Marie Sandholdt, and Louise Bonfils. 

After four years of exciting performances, free music and dance festival Urban Elephant has grown into one of Elephant and Castle’s best loved cultural events, and for good reason. From classic Indian dance to Spanish flamenco, the weekend-long festival is a real showcase for the local area’s vibrant multicultural communities.  Fusion band Grupo Lokito will be bringing Congolese grooves and Cuban rhythms to the headline slot at this year’s edition, alongside Ivorian drumming and dancers from Kaagô, the IRIE! Dance Theatre Youth Company performing West African folktale ‘Anansi and the Pot of Wisdom’ through African and Caribbean dance, and a celebration of Colombia and Latin America from longstanding local dance group Yuruparí Grupo Folclórico.  Spectators can also expect whacky circus performances, cabaret and even some participatory fun in the form of a Latin American aerobics classes to kick off the festival, while local businesses will be running a variety of food and drink offers to keep you fuelled for a day of dancing.

Chick ’n’ Sours devotees, we come bearing good news. After sadly shutting its two remaining London restaurants earlier this year, the Korean-inspired fried chicken brand is returning with a new residency in the capital. The chicken shop will be landing at Big Chill, a bar in King’s Cross.  After closing the two restaurants earlier this year, Chick ’n’ Sours has been on the road all summer, hitting up festivals and operating pop-ups. Now ready to settle down again, the brand has chosen Big Chill – which itself started out life as a music festival in Herefordshire. Between 1994 and 2011 Big Chill festival hosted the likes of Massive Attack and Lily Allen, and it opened a London bar in 2004. Chick ’n’ Sours was actually thought up at a music fest. Its founders’ fried chicken eureka moment was at Latitude in 2010, and the website proudly claims: ‘Born at a festival, raised on good times.’  Londoners can get their Chick ’n’ Sours kick at Big Chill from September 17, where the residency will be serving up the brand’s classics: crispy chicken tenders with seaweed ‘crack’ seasoning, sweet and spicy disco wings, smacked and salted bang bang cucumbers and more.  Big Chill King’s Cross, 257-259 Pentonville Rd, N1 9NL. The best fried chicken in London, according to Time Out. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel. Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Time Out London newsletter for the

Following the success of venues in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham and Sheffield, sports bar chain BOX is finally opening an outpost in London – and when it opens, the company is claiming the venue will be the capital’s biggest sports bar.  BOX Piccadilly is set to open its doors on Shaftesbury Avenue on October 24. The three-floor, 7,200-foot space will boast 33 ultra-HD jumbo screens, showing everything from F1 and NFL to rugby and footie. The ‘Box Below Bar’ (pictured above) will be an entire floor purpose-designed for watching sporting events. Not just for the sports fans, the new West End bar will also fancy itself a entertainment spot with electric darts, shuffleboard and ‘bandeoke’ (AKA karaoke with a live band). It’ll also boast live music and DJs every Wednesday and Saturday, and there’ll be grub in the form of ‘stacked burgers’, Neapolitan style pizzas and sharing plates. BOX co-founder and chief executive Martin Wolstencroft said of the new venture: ‘With more screens than any other bar in the West End, we’re setting a new standard for watching live sport and partying, making you feel like you’re right there in the stadium, taking centre stage.’ Image: Rendering BOX London BOX Piccadilly, 21-23 Shaftesbury Avenue (W1D 7EF). Find out more here. The best football pubs in London.  And the best rugby bars in the capital. Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out WhatsApp channel. 

Calling all lovers of musty, dog-eared, yellow-paged books: a new independent shop for secondhand tomes opened last week in Muswell Hill, north London. In a useful repurposing of a high-street space, it occupies the site of an old funeral parlour – but you’ll be thankful to know it stocks more than just horror.  The shop, which is on Fortis Green Road, opened on September 6 and is run by husband-and-wife duo Chris and Katrina Masson. Called Muswell Hill Books & Parlour, alongside pre-loved books the shop also flogs art and records, and can host literary events and parties.  Chris, who is from Muswell Hill, is no newbie to selling used books. At various times he worked at both branches of Black Gull Books, a duo of bookshops in Camden and East Finchley known for eclectic selections of rare and used editions. Both outposts of Black Gull are now closed, with some of the East Finchley branch’s stock going to Boom Cat in Camden – which has also now shuttered. Writing on the shop's Instagram, Chris and Katrina said of their new venture: ‘We have everything from classics, to philosophy, photography and science, to occult and spiritual and antiquarian, with a good sprinkling of rare and interesting.’ Occult and spiritual? Sounds like Muswell Hill Books & Parlour is at least partly paying tribute to its previous tenants. Cooksey and Son Funeral Parlour, which the new store has taken over the space from, shut its doors last year.  Photograph: Muswell Hill Books and Parlour Intrigued