Hayley Joyes

It’s nearly time to congregate on the streets of Notting Hill and soak up the loudest tunes London has to offer on the sweet long bank holiday weekend. While you’ll find heaps of live music, vibrant costumes and dancing during the parade at NHC, Notting Hill Carnival is also famous for its 36 official static soundsystems, with their incredible DJs, that famously (and with enough bass to register on the Richter scale) soundtrack the two-day party. On every corner of W10 this Bank Holiday weekend, you’ll find different soundsystems blending old-school reggae and dub with bashment, hip hop and more. From chest-rattling dub riddims to samba-sonic Latin music and Caribbean Carnival anthems, you’re bound to find something that gets your feet moving. To give yourself a headstart, we’ve mapped all 36 soundsystems so you can grab a prime spot for raving. What day are the soundsystems playing at Notting Hill Carnival 2023? On Carnival Sunday and Monday, 36 static soundsystems will play from noon to 7pm at various locations across the parade map, which you can find here. Check back nearer the date for the official locations of each soundsystem. Here’s Time Out’s A-Z of Notting Hill Carnival soundsystems this year:

No decade is a musical monolith, but seeing the best songs of the ‘90s listed all in one place, the era seems especially scattered. History has boiled it down to grunge and gangsta rap on one end, boy bands and Britney Spears at the other, but it’s the stuff in the middle and on the fringes that makes the period difficult to sum up.  In England, Oasis and the rest of the Britpop lot left nearly as big a mark as Nirvana and the other Seattleites. Hip-hop took over the world, and seemed to change shape every few months. Remember when electronica looked like the future? Where do mischief makers like Pavement, Beastie Boys and A Tribe Called Quest fit in? And that’s to say nothing of the totally random ska and swing revivals…although that’s all you’ll hear about it here.  Given the crowded field, we’ve been ultra-selective in compiling this all-bangers, no-clangers playlist and limited it to one song per artist. Whether the ‘90s was the greatest decade for music is mostly a generational debate, but as you’ll hear, one thing’s for sure: it was never boring. RECOMMENDED:📸 The best album covers of the ’90s🎶 The best ’80s songs🎵 The best songs of the 2000s💃 The best Beyoncé songs🎤 The best Kanye West songs🎞 The best music videos of all time🌱 The best jungle tracks

Botanical gardens are magical things. Concrete jungles have increased the innate human desire for all things verdant, and spending time surrounded by flora of all origins has never been more desirable. What we’re trying to say, in a roundabout sort of way, is that plants are awesome. You know this, we know this, everyone knows this. Where better to enjoy the wonder of flora than at the best botanical gardens in the world? Nowhere better, that’s where. The best botanical gardens in the world are treasure troves of natural beauty and wonder, while they also double up as tremendously educational excursions. Learning while falling in love? Where do we sign? From cherry blossoms in Brooklyn to cacti in Colombia, fill your brain and your camera roll at these delightful botanical gardens around the world.  

Essential information Average property price: Flats £250k, houses £425k Average rent: £600pcm per person Nearest transport: Lower Sydenham rail station/Sydenham Overground Bus routes: Loads of direct buses to Catford, Crystal Palace and Blackheath. Local MP: Ellie Reeves (Labour)  Tell me about the local tribe Hard-working Lewisham locals and families, first-time buyers and creatives looking for affordable housing. A large part of Lower Sydenham is an industrial park so you’ll find a lot of warehouse space and cheaper units going à la Hackney Wick ten years ago.  What’s new in the area? There’s an Aldi landing imminently in the Bell Green Retail Park, and just up the road at Beckenham Place Park there’s a new swimming lake and adventure playground. Any community spaces? Sydenham Library is at the heart of the community, powered volunteers and also acting as a drop-off point for recycling centre Eco Perks. There’s a strong programme of events care of the Sydenham Arts community. And the incredible Sydenham Garden is open to all and provides pastroal care through green-fingered activity. Sydenham Community Library. Photograph: Andy Parsons Where can I grab a morning latte? More like a rocket-fuel Nescafé or builder’s tea with a side of eggs, bacon and fried slice as the Kings Café near the station. Otherwise, it’s a brisk walk to Brown & Green café in Mayow Park, where they’ll froth your oat milk to perfection. Is the area family-friendly? Yes, alongside lovely off-road cycle r

The club scenes of cities like Las Vegas, Paris and Tokyo are legendary. But what if you’re looking for a destination where you can get stuck into some incredible nightlife without putting a serious hole in your travel budget? In many of the world’s greatest cities, partying till dawn will cost you dear. But not in Madrid, Montreal or any of the other amazing (and affordable) nightlife cities listed below. How do we know? Because we quizzed 34,000 people in hundreds of cities for our Time Out Index 2019. We asked each local respondent not only how great their city’s nightlife scene is right now, but also how much they’d spend on a night out. Then we used all that data to put together the ultimate guide to party cities in Europe and beyond, where you can get after-dark thrills at a fraction of the cost of a night out in London or New York. Get planning your party trip now – because the music sounds better when the drinks are cheap.

From a celebrity-endorsed fake tan to a facial using micro currents, a 'sleep better' meditation session to a stint in a snow chamber, discover some of the best one-off treatments available in the capital. CHECK THIS OUT: The best luxury spas in London

This August 2019 find a summer festival with our comprehensive music festival calendar. August is a big month in festival season so whether you’re looking for a banging dance music festival, a boutique event or huge pop acts, pick from our list of the best UK and London festivals in August. With everything from Wilderness to Reading Festival on offer, you’re guaranteed to find something to suit your tastes. And if not, there’s always September. 

Find a summer festival in the UK or London in July 2019 with our handy music festivals calendar. This is prime time for summer parties, with plenty of choice whether you like your festival action in the city or the countryside. Hit London heavyweights Lovebox and British Summer Time or go for rural bliss at Latitude or Womad. Just remember to hold back enough energy for upcoming summer festivals in August and September.  RECOMMENDED: More UK and London music festivals

September is the last hurrah for the London and UK summer festival season, but before the summer ends there’s time for a few more big events: End of the Road hits Dorset while Wales welcomes Festival No 6. Check out what else September 2018 has to offer with our comprehensive festival calendar. RECOMMENDED: More UK and London music festivals.

From Soho to Shoreditch and down to the fleshpots of Vauxhall, London’s gay scene offers plenty of opportunities to sweat. And why not stay for some extra pampering in the form of a hot stone massage?

Notting Hill Carnival is an integral part of London life, so it’s no wonder that Time Out has a rich history of Carnival coverage. All the way from 1975 – the year that attendance doubled and the modern Carnival was born – to the ’90s, we’ve discovered some great archive photos and pictures from Time Out London. Put together, it’s a fascinating picture of how Carnival has changed (and changed London) over the years. RECOMMENDED: Read our full Notting Hill Carnival guide

A three-day weekend (Saturday May 28 – Monday May 30 2016) means only one thing: more time to party. As usual, there's a bounty of great events taking place across the city to suit every taste, so whether you're looking for pop-ups, boat parties, house music or general immersive larking-about, there'll be something for you in our comprehensive bank holiday party listings below. RECOMMENDED: Read our full guide to the bank holiday in London

Don’t be put off by the mock-Tudor exterior; The Fellowship and Star is steeped in real history. London’s first pub on a council estate was built in Bellingham to serve heroes returning from WWI, and became a community hub and performance space – Fleetwood Mac and Eric Clapton were among those who took the stage – before slipping into disrepair in the ’80s. It also served as a training gym for the area’s celebrity, heavyweight boxer Henry Cooper, ahead of his fight with Muhammad Ali. Now the pub lives to fight another day following a £4 million restoration led by Phoenix Community Housing and the guys behind The Star of Bethnal Green. The before and after would make Martin from ‘Homes Under the Hammer’ flush with excitement. Now you’ll find state-of-the-art cinema Bellingham Film Palace screening blockbusters for a fiver, grub from residents White Men Can’t Jerk and rooms primed for private parties. The pub has retained its ’20s panelling but has had an injection of colour from flamboyant wallpaper and pink and turquoise upholstery, making it cosy and contemporary without destroying its character. And while old carpets have been axed in favour of parquet flooring, the wooden bar still stands in the round. You’ll see posters and little gloved touches in memory of Cooper – some friendly punters propping up the bar on my visit even claimed to have met the man. That’s what makes this refurb work: the pub is still invested in the local. See it in the booze, with Brockley, Orbit an

This documentary offers a candid and alarming insight into the threat posed by the notorious Red Mosque network in Pakistan. The cameras follow Isis supporter and Muslim cleric Abdul Aziz Ghazi on his continued campaign to enforce Sharia law and raise the next generation of jihadi soldiers. As well as providing a window into the Red Mosque’s current activities, directors Hemal Trivedi and Mohammed Ali Naqvi take care to remind us of the organisation’s deep political history that includes providing frontline soldiers for the Soviet-Afghan War (their activities funded in part by the United States and Saudi Arabia) and highlights the mosque’s close ties with Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban. The use of education as a tool to enforce an ardent religious ideology upon children is what’s most distressing here (remember Malala Yousafzai?), and the filmmakers back up their investigations with testimony from key speakers in the Pakistani academic communities and a young girl who ran away from her local madrassa training programme.

The specialist Murad beauty room at House of Fraser is the perfect retreat from the horror of Oxford Street’s hustle and bustle of shoppers and jostling tourists. The bright and welcoming stall inside the department store offers a complimentary pre-facial skin scan with the Murad 'Youth Cam' – the machine takes a deep layered photograph of your skin. Prepare to feel scolded, looking specifically for sun damage, redness and ageing, if you haven’t been slathering on the SPF you’re definitely going to know about it! Murad offer a range of nourishing and invigorating treatments claiming to deal with in anti-aging and skin protection. Living in this fair city can play havoc with your skin – if you’re a keen cyclist you have pollution to deal with, and if you work in an office the air-conditioning and central heating can give your skin a real battering, leaving it dehydrated. We enlisted one of Time Out’s hardy cyclists to test out the 60 minute Murad City Facial which aims to deal with the aches and pains of city living; the two ‘p’s: pollution and partying. The deeply relaxing City Facial goes through a series of phases that begins with a full steam and cleanse, extraction (code for: removing all your blackheads – GROSS) followed by a brightening vitamin C infused mask – along with hot towels – Lovely! Next comes a series of hydration treatments that use an Osmolyte Tonic to offset skin dehydrated by boozing, partying and working long hours. The penultimate stage includes a sooth

Container Records has been on our radar since it opened in autumn 2015, peddling the best names in undergound electronic music. Now they’re organising a free entry day and night event with independent labels and food from local vendors. Comb the crates from lunchtime at the Container mini-record fair. Selling their wares during the day you’ll find drum and bass super power Hospital Records, Gqom Oh!, London techno upstarts THEM and one of (cocknosed musician) Anklepant’s regular vehicles Love Love. From 7.30pm things get a little ravey with DJs spinning vinyl-only sets inside the record shop. Listen to Rephlex Records staple Ed DMX Krew play disco, funk and boogie cuts from his personal collection plus sets from Volta 45, Bagheera and NTS’s Reverie. This event is free and aims to bring together music lovers for a dig and a dance.

Container is an event space and record store in Pop Brixton, specialising in new and used electronic music. Situated in a former shipping container, this independent shop is the brainchild of London promoters keen to provide punters with a friendly, knowledgable and accessible space to explore independent music. Look out for a series of carefully programmed in-store events and workshops with Lambeth Council catering to aspiring musicians. RECOMMENDED: find more record shops in London.

Unbox your bladder of wine for a last trip to festival land this year. Here's what's happening this weekend.   One Love Festival Looking for a post-Carnival fix? How about a weekender in... Hainault? Not the first place that springs to mind when thinking about soundsystem culture, but we’ll go with it. One Love has been running for nine years now so it must be doing something right. Located at the end of the Central line in verdant rural surroundings, One Love draws a crowd of like-minded reggae fans and also claims to be the only camping festival in London. Hainault Forest Country Park. Fri Sep 2–Sun Sep 4.  In the Woods Festival Now in its tenth year, this small non-corporate fest is held in the grounds of a big old house in Kent. The organisers keep numbers low by only selling 1,000 tickets each year. Loads of talents have played at ITW, including Lianne La Havas, Young Fathers and The Invisible (who are back this year with a Bowie and Prince tribute) to name but a few. Be sure to check out performances by Let's Eat Grandma, Will Joseph Cook and make sure you grab a seat beside the giant bonfire. A field in Kent. Fri Sep 2–Sun Sep 4. Field Maneuvers As nightlife venues in London slim down, we suspect that intimate events like Field Maneuvers will be more commonplace in years to come. The 700-capacity dance music event operates under a cloud of mystery, all we know is that it’s an hour outside London and next to a river. Expect a glitter-clad, free-spirited and friendly cro

Last night on 'The Island' a cliff-face trek turned into tragedy. The show closed with poor little malnourished Patrick falling off a cliff backwards into rocky waters below. Ahhhh, I can't take it! Is he okay? Yeah, he's fine babes, he's on Twitter:  This is by far the worst situation the islanders have faced #TheIsland pic.twitter.com/sGYMh8LNwR — The Island (@TheIsland) 18 April 2016 For those new to 'The Island', it's kind of like 'Lost' meets 'Shipwrecked' with undertones of 'Lord of the Flies', 'Cast Away' and, on a good day, 'I'm A Celebrity'. The first two series featured two single-sex survival groups on different islands; this time around they've got to share a group camp. And oh, what a camp. Reminiscent of the garden of Eden, together the lovely men and women have made bamboo beds, hand-woven nets for catching sharks and plastic, plus a nice little fire for cooking. The women have even stopped drinking stagnant swamp water. It could be worse. You could have been drinking eggy, salty water for days #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/G3oOZP32XU — The Island (@TheIsland) 4 April 2016 I'm making it sound way more idyllic than it is. In reality, the group have experienced prolonged periods (like two weeks) without proper food, although last night saw Erika kill a bird and the group catch a turkey – giblets and gizzard all round. There's also been bleeding bumholes caused by extreme constipation, scorpion stings, live HD tooth abscess-lancing and lots of people

If you’re looking for the best Turkish food this side of Istanbul then go for a meander down Green Lanes. Once notorious for Turkish and Kurdish gangs and the drug trade – you can pack a pipe and scoff a pide – this corner of north London is one area that hasn’t yet had all of its edges sanded off. However, despite the fair share of negative press it has received, these days the only conflict you’ll witness is between hungry punters grappling for a table at one of the Lanes’ best eateries. Green Lanes runs for six miles from Newington Green to Palmers Green, but you’ll want to drop a pin in the section a third of the way down, near Harringay Green Lanes Station. Flanked either side by desirable Victorian terraces, this mile-long stretch, known as known as the Harringay Ladder, is a brilliant Turkish microcosm, complete with 24 hour greengrocers, awesome restaurants, beauty salons and social clubs, all operated by the local community. The tide of gentrification is slowly starting to creep in, injecting some much-needed cash into the area and some not-so-welcome spiralling house prices. But with its exuberant personality and culture, this is still one of the most unique and delectable streets in north London. Here’s hoping that the local community will stand its ground and that the rocket-fuel kahvesi and baklava won’t be completely replaced with cortados and avocados. Do this Get your eyebrow game on fleek with Eser, the in-house beauty therapist at Mehmet’s who is an expert w

It's only three days till Notting Hill Carnival! Today, Digital Soundboy – Shy FX’s drum and bass label and collective – announced a genre-bending lineup for their bank holiday takeover of the Sir Lloyd’s soundsystem on Leamington Road Villas, and we’re still getting to grips with the rather bemusing/varied line up. Carnival is all about celebrating diversity and coming together – but does that extend to Skrillex? The LA EDM mogul is gearing up to earn his Soundboy points bang-a-ranging his way into the reds on the Sir Lloyd rig. Craig David (of ’00s garage and Instagram fame) is also set to make an appearance. We’re not sure whether he’ll be clanging a load of deep house or sticking to a tasty R&B sing-a-long – these days he does both, sometimes at the same time. More conventional Carnival sounds come from Hackney party crew Rudimental, esteemed selector Benji B and a live PA from General Levy, Ms Dynamite, Jammer and Becky Hill. We wouldn't be surprised if some high-profile guests showed up too. Still, the big news is #skrillexatcarnival, no doubt rinsing his latest hit with Diplo, ‘Where Are Ü Now’. London, prepare to lose your shit this weekend to the dulcet tones of Justin Bieber. Get more essential Notting Hill Carnival information or read Shy FX and Benji B telling us their favourite Carnival memories.

To queue, or not to queue, that is the question. Hear ye, let it be known that the Barbican is releasing 30 £10 tickets a day to see Benedict Cumberbatch, yes Sherlock, as Hamlet. Tickets have completely sold out so for the lucky 30 who make it to the front of the queue, this really is a golden ticket scenario. The box office opens at 10.30am, but any Cumberbatch fan worth their salt knows that they need to be in the line clad in a sleeping bag with a hot flask of tea from 1am. So with that in mind, Time Out’s Daisy Bowie-Sell did just that and queued through the night with Benedict Cumberbatch fans as part of the #cumberhamlet #allnighter. Here’s what happened in tweets: Someone has given us a beer &an evening standard. &we've been interviewed by ITV...on later this morning people! #cumberhamlet #allnighter — Daisy Bowie-Sell (@Daisy5660) August 6, 2015 Ok so there are now 14 people in our queue. The majority of which have turned up in the last two hours. I'm now drinking beer. #cumberhamlet — Daisy Bowie-Sell (@Daisy5660) August 6, 2015 Sunrise over Smithfield #cumberhamlet #allnighter #barbicansleepover pic.twitter.com/updQ8bCfxc — Daisy Bowie-Sell (@Daisy5660) August 6, 2015 There have been tears. Someone turned up at 5.20 (WHO DOES THAT?) and the queue was too long. 30 tickets! Only 30! — Daisy Bowie-Sell (@Daisy5660) August 6, 2015 People have been cheerily turning up over the last ten minutes as if they're just gonna breeze in and pick up a ticket. #maybetheyw

Enigmatic Bristolian producer Julio Bashmore is about to release his long-awaited debut album 'Knockin' Boots'. Not content with a bog-standard launch party, he's putting on a free exhibition in Bankside. The interactive exhibition - which may or may not be entirely serious - includes sections devoted to his beloved chow chow dog Gryff and his passion for retro games. Here's what you'll find at the 'Knockin' Boots' exhibition.  BASHMORE ARCADE GAMES If you've always wanted to challenge Julio Bashmore to a digital duel (and who hasn’t?) then you're in luck: he's created a Bashmore-branded retro gaming machine. Players can tweet their top scores to win merchandise. <img id="86aeb0ad-5d63-6325-d197-742812d98f33" data-caption="" data-credit="Joe Hawkes for Red Bull Studios London " data-width-class="" type="image/jpeg" total="144308" loaded="144308" src="http://media.timeout.com/images/102797037/image.jpg" align="middle" alt="Julio Bashmore exhibition by Joe Hawkes for Red Bull Studios London" class="photo lazy inline"> Joe Hawkes for Red Bull Studios London A BASHMORE BIOPIC Daniel Bereton's seven-minute film, shot in a '70s-esque style, features some of Bashmore's top Bristol hangouts and characters. BASHMORE-INSPIRED ART Six artists were given copies of 'Knockin' Boots' as a stimulus to paint, sculpt or draw a piece for the exhibition. The results include a gold-plated hat and a chicken shop flyer.  <img id="49339c62-123f-3c18-6755-b50eb

Mr Bingo, the quick-witted illustrator – and now rapper – is offering the opportunity to go on a Wetherspoons pub date in return for contributing toward his new Kickstarter book project, 'Hate Mail: The Definitive Collection'. For those of you in blissful ignorance of Hate Mail, it's a project started back in 2011 when Mr Bingo, alone and pissed up in his studio, put a call out on Twitter offering to send an offensive vintage postcard. Hate Mail was born, and that’s pretty much how it’s carried on for the last four years.       Now, for the princely sum of £150, one lucky lady will be treated to unlimited house wine and snacks at the chain boozer. The reward also includes an individual piece of Hate Mail and a signed copy of the 320-page book; a compendium of Bingo’s best – and most offensive – bits of Hate Mail.   The Kickstarter programme has been a fruitful venture for Mr Bingo who smashed the initial £35k target within nine hours of launch. As well as the date, pledgers can still pick from a selection of price-bound rewards that range from a signed copy of the book to a bespoke T-shirt and the opportunity to ‘get shitfaced on a train’ –first class, of course – with drinks, snacks and LOLs courtesy of Mr Bingo. But don’t take our word for it, watch his video and support:   Find out more on Mr Bingo's Kickstarter page.