Eloise Feilden

For centuries, Soho has been London’s playground: packed with spots for boozing, carousing, and soaking up the best of the city after dark. And even though it’s largely cleaned up its once-sleazy reputation, it’s still packed with fine drinking spots, from moody basements to high-end cocktail bars. Whether you join the crowds hopping up and down its network of streets or settle in for the duration, you’re guaranteed a brilliant, boozy night out in Soho and neighbouring Chinatown. Word to the wise: you might want to line your stomach at one of Soho’s best restaurants. Now head to the heart of the West End to make sure you don’t miss a thing. July 2025: Soho remains London’s best place to spend a evening. Soho’s pubs are unmatched and have been around for decades, but the area’s bar scene is a little more dynamic. So our latest update to this list of Soho’s best bars includes a fair few new openings that have proved themselves to be well worth a visit, even though they’re newcomers to the scene. From the chic Three Sheets to Italian hideaway Bar Lina, the all-singing Room Where It Happens, Stormzy's House Party and Below Stone Nest, visit these Soho newbies for your next Big Night Out.  RECOMMENDED: These are London’s very best bars. Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor, and you’ll probably find her at Trisha’s. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines.

In 2026, the UK’s coastline is more in the spotlight than it has been in a long, long time. The opening of the long-awaited King Charles III Coastal Path means that the entire coasts of England, Wales and Scotland are now fully walkable – giving you even more of a reason to visit this nation’s extraordinary roster of seaside towns. Of course, being an island nation, the UK has no shortage of coastal spots. Prim, proper, picture-postcard-worthy idylls? Check. Remote, blustery retreats from stormy seas?  Yep, plenty of that. Thrill-packed resort spots with something for everyone? Britain has all of the above and much more. If you’re on the hunt for British seaside towns that are worth checking out right now – the ones that should be on your radar specifically in 2026 – that’s what we’re here for. Time Out assembled our UK travel experts to pick out the country’s most exciting seaside, port, harbour and resort towns to visit this year. RECOMMENDED: 🏖️ The best beaches in the UK (and mapped).📍 The best places to visit in Britain in 2026.🇬🇧 The best new things to do in the UK in 2026. Time Out’s best seaside towns, mapped Image: Time Out

A red sandstone amphitheatre. An ancient woodland on the English coast. A teeny tiny island with a black sand beach. Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes – luckily, the world isn’t held to the same rigid beauty standards as humans are – and we’ve curated this list to celebrate that.  It goes without saying that Time Out’s ranking of the world’s most beautiful places is entirely subjective and by no means exhaustive, but what we can guarantee is real-life experience. Every single beach, lake, city and valley on this list has been visited and vetted by our globetrotting network of travel writers. In short, they’re all well worth making the journey to see for yourself (no social media fakery here).We update this list regularly, ensuring we’re including the big-hitters while considering the impact of overtourism and spotlighting lesser-known beauty spots. So here it is: Time Out’s guide to the most beautiful places on planet Earth. Happy travels!Updated March 2026: There are seven new additions to the list this year, including a terracotta-coloured Old Town in Italy, an opulent Renaissance-style library in New York and a compact mountain range in northern Spain.Grace Beard is Time Out’s travel editor, based in London. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. RECOMMENDED:⛰️ The most beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites🗺 The most underrated travel destinations i

There’s a heck of a lot to get excited about in Britain over the next 12 months or so. Between now and 2027 Brits will gobble down platefuls of new restaurants’ grub, slurp tasty bevs in fresh bars, get cultural fixes at museum exhibitions, spectate at globally-renowned sport events and even witness moments of proper historic importance. In 2026 the UK will see the return of the Bayeux Tapestry (not seen on these isles in 900 years) and the completion of the nation-spanning King Charles III Coastal Path. Among the likes of new music festivals and theme parks will be the world’s biggest Irish cultural event, the premiere of one of this century’s most highly anticipated stage musicals and centenery celebrations for a globally-loved children’s character.  And that’s just the stuff that’s planned – who knows what else will define the year? Without further ado, here are the 16 best new things to do in the UK in 2026, chosen by Time Out editors and contributors. RECOMMENDED: 📍 The 14 best places to visit in the UK in 2026.🏛️ The 26 best new things to do in London in 2026.🌍 The best new things to do in the world in 2026.

Sure, they don’t have super strength, infinite stretch or the ability to burst into flames at any given moment, but the Spiteris are basically The Incredibles when it comes to London’s restaurant scene. You might think that for the children of celebrated restaurateurs Jon Spiteri (The French House, St John, Sessions Arts Club) and Melanie Arnold (Rochelle Canteen), the choice to follow in such footsteps risks a life skulking in their parents’ shadows. Not for brothers Fin and Lorcan, who mastered their craft at Islington’s now-shuttered barge-based restaurant Caravel, and sister Molly, who leads business development for Koya. As culinary dynasties go, their powers are immense.  Grilled bream on a bed of fennel is what happens when pub food is done really, really well The latest Spiteri venture sees the two generations join forces. The Latimer is intentionally pub-first, the white tablecloths which hint at its gastro prefix only visible past the stools and steel-topped tables that occupy its main floorspace. Big windows flood the high ceilinged room with light, triggering that irresistible urge to snap a couple of piccies before golden hour fades. Come summer, grabbing a table on its terrace will likely take as much dedication as worming through the crowds to Latimer Road station on Carnival weekend. The Latimer’s menu is best pondered over a Westway cocktail – which tastes like adults-only pink sherbet, because, well, tequila. Masala monkfish with tartare sauce, which featur

We all know the saying ‘it’s not the destination, it’s the journey’. Well, whether you consider the phrase a personal mantra or (more likely) you’re currently cringing at your screen, the adage is definitely true of one industry in particular. The purpose of an airline might be to get you from A to B, but when it comes to making the voyage itself an enjoyable experience, they’re not all created equal.  If you’re wondering which carriers lie on the positive end of that spectrum, you’re in the right place. Each year, global non-profit Apex (The Airline Passenger Experience Association) hosts a bunch of awards to crown the top airlines around the world. Now, the Apex Best Awards, launched to recognise the best regional providers across factors like seat comfort, cabin service, food and beverage, entertainment and Wi-Fi, have crowned their winners for 2026, and one British airline outshone the rest in Europe. Virgin Atlantic was named the Best Overall Airline in Europe for 2026. The airline, which is 42 years old this year, recently became the first British carrier to launch direct flights from London Heathrow to Seoul in South Korea. It will also be adding direct flights to Phuket, Thailand from October. Photograph: Bradley Caslin / Shutterstock.comVirgin Atlantic planes at Manchester airport As for the other winners in Europe, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines from the Netherlands received the Best Cabin Service award, Finnair won for seat comfort and airBaltic was crowned the Wi-Fi w

There’s nothing like summer weather to make you yearn for the feeling of sand between your toes and a coastal breeze in your hair. There are few feelings better than cooling down with a salty dip, followed by an ice cream watching the waves. Which is why, each year, Time Out creates a ranking of the British seaside towns we’re most looking forward to visiting over the summer months. Old school resort towns and buzzy villages up and down the country are included in the list, which in 2026 featured a total of 16 seaside spots.  Unsurprisingly, many of the 2026 entries are also easily accessible from the capital. In fact, almost half are less than 90 minutes from the Big Smoke. If that’s not reason enough to grab your shades and pack a swimming cozzie, we don’t know what is. While top spot on this year’s best seaside towns list went to Saundersfoot in Pembrokeshire, the silver medal was awarded to Hastings and St Leonards. Located in East Sussex, the sister towns are just an hour and a half on the train from London, making them perfect for a day trip or weekend getaway. Just 20 minutes apart on foot, Hastings and St Leonards-on-Sea have everything you could want from a quick coastal refresh, renowned art galleries, stellar antique emporiums and a burgeoning restaurant scene included. Photograph: Andy Sutherland / Shutterstock.comHastings Contemporary Ella Doyle, Time Out’s Europe editor, said that St Leonards is a particularly delightful spot for foodies. She wrote: ‘There’s a

Things are hotting up in the Square Mile, and no, we’re not talking about the heatwave. The City of London Corporation has laid out a timeline for the opening of the new Smithfield and Billingsgate markets. The news follows the revealing of the opening date of the long-awaited London Museum, which has relocated to part of the old Smithfield site. These upcoming features will go some way to plugging the gap set to be left by the iconic Smithfield Meat and Billingsgate Fish markets. Plans to move both historic markets from their long-term central London locations were announced by the corporation in 2022 and their new shared home on Albert Island in Newham’s Royal Docks was confirmed last year.  Now, the City of London Corporation has revealed a date for the move.  Photograph: Chris Lawrence Images / Shutterstock.comBillingsgate Market, London The new combined market is due to be fully fitted out and operational by 2029, provided the Private Bill regarding the move receives Royal Assent by mid 2027. Once Charlie gives the plans the green light, it’s predicted to take around two years for the new site to be built and for Billingsgate and Smithfield traders to vacate their current homes. The Corporation has agreed to support traders with a hefty compensation package during the transition, but won’t oversee the management of the markets once the move is complete. Currently, traders at both markets have no room to expand and grow their businesses due to a lack of space. The move

If you’re anything like us, a trip Down Under has long been on the bucket list. Hanging 10 on the Sydney surf, throwing a couple shrimps on the barbie and sipping on a flat white? Yep, we could get used to the Aussie lifestyle. The only downside to catching a flight to Oz is, well, the flight. The roughly 7,000km journey typically takes anywhere from 22 to 27 hours by plane, which is a daunting prospect. But UK-Aus flights could soon be cut down to around a tenth of that time. That’s because plans for a new hypersonic space plane are on the horizon. The Invictus aircraft, which is being developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), would travel more than five times the speed of sound, meaning it could get from London to Sydney in just three hours. It would take off like any normal plane, but once airbound, it would fly to the edge of the atmosphere (around 80,000ft) from where it could jet across the globe tout suite. Invictus would be the first supersonic commercial aircraft since Concorde, which was axed in 2003. Concordes could reach Sydney in 17 hours, but needed to make multiple stops to refuel along the way. Image: European Space AgencyThe Invictus hypersonic plane Before you pack your flip-flops and order that Crocodile Dundee-style cork hat off Amazon, we should warn you that the Invictus is a fair way off actually taking off. The new plane is still in its design stage, meaning it’ll be years before we can board. The initial phase of its development is expected to b

If you like your food spicy – like really, really spicy – then we have good news, because an American fast food chain dishing up chicken so hot you have to sign on the dotted line is coming to the UK for the first time. We’re talking about Houston TX Hot Chicken. The fast food chain, which serves Texas-style hot chicken sandwiches, nuggets and tenders, is famed for its extreme ‘Houston, We Have A Problem’ flavour option, which lands at a 2 million on the Scoville Scale and is so spicy that customers need to sign a waiver before tucking in.  The chicken chain currently has 29 sites across nine US states, and is coming to the UK as part of a partnership with PizzaExpress, which has acquired rights to the franchise across Europe. It’ll be the first time its spicy chicken wings are available outside the US. Photograph: Houston TX Hot ChickenLemonade flavour selection at Houston TX Hot Chicken The location of the new sites hasn’t been announced yet, but we do know that there are three openings planned for this year alone, with a total of 50 sites due to crop up across the country in the next three years. As for the menu, classics like the Original Hot Chicken Sandwich (offered at multiple spice levels), chicken tenders, nuggets, fries, house-made lemonade and Houston TX Hot Chicken’s popular house sauce are all set to feature. It’ll have to pack a powerful punch if it wants to compete with the array of impressive fried chicken spots which already call the UK home. You can find o

One of the stars of the Harry Potter franchise is getting a shiny new visitor centre. No, we’re not talking about Radcliffe, Grint or Watson. We’re talking about the Glenfinnan Viaduct.  If you’re a big Potter fan, chances are you’ll recognise the 21 concrete arches which make up the iconic bridge as part of the route taken by the Hogwarts Express. Well, the Glenfinnan’s various cameos in the wizarding films have made it a popular stop for tourists and Potterheads alike. So much so that the current visitor centre is overwhelmed. Designed in the 1960s to accommodate just 100,000 visitors a year, last year around 660,000 people walked through its doors. That’s almost 2,000 a day. Luckily, a new facility is underway which will be better equipped to deal with this hefty footfall in the future. The new National Trust visitor centre will sit on land close to Loch Shiel, the Glenfinnan Monument and the Glenfinnan Viaduct. Photograph: ShutterstockGlenfinnan Viaduct, Scotland Plans for the project, which is set to cost £6 million to complete, include a large café with covered outdoor seating, a dedicated ‘arrival and orientation area’, more toilets and a redesigned car park. An off-site mobility hub designed to encourage sustainable travel via walking and cycling is also being floated as part of the project. If you’re thinking of booking a visit, we’d recommend waiting a couple of years, because the centre is due to be finished by ‘late 2028 or early 2029’, the National Trust for Sc

If you’re a big contemporary art buff, you may have spotted the news that a major new arts space is about to debut in central London. Opening on June 25, Hypha Gallery South Bank will transform the ground floor of a currently vacant office building on Southwark Bridge Road. Located just minutes away from Tate Modern, it could create some healthy competition for the iconic power station building on the Thames. Arts charity Hypha Studios – which hosts studios and exhibitions in vacant buildings – is behind the new project, which will feature nearly 800 square metres of galleries and more than 400 square metres of studio space. It’ll be the charity’s largest space to date. To start with, 17 makers will be able to use the on-site studios for free to create their work. As for its exhibitions, well, they’ll all be free to visit too. Hypha Gallery South Bank will debut with three shows – Bridging the Gap, a series of sculptures inspired by Southwark Bridge, a second site-specific exhibit exploring how local histories continue to shape Southwark’s future, and a separate immersive audio experience where you can listen in to sounds made by microbes and fungi.  Image: Rio Representa / Hypha StudiosPreview images of Mundos Invisibles: Resonant Fermentation Assemblages   Image: Rio Representa / Hypha StudiosPreview images of Mundos Invisibles: Resonant Fermentation Assemblages Photograph: Hypha StudiosPreview image of Nikita Savostyanov, ‘The real thing (victorian edition) 01' Phot

Alongside Sunday roasts, fish ’n’ chips and fry-ups, London’s classic food scene is built on classic cockney pie and mash. Juicy meat enveloped in flaky pastry, a plate piled high with pillowy mash, lashings and lashings of liquor – what’s not to love? So when M Manze, an icon of jellied eels, meat pies and mashed potatoes, closed its doors on Islington’s Chapel Market, it was a sad day for trad British chow.  M Manze first opened its branch on the market in 1911 and served traditional cockney fare for more than 100 years. But rising rents and business rates forced it to shutter in 2019. Fans of its food – some who’d been eating there since childhood – flocked in their hundreds to wave goodbye to the famous pie shop. RECOMMENDED: The best pie and mash shops in London. Now, seven years after its closure, the seductive smell of parsley liquor will be wafting through its doors once again. That’s because the historic site has reopened as No.74 Chapel Market, serving up the same classic dishes it was originally famed for. Yep, business partners Martin Savage and John Gordon have decided to restore the Chapel Market site to its former glory. Thanks to the Grade II-listed status of the building, the iconic M Manze shopfront sign, tiled walls and wooden tables will all remain. As for the menu, while the traditional pie and mash classics will be served here, the shop’s new owners want to give a nod to their Irish heritage too. Savage told the Islington Tribune: ‘The menu reflects th

Grab a towel and a bottle of factor 50 and let’s go. It’s summer, which means one thing and one thing only: time for a seaside escape. London’s pretty short on beach options (unless you fancy a dip in the Thames, and we certainly don’t). Good thing, then, that several of the UK’s greatest beaches are within easy reach of the capital.  Each year, Time Out’s writers and editors head out, bucket and spade in hand, to test the country’s shorelines. The result? A list of the top beaches up and down the UK, from Cornwall’s world-famous sands all the way up to Scotland’s West Isles. Of the 40 beaches that feature in Time Out’s latest ranking of Britain’s best beaches, a not-too-shabby five are day-trip distance from the capital. Sandy coves and gorgeous dunes, here we come – here’s a map of excellent beaches you can get to from London. The best beaches near London, mapped  Image: Time OutMapped, the five best beaches near London, according to Time Out     Cuckmere Haven, Sussex Photograph: ShutterstockCuckmere Haven First up, prepare for your jaw to drop and your eyes to bulge at some seriously gorg chalky cliffs. In the shadow of the Seven Sisters, Cuckmere Haven’s shores are not just pristine, they’re famous too, having appeared in Atonement, A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. If they’re good enough for Hollywood, they’re good enough for us. Travel time from London: In the car, you can expect the journey to take around two hours and 20

London’s Stylers: the wait is officially over. The ‘Watermelon Sugar’ singer is in the capital for the UK leg of his Together, Together world tour. The former 1D-er announced his current world tour back in January, ahead of the release of his latest album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. Having spent the first 10 tour dates in Amsterdam, Harry Styles is now in London to entertain crowds of over a million across a dozen nights at Wembley, supported by none other than country pop queen Shania Twain. If you’re lucky enough to have secured a golden ticket to one of Hazza’s London shows, we know you’ll be wanting to get the most out of the evening. Waiting in long security queues to get into the venue can put a dampener on things, so here’s a collated guide to everything you need to know about Wembley’s bag policy, restricted items and where to store your luggage should you need to. RECOMMENDED:🎤 Harry Styles at London Wembley Stadium: dates, timings, last-minute tickets, travel information, seating map and everything you need to know.🛍️ Where to buy last-minute Harry Styles tickets for the London Wembley Stadium shows.🎸 The Harry Styles 2026 tour setlist – all the songs played on the Together, Together tour so far.🏟️ Full guide to the seating plan at Wembley, including the best seats and total capacity. Harry Styles Wembley bag policy Wembley follows the standard bag policy in place for most stadiums and arenas in the UK. Each person is allowed to enter the venue with

Harry Styles’ Together Together Tour – one of the biggest round of tour days in the world in 2026 – has officially landed in London. His residency at Wembley, which began on June 12, is now nearing its halfway point. The last time Styles hopped on a tour bus, he broke records. The pop icon’s Love on Tour concert run, which spanned 22 months from 2021 to 2023, grossed over $617 million and sold five million tickets, making it one of the most attended concert tours of all time. So, in January 2026 when the former One Direction star announced he was going back on the road, we knew it would be a big ’un.  The Together, Together tour, supporting his Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally album, kicked off at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff ArenA on May 16 with 10 shows at the Dutch venue. Hazza is back on his home turf for the London leg at Wembley Stadium before jetting off to Brazil, Mexico, New York, Melbourne and Sydney for the remainder of the tour. 🎟️ Where to buy last-minute tickets for the Together, Together tour in London. Photograph: Julian BajselHarry Styles on stage for his Together, Together tour Tickets to the 12 Wembley shows sold out in record time, but if you were one of the lucky ones quick enough to snag one (teach us your ways!), you’re probably wondering about the setlist. Well have no fear, dear reader, because we’ve got you covered. While we can’t guarantee the pop star won’t switch things up between now and the end of his tour in December, the current set li

Crimson double deckers are to London what the yellow cab is to New York or the cable car is to hilly San Francisco. Whether you’re hopping on the 43 on the daily or you’re more of a Superloop kind of person, there’s no denying that the big red bus is an icon of the UK capital. But what happens to those old buses at the end of their working lives? Well, a new design project could see them transformed into mobile children’s play areas. The Davidson Prize, an annual design competition which aims to encourage new ideas around homes and housing, has announced the three finalists for this year’s award, devised around the theme of ‘Changing the Game: Building Play into Housing’. Playdeck, one of the projects up for the prize, aims to repurpose decommissioned Routemaster buses and turn them into mobile playgrounds. The designers behind the concept want to develop a new approach to outdoor play by placing moveable playparks on the doorsteps of housing estates. Each bus is decked out with playblocks which fit together like puzzle pieces that can be rearranged into different play scenarios, making them perfect for climbing, jumping and imaginary games. Image: The Davidson PrizeRoutemaster bus repurposed as children's play area Plus, the Playdeck project also makes use of the New Routemaster buses, aka ‘Boris Buses’, which are currently being phased out in favour of fully electric and hydrogen buses. The New Bus For London (NB4L) was launched in 2012 by then London Mayor Boris Johnson,