For all the immersive experiences and live spin offs of beloved films and TV shows (we’re looking at you Crystal Maze and The Traitors) London is yet to get a Pirates of the Caribbean style adventure where you can do the Jack Sparrow run across the deck of a historic Square Rigger and down some rum. However, thanks to The Golden Hinde and the returns of its Thirsty Thursdays, this might be about to change.

Whilst you might usually head to the local pub or a trendy bar or even just the side of a road for your usual (cherished) post work pint on a Thursday, this summer you might end up swapping your local watering hole for the waterside. The Golden Hinde is not just a fancy Etonian sounding family crest but the name of one of London’s oldest (intact) ships moored in London Bridge. The floating piece of (reconstructed) history will be welcoming guests aboard for more than just a tour this summer as every Thursday the ship will transform into a pub. Its Thirsty Thursdays will be running weekly from 5.30pm until 10pm, with no booking, plank walking, or rig climbing required.

Entry to the ship is usually £6 for a standard whip round, but for Thursday pints, entry will be completely free and even better, it promises to serve up some of the “best value drinks in SE1” so hopefully you won’t be dishing out the golden galleons for a singular sip. Plus you’ll be able to drink in some stunning views of the Thames without having to be on a rooftop drinking a £16 cocktail. The bar will be on the main deck, but you’re invited to have a nosy around the ship itself whilst you enjoy your tipple. You’ll be able to look around inside the main cabins, duck under the low beams, and even have a look at the armoury.

The Golden Hind isn’t actually the original ship that sailed back in the 1570s but a full-sized recreation of the Elizabethan galleon painstakingly constructed in 1973. The original ship was the first English ship to circumnavigate the globe and was captained by Sir Francis Drake. Its original name was Pelican but Drake later changed it in honour of his patron, Sir Chirstopher Hatton whose crest was a golden hind (that’s a female red deer for the un-Attenborough-educated amongst you). The original Golden Hind was also staged for public gawping at Deptford from 1580 until around 1650 when it eventually rotted away and was broken up. Some of the original wooden timbers were reused in structures that still exist today like at Drake’s Devonshire home.

As well as transforming into a pub, The Golden Hinde also hosts plenty of events including live music sessions and pub quizzes. And if you’re really into cosplaying as Jack Sparrow, it even hosts sleepovers where you can stay overnight on board the ship.

You can peruse all the events at the ship's website, including all the details for Thirsty Thursdays. Currently, Thirsty Thursdays will kick off on 20th Aug, running until 24th Sep.

• London is getting a new immersive gaming experience this September that will bring your favourite arcade video games to life

Bus-driving members of the Unite union have plans to strike this week, and beyond, over concerns about working conditions.

The first of these strike dates land on 14th and 15th August, the start of this weekend, and will likely affect routes around Barking, Edmonton, Enfield, Grays, Palmers Green, Stamford Hill, Tottenham and Wood Green.

So why are drivers striking? It’s a pretty understandable complaint if you’ve been on a bus recently: the drivers argue all buses should have proper aircon, and that what they have today is insufficient.

Some buses have it, others have a simple air recirculation system that ends up just pushing hot air around.

The strike is part of a dispute between around 1500 bus drivers working out of eight London bus garages, and Arriva North London, the company responsible for services in the affected parts of North London and Essex.

This first duo of strike dates arrives during a week when London temperatures are set to reach peaks of 35 degrees centigrade, on Thursday.

Here are the proposed list of strikes dates ahead:

• Friday 14th August - Saturday 15th August
• Tuesday 18th August - Friday 21st August
• Tuesday 25th August - Friday 28th August
• Friday 4th September - Saturday 5th September
• Monday 7th September - Tuesday 8th September
• Friday 18th September - Saturday 19th September
• Monday 21st September - Tuesday 22nd September
• Friday 2nd October - Saturday 3rd October
• Monday 5th October - Tuesday 6th October
• Friday 16th October - Saturday 17th October
• Monday 19th October - Tuesday 20th October

It is not yet clear how widespread the disruption will be on these days, or exactly which routes will be affected. And Arriva is yet to publish any updated advice on the news section of its website.

You can expect delays and cancellations of services, though, particularly if you’ll be around the areas mentioned at the top of this story.

“We know those who rely on these bus services will be dismayed to hear of industrial action, but it is entirely the fault of Arriva who has completely failed to listen to our members,” says Unite officer Steven Stockwell.

Transport for London published the results of a freedom of information request regarding aircon on public transport last year, which indicate it is — unsurprisingly — the older buses around London that do not have full air conditioning.

“All buses introduced since circa 2006 have air conditioning in the driver's cab and air cooling on the top deck of double-deck buses. Buses featuring the newest specification for air conditioning have entered service since 2024,” says TfL.

The post does seem to claim all London buses have aircon for the driver, though.

“Air conditioning technology varies across London's bus fleet, but all London buses have some form of air cooling. All London buses have air conditioning in the driver's cab,” says TfL.

This could be a case of disagreement over what actually constitutes "air conditioning" in action.

• London’s wildfire threats: These are the boroughs most at risk

Later this month, an exhibition opens in London, and it’s one watch fans will not want to miss — not least because it’s free to visit.

The Seiko Power Design Project exhibition opens at Japan House on 27th August, and will showcase a whole host of out-there watch designs not intended for mass production.

They are concept pieces, displayed under the thematic banner 'Passionately and Obsessively Crafted Watches'.

For the uninitiated, Seiko Power Design Project is the department of Seiko that works on out-there and exploratory designs, to push the envelope and see what’s possible within the medium.

It has been around since 2001, and was brought back in 2022 after being wound down in 2009.

Let’s take a closer look at just a couple of the unusual watches you can expect to see at the show.

First up is Spherical Surface, by design director Yu Ishihara. Its face expands out in concentric circles, turning a small watch into a wrist-hogger.

“By aligning the curvature of all four structural tiers – glass, bezel, case, and outer case – I have created a continuous spherical form that extends across the entire watch,” says Ishihara.

Or there’s Machining Marks, which references the craftsmanship involved in both woodworking and watch making. This one is by Naoya Sukeda.

“One day, a video of woodworkers diligently absorbed in their craft caught my eye. It was footage of furniture making — seemingly far removed from watchmaking at first glance. Yet the textured surface of the wood, shaped by planes and files, bore quiet traces of the craftsperson’s meticulous hand and profound understanding of the material,” says Sukeda, who brings out that sensibility in the watch’s stepped face design:

Hands by Yuki Omori is one we can imagine going down a treat with the less conventional watch fan. Its face bears a cartoon cat, whose paws are used as watch hands.

Cute AF, obviously, while the cat pictured is actually Seiko’s mascot Ten-chan.

If you want to take in the exhibition first-hand, it’s on at Japan House from 27th August to 15th September. And it’s free. Japan House is found at 101-111 Kensington High Street, very close to High Street Kingston Underground station.

• The best exhibitions in London this summer: From Escher to Bowie to Marilyn Monroe

Need something to do this upcoming Bank Holiday weekend? South London's Battersea Park is holding a series of family-friendly concerts, and the full programme has just been announced.

The Battersea Park in Concert series returns this year with four days of performances, from 28th to 31st August.

Weather-permitting, it’s a super-chilled day out that, unlike the average London day festival, welcomes you to bring your own food and drink. Part of the pitch is it’s the ideal spot for a picnic, with music to enjoy in the background.

There will, of course, be food and drinks stalls, should you not want to bring your own picnic kit.

Here are the acts we’re getting on those four days:

• 28th August: Jeremy Loops, with the London African Gospel Choir performing Paul Simon’s Graceland
• 29th August: Pop Symphonic with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra
• 30th August: Movies & Musicals with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, plus The Bluejays
• 31st August: Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra and The Amy Winehouse Band

Tickets cost £48.38 to £49.45 for adults, depending on the day you pick. Family tickets are available too, for around £120-130. This provides access for two adults and two kids.

If your children are under five, though, they get in for free. You will still have to book them a ticket, though.

Premium Admission tickets cost a chunk more, and offer a seat closer to the action in the venue’s Gold Circle area — an idea if you’re there for the music rather than the summery vibes.

Battersea Park in Concert is basically here to bring us classical, world music and jazz performances at their most approachable and palatable for the general British public. Sure, we’re not getting deep cuts here, but it does sound like a fun family day out.

The shows on the Saturday and Sunday are done and dusted by 9:30pm, or 9pm, giving plenty of scope to still get a relatively early night. It's a 10pm finish on the Friday.

And we don’t half appreciate the looser rules here, compared to other London concert events. Heck, you can even bring glassware in, and your own chairs. But leave the gazebo at home, and any properly sharp knives. Dogs are also not permitted, outside of “registered assistance dogs.”

Battersea Park in Concert takes over what we’re going to call the “bottom left” of Battersea Park, nearby the Albert Gate entrance.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Last year we heard a Blue Note Jazz club was opening in London, and it’s finally… almost here.

The Blue Note London opens in Covent Garden this September. And, wow, it is not messing about with its first set of acts.

Blue Note London’s grand opening gigs will see Robert Glasper play two sets, at 7:30pm and 9pm, on both 23rd and 24th September. Presale tickets are available from 10am on 13th August, while general sale begins 24 hours later.

A multi-Grammy winning, world-famous jazz pianist, we have no doubt the 250-capacity venue’s tickets will be gone in no time.

But there are arguably some even bigger names ahead. Our first-week top pick is Yussef Dayes, who again will play 7pm and 9:30pm sets, on 27th September.

He is followed by two nights from Jamie Cullum, who plays two sets a night on 28th and 29th September. Cullum will also return in October, on the 8th and 9th, for another set of concerts, should you miss him the first time around.

Space for new names

The calendar is already filling up for the rest of the year, with upcoming shows from Brand New Heavies, a whole string of Robert Glasper performances, and six sets from Cory Henry.

We don’t yet have any ticket price information for these shows, but given the stature of some of the names and the limited space available, we can’t imagine they’ll be that cheap.

Blue Note London will have two performance spaces. There’s the main room, which has capacity for 250, plus a second area with room for just 100, although that part won’t be open until later in the year.

The plan is for it to host performances for emerging artists and, from our digging around, there don’t appear to be listings online for this second space just yet.

Blue Note London’s entire first wave of tickets — not just the Robert Glasper opening night ones — go on sale next week, so take a look at the schedule before you miss a presale window.

This will be Blue Note’s first London venue, but it has been around since the early 1980s, starting out in New York’s Greenwich Village.

“Our hope is that Blue Note London becomes more than a venue – it becomes a home for musicians, a gathering place for the community and an integral part of London’s cultural landscape,” says Tsion Bensusan, co-owner of Blue Note’s parent company.

“London has always been one of the world’s great music capitals, with an extraordinary jazz heritage and an incredibly diverse creative community.”

Blue Note London is found at 42-29 St Martin’s Lane, nearby Charing Cross Station. While you can book tickets separately, a “founding member” membership costs £295 a year, granting six tickets a year and access to the earliest presale windows.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

The fourth season of Ted Lasso just launched on Apple TV, marking the return of one of the most popular shows on the service.

Across three seasons, and against all expectations (having started out life as an annoying NBC Sports commercial), Jason Sudeikis’s endlessly optimistic coach has won over a huge global viewership.

In the unlikely event that you have no clue what it’s all about, the show follows the travails of a clueless American sports coach airlifted in to manage a struggling English football team. Our bumbling hero doesn’t only need to learn the customs of a strange new land, he also needs to learn the rules of a sport for which he has no working understanding.

It’s classic fish-out-of-water stuff, delivered in a decidedly non-confrontational tone. You could even say that it’s a little cheesy from time to time. OK, a lot of the time.

But there’s a certain well-meaning spirit – an unabashed sense of positivity and empathy – that makes the show feel weirdly revolutionary. Or it did, at least, during its first two seasons.

• "It's the best you're going to get on set": Ted Lasso's new S4 stars Faye Marsay, Abbie Hern, and Jude Mack go offside

After a slightly rocky season three, we’ve got all our appendages crossed that the series can return to form.

The show’s popularity and its rose-tined vision of a particularly affluent slice of London has led to a huge uptick in Ted Lasso tourism. Sure enough, you can visit many of the locations that have formed the backdrop of Lasso’s gently amusing misadventures.

Thankfully, there’s no need to sign up to an oversubscribed Ted tour. Check out the following places you can visit from the show, and form your own Lasso itinerary.

1. Selhurst Park stadium

Lasso’s AFC Richmond play at Nelson Road Stadium (aka "The Dog Track") – a fictitious stadium for a fictitious team. Apologies if that’s shattered the illusions of any of our American readers not totally clued up on UK football. The good news is that the stadium used to stand in for Nelson Road in the show is very much real and open to visits, albeit located an hour or so away from Richmond in South London. Selhurst Park is where Premier League stalwarts and 2025 FA Cup winners Crystal Palace play their home games.

• Holmesdale Road, London, SE25 6PU

2. Paved Court

That cobbled alley leading to Ted’s apartment is just too darned quaint to be real. Surely it’s a set, you might be thinking?

Nope.

Type ‘Paved Court, Richmond’ into Google Maps, and you’ll be taken to a delightfully narrow street in a wealthy South West London suburb, flanked by art galleries, perfumeries, delis, and other delightful independent shops catering to the monied middle classes. Rather conveniently, it also leads you to two of the other iconic locations from the show...

• 1 Paved Ct, Richmond, London, TW9 1LZ

3. Richmond Green

You know those scenes where Ted and Coach Beard sit on a bench in a picturesque English park? Or where Ted wanders through said park, conversing amiably with another cast member or interacting with a member of the Great British public? That’s generally Richmond Green – a park right in the middle of Ted’s neighbourhood, right around the corner from his apartment (in real life as in fiction). Richmond Park is technically owned by the British monarchy, and has been a going concern ever since the Middle Ages, when it used to play host to jousting tournaments.

• The Green, Richmond, London, TW9 1LX

4. The Prince's Head pub

The name of this pub probably isn’t ringing any bells, but it’s the 300-year-old watering hole used for the exterior shots of Ted’s local pub, The Crown & Anchor. And yes, it really is situated right next to Ted’s apartment, as well as his local green.

By all means, head in and sup a pint of London Pride – it’s a Fullers pub after all – but do bear in mind that the interior is not used in the show. They switch over to a set built at West London Film Studios when the action heads indoors. Talking of which...

• 28 The Green, Richmond, London, TW9 1LX

5. The SkyEX Community Stadium

AFC Richmond’s training ground turns out to be yet another real working football location. Ted’s chaotic training scenes are put together at The SkyEX Community Stadium, which is the 3,000-seater home ground of Hayes & Yeading United Football Club.

As you’d expect from these more humble surroundings, it belongs to a team situated much lower in the football pyramid than AFC Richmond, plugging away in the eighth tier of English football. It’s also right next to West London Film Studios, where many of the show’s interior scenes are shot.

• Beaconsfield Rd, Hayes, London, UB4 0SL

6. Richmond riverside

From Ted’s Richmond Green hub, head south-west towards the Thames river. At this point, turn left along the river and you’ll find yourself encountering many of the locations and background elements used in the show, including the Gaucho Argentinian steakhouse and Richmond Bridge.

Keep walking for 40 minutes or so and you’ll eventually come to Eel Pie Island and the Twickenham Rowing Club, where a scene with Roy, his niece Phoebe, and Keeley was shot in season two.

• Richmond, London, TW9 1EP

7. Rivoli Ballroom

Remember the scene in the first season where the team attended a charity gala and aired out their grievances at the dinner table? That was shot in Rivoli Ballroom, a Grade II listed building and the last remaining 1950s ballroom of its kind in the capital.

You’ll need to head over to the South East of the city to see it, but it’s a real slice of history and a frequent cinematic prop. The venue has been used in numerous TV shows and movies besides Ted Lasso, including Killing Eve, Wonka, and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

• 350 Brockley Rd, London, SE4 2BY

8. Wembley Stadium

Two thirds of the way through season two of the show, AFC Richmond play Manchester City in the FA Cup final. Which venue is used to fill in for the prestigious home of football, you might wonder? Well, there isn’t one. That really is Wembley Stadium that the team steps out onto ahead of the game.

It's home of the England national team, host to pretty much every major cup and promotion playoff final in the country’s professional club game, and the go-to stadium stop for any travelling megastar. Hallowed turf, in other words, and well worth a visit regardless of the Ted Lasso link.

• South Way, Wembley, London, HA9 0WS

• The best Apple TV shows you really need to be streaming (August 2026)

We all know renting has always come with its fair share of setbacks. But I never expected a lack of TV to be one of them.

When I first moved into my current London flat five years ago, there wasn’t even a hint of a problem. We happily connected our aerial cable and had everything we could want right on the telly.

But, as the years went by, my precious channels started to disappear; at first gradually and then all of a sudden, leaving only the BBC HD ones guaranteed to be working without the picture going and turning into pixelated blocks.

It was every telly addict's nightmare. But a new streaming solution might just save the day (and your binge-watching evenings, of course).

The problem with apps

Of course, I’m perfectly happy with streaming TV, but it doesn’t always work the way you hope. Not everything streams live; certain apps (looking at you, ITVx) are a bit of a nightmare to navigate, and there’s a whole cohort of mid-range free channels (the likes of Really, Dave and Drama) that don’t even have a streaming home.

Beyond that, there’s nothing quite like channel hopping around for some light entertainment; there’s a comfort in having everything at your fingertips in an all-in-one guide to browse when you’re indecisive and have no idea what to put on.

"Watching telly is still a huge part of our culture," says Alex Arbab-Zadeh, COO of Manhattan TV.

"Watching live broadcasts gives people a shared experience – big news events, sports, or even just trending shows that everyone watches and then talks about. Some experiences are just more meaningful when you know you're watching along with everyone else."

As a gameshow fan, that always used to mean throwing on Challenge and watching some reruns of The Chase in the background. Sadly, that’s not an experience that’s easily available via streaming services, where you actively need to have something in mind that you want to watch. I didn’t just give up on terrestrial telly immediately (after all, I’m paying my TV license), but after months of chasing building management to get the aerial working led to nothing, we eventually just stuck to watching The Traitors over iPlayer.

I wondered why nobody else in our building had complained about this, but it seems they all mostly watch streaming TV too, so it’s never been a priority to fix. In fact, this is all a bit of a “grey area” for renters. Of course, a management company should mend a communal aerial, but if they don’t, it’s not like there’s a law requiring landlords or building companies to sort these things out. There are likely obligations in a lease agreement, sure, but management didn’t bother with repairs and, unsurprisingly, it’s not something any renter can tackle themselves.

Enter Freely

Thankfully, Freely is not only the answer to my specific issue, but also to a long list of TV woes — whether your aerial cable is dodgy, you don’t have an aerial connection in a particular room, you have poor weather, signal interference, or a lack of HD channels over the terrestrial signal.

What is Freely, then? Think of it as the long-overdue upgrade to Freeview. Created by the UK's core broadcasters, it streams live TV straight over your Wi-Fi into a unified programme guide, so you can watch things as they’re broadcast.

It also offers a great range of channels including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5, and saves you from needing rooftop aerials, satellite dishes, or set-top box installations.

Small box, big upgrade

Given that most solutions with baked-in Freely are built into televisions themselves, and I was very much happy with the TV I already had, just a tiny box full of channels was what I needed.

And exactly what Manhattan has made with its Aero 4K. It costs £89, and affordably brings the Freely service to any TV, even my ageing Samsung.

I got the Manhattan Aero 4K up and running in about five minutes; you just plug it into the HDMI and power, and you’re sorted, with no subscription to worry about. And, yes, although it really shouldn’t need to be said: yes, of course you still need to pay for your TV license!

Using the Manhattan Aero 4K is as straightforward as it gets. It runs on TiVo OS rather than Android TV, and I find that a cleaner, simpler and more integrated experience that’s less about streaming-first. You have a “Guide” button on the remote that takes you straight to your old-school electronic programme guide (EPG) and I’ve found channels load fast, and it’s great that you also get access to TiVo+'s 400-plus free FAST channels (that means “free ad-supported TV”) including Sony Action Hits, the Pokemon channel, Bloomberg, CNN, plus movie and sports channels, too.

"People can buy a very affordable device like the Aero, then find that it has upgraded their viewing experience to such an extent that their old TV actually feels like a brand-new set," Arbab-Zadeh told Shortlist.

While Freely itself is in HD rather than 4K, this hardware supports 4K streaming and brings you all the services you expect too: all the UK catch-up platforms (integrated into the guide) and Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and YouTube are all present. The only major omission I noticed was Apple TV, which is a shame, and one that's hopefully rectified soon. Size-wise, it’s similar to a Sky Stream puck and a little smaller than an Apple TV box, so you won’t have trouble placing it anywhere.

There aren’t many downsides. I did notice it’s not as fast as the Apple TV device that I’m used to using for my streaming; the remote can be temperamental, and I do experience a little lag hopping between menus. It also doesn’t play along with my TV audio quite as well as I hoped, and it’s worth remembering you can't record telly from it. You'd need a different box that probably requires an aerial connection if you care about that. For Freely and getting proper TV over the Wi-Fi, though, this is perfect, and any drawbacks feel minor.

For me, it’s been the solution to my years-long struggle. In the past, I’d had to contend with unreliable live streaming and have missed certain events entirely (yes, not all live streams are available on iPlayer and ITV). This just feels easier than fussing with cables and aerials, and means you can put your TV anywhere in your home, not only where you’ve got a socket.

For renters, the Aero costs less than a couple of months' Sky subscription and requires no one's permission to install. And, much to my delight, it has an entire channel devoted to reruns of The Chase.

• Sky Glass gen 2 review: 7 reasons to buy this superior-sounding TV

Five days, three stages, one motorway bridge – the 2026 edition of Junction 2 saw generations and genres collide beneath the M4 flyover in west London. Across two weekends, elite DJs and fired-up ravers came together to experience some of the best techno and house sets of the year.

This year’s Junction 2 was especially packed with talent as the organisers – led by Drumcode label boss and day two headliner Adam Beyer – celebrated the event’s 10th anniversary. Though technically downsized from last year’s five-stage outing, the main Bridge stage, secluded Woods stage, and minimalist Beatport Live ‘The Block’ stage had more than enough on offer for a crowd that tilted a little older, and perhaps a little more discerning, than your usual club night.

Each of the five days had a slightly different tilt to its lineup in an attempt to capture the full spectrum of techno and house, spanning heady minimal beats, American-influenced EDM, and drop-focused hard techno, often called TikTok techno in reference to its relentless pace.

I’m typically a fan of the groove-driven, slightly atonal techno influenced by Detroit and Berlin that dominates sound systems at London parties like Unfold and Midweek Session. With that said, I was surprised at how much I connected with some of the other sets at Junction 2, from atmospheric afrohouse to tripped-out trance.

I attended Junction 2 on three of its five days – 25th July, 26th July, and 2nd August. With that in mind, keep reading for my picks for the seven best acts from Junction 2 2026.

7. Tripolism – The Woods stage – 26th July

It takes a lot to get me dancing to afrohouse. Far from its diverse rhythmic roots, the genre is currently best known for an overprocessed and smoothed out timbre, the soundtrack to airbrushed flyers and package holidays to Dubai.

With that said, Danish trio Tripolism had me putting my pretentiousness aside and actually enjoying myself, spinning warm, melodic afrohouse that shone a new light on a genre I had thought lost to the highlight reels of aspiring influencers. A great fit for the cool and connected vibes of The Woods stage.

6. Miss Monique – The Bridge stage – 26th July

Miss Monique’s set on the main Bridge stage was pure cinema; the Ukrainian DJ’s clear expertise on the decks kept her theatrical flair and striking techno selections in perfect balance.

While her set was built around drops and the moments leading to them, Miss Monique’s performance was galvanised by sheer commitment to the bit – hands in the air, visuals flashing, shimmering echo effects and pure celebration at the moment of release, proving that commercial doesn’t have to mean compromised.

5. Leo Pol – The Woods stage – 2nd August

I know Leo Pol from his deep house records and chilled social media jam sessions, so rocking up to the Woods Stage to find the French DJ and producer rolling through a high-tempo trance and techno set was the best kind of shock.

Pol kept things fun and flowy across his two-hour slot, shelling out bouncy techno beats, rolling psytrance basslines, and the odd UKG breakdown to keep us on our toes. Most importantly, the tasteful silliness of his set cut right through the melodrama of the day’s harder sets, offering a much-needed alternative to the TikTok techno takeover on the festival’s final day.

4. Kikelomo – Beatport Live ‘The Block’ stage – 26th July

Festivals are a great place to find new artists to follow, and at J2 this was UK-born DJ Kikelomo, who brought a stylish approach to modern tech house to Beatport Live’s undeniably cool shipping container-turned-DJ booth (which had the best sound system of any stage at J2, thanks to its Funktion 1 rig).

Like Leo Pol (see above), Kikelomo’s smartest move was to keep the pressure low and energy high – while the day’s headliners chased ever-higher euphoric peaks, Kikelomo dialled in on groove, sleek basslines, and just enough of a percussive edge to keep the crowd locked. I’ll be looking for her name on flyers going forward.

3. Jeff Mills – The Bridge stage – 25th July

What is there left to say about Jeff Mills? The 63-year-old Detroit techno veteran once known as The Wizard for his supernatural abilities on the decks stepped up to fill in for an absent Nina Kraviz on Friday, closing out the first day of Junction 2 2026 with his signature blend of hypnotic loops, slamming kicks, and fragmented percussion.

Armed with four decks, a mixer, and a Roland TR-909 drum machine, Mills unleashed a trademark fast-and-loose techno set across 90 glorious minutes. As a small-time DJ and long-time lover of techno, I was ecstatic to see one of the architects of the genre work in real time, and when he wasn’t arguing with the sound technicians over volume, Mills’ performance was truly powerful.

Unlike the DJs before him on 25th July or those in subsequent days, Mills paid more attention to the tracks themselves than precise beatmatching or laser-accurate phrasing. His rapid-fire mixing spoke to the ethos of the generation of clubbing that he helped to define; the music matters more than the man.

2. Peach b2b Gabriela Kwarteng – The Woods stage – 25th July

I really love discussing and analysing dance music – but every now and then, I need a reminder that this scene is fundamentally about having fun.

At Junction 2, that reminder came courtesy of Canadian selector Peach and New York-born DJ Gabrielle Kwarteng, who came together in my favorite back-to-back set of the festival. The pair played a stylish set of tech-ish, classic-ish, hard-ish house music, deftly walking the line between bouncing beats and breathing room.

Both artists put their intuition and talent on display in blending tunes that felt both playful and a little off-kilter. Peach and Gabrielle Kwarteng have played together before at Fabric and KOKO, and their chemistry really came through – Junction 2 was full of great music and talent, but I don’t think anyone had more fun behind the decks than these two.

1. Ben Klock – The Bridge stage – 25th July

In the pantheon of modern techno, few names carry as much cache as Ben Klock. The long-time DJ, founder of the heavyweight Klockworks label, and Berghain resident is known as a must-see for any fan of techno, or dance music in general.

As the sun fell onto the crowd under the M4 flyover in the afternoon of day one, Ben Klock clocked in. If this year’s Junction 2 was defined by a tension between classic, commercial, and hyper-modern techno, then Ben Klock’s set was the moment that pulled everything together. An underlying pulse of hypnotic low-end movement pushed the stage’s massive sound system to its limits, while spiralling threads of alien sound design and off-beat hi-hats ensnared wandering minds in a double helix of listening and movement.

Each seamlessly blended track felt hand-picked to capitalise on our rising emotion and energy. As such, the crowd for Ben Klock was the most locked-in of any set I attended, and a few minutes into his performance I traded my spot backstage for a chance to get amongst it in the pit. The best dance of the festival, by far.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

BFI announced it would be opening its annual film festival with a bang last week, confirming that the Oscar-tipped Ian Charleson biopic Elsinore would be kicking off the whole shebang. Now, the closer for the festival has been revealed, and it's just as starry and impressive.

Jesse Eisenberg’s new film will be taking the coveted closing spot. Called The Debut, the new comedy-drama will be bringing its all-star cast to London’s Royal Festival Hall to bring the curtain down on the famous festival’s 70th edition on 18th October.

Ironically, The Debut is not Eisenberg’s own film debut, and its arrival on South Bank marks the writer-director’s third feature film at London’s Film Festival.

The Debut boats an incredible cast. Eisenberg co-stars in the film, alongside Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey, Havana Rose Liu, and Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters.

The Debut follows Moore as Mona Friedman, “a shy woman [who] is unexpectedly cast in a local production of an original musical. Under the spell of the strong-willed and enigmatic director, she loses herself in the role and the high-stakes world of this community theatre production.”

Note the plot point of "an original musical", meaning that we should be in for plenty of new tunes. The film's score has been written by Emile Mosseri, and Jesse Eisenberg has penned the songs. Between Halle Bailey, Havana Rose Liu, and Bernadette Peters you’ve already got some pretty heavyweight musicians and singers so we’re likely in for an auditory treat.

Emma Stone and husband Dave McCary are also attached to the project through their company Fruit Tree productions. The pair's production company was also involved with Eisenberg's writing debut, A Real Pain.

The film’s LFF feature will coincide with other cinema screenings across London and the rest of the UK, celebrating the film’s UK premiere before its official release in January 2027. The screenings will be running across four partner cinemas in London’s West End including: Curzon Soho, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Prince Charles Cinema and Vue West End. The Debut will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2026, before its UK premiere on BFI London Film Festival’s closing night gala.

“I am both honored and honoured to be bringing The Debut to the 70th BFI London Film Festival," said Eisenberg.

"What a wonderful thrill to be the Closing Night gala, and I can’t wait to share the incredible performances by the cast with a London audience.”

The 70th BFI London Film Festival takes place from Wednesday 7th October to Sunday 18th October 2026. The full festival programme will be revealed on Wednesday 2nd September 2026, with tickets on general sale from 17th September.

• London is getting a new immersive gaming experience this September that will bring your favourite arcade video games to life

Whilst you’re sweating from your Zone 4 bedsit and frantically Googling which places nearby have air conditioning it might be a little hard to fast forward your mind to October, imagining the scary thrills of Halloween, along with all things pumpkin spiced and wearing actual jumpers. However, the arrival of the cooler months will also be bringing a new arrival with it: an award winning European immersive horror show.

Called The Nightmare Realm, the spectacle – beloved by a host of celebrity guests – will be making its way to UK shores for the first time ever.

The Nightmare Realm is making its UK debut in October, running for just 18 nights from 9th October until 1st November, transforming the historic Avery Hill Mansion in Greenwich into an immersive world of fear, with a brand new theme: A Nightmare from Overseas.

Think Punchdrunk, think Arcade Arena, think Phantom Peak, Absurd City – all incredibly detailed, stunningly immersive experiences which take you from mere viewer to do-er as you step into the action. The Nightmare Realm is like a Halloween-y version of this where instead of simply waking through a haunted house, guests become part of an unfolding story where every character, location, and encounter has its own history.

Although it has run for 17 years in Ireland, The Nightmare Realm creates entirely new worlds from scratch, with mythology, fresh storylines and brand-new environments meaning no two seasons are ever the same. Translation: you can go multiple times, year on year, and it doesn’t count as re-watching. Or whatever the immersive theatrical equivalent of re-watching is.

This year's London debut features two brand-new headline experiences. Avery Hill Asylum invites guests inside a Victorian institution where the brilliant but dangerously obsessive Dr Thorne has pushed medical experimentation beyond the limits of humanity. Sundown Manor follows an ancient Irish bloodline that has crossed the Irish Sea in search of fresh victims, bringing a distinctly Irish horror story to London's Halloween season.

Connecting both experiences is Halloween Town, The Nightmare Realm's own supernatural midway. It’s not just a corridor connecting the two attractions – it’s a living village where stories spill into the streets and every resident has their own history, rivalries and secrets. Guests may overhear conversations, uncover hidden mysteries and even discover secret rooms concealed within the town. Halloween Town isn't a break between stories, it’s the bonus episode, extended track edition of the same story, keeping guests guessing.

To keep the set thrillingly alive, more than 70 live actors will be putting on performances, practical illusions, adrenaline-fuelled moments, and immersive storytelling all with cinematic set design, and plenty of special effects designed to blur the line between theatre and horror.

Over the years, it has attracted celebrity guests including Megan Fox, Machine Gun Kelly, Wednesday star Emma Myers, and Sweet Tooth star Christian Convery. 2026 marks its biggest chapter yet as it brings its unique brand of cinematic horror to London for the very first time.

Tickets go on sale on Monday 3 August 2026 via the website, with prices starting from £38.

• Pop, pots and prints: V&A museums' full exhibition schedule for 2027 and beyond revealed

The paradox of London’s eating and dining scene is sort of like that scene in Gilmore Girls where Lorelai says: “Do you know that if the entire population of China walked past, the line would never end due to the rate of population growth?” and sure, here’s she’s referring to her ceaseless to do list, but it could just as easily apply to the numerous bars, restaurants, and corner spot cafes that pop up across the capital.

Each month, the guys over at Michelin sift through different spots to find out which are worth your time. Unlike the coveted Michelin stars, the Michelin Guide is a more informal list - although just as prestigious - sort of like a 'Ones to Watch' list of restaurants on their radar. If you’re not wanting to take out a mortgage to eat at a triple starred spot, the Guide is worth perusing to see what eateries are earmarked as a good time.

Last month, there were four new spots added to the list, covering a different cuisine each: Japanese, Greek, Indian, and British.

Here's what's worth booking...

Aki, Marylebone

First up is the glamorous and gorgeous Aki in Marylebone. The Japanese restaurant is located on Cavendish Square in a Grade II listed former bank, and only opened up back in October.

The space is split into two different halves; upstairs you’ll find the restaurant which serves up modern farm-to-table Japanese dishes like Miso Soup, Fuji Wagyu Beef Tataki, and of course plenty of fresh sashimi. Downstairs is a more lively affair, with the bank’s former vaults transformed into Kiyori, a Japanese inspired bar serving up a range of delicious and innovative cocktails from lime, yuzu, rum concoctions to a matcha-infused martini.

• Make a booking here

Clio, Marylebone

Just down the road from Aki is another Michelin worthy spot: Clio, which made the list after just one month of opening. It’s a modern style Greek spot which you’ll find in the very swanky Chiltern Place apartments.

As a modern Greek menu, it’s all about fresh produce, and you can expect to see plenty of fresh grilled fish on the menu – think Prawn Saganaki, Charred Cuttlefish, Grilled Octopus and Whole Blue Lobster. Served up alongside it are greek salads, tomato and feta dishes, and obviously the essential oregano chips.

• Make a booking here

Koyal, Surbiton

If you’re trying to recall where exactly in London Surbiton is, you’re probably not alone as the suburb sits on the very edge of the city, usually passed in a blur as you shoot from the leafy countryside straight into Waterloo. However, apparently Koyal is well worth trekking to the outskirts for, sitting on Brighton Road, and serving up fresh twists on Indian street food classics.

It’s led by chef Nand Kishor Semwal who has previously helmed fellow Michelin joints including Gymkhana and Trishna. On the menu are smaller dishes like Pani Puri, Koliwada Fish, and mains including Masala Butter Chicken, Ghost Saagwala, Malabar Fish Curry, and Paneer Makhanwala.

• Make a booking here

Willett's, Chelsea

The final spot to make the list is the brand new restaurant and bar at The Cadogan hotel in Chelsea. Willett’s is a seasonal British bistro which offers up modern interiors and a menu which puts a spotlight on nostalgic British flavours. Chef Michael Turner brings a menu rooted in seasonal ingredients and “simple cooking” that honour classic recipes, so you’ll see things like Beef Wellington, Chicken and Girolle pie, Orkney scallop scampi, and Isle of Wight tomato salads on the menu.

Plus, there’s a whole pudding menu which will have the 80s flashing before your eyes, with old school favourites like Rice Pudding, Bread and Butter Pudding, Lemon Posset, and Eton Mess all up for grabs. The Signature Cocktails are worth a mention too with things like a Granny Smith & Melilot, a Bloody Mary Martini, and a Pimm’s Royale.

• Make a booking here

• Pop, pots and prints: V&A museums' full exhibition schedule for 2027 and beyond revealed

Living or even just visiting London can sometimes feel like you’re in an immersive gameshow, as you dodge between historic buildings, avoid people filming down Carnaby street accosting people with a mini mic, and see all manner of outfits from cosplay to corporate. Now, London is getting an arena entirely dedicated to bringing your favourite video games to life.

Arcade Arena will be bringing iconic arcade classics to life, where you won’t just be playing the games, but you’ll be in them. Three iconic gaming worlds will be brought together all inside the one arena space. There will be retro favourites you'll remember from rainy days inside your local arcade spending your life savings on another attempt at a high score in 2p installments. Plus, there will be new next-gen challenges, brining the kind of adventure you won’t just watch but can see, hear, and feel. There is an exclusive new game, Alien Invasion, which will be launching at the Arcade, bringing a new world and host of challenges into the experience.

It’s the first arena of its kind in London, being helmed by Little Lion Entertainment – the company who brought other immersive experiences like the Crystal Maze Experience, and Maze Runner Live to hundreds of guests. Basically, it brings all the best of gaming with the fun of doing it irl with your mates – without any of the Jumanji style sci fi implications. The new London arena will span roughly a whopping 15,000 square feet, blending the digital world with huge projections bringing the games to life.

Currently, the London arena will host Chaos Karts where you’ll be go-karting around a projected track which will make you feel like you’re racing around your favourite on-screen routes. It uses state of the art technology to combine real-life racing (see: Go-Karts) with augmented reality to immersive racers in a variety of track designs, drivable karts, and even usable in-kart power-ups which will allow you to battle all the way up to the finish line.

There will also be the PAC-MAN Live Experience where you’ll take on the game IRL, navigating through a life sized glowing maze as you transform into the PAC-MAN himself. You’ll be dodging ghostly pursuers, collect Power Pellets, and chase high scores in the big recreation of the world’s most famous arcade game.

Whilst the Arcade Arena is new to London, it’s not its first rodeo, having launched permenant sites in Manchester and Dubai. The London iteration will be opening up in September, but you can already book tickets, which start at £30 for an individual entry.

• Four London pizza spots have been named the best in Europe – with one West London joint crowned number one

London has plenty of cinematic antics; firstly, its entire surroundings are downright movie-like, with bars, restaurants, and galleries providing the perfect backdrop to gaslight you into thinking you’re in a romcom rather than the more mundane reality. Then there are the cinemas: indie bijoux boxes converted from old factories, outdoor pop ups, and Soho institutions which have seen more stars than the night sky. Plus you’ve got London’s various film festivals: BFI, SXSW, and speciality ones like the Queer dedicated BFI Flare, the immersive film-dining festival TASTE, and the animation dedicated Flatworld & Friends to name a few. Now there’s a new one on the lineup – and it’s entirely dedicated to Latin American Cinema.

The festival is set to run from 2nd until 6th October, and like many prestigious film festivals, it will be debuting at the iconic Barbican building in central London, packed with plenty of guests and stars to help bring an extra cinematic flourish to the events.

Guests set to appear during the event will include Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta, Argentine actor Óscar Martínez and Cuban actor Jorge Perugorría, who will hold question and answer sessions after screenings. The festival has been set up by the Cuban actress Ketty Rodriguez, who having moved to London in May 2025, said she had been surprised by how little Latin American culture she could find in the city.

The festival's aim is to "build a cultural bridge" between London and "fearless new filmmakers" who "bring the pulse and passion of Latin America to the big screen". As well as bringing lesser-known creative names to the forefront of London's culture, the Latino Film Festival "exists to disrupt the passive consumption of films... turning overlooked voices into headlines, challenge audiences with perspectives they didn’t know they needed."

Some of the feature films at this year's festival include: Baracoa (2026), Cartas a Mis Padres Muertos (2025), Cielo (2024), Concepción (2025), Querido Trópico (2024), and Sugar Island (2024). There are six other feature films, as well as 10 short films.

Some of the other events taking place throughout the festival include an appearance by Carlos Acosta - former Royal Ballet principal - who is set to appear alongside a screening of Yuli: The Carlos Acosta Story, the 2018 film about his childhood in Havana.

The programme will also feature three masterclasses at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as well as dance classes.

As well as a whole host of screenings and talks, the festival will also include an exhibition showcasing rare Cuban film posters. According to the organisers, the posters were hand printed in Havana by Cuba’s national film institute so you can imagine how intricate and stunning they’ll be. Each design has been hand- stamped and will be shown at Eclectic Gallery, running from 28th September for three weeks.

Speaking about why she set up the festival, Rodriguez said: "I couldn't find my people," after moving to London earlier in the year, adding that "Europe has an incredible art scene and a rich, cinematic past, yet very few people know about Latin cinema.

"It's extremely underrepresented despite a big community here, so I decided to do something about it."

You can find more information about the festival at its website and Instagram, although there isn't a load of information yet, so if you're keen to go you may want to check back closer to the festival dates.

• "We’d never do a hologram show": Pixies look back on four decades of pioneering rock

Being directed by Martin Scorsese before you've finished secondary school sets a pretty high bar. Somehow, Asa Butterfield has kept raising it ever since. The Islington-born actor has spent almost two decades hopping between prestige dramas, cult indies and global streaming hits without ever standing still. Two decades on from breaking through at just nine years old in the acclaimed The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas and starring in Hugo, the 29-year-old has since won over a whole new generation as Otis Milburn in Netflix's Sex Education. Now, he's delivering another bold left-field performance.

In fact his newest film, Our Hero, Balthazar, may be his most challenging yet: After an online troll becomes convinced he's uncovered a potential mass shooter, the film spirals into a razor-sharp dark comedy about loneliness, internet culture and the dangerous search for belonging.

Hot off the back of international acclaim for the latest role, Shortlist caught up with Butterfield to get real about tackling his darkest character to date, why Hollywood isn't speaking to young audiences, his favourite London hometown haunts and the action movie still sitting at the top of his bucket list…

Shortlist: How do you sum up Our Hero, Balthazar?

Asa Butterfield: It's a very, very dark comedy about two lost young men in America who bond over the most unlikely - and borderline - problematic subject matter.

Speaking of problematic, the subject is obviously dark, but it's also a comedy. What kind of research went into that for you?

Being a Brit, I'm blissfully removed from this specific American experience. I didn't go through these shooter drills at school. I never have and I will never have to worry about that or think about that.

So, it was about getting into the mindset of what could drive a young man to do something like this, and then to empathise with them. Solomon [Butterfield’s character, .ed] is a complex and tragic figure who is totally misunderstood and mislabeled to the point of driving him to really consider doing something awful.

For me, playing a character unlike anything I'd got to play before was really exciting. It was a challenge to step into the shoes of someone with a totally different life experience to myself, and to showcase what I can do to audiences who perhaps think of me in other ways, because of the roles I've done.

The film has had fantastic reviews. How has that reaction felt for you?

It's always really great to see how audiences connect with the film, particularly young audiences, because it really is for them.

It feels like there aren't enough films being made that speak to young people these days. This film feels so in touch with the lived American experience, but not just American - around the world there's this sense of isolation, this annihilation mentality, this desire to be seen, connected and be a part of something, and the extreme lengths that some people can go to if they're driven to.

Is that something you've noticed in the scripts that come your way - that there isn't a lot being made for young people?

Well, it's not that it's not being made for young people. It's that people think it is being made for young people, but young people are watching these trailers and seeing these movies and being like, "So what? What is this? I don't see myself in this.” We are getting some young filmmakers who are able to do that, but I think people are so scared to invest in these more daring, independent films.

Having said that then, would you ever want to direct and get behind the camera?

Maybe one day! It scares me, directing. I've had the privilege of working with some incredible directors and seeing their process, and their ability to have this entire film or TV series in their head and really understand every facet of it. I don't know if I'm ready yet, but I hope one day.

At Shortlist, we're always looking for the best London recommendations. Being a Londoner born and bred, what are some of your favourite spots in the city that you always take visitors to?

I went to school in Hackney, so a lot of East London. Clissold Park is my favourite park in London. Walking down Regent's Canal is great. I love Brick Lane for some vintage shopping, or to get a bagel, or a curry.

Dalston's got some great locations. I’ve discovered Gillet Square lately - some people love it, some people hate it. It’s a residential block, but there's often open food markets, good music events and a couple of jazz clubs on either side of it. Then, the Dalston Curve Garden is a really cute spot near Dalston Junction station. It's relatively low-key.

It's just been announced you're going to star as The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein in the upcoming series, Hamburg Days. What are you most excited about for it?

I just think the character's fascinating. Getting into that world; the costume and the voice... I'm a big music fan, so just being part of a TV show where music is so in its veins is exciting.

You've worked on so many different projects from such a young age. What's something you haven't done yet that you'd still love to do?

Let's do a proper action movie, with some cool fight scenes! Or a swords-and-sandals type of thing. That'd be fun. I haven’t done any sword training yet though - not other than just swinging around stuff and imagining it!

Our Hero, Balthazar is out on digital release from 11th August 2026.

• What to watch: new movies and TV shows to stream this week

Ariana Grande was set to appear in London’s revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, but the singer and actor has pulled out of the performances amid a planned wholesale step back from public life.

The production is set to come to the Barbican next summer, with tickets due to go on sale this Autumn.

“Following the announcement from Ariana Grande's team, we can confirm that she has decided to step back from Sunday in the Park with George. We know this cannot have been an easy decision, and she makes it with our complete understanding and support,” the Barbican posted.

“The production will open at the Barbican in summer 2027 as planned, and casting will be announced in due course.”

Jonathan Bailey is the star of the upcoming production, but Grande’s departure from the show will no doubt dampen some fans’ excitement for it.

"Endless, ongoing public scrutiny"

So what has happened?

An Ariana Grande representative told People magazine, she will be “taking a step back” from public life, following “endless, ongoing public scrutiny.”

This came to a head of sorts over the weekend with the release of her new single (and album), Petal, and its music video — a short film from Christian Breslauer. It features Grande as a would-be starlet attending auditions, but after more than nine million views and 57,000 comments, the reaction to it has focused more on the star’s weight than her singing.

However, Grande has intimated multiple times over the last year she may need to take a career break.

“I think that it would probably be healthy to [take a break],” she told Vogue Japan in January. “These past few years have been pretty nonstop. And by few, I mean 15.”

She’s not wrong. But this announcement lands at one of the busiest periods of UK activity of the singer’s entire career.

She is set to embark on a 10-night run at The O2 this month, and there is no current suggestion her team’s statement on stepping back will affect this run. That entire concert series is sold out, equivalent to around 200,000 tickets.

Does she deserve a break, though? Absolutely.

Will she get one? That remains to be seen. Ariana Grande stars in Focker-in-Law, due in cinemas in late November, and we can imagine she may be contractually obliged to take part in promotion for the film around its release.

• Ariana Grande says 2026 tour will be her "last hurrah" as a pop star

If London proves anything, it’s that you don’t need to hop on a flight to Italy to scran some seriously good pizza. Only the other week a London joint was crowned the best pizza in the whole of Europe, but to the shock, faints, and cries of Italian nonnas everywhere. Now, there’s another new kid on the block, and it’s heading to Bermondsey this September.

Called Five Feet Pizza, the new pizza joint will be helmed by a trio of dough-wielding heavyweights: Jay Patel - co-founder of Legare and Luna and Jack Ellingham who is ex London bakery Royalty having been a chef and baker at Dusty Knuckle. The pair will be working with founder and CEO of WatchHouse Roland Horne. The question is, with a name like Five Feet Pizza, is what style of pizza will they be serving up – NYC style crispy pizzas? Proper Italian style? Deep dish? The answer: a bit of a blend.

The trio will be leaning into pan pizzas – not enough to be classed as deep dish but a definite move away from the popular thin-crust NYC style. According to them, the pizzas will have a centimetre-thick crust, meaning you’ll get a nice spongy dough. Similarly, the flavours sound like a bit of a mash up too, with a lot of classic toppings given a modern spin to create something a little bit more unique. Five Feet Pizza’s main menu will include a hot sausage pie with vodka sauce, pickled chillies and hot honey; pepperoni pie with fior di latte and parmesan, and white potato pie with caramelised onions, scamorza, aged cheddar and white sauce. Vegan pies will also be on offer.

Side dishes will be equally blended, with a mix of familiar foods from fancy restaurants as pizza joint classics. We’re talking polenta fritta with vodka sauce and scamorza cheese, chicken wings or focaccia di recco, a flatbread filled with creamy stracchino cheese. Desert wise, it’s a pretty stacked line up too with seasonal gelato, double chocolate cake, and a cinnamon crunch doughnut served with milk gelato all on the menu.

Across the whole menu, something that’s consistent is the produce; the team are using the best sourced ingredients, with everything from Suffolk’s Pump Street chocolate and Jersey dairy in their deserts to bespoke stone mill flour that’s ground on site.

The site itself will be opening up on Tanner Street in Bermondsey, just of Bermondsey's main street and a couple of minutes from its boozy beer mile. Five Feet pizza will be throwing open its doors in September, open Tuesday-Saturday evenings. And if you want a flavour of the type of grub you'll be headed for, it's worth having a light stalk of their Instagram.

• Four London pizza spots have been named the best in Europe – with one West London joint crowned number one

Get a firm grip on your lattes: The price of a cup of coffee could reach £40.

“Yes, people are willing to pay that for a coffee now,” says Peter Dore-Smith, of Fitzrovia’s Kaffeine, which he founded back in 2009, making him one of the pioneers in London’s independent coffee scene.

“Of course, a price like that is down to the coffee and the expertise and time of the barista who has to make the drink. It’s not like a sommelier recommending a great wine and then just opening the bottle. But demand for such extra-special drinks is also a testament to how interest in coffee — its origins, its flavours — just keeps growing”.

That’s not to say more accessible prices won’t still be around: the industry is constantly flirting with the £5 latte, a psychological barrier for many drinkers but perhaps a coming necessity given the growing coffee cultures of the global south, where coffee has historically been grown and sold at suppressed prices to the global north. Yes, like any commodity, the price of coffee is in no small part a matter of geo-politics.

More so, it’s suggestive of how the retail landscape for the black stuff was pretty much non-existent 20 years ago — “back then most people had no idea what a flat white was,” notes Dore-Smith — but now encompasses an estimated 12,000 independent coffee shops across the US. People, says Dore-Smith, want more of an experience from their coffee, both in terms of the drink and the environment in which it’s served, than ever before. No wonder more specialty shops are rotating their coffee menus, offering specials and even coffee classes.

Peak coffee

But might we be at peak coffee? It depends where you are, suggests Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, founder of Leather Lane’s Colonna Coffee, three time winner of the UK Barista Championships and author of The Business of Specialty Coffee and the forthcoming Coffee Lovers’ Guide. Coffee shops compete not by area but by street, so while some streets are seeing the business seemingly eat itself (unless the shops can stand apart by being distinctly speciality in their own way) others remain under-served. It’s like those weird clusters of Turkish barbers, or vape shops.

Still, Dore-Smith expects some contraction, especially among the big chain brands. But, in no small part down to the increased access to knowledge made possible by YouTube aficionados, he also expects a second wave of coffee appreciation. Of the 600 of so coffees he makes a day, more than 10% of them are now filter or cold brew. That may not sound like a lot, but it perhaps marks the beginning of a trend for appreciating coffee as an ingredient in its own right, focused around origin and flavour, and maybe not so much drowned in milk.

“Milk and sugar — all the drinks formats that are heavy on both — have in some sense detracted from appreciating the most important ingredient: the coffee, the quality of which has counted for less as a result. Milk got in the way,” says Colonna-Dashwood. As have, he concedes, some of the industry’s own obsessions: a ‘good’ crema, for example, meaning the velvety foam on top of a fresh espresso.

“Crema was popular because it looked pretty and suggested an intense espresso, which encouraged people to connect it with quality,” he says.

“But it doesn’t actually taste very good and acknowledging that is a sign of how the coffee industry is moving away from being prescriptive to being more culinary”.

Coffee's creative future — and a replacement for pubs?

None of this is to say the latte is over (it’s still the UK’s most popular coffee drink) even if Colonna-Dashwood thinks the oat milk boom is. More that, “as with all fields that we like to label as a bit snooty because they’re complicated, interest in coffee is growing precisely because it’s a subject you can get your teeth into."

Certainly coffee isn’t just coffee any more. Expect more experimentation. Coffee might be made from a dose that’s been kept frozen, for example, for added freshness. Meanwhile, former World Espresso Champion, Ian Kissick, of Victoria’s Formative, for instance, has developed a Fizzy Apple coffee using a co-fermentation technique, repurposed from beer brewing, with green apples added to the mix. Kissick has also come up with Parma Violet and Lollipop-influenced coffees.

OK, so Colonna-Dashwood might not have much time for ‘flavour notes’ (“they’re rubbish,” he offers) but undoubtedly coffees are being appreciated for their very particular aromas and tastes. Cognac, anyone, or tropical fruit?

And these, in turn, are being foregrounded thanks to an ever-shorter gap between coffee farmer and consumer. With greater transparency to the coffee production chain, farmers are more able to play an active part in shaping the coffees being produced.

“People are even starting to know the names of coffee farms now,” Colonna-Dashwood adds.

“But there’s no way round it: as with wine or cheese, to appreciate ‘gourmet’ coffee now you have to put the time in. The fact is that there’s still a huge mass of customers who are only just now catching up with the idea of coffee being gourmet, and that will take several years yet to filter through. Chocolate is even further behind coffee.”

In the meantime, record prices are being achieved for all kinds of rare coffee micro-lots: if a typically average coffee wholesales for anywhere between £9 and £40 per kilo, £8,000 per kilo isn’t unheard of these days; last year a rare lot from the legendary Panamanian estate Hacienda La Esmeralda was bought by one cafe in Dubai for a record-setting £22,804 per kilo. “Every year the numbers just go up,” says Colonna-Dashwood.

These though, are outliers - and shouldn’t encourage you to feel too resentful at paying what seems to be an ever rising price for a coffee, even if we’re some way off the £7 — “what you’d pay for a nice pint in a nice pub,” as Colonna-Dashwood puts it — that he suggests as being the tipping point that would give many coffee drinkers pause for thought. That’s especially so with technology, with subscription models for unusual blends, allowing for ever better coffees to be made easily at home.

Most drinkers are not aware that it’s still remarkably hard to make any money from a coffee shop while people aren’t much minded yet to cross that £5 latte hurdle. It’s a volume business: You have to sell a lot of coffees to make a decent profit but, to drive sales, that requires keeping cup prices artificially low relative to the cost of production.

But then, Dore-Smith argues, a coffee isn’t really about a coffee anymore anyway. Even as they get more high-end and curated, coffee shops are increasingly about filling the role of community hubs once served by pubs, and especially as younger generations are shunning alcohol in greater numbers.

“The coffee shop is an integral part of any high street now,” he suggests. “It’s a place for people to gather. But we still need to give people reasons to go to coffee shops, no matter how good or interesting the coffee itself may be”.

• Four London restaurants added to the Michelin Guide in globe-trotting update

London’s The Cinnamon Club is offering a special kind of throwback this August, letting you pay the equivalent of 2001 prices with its special Retro menu.

From 10th to 22nd August, the Cinnamon Club is offering the discounted menu, which reflects the sorts of dishes the restaurant served at its original opening 25 years ago.

This isn’t the first time the Retro menu has popped up. It was offered first in January this year, for two weeks. But apparently this is its last hurrah.

“This August, The Retro Menu returns to The Cinnamon Club for a final two-week residency, giving guests one last opportunity to experience some of the dishes that helped shape the restaurant’s journey over the past quarter of a century,” says The Cinnamon Club team.

We’re promised “additional dishes and new additions” this time around, and here’s what the restaurant has teased so far for this promotional period:

• Sweet potato cake with crisp okra and spiced yoghurt —£5
• Home smoked lamb kebabs — £6
• Seared calf’s liver with masala mash and spiced onion chutney — £6
• Sandalwood‑flavoured tandoori chicken — £6.00
• Baby aubergines in pickling spices with curry leaf semolina — £10
• Vindaloo of pork chop with pilau rice — £15.50
• Pan seared breast of Gressingham duck with sesame tamarind sauce — £16
• Steamed mango rice cakes with wild berry sorbet — £6

How different is this to The Cinnamon Club’s main menu, when £15.50 may sound like a fairly normal amount to pay for a main at an Indian restaurant?

The A la Carte menu lists meat mains at around £24-34, so we are looking at a healthy discount here.

Select cocktails will be offered at £5 a pop too. Bargain.

You can book a table for the 10th-22nd August promo period now, and select the “Retro menu returns” option as part of the booking process.

The Cinnamon Club is found nearby Westminster Abbey on Great Smith Street, which is roughy a 10-minute walk from Westminster Tube station.

• Four London restaurants added to the Michelin Guide in globe-trotting update

There’s something intrinsically magical about a night lit up with soft lighting – and we’re not just talking about never switching the big light on, and using your hundreds of lamps instead. Think: London’s fairy lit Southbank or literally any pub with pallet furniture that also sells its own Pale Ale. London will be taking its love of illumination one step further this September, taking inspiration from the ancient Thai tradition and lighting up one of its local lakes with hundreds of floating lanterns.

Like the kid who went on a gap year or Erasmus and hasn’t stopped talking about it or taken off their shell necklace since, London will be just one of the cities around the world who will be taking part in a world-famous glowing water celebration. For one night only, London will transform into the waters of Chiang Mai as the boating pool at Bexleyheath's Danson Park will be transformed into a stunning scene of light, music, and storytelling. Scenes straight out of a Disney film.

The group behind the evening have taken the event across the world, delighting visitors in New York, LA, Paris, and Berlin before finally coming to the Big Smoke. The whole gig is inspired by the traditional Asian floating lantern celebrations like Thailand’s centuries old Loy Krathong festival, or Toro Nagashi in Japan. On 5th September, Londoners are invited to gather at Danson Park lake to release thousands of illuminated lanterns onto the water’s surface as the sun sets over the city, and watch as the space transforms into a glowing array of love, memories, and community.

The evening starts with each festival-goer designing their own Water Lantern with live music, vendors, and food trucks to help turn the night into a proper celebration. All the materials to design your own water lantern are included in the ticket alongside your entry. Doors open at 4.30pm to get designing and enjoy the space (Danson Park is a Grade I listed Palladian estate with a whopping 12-acre lake) but it’s at 7pm that the magic really gets going in earnest with everyone stepping to the water’s edge to launch their lanterns and watch them drift across the lake in a bubble of light.

Also, if you’re worried about the David Attenborough effect that a load of paper lanterns will have on the environment then let us put your mind at ease – the company have a strict Leave No Trace policy. This means all the materials are 100% biodegradable (each lantern is made from rice paper and solid wood bases), staff operate a strict full lake cleanup afterwards, and they work with a non profit, Water.org, meaning by heading to the festival you’re actually supporting and helping fund clean water access around the world.

After one night at Danson Park, the festival will be having two days at Clapham Common from 19th-20th September.

You can head to the festival's website to see more and book tickets which are currently priced at £27 for general admission.

• Pop, pots and prints: V&A museums' full exhibition schedule for 2027 and beyond revealed

Is there anything better than a tiramisu? It combines the stunning trifecta of coffee, chocolate, and Italian excellence. After a record breaker for the longest tiramisu ever made earlier this year, Brits still can’t get enough of the literal pick me up, and the big smoke’s first ever cafe entirely dedicated to the Italian treat will be coming to Soho very soon.

Here to satisfy all the sweet teeth, Marrone will be sweeping into Soho ready to give Londoners a little lift during their daily grind. The cafe comes from second gen Italian Giancarlo Fanigliulo, answering Brits’ prayers for a spot entirely dedicated to our ever growing obsession with the treat. He’s not just offering up your standard tiramisu; in addition to the classic original, he’ll be serving up a DOP pistachio flavour, and a Valrhona dark chocolate and Maldon sea salt version too. Plus, for people who are off the sauce there will be non alcoholic versions of each variant as well as the standard boozy bake.

Each is made with proper top quality ingredients, bringing the best and creamiest to your tastebuds. The original style tiramisu uses Estate Dairy cream, dark roasted espresso with “notes of stone fruit, caramel, and milk chocolate”. The DOP Pistachio will be made with Sicilian Bronte pistachios from Mount Etna, topped with pistachio drizzle and a nutty crumb. Giancarlo has also teased a range of seasonal flavours and limited edition tiramisu puds too.

Marrone will be opening up in central London, taking over the site of the former coffee shop Old Spike Roastery on Sherwood Street, just up the road from the Devonshire – so you can go straight from elevenses to a midday pint.

The central location was a deliberate move from Marrone – who initially planned to serve up tiramisu roadside from their dinky retro style 1972 Piaggio Ape but changed tack to a more permanent site. As Giancarlo explains: "I wanted to open somewhere that people felt welcomed like it was an Italian restaurant where you’d known the owners for years. When you walk into Marrone, I hope you’ll feel like family." That, and also the parking sounds like it would have been a nightmare. However you can still spot the cute Marrone-banded three-wheeler outside the new spot for now.

Marrone will open up on 15th August, and will be opening Saturdays from 12pm until they sell out, and Sundays from 10am-3pm.

• Four London pizza spots have been named the best in Europe – with one West London joint crowned number one

For generations of London gig-goers, Barfly was the venue that let you see the festival headliners of the future cut their teeth, where you'd stumble across your next favourite band for the price of a couple of pints, and where Camden's reputation as the capital's rock 'n' roll heart was forged.

Now one of its most-loved institutions is making a comeback.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Camden Rocks has announced that its famous all-day gigs are returning to the newly reopened Barfly, with a series of Saturday takeovers running from August through to October. Better still, the events are set to become a regular fixture at the iconic Chalk Farm Road venue, giving emerging bands another vital stage in a city where grassroots music spaces remain under constant pressure.

The first event lands on 8th August, packing more than ten artists into a day running from 12.30pm until 11pm. London's own Lyla Nova tops a bill alongside Isla Rico, Drew Thomas, Jagged Camels, Dave Melia, Focus, Lake Acacia, To The Dogs, BroccoliBoy and Beach Bønes.

Further all-dayers follow on 12th September, 3rd October and 24th October, with artists including Danny Wildheart & The UK Reprobates, The Priscillas, The Heat Inc, The Sideshows and hard rock outfit Torus all scheduled to appear.

Classic venue, all-new bands

There's connective tissue between the return of both the Barfly and Camden Rocks in such quick succession. Camden Rocks founder Chris McCormack launched the event series at the original Barfly back in 2009, and is now a co-owner of the venue following its relaunch earlier this summer.

That relaunch marked Barfly's return as one of London's most important live music venues, complete with upgraded sound and lighting, a new Wall of Fame, a vinyl listening bar and a restored vintage jukebox. Frank Turner christened the venue's comeback with a pair of headline sets on its (re)opening night.

Camden Rocks is also inviting unsigned acts to apply to play future events, with submissions open to rock, indie, punk, metal and alternative artists. If Barfly's history is anything to go by, today's opening act could easily become tomorrow's arena headliner.

The full upcoming Camden Rocks line-up is as follows:

Saturday 8th August 2026
Isla Rico
Drew Thomas
Jagged Camels
Lyla Nova
Dave Melia
Focus
Lake Acacia
To The Dogs
BroccoliBoy
Beach Bønes

Saturday 12th September 2026
Danny Wildheart & The UK Reprobates
The Priscillas
River Hounds
Midway Still
Barking Poets
Can't Stop Talking
Leoni Jane Kennedy
Harsh Language
Prick

Saturday 3rd October 2026 (from 12:30pm)
The Heat Inc
Kultura
The Sha Sha Shanimals
HollowKid
Down Charmed
Conor Hughes
Carpethead
Bullmaera

(from 8:30pm)
The Sideshows
Bite Me

Saturday 24th October 2026
Torus
Jake Jones
Bangover
Burnt Chapter
Help!
Lit Like Vegas
Paint Me Crimson
Her Fury
The Madcap
Cult(ure)

Tickets cost £10 in advance, and can be purchased here.

• “No one's got more than three good songs”: Kasabian’s Serge Pizzorno talks online grifters, AI emptiness and new genre-hopping album Act III

London is a pretty cultured city, a multicultural melting pot that everyone benefits from through art, music, food and more.

But it's multicultural design that set to get the spotlight soon, as a major new exhibition all about contemporary Black design heads to the capital this autumn.

Called The Nue Black Aesthetic, the exhibition will be heading to London’s Design Museum from November 2026, running until August 8th 2027. The exhibition has been guest curated by author and journalist Charlene Prempeh and charts some of the most innovative contemporary Black designers working right now. From clothing to carpentry, the selected artists all show case the best and quite frankly coolest designers who all help answer the question (and displace the stereotypes about) what Black design looks like, and who gets to shape design culture.

The exhibition will take visitors on a journey across six different individual sections. The first, 'Towards a Nue Black Aesthetic' presents the background and context to the current moment, followed by 'Identity as Inspiration', before going onto the 'Community Building' segment. Next up the 'Rethinking the System' section will look at the Black designers challenging the norms, leading to the penultimate section which will see a new film specifically created for the exhibition in 'Black by Design'. The finale (unsurprisingly) concludes the exhibition with a brand new site-specific commission by Nigerian American designer Ini Archibong.

'A landmark exhibition'

Artists will be sharing their different experiences of their communities, balancing shared experience with the distinct traditions of their specific heritage, showcasing their varied approaches to identity, culture and community. The featured designers include Tejumola Adenuga, Taiba Akhuetie, Ini Archibong, Simone Brewster, Mac Collins, Phoebe Collings-James, Foday Dumbuya, Feben, Nifemi Marcus-Bello, Andu Masebo, Saul Nash, Tosin Oshinowo, Bianca Saunders, Rachel Scott, Samuel Ross and Giles Tettey Nartey.

There will be some additional works and graphics by over 20 designers, from Yinka Ilori whose colourful designs you will have spotted everywhere from Dunelm to M&S, to the trailblazing Althea McNish, the first Black British textile designer to earn international reputation for her stunning creations.

The title of the show references the cultural movements of the ‘Black Aesthetic’ of the 1960s and the ‘New Black Aesthetic’ of the 1980s. But this exhibition proposes a ‘Nue’ era — one defined by nuance, where there is no single way to be a Black designer. The museum has praised the showcase as a “landmark exhibition”, calling it “thought provoking and nuanced” and added it will “enrich our understanding of what is happening in design today.”

Tickets have already gone on sale for the exhibition, priced at £19 for a standard adult ticket. You can find them at The Design Museum’s website where you can browse the rest of the exhibitions being hosted throughout the year.

• The best exhibitions in London this summer: From Escher to Bowie to Marilyn Monroe

Serge Pizzorno, Kasabian frontman, chose (wisely) not to watch the World Cup final half-time show.

I’m catching up with the singer/songwriter/festival-anthem-conductor the morning after the big game and its midway/mid-tier entertainment — a rather underwhelming schmaltzfest featuring Shakira, Madonna, Justin Bieber and Coldplay, among overpaid others.

“Football won in the end,” jokes Pizzorno, who is at his home in Leicester, working out how tracks from the band’s new, ninth, album, Act III, are going to work into Kasabian’s upcoming live shows.

“I almost approach it like a soundscape, like a soundtrack,” he tells Shortlist over a Zoom call in his home studio.

“In my mind, it runs as a score, basically. It's almost like a way of templating, how songs go in and out of each other. I really, really want this to feel like a real journey through the eras of Kasabian.”

Would Kasabian have done a better job at the half time show? Pizzorno is, afterall, renowned for his own not-too-shabby skills on the pitch.

“I think absolutely yes,” he laughs.

“I mean, honestly, we're made for it. We've got the tunes and the energy. But do you know what I did at half time? Because it's half an hour, I had a few pals over, so we did a 'Dad's v Lads' football game. It's a good time to get a decent game in. So I didn't watch it... but we'd play that for sure.

“But I'd say we only want 15 minutes. Get the lads back on the pitch! 30 minutes is a joke. 15 is enough — no one's got more than three good songs anyway.”

‘Three good songs’ does the Kasabian back-catalogue a major disservice though, and Pizzorno has become the perfect frontman to channel them through. Following the dismissal of former frontman Tom Meighan in 2020 (Meighan was convicted of domestic assault the same year), Pizzorno has taken on the talismanic mantle at the front of stage for Kasabian, steering the band for the last half decade through more than 150 shows.

Swapping the guitar for the mic has led to some of the most memorable gigs in the band’s history – and London has played host to some of the best, from a barn-storming outdoor show at Finsbury Park to an arena-shaking masterclass at the O2 in Greenwich.

“The Finsbury Park show was, I say this in all honesty, and not to take it too lightly, but it was probably one of the greatest shows we've ever played,” Serge beams.

“The atmosphere was just really truly special, and I've seen some of the footage back. I'm still on a massive high honestly — I can still go back to the stage and every now and again sort of get flashbacks of it. I've still not really come down from it. To see the next generation of Kasabian fans, and then the people that have been there since day one together, just vibing together. It was honestly absolutely amazing, it was an absolute pleasure.”

London crowds (unfairly) have a reputation for being standoffish and chin-scratchy, but that’s never been the case for Kasabian, who see the capital’s fans as among the most up-for-it in the world.

“Everyone’s always ‘Oh, you know, it's a London crowd, so expect it not to go off as much as it does anywhere else'. But we've never felt that — especially like when we played the O2. It was like a full on '90s rave. It was mental — the O2 does not go off like that, that gig was crazy, it was big,” says Serge.

“Our experience of London shows has always been just chaos, even from playing the Camden Monarch back in the day. There's a sort of dancier vibe, I would say. People have just got that little shoulder turning.”

That’s in no small part thanks to Pizzorno’s ever-growing stage presence. The band (completed by Tim Carter on guitars, Ian Matthews on drums, and Chris Edwards on bass) have become a formidable unit, despite the trials the last decade has thrown at them. Serge likens his performance to “a martial art.”

“I just gave my heart to it,” he says of having to step up to the mic.

“I had no real idea on how or why. Great rock and roll is just from the heart. So if you go on stage and you just go, 'I'm gonna give you everything I've got, every single part of me you're gonna have every night'. That's kind of where you start because that's all you've got, right? And then over time, like anything, you start to learn the craft. And then you learn how to stand in front of 50, 60,000 people and entertain.

“Now I feel like I legitimately kind of have a little bit of a clue what's going on!”

“I do genuinely see myself as just someone in the crowd listening,” he explains.

“Like, if I was in the crowd now, this is what I want to happen. And the crowd probably sees themselves in me on stage. Because that's the way I'm trying to harness them — that kind of takes it to a really big level.”

“A little bit of every Kasabian era”

Act III then represents a culmination of the graft as much as the craft. The past decade has been a proving ground for the band, and Pizzorno on more than one occasion has said the album is a “clean slate” for the band.

It leaves next to nothing on the table. Act III takes a pick-n-mix approach to sound and genre — there’s the rock and the riffs, obviously, but also hip-hop, soul, psychedelia and rave weaved across its tracks. A musical magpie, is there anything Serge doesn’t like to listen to?

“I have a sort of physical reaction to things that I really like,” he explains.

“If something touches me emotionally, there's goosebumps, I can feel overwhelmed, joy. Music can really move me. It could be a weird old folk song, and I'd be sitting there going, 'Whatever this is, I am just in'. It could be a classical piece, or it could be drum and bass. I think why I've always made music the way I've made it is that I've just instinctively followed what I like.

“There are times where a lot of Kasabian records, they can jump, they jump! Sometimes it can be a bit jarring — some industrial techno followed by a really sweet acoustic ballad. But it's just the way in which I react to music.”

The record “feels like a little bit of every Kasabian era” says Serge. “There's a little nod to all the little places that we visited in the past.” But it also dips its toes into social commentary more explicitly than in previous work.

‘One nation under one retail park / There’s nothing here for you’ Serge sings on Soulmate. “The line… I just thought it would look great on a t-shirt!” he jokes — but there’s a deeper longing for a lost sense of community he sees across the UK today, dominated by mega-corp brands and uncaring local governance.

“I live in Leicester, and the centre was just such a vibrant, beautiful, interesting place to be 20 years ago, because there were independent stores. I do wish that landlords and councils would make rent for premises doable, so we can have places to go and interesting stores.”

“Maybe this just sounds like such an old fashioned idea,” he muses. “But I do think community is based around people just hanging out and sharing ideas. In Leicester now, we've kind of lost the city centre, and I wish we hadn't. It's not gone forever — if there were art centres and places for people to show work, music venues for people to just go and play… I just feel like that's the start of something in your own community that you could start.”

The album also takes a shot at online bad actors and ill-intentioned influencers on the track The Guru and the Crypto Time Machine, a wave of characters Serge likens to 60s cult leaders and snake-oil salesmen.

“I was just noticing a sort of new wave guru — masked behind trying to help you out, getting you fit, improving your wellness and mindfulness and... then charging £10 a month at the end of it,” he says.

“In terms of social media, I just fight against the attention that it dominates, and I just worry about the creativity that's lost on time spent scrolling. You look at your own screen time and it's ridiculous. I could have learnt five languages! I could have made eight more albums! I'm not saying everyone should switch off their phones, it's just all that energy being lost into essentially stuff that's just trying to sell you something.

“I've got kids, and without sounding like a fucking nagging old twat, I want them to know your attention is yours.”

And AI? If the entirety of the Australian music-loving public can be taken with an algorithmically generated cover of Madonna’s Like A Prayer, we’re all doomed, right? Serge remains pragmatic.

“If you're interested in the commerce, if you're an artist that thinks about units and algorithms and shifting money around, then something like AI is brilliant for you because you can have it do a million things, you can have it copy whatever you want, and you can just keep pumping the system with more and more music. Same in fashion, film, everywhere,” he argues.

“But I'm not a songwriter because of that, you have no control over any of that. I write music because I fucking have to, and it makes me feel incredible, and it makes me feel excited every morning I wake up. I think, 'Today's the day I might fucking write that song that changes the world,' or 'I might write that melody that that is as good as Strawberry Fields'. I don't want that taken away from me because I could just go online and say 'Write me a melody like X, Y, Z'. Then I've done nothing. I make music because I love making music.”

Shaking off the shackles

Act III is eclectic and thoughtful then — and a million miles from the ‘lad rock’ labelling that has unfairly hung around Kasabian’s neck for much of the later part of the band's existence. For Serge, that label has been both frustrating and a tool with which to defy expectations.

“I do find it hilarious,” he laughs. “But I also think it instantly reveals the listener that hasn't even listened to it. After all these years, they kind of sound like they don't really know what they’re talking about if they say that.

“So I was patient and I just bided my time, I just kept my mouth shut and watched it play out. I knew where I was going, I knew what I wanted to make. We were taking things from Kraftwerk, the Silver Apples, David Lynch, Jodorowsky.

“Sometimes it's nice to play with it. We could use it — certainly when you first start out. It's a fight to get out of Leicester. It's a fight to be noticed — to be in a band, you know, wasn't a cool thing.

“When you first do your interviews, you're still in that mode — you don't really know how to communicate with journalists, you feel like they're from another world, and then you retreat back into your fighting mode. So I can understand the miscommunication at the beginning. We sat with journalists and they'd try and catch you out, you'd feel it coming, but then rather than sort of try and talk your way out of it you'd just double down on being a bit of a shitbag! Which is kind of punk, like, 'You know what? Yeah, we are fucking lads. Fuck you.' You retreat into that mentality.”

With ACT III in the bag, “all bets are off” for Kasabian’s next move, says Serge. But there’s a couple of things on the frontman’s to-do list that hint as to where his creative energies are pointing.

“I would love to make a pure orchestral record,” he reveals. “I don't know whether that would be a Kasabian thing, but I would love to follow that side of what I like to listen to and make something heartbreaking. Something that would fill the Verona amphitheatre — candles, just pure emotional music. I would love to do that. Writing the third record, I listened to [Love's] Forever Changes a lot. I really enjoyed that album.”

And the silver screen calls, too — but in front of the orchestra, rather than the camera.

“I scored a film over 10 years ago now. So I'd really like to do that again. I would really love to do a score for a Shane Meadows, that would be the dream, or a Steve McQueen film.

“But in terms of Kasabian, all bets are off. It's good times, man. Good times.”

Kasabian headline Leeds Festival on August 27th, and London’s O2 Arena on December 18th as part of a nationwide UK tour. New album ‘Act III’ is out on September 4th, and new single ‘SUPERPOWERS’ is out now.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

If there was ever a signifier that a film was going to be a winner, the words “Andrew Scott” and “BFI Film Festival opener” are pretty good starts. Coincidentally, it’s also words associated with Elsinore, a new Ian Charleson biopic which is heading to London’s Southbank Centre for its European Premiere to open the city’s biggest film festival.

It’s sort of fitting that its premiere will be just moments away from the National Theatre where a lot of the film’s scenes are set. The film, which is already generating Oscar buzz, stars Andrew Scott in the leading role as the famous actor Ian Charlson.

It follows the final months in the life of the highly acclaimed actor whilst he was battling AIDS, and reprised his role of Hamlet in the West End just months before he died, aged 40. Charleson was also one of the first public figures who wanted his cause of death to be openly confirmed in public in a bid to help reduce stigma about the condition. This decision has been widely credited as a huge turning point in changing the public’s perception of AIDS at the time.

Simon Stone is directing and it has been written by Stephen Beresford – who last worked with Scott on the seminal 2014 film Pride.

Charleson rose to fame through roles in blockbusters like Gandhi, Chariots of Fire, and his numerous theatre roles. He originally stepped into the role of Hamlet in 1989 shortly before his death as a last minute sub after Daniel Day Lewis suddenly exited the role. He had played the role 15 years before, and persuaded director Eyre to let him reprise the role despite Eyre’s fears over his health. At the time of the performance, Charleson’s face was swollen owing to the illness – cast, crew, and audiences were told that this was because of a recent sinus operation, rather than septicaemia.

He performed the role for six consecutive weeks, with the run lauded as one of the best ever seen on stage. In a bit of wholesome theatre history, Sir Ian McKellen was awarded ‘best actor’ at that year's Evening Standard awards, but actually refused the accolade, and gave his statue to Charleson instead.

Elinsore has a pretty stacked cast joining Andrew Scott: Olivia Coleman will be playing Charleson’s doctor, joined by Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn and Monica Dolan. Dickie Beau, who toured a one-man tribute to Charleson’s Hamlet for six years, also features, while David Dawson plays Derek Jarman. Fellow theatre and film heavyweights Juliet Stevenson and Peter Mullan are rumoured to be playing Charleson’s parents.

The BFI Film Festival kicks off on 7th October with the festival running until 18th October. The full programme will be announced on 2nd September at BFI's website.

• The BIG London Cinema List 2026: Film festivals, seasons, Q&As and rep screenings

Abbey Road is pretty much synonymous with musical greatness, and is one of those iconic yet mystical London gems with just as much history enclosed within it as the local museums. Now, a retrospective of sorts is heading our way, with a new exhibition which will unmask some of the details and quiet moments behind some of the biggest albums ever created.

Called Abbey Road: Reframed, the exhibition will be presented in three parts: The Art of Recording, Iconic Image Makers, and the Abbey Road Music Photography Accelerator. The whole exhibition is only in London fleetingly, running from 11th-22nd August at the capital’s Iconic Images Gallery. And much like the spirit of the 60s music heyday, the art is free to see.

The Art of Recording explores the technology of sound through the lens of the legendary Nile Rodgers’ arrangement of Let’s Dance, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, and The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It celebrates the craftsmanship and technology behind some of the world’s most influential recordings, with a rare opportunity to see photographs of items from the Abbey Road collection which have never been exhibited.

Iconic Image Makers is all about recognising the photographers whose work has shaped the visual history of music. It will feature a collection of celebrated images taken at Abbey Road Studios across the years, including the works of celebrated photographers Jill Furmanovsky, Norman Parkinson and Terry O’ Neill.

The Abbey Road Music Photography Accelerator brings together images from finalists and award winners from the Music Photography Awards over the last four years. Featured photographers include Alex Castillo, Alex Amoros, Ines Ziouane, Jen Amelia, Paul Bogle, Phoebe Fox, Tom Pallant and Pooneh Ghana.

You can find Abbey Road: Reframed at Iconic Images Gallery, 16 Waterloo Place, SW1Y 4AR.

• Londoners can get a free Aperol Spritz this weekend but they need to bring a secret item with them

Will Ospreay has spent a sizeable chunk of his life wrestling in rooms you would not want to spend an evening in.

"For years I went up and down this country wrestling in workingmen's clubs, in church halls, in filthy, filthy nightclubs with some very questionable people on the outside," he tells Shortlist. "I did it because I was so in love with pro wrestling... It wasn't ever about making money for me. It was all about getting that thrill and getting that excitement. And then when I found out I could make money, it was even better."

On 30 August, the Essex native goes from those nightclubs to the top of the poster at Wembley Stadium, headlining AEW's biggest show of the year, All In, in front of a massive crowd in the UK’s biggest venue. It is his third appearance at the stadium, and the first in a main event slot.

"It fills me with a lot of pride and joy," he says.

Speaking to us the morning after the World Cup final — caffeinated, cheerful, and armed with an early Starbucks — Ospreay is in the strange position of being a lifelong Wembley pilgrim who now works there. Ask him what image the stadium conjures and the answer isn't a wrestling one.

"Oh, honestly, Oasis," he says. "Oasis performing in Wembley Stadium was something that I'd watch on YouTube all the time. But there are so many other different moments in time like football, concerts, or just that iconic archway."

What he misses about the church-hall years, it turns out, isn't the wrestling at all.

"The car journeys with some of the people that I used to travel with," he says. "I genuinely had such a great time hearing stories and just getting to connect with people you didn't know you had so much in common with. It was always fun whenever you got a car full of Essex boys going up to Birmingham or to Cardiff."

He still gets the travel, just with better legroom and different company. Ospreay lives in the UK and works predominantly in the United States, and he and his wife make the trip together. "Nowadays, we sit on the plane next to each other and get the old Mario Kart out."

Coming home

He did watch the final, for the record, and he was not on Argentina's side. "I was so happy that Argentina lost," he says, of a match in which Spain's Ferran Torres settled things in extra time and Enzo Fernández had already been sent off. "I've never seen such cheating and horrible play — unsportsmanlike to a T. I'm so glad Spain won. ¡Viva España!"

The football framing is his own. At Forbidden Door (AEW’s June PPV), Ospreay described his match as his World Cup semi-final. England, as it turned out, didn't get past theirs. So: is the AEW World Championship coming home at Wembley?

"I don't ever want to say 100% yes, because anything can happen on the night," he says. "But what I can tell you is I'm going to leave every single little bit of me in that ring to make sure that I bring home the most important championship in pro wrestling back home to England."

Peak Wrestling

So we put the pitch to him directly: what would he say to a Shortlist reader who has never watched AEW, or who hasn't watched wrestling since the Attitude Era? Why should they buy a ticket?

"If you've not watched since the Attitude Era days, we have far surpassed those days with just how our athleticism and our in-ring action take front and centre spotlight," he says. "It's so important now to present wrestling in a sports environment, for myself anyway, to show people that there are different ways of telling different stories in wrestling.

"There are so many people now from every walk of life that get to come through as a fan and celebrate all together. It reaches out to different cultures, different races, different religions. It's something that bonds us all, and the fact that it's all going to culminate in Wembley Stadium is such a momentous thing."

He is realistic about the limits of a sales pitch, mind.

"If you're not interested, I can't convince you otherwise," he says. "The only thing that I can tell you is this is something that I've wanted to do since I was a 14-year-old boy, and I could never imagine that this was the dream in front of me. I couldn't tell you that this was it, because it was never done before. There was wrestling once upon a time in Wembley Stadium. It was in 1992, and then that was it. AEW has come along and has rewritten the book of what professional wrestling is, and if you want to give it a chance, or even just give me a chance, I think I might be able to change your mind."

Give him a chance where, exactly? If a newcomer were to watch precisely one Will Ospreay match, he wants it to be his 2024 Dynasty bout with Bryan Danielson.

"That matchup at Dynasty was something where I felt like I finally became the guy that I wanted to become," he says. "And to be in there with a legend that is Bryan, I think it is a perfect mix between the technical ground style of professional wrestling and the high-paced hybrid style that I was able to bring into wrestling."

Since we spoke to Ospreay, the Wembley main event has been made official, and it comes with its own back catalogue. He will challenge Kenny Omega, the Canadian who holds the AEW World Championship and has a claim to being one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. The two met twice in 2023, most recently at Forbidden Door in Toronto — Omega's home country, where Ospreay cheerfully played the villain and took the IWGP United States Championship off him in a match heralded as one of the best to ever grace North American soil. Wembley completes the trilogy.

Hidden Blade

Ospreay is relentlessly loud about British independent wrestling, so we offered him a hypothetical: teleport one current UK indie name onto the Wembley card. He immediately began negotiating for more.

"Can it be two?" Told he could have as many as he liked, he went bigger. "I mean, in that case, the entire EVE roster (Pro-Wrestling: EVE is a British independent women's professional wrestling promotion). But if I have to pick, then Lana Austin and Hollie Barlow. I get so much joy from watching those two wrestle.

"Lana especially, just because I feel like our careers have kind of been next to one another. When we first came up, I just really wanted to see her do well, wanted to see her get more opportunities, and she has just found this incredible partner in Hollie, who — they both know how to yin and yang off one another. They're brilliant. I love them."

Ospreay is closer to EVE than most, too, he helps produce it, and there is a Wembley-weekend plug ready to go. "It's just my brainwave. Of course I want people to come to see it over Wembley weekend. We'll be at Walthamstow in the Big Penny Social on the Friday."

He is just as keen to point people down the road on the Saturday, where RevPro runs Wembley Arena. "I had such a great tenure with RevPro; they were the backbone and the foundation of my career, and I'll definitely be in attendance just to make sure they're all doing everything okay. I just want to support from the sidelines."

Through the Curtain

Home-turf shows do not come with a ritual, or at least not a pub-based one. Ospreay doesn't let loose until the job is done — and he doesn't start thinking about the match until the last possible moment.

"For me, I just don't think too much about it. I like to think about it the moment I'm about to walk through the curtain," he says. "A lot of people do headphones before they wrestle; it just never was for me. I see how it can get people in the mood, because when I listen to music when I work out, it gets me in a mood for that.

"But for me, I like to listen to what the audience is feeling. Do they feel tired? Am I performing to more men? Am I performing to kids? Am I performing to women? I like to just close my eyes and listen to what the audience is kind of saying and what energy I can feel. In that way I can transform myself into whatever I need to be before I walk through the curtain."

And after? This is where the interview took a turn.

"Probably something sweet, like a bunch of Original Glazed Krispy Kreme doughnuts," he says. Pushed on a number, he treated the question with the seriousness of a man who has genuinely thought about it. "So that's an open-ended question, because what are you giving me? Are you giving me 24 hours to eat as many doughnuts as humanly possible? As long as you're talking Original Glazed, I think I could eat 100 in one day. I'm not even joking. I think I could easily do it."

He has, he admits, looked up the calories. "It would be astronomical."

Then, unprompted: "I want it to rain Original Glazed Krispy Kreme doughnuts if I win at Wembley on August 30th."

Beyond the Mat

Between shows, the wind-down is video games — in short doses. Ospreay is currently working through the Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake in half-hour instalments.

"I only play games for like 30 minutes at a time, because it just hurts my brain after a while," he says. "It's very good for me to shut off. If a lot is going on around me, I can just put my video game on and blend into the background there. But it does something to my brain — I just can't look at the screen too long. It winds me up a little bit, and I think it's because I'm focused in so hard. When I'm watching a film, I just relax. But when I'm playing a game, my brain is so stressed out trying to complete some of these things."

Ospreay has spoken before about having ADHD, and the same hyper-fixation applies to the day job — with a much steeper drop on the other side.

"It takes me a while to come down from any type of wrestling high that I get," he says. "It's so difficult, because when you get so hyper-fixated on something, and then you do it and it's done, you don't really know what to do with yourself. You just have to find something that brings you down to a level where you can function as a human.”

Asked whether he has any advice for conquering that post-achievement burnout, Ospreay points to his family.

"Honestly, a lot of it was my son. Becoming a stepdad was such a crazy thing in my life that has helped out my ADHD so much, because it was a way of separating the two worlds: this is my personal world; this is my real world."

Working alongside his wife might sound like it collapses that partition, but he insists the opposite. "We're able to separate it very well. Sometimes things will trip you off, and it will impact your day at work. But at the end of it, we're very happy people, and we love our job, and we love the family life that we're able to have because of our job."

Finally, because it seemed rude not to bring things back to food: the ideal London night out. Ospreay has a shortlist of one, and he is fairly sure of the name.

"There's a place in Mayfair. I think it's J.W. Steakhouse. It's the best steak I've ever had in England. When you've had steak in Las Vegas and Tokyo, it's very hard to beat the level of deliciousness of that food," he says. "In fact, I might actually go there the Monday after Wembley, just to say, 'Well done for all the training. Well done for all that hard work.' Have a steak."

Doughnuts on the night, steak by the Monday. For a man about to headline Wembley Stadium, the post-match plan is reassuringly ordinary — but then, so was the church hall he started in.

AEW All In: London takes place at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 30 August at 4:30PM. Tickets are on sale now through Ticketmaster, with standard admission starting at around £31. The show also airs on pay-per-view via MyAEW.

• "We’d never do a hologram show": Pixies look back on four decades of pioneering rock

A London art gallery is closing up shop this week, and we bet there’s a good chance you’ve never even set foot in it. This is the Science Gallery, part of King’s College London.

There are just a couple of days left to visit the gallery, which ends its run when the current set of exhibitions close on 31st July.

The Science Gallery’s closure was announced a while back, in April 2026.

Why? It’s all part of a rather bland-sounding “refocusing of institutional resources towards education, research and innovation priorities."

It’s perhaps no great surprise, though, given you don’t have to try too hard to hear about University funding crises.

What's on at the Science Gallery?

But, back to the point: we have just a couple of days left to visit the Science Gallery, so what’s on?

There are three exihibitions on at the gallery.

A Thread That Binds Us comprises a couple of “tapestry-based works” exploring themes of mental health in families.

The pieces are by Amber Roper and there’s a visitor interaction element here too, with the public encouraged to add threads to one of the exhibits. We’re not sure this part is still active, though, just handfuls of hours away from the place shutting up shop.

Directly linked by medium but not theme, Threads of Protest features textile works about inequality in maternity care. It merges artworks with research from Dr Gemma Mckenzie, who has looked into the issue as part of her postdoctoral work.

“Building on the historic use of thread as a form of protest in women’s art, the exhibition uses crochet as a practical and accessible creative language to communicate experiences that are often unheard,” says the Science Gallery.

The gallery’s most recent opening, from late May, is The Art of Care: Through the Eyes of Tomorrows Doctors. It features works produced by King’s College London students, following placements in GP surgeries as part of their study.

“Working in teams and supported by clinicians and artists, students responded to their experiences through a wide range of creative media — including painting, sculpture, poetry, photography, film, and interactive work,” reads the exhibition description.

It’s a kind of insider’s view of a theme, with an outsider art bent, at least assuming many of those taking part likely did not have a life-long interaction with these mediums. Fascinating stuff.

The Science Gallery is a different kind of art gallery, and we bet some of you will be passing right by it in the next couple of days. It’s part of the King’s College London campus just outside of London Bridge station. Give it a visit before it's too late.

It’s open until 6pm each day this week, with Friday 31st July the last day it’s set to open. The Science Gallery originally opened in 2018.

• The best exhibitions in London this summer: From Escher to Bowie to Marilyn Monroe

We’re entering our 112th heatwave of the summer (okay, our fourth) and 30 degree weather is scarily becoming the norm. With the incessant hot weather comes the heightened risk of wildfires across the UK. With blazes having swept across France, Scotland, and already moving further down south, Londoners are now frantically searching to see if they could be at risk.

Civic chiefs have warned that London is at extreme risk of wildfires, after fires already broke out near Walthamstow last week. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has urged Londoners to create firebreakers to protect their homes, while a new map has highlighted the areas of London most at risk from wildfire threats.

The geospatial analytics company Map Impact analysed the risks in every borough across the city, marking out Havering as the spot most in danger. It’s the only borough which stretches across the M25 at the far east of the capital. The second highest borough at risk is Hounslow, to the West of the capital.

Just over 11% of Havering’s land was analysed as being at high risk or very high risk of wildfire, with Hounslow slightly behind it at 10%. According to the research, wildfires are more likely in Outer London boroughs where there are more dry green spaces versus the city centre.

The borough with the third highest risk was Ealing, with just over 9% of the borough at high or very high risk of wildfires. Barking & Dagenham was next, at 8.69%, followed by Bexley at 8.21%, Redbridge at 7.14%, Richmond-upon-Thames with 6.28%, Hillingdon at 6.23%, Enfield with 6%, Merton with 5.81%, Harrow at 5.54%, and Brent 5.04%. At around half the wildfire risk as the boroughs with the highest dangers was Sutton and Greenwich, both on 4.84%. Some of the lowest were Westminster, Croydon, and Lambeth, which were all under 4%.

Another factor in the map of risk was how populated the areas are, including how many people visit the area, as this makes accidentally sparked blazes more likely. Which is a polite way of saying that humans are often stupid and/or irresponsible. Think barbecues, cigarettes, etcetera. Wildfires can also be caused by sunlight on a glass bottle or shard (like when you learn how to burn something using a magnifying glass in the sunshine), or sparks from machinery and vehicles.

The London Fire Brigade has issued guidance around the wildfires, including advising people to clear two to three metre strips around their garden to create firebreaks, which was echoed by Sir Sadiq Khan.

LFB Assistant Commissioner Tom Goodall said: “As these very warm and dry conditions continue, we encourage all landowners, including households, to take any precautionary measures they can to protect properties in the event of a fire.

“Residents can also help minimise damage by keeping grass cut low and cutting back trees and shrubbery, particularly around the edges.”

• The best exhibitions in London this summer: From Escher to Bowie to Marilyn Monroe

Charli xcx's new album Music, Fashion, Film dropped just days ago on 24th July and, as if to celebrate the occasion, the singer has got herself a permanent place in London.

Sort of.

A portrait of Charli xcx has joined the National Portrait Gallery’s collection, sitting in room 33, for those keen to visit in person.

It’s a print of a photo by UK photographer Harley Weir, taken in 2024 as part of the promotional cycle surrounding the singer’s Brat album.

It depicts Charli xcx wth voluminous hair and dark eye shadow, looking slightly away from the camera’s gaze.

The photo becomes part of the National Portrait Gallery’s History Makers area, and was acquired through a Collecting the Now fund. Its aim is to bring newer and more diverse artists into the gallery’s fold — not necessarily with pictures of white-hot pop stars.

Charli xcx sits alongside figures like Naomi Ackie, Raye and Princess Catherine in this part of the gallery, as well as a portrait of Adolescence star Owen Cooper.

It’s found on the ground floor of the National Portrait Gallery.

Picture this

Charli xcx's Music, Fashion, Film could potentially become her second chart-topping album of the year, having reached similar heights with her Wuthering Heights soundtrack in February. We’ll find out on Friday late-afternoon when the UK Albums Chart releases its weekly stats.

The album has received mostly highly positive reviews from the critics, despite being a studio album follow-up to one of the most well-regarded pop albums of the decade, 2024’s Brat.

She only has one set of UK live shows on the books at present, though, the Reading and Leeds festivals in late August.

Her Music, Fashion, Film tour kicks off in September, but so far only the US leg has been announced. We will bring you news of UK dates as it arrives.

The National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection is free to visit, as is the current Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026 exhibition. You only have to pay to get into Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait, which is on until 6th September. Tickets cost £25, or £27 for Friday to Sunday slots.

• The best exhibitions in London this summer: From Escher to Bowie to Marilyn Monroe

London is an eccentric city; you can get your aura photographed, have a rager in a sauna, have a pint in a prison, and sleep in a lion enclosure. Now, there’s a new entry on the list involving everyone’s favourite summery spritz – and it’s all for a good cause.

Seven Dials Market is teaming up with charity The Felix Project to give away 100 free Aperol Spritz. On Saturday 1st August, coinciding with National Spritz Day, for one-day only Londoners can ‘buy’ an Aperol Spritz with an orange. Yup, you read that right. The market (run by KERB) will be giving away 100 free Aperols, in exchange for a singular fresh orange which will get donated via the charity.

Guests wanting to snap up a free Aperol can bring a fresh orange to Bar Nana, the upstairs bar inside the covered Seven Dials foodie market, and receive a complimentary Spritz in return. Whilst the cocktails are limited to one per person, visitors are encouraged to bring more than one orange to maximise their donation.

If you’re wondering how an orange is relevant, The Felix Project originally started out as a food waste charity, expanding to support local communities, schools, and help end food poverty. They work to save great food and get it to the people who need it, working alongside 16 other independent volunteers and thousands of volunteers. They work with hundreds of supermarkets and restaurants to help close the food waste gap and divert to communities that need it most.

The event kicks off at 11am when the bar opens on Saturday, and it’s running on a first-come-first-served basis so the earlier you head there the better your chances at securing a spritz – although even if you don’t make it in time for the freebie you could still drop off some orange donations.

Whilst you're in the market, you could make a foodie day of it and explore some of the other (highly Instagrammed) spots, like Pick & Cheese - 40m of rotating rounds of expertly chosen cheese pairings - Bad Boy Pizza Society, and Bleecker burgers.

You can find the market at Earlham St, London WC2H 9LX.

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It’s easy to forget that London with all its inherent city-ness is actually pretty aquatic – or at least we really make the most of the waterways to hand. Whether it’s a floating spa or a floating community theatre, there are plenty of events kicking off across the capital to take you off dry land and give you all the best parts of pirate life (i.e. being on the water and drinking). Called Round the Dock, this brand new festival is heading to Canada Water for the ultimate summer unwinder.

Round the Dock is a free six week waterside extravaganza which is all about putting a spotlight on South London’s creative scene. It’s kicking off next week on 6th August, with live performances all taking place on the new floating stage. Hopefully there are no sudden man overboard-s. All the events that are part of the festival are free to attend with no tickets or pre-booking required.

Tuesdays will see Spit Nights taking to the stage, for an unforgettable evening of live spoken word and music experience. Kicking off at 4.30 on 11th, 18th, and 25th, Spit Nights will be bringing bold poetry, live jazz, and performances to the stage.

Each Wednesday there will be a series of lectures and pints courtesy of London faves Pints of Knowledge. They will be covering everything from a deep dive on the psychology of raving to nerding out over shark films, taking your usual pub-side chats from “did you catch the game?” to uni-level smarts.

On Thursdays the snake-hipped salsa dancers will descend, taking to the docks as free Latin dance classes are running. Mo Touray and Baila Urbana are running free open air latin dance classes that are suitable for everyone, even those who feel like their hips are severely in need of a good spray of WD40 in order to meringue. Whether you are taking your first (rhythmic) steps or are already the friends notorious for being the first to the dancefloor, you’ll be able to learn the basics of salsa in a relaxed environment (i.e. no Craig Revell Horwood throwing a 2 paddle your way) with experts helping you out.

The party kicks up a gear on Friday with live music from Steam Down Presents who are bringing Sounds of Diaspora to the Dock, along with a different guest artist every week. Steam Down is an Afro-Punk band from South East London who blend live music with ritual and cultural movement, all rooted in improvisation, community and the (aforementioned) Sounds of Diaspora. You’ll hear a mix of jazz, grime, afrobeat, funk, and electronic music in every performance. They’re the kind of artist your mate who swears they were the first ones to ever listen to Ezra Collective will bang on about, and then you’ll get annoyed when you do listen, and realise they had a point. Steam Down will be performing from 5.10pm on the floating stage every Friday from 7th - 28th August.

The party continues on Saturdays with like Jazz and Soul music in partnership with another London favourite, Sofar Sounds. Known for showcasing incredible and criminally undiscovered local artists, Sofar Sounds will be taking over the stage from 8th-30th. Every date begins with a live warm up performance featuring Sofar Sounds before the headline act. There are a couple of Special Takeovers on the last two weekends of the festival to help round the whole thing off with a very soulful bang. It's a pretty cool lineup so it's worth taking a look at who's on.

As well as the festival, Canada Water Docks will still be hosting its regular roster of events like its craft market, flea market, and Garden Fair, as well as plenty of foodie pop ups.

Head to the Canada Water website to read all the details, including the full line up and timings for each day.

• This legendary London music joint is bringing a street party to Soho this summer

Right now you can get from London to Antwerp by train fairly easily, but it involves a stop in Brussels. That changes this December.

Eurostar’s London-to-Antwerp direct line launches this December.

From 14th December, four trains a day will run from London St. Pancras to Antwerpen-Centraal. It will take two hours 41 minutes, a pretty healthy time saver compared to the roughly 3.5 hours it takes today, thanks to that stop off and train change in Brussels.

Searching through the Eurostar booking system, you can already book these direct journeys, with the cheapest fares we found starting at £44.

There’s just one snag. You can’t also book a direct return journey. This is because there’s no border and customs outpost at the Antwerp end, which we do have in London. And this also means it’s not something likely to be remedied any time soon.

Journeys back from Antwerp typically take around 3.5 to 4 hours, with a 40 minute or so stop over at Brussels — plenty of time to change platforms.

We were able to snag a return fare for £88, although you do have to be a little loose on timings to get such a low-cost total.

You may be able to get even cheaper travel during one of Eurostar’s regular sales. These take place a few times a year, with the lowest rates typically at £35 each way.

Get in early with these £44-a-leg tickets and you’re not doing too bad already.

Antwerp joins Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Rotterdam among Eurostar’s direct destinations, beating Cologne to the punch for a direct line.

But is Antwerp worth a visit? Its train station is one of the city’s most famous sights, so you’ll definitely catch that following your Eurostar journey out there.

The city also offers a beautiful main square, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, and it’s known for both its food and fashion.

Should you pick it over a first visit to Paris or Amsterdam? Probably not. But the upcoming direct route makes Antwerp a top pick for Londoners looking for an easy weekend away.

• Forget the airport queues, London is set to get direct trains to Cologne by 2030

Chronically likeable singer James Blunt has bought a London pub, one found in Hammersmith.

The Carpenter’s Arms in West London shut up shop on 17th July, and we now know why. It was subject to sale negotiations with no less than You’re Beautiful singer James Blunt.

Blunt announced the pub’s acquisition on Instagram.

“It’s an honour to be the custodian of this beautiful and important local landmark. I know how much it means to the residents, and I hope we can serve them as well as they have been by Jack and his team. I look forward to seeing you there!” he said.

This is not Blunt’s first rodeo. He has owned Chelsea’s Fox and Pheasant pub since 2017, having bought it from Greene King. It is by most accounts one of the area’s better boozers.

The Carpenter’s Arms was previously under the stewardship of Wren Pubs, which refurbished the site having owned it for just two years. Their whole game is to leave the pubs “handsomely renovated to reframe their original character for new generations of drinkers and diners.”

It is of course a tough time for hospitality, which may have factored into Wren Pubs’s decision to let the site go.

“This sale was a difficult decision for us, but we are so pleased with what we have achieved to date. It has been an honour to play a role in such a wonderful community and getting to know the locals,” says Wren Pubs founder Jack Greenall.

“Having worked hard to bring this beloved venue back to life, it felt like the perfect moment to pass the pub into new ownership. I couldn’t think of a better team to continue its legacy.”

The Carpenter’s Arms has been around since 1871. And while it is currently closed, with any luck with announcement should mean its doors reopen before long.

The pub is found at 91 Black Lion Lane, nearby the Stamford Brook and Ravenscourt Park Tube stations.

It joins a host of generally well-regarded London pubs owned by celebs, including Sir Ian McKellen’s The Grapes in Limehouse, Ed Sheeran’s Bertie Blossoms in Notting Hill and Rick Astley’s Mikkeller Bar in Shoreditch.

So while shilling for a crypto and AI companies is a sign of a celeb on the make, owning a pub in London is clearly a sign of being a good egg.

• The 11 best craft beer bars and pubs in London

The Tate Modern’s iconic Turbine Hall has been given another makeover. It has been transformed into a maze of sorts, as part of an art installation that will be in place until 31st August.

As this is an art gallery, not a hedge maze out in the countryside, there’s a concept behind the piece. And its walls are not so high or vision-blocking you’ll actually get lost in the thing — but it’s still definitely one to experience if you’ll be nearby this summer.

The installation is called Serendipity Island, and is designed by artist-musician Lina Lapelytė. It’s made up of wooden barriers inspired by the queue dividers you get at airports.

As visitors, we’re invited to participate in the installation, stomping and humming along to audio cues.

“Listen out for sounds that invite you to move or make a noise, and perform a series of actions that contribute to a ‘score’. The sounds and actions you make will join with others, creating a shared composition,” says the Tate’s explainer on the exhibition.

This one should be as fun to watch as it is to participate in, particularly if you’re there when a game group arrives.

As a Turbine Hall exhibition, you don’t need to pay anything or to be a Tate member to see Serendipity Island. It’s part of the Uniqlo Tate Play series of art projects, which are a perfect fit for school summer holidays.

The last was Holiday Make Studio, which ran during the May half term, encouraging kids to turn the Turbine Hall into a “playscape of funnels, spheres, and tubes.”

Serendipity Island is not Lina Lapelytė’s first takeover of a large space with bits of wood either. Earlier this year her exhibition We Make Years Out of Hours saw Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof filled with 400,000 wooden blocks, while visitors were invited to build stuff out of them.

Considering a visit to Tate Modern? Current major exhibitions include Frida: The Making of An Icon — we recommend booking for this one as tickets currently sell out in advance — Ana Mendieta, Julio Le Parc and Tracey Emin: A Second Life.

Entry fees for those alone aren't far off justifying an £84-a-year Tate membership.

Serendipity Island opened this weekend just gone, on 25th July, and will be in place throughout August.

• A new free art gallery just opened near London's South Bank

There’s more train-related faff ahead for London commuters, and for once it’s not down to strikes,

London Charing Cross and Waterloo East are closed, and will remain shut until 16th August.

The closure began on Sunday 26th July, and runs for three weeks in order to accommodate major engineering work.

Trains will instead head to Victoria, London Bridge, Blackfriars or Cannon Street, depending on the route. It likely means a whole lot of trains effectively terminating early at London Bridge.

This work affects Southeastern trains, and the provider warns the schedule will change during the affected period too. You’re advised to check the timetable for more details.

The works are part of a renovation project of Hungerford Bridge, which connects Charing Cross to the other side of the Thames. £20 million is being spent on works including the replacement of around a mile of track and associated switches, letting trains more smoothly transition to the six platforms at Charing Cross station.

That station’s platforms nearer the bridge end will also be rebuilt, having suffered from subsidence, according to Network Rail.

It’s part of a wider refurb of the bridge, which was built in the 1840s. That project began in earnest in 2025 and is planned to conclude in 2028.

“The £20 million investment we are delivering will see 1990s track and platforms upgraded to make journeys safer and more reliable, and Victorian-era structures strengthened to remain fit for the future,” says South Eastern Railway’s Scott Brightwell.

This three week stint isn’t the only closure of the stations we’ll see this year either. Charing Cross and Waterloo will also be figuratively shuttered on 22nd and 23rd August, and on 10th and 11th October, as part of the same works plan.

If you travel retro and have paper tickets that cover travel to these stations during the affected periods, they will apparently be accepted on Jubliee line services into Waterloo, relevant Thameslink trains, Southern services heading into Victoria and London Bridge, and a handful of buses serving the affected area.

These include the 24, 26, 148, 188, 139 and 453 routes.

Want some good news? There’s no London Underground strike action planned at the moment, although East Midlands Railway staff associated with the RMT union do plan to strike 2-7 August, 9-14 August and 16th August, which will affect some trains going out of St Pancras. And the LNR network will be affected by strike action this week on 31st July and 1st August, impacting some services running out of London Euston.

• Forget the airport queues, London is set to get direct trains to Cologne by 2030

There are hundreds of cocktails bars across London, from sky high spots with panoramic views, to floating bars which put on a damn good show. Sometimes however you just want a darn good cocktail without any of the gimmicks, and that’s where London’s hotspot bars come into play. Cue Topjawian favourites like Three Sheets, Swift, and Equal Parts springing to mind. One such east London bar has just proved its brilliant and boozy credentials by being crowned the Best International Cocktail Bar. And yes, that’s international as in, best in the entire world.

Satan’s Whiskers in Bethnal Green just picked up the coveted accolade at the 2026 Spirited Awards which took place in New Orleans this week. The spot originally opened up in 2013 and has served up classic cocktails alongside delicious innovations for over a decade. The Cambridge Heath spot operates a daily changing menu that means even if you live in the neighbourhood and are a certified Satan’s Whiskers regular, there will always be something new for you to try. Since it opened and started mixing, it’s been recognised both across London and the world for being a truly fantastic spot.

From the outside, it looks as though you’ve stumbled upon a proper old-school graffitied dive bar, but as soon as you step in, you’ll find the bar’s signature hip hop soundtrack, and a mix of moody and modern decor.

As well as a rotating roster of over 400 cocktails which always have new innovations, Satan’s Whiskers also run classes sharing the cocktail creating wisdom with the general public. Although no matter how good you get, chances are you’ll never *quite * reach the prowess of SW’s bartenders and will inevitably be going back for new tipples.

It’s not the first award the bar has received recently, but more is the latest one in a slew of titles. Just in the last year, it's been named the best cocktail bar in the capital and the third best in the UK at the Top 50 Cocktail Bars awards . It was also named Bar of the Year and Best Bar in London & the South East in the CLASS Bar Awards 2026.

If you are heading down, we’re not even going to bother giving you a recommendation, as the bartenders will point you in the right direction, and you should definitely ask for their recommendations. If you’re partial to whisky though, you can’t go wrong with the bar’s famed Satan’s Manhattan – a twist on the classic. But to be honest, just by heading to Satan’s Whiskers, you can’t really go wrong.

• A Restaurant Festival is heading to West London bringing deals to some of the area's best eateries
  

Sometimes breaking into the arts scene in general feels insurmountable without a famous parents or a TikTok following, but luckily Sam Smith is trying to change that. As part of their bid to champion emerging artists the singer-songwriter has opened up the chance for 10 burgeoning musicians to open for their upcoming residency shows in London and Manchester.

The scheme was announced earlier this week on Radio 1’s New Music Show, confirming that Sam Smith in partnership with BBC Introducing is setting up 10 slots to up and coming local artists to open for them on their UK residency shows, including several in London in September. The performance also comes with the chance to be featured on Radio 1 as part of the ongoing BBC Introducing slot.

So, if you’re wondering how you actually enter, it’s pretty simple. Budding artists need to head to the BBC Introducing Uploader, and upload a clip of their music, using the tag labelled ‘Sam Smith’ so they know which opportunity you’re trying to enter. Applications open on Wednesday 29th and will stay open for a week, closing the following Wednesday (5th August). There are no upward age restrictions on entering, although you have to be at least 16 in order to create a profile for BBC Introducing.

If Sam and the BBC Introducing panel like what they hear, the artists will make a shortlist before Sam chooses the final ten artists who will open for their shows.

The London residencies are taking place from 8th until the 19th of September, and form part of Sam Smith’s live shows for their new album Hazel Eyes which releases in August. All eight of the London shows will be taking place at the historic London Coliseum, whilst the two Manchester dates will take place at the Manchester Albert Hall.

Speaking about the initiative, Sam Smith said it was "exciting” to be a part of it and “the discovery process for artists and audiences is so important and being able to play a part in that is fantastic.”

Lorna Clarke, Director of BBC Music, said that the partnership "reflects the full breadth of BBC Music’s work" and "championing new talent and showcasing established artists is at the heart of what [they] do."

You can check out how to enter here and find out details about the residency shows here.

• A brand new live music venue is heading to North London

Death Note: The Musical is coming to London in less than a week. And as it’s a fairly short run, we think it’s time for a refresher on what the show is all about.

The Barbican Theatre plays host to Death Note: The Musical from 30th July to 12th September.

Gallery seats and a smattering of lower desirability ones elsewhere start at £50, rising to £165 for the best of the best stalls spots.

There’s decent availability throughout most of the run, barring the official press night on 11th August, including a handful of tickets for the very earliest of performances.

Death Note: The Musical is an adaption one of the more famous manga series. It’s about a teenage boy, Light, who finds a notebook with dark powers. When someone’s name is written in the book, that person will die.

Spooky stuff.

Across two hours 20 minutes, we get a retelling of the story in musical form, pitting Light against his nemesis Detective L.

It’s far from the first adaptation of the source material. Netflix is currently streaming the two-series animated show and the 2017 live action movie version. The original manga came out between 2003 and 2006 in Shonen Jump magazine.

This musical has deeper roots than you might guess too. It was originally staged in Japan in 2015, and had its first UK version performances in 2023 at the London Palladium, on 21st and 22nd August, before jumping to the Lyric theatre for just a few more September 2023 shows.

While it didn’t quite receive quite as widespread reviews and coverage as we hope to see for this more substantial 2026 run, the enthusiast press were, well, mostly enthused about that earlier English-language staging.

WhatsOnStage called it a “a West End thrill ride” in its 4-star review.

“The rapidity and punchy brutality of the storytelling creates a thrill-ride ending that combines fantastical shocks with edge-of-the-seat twists – earning a big thumbs up along the way.”

The Love London Culture blog even went as far as to give the show a full five-star review.

This new 2026 run is not a straight re-treat of the 2023 season, though. It’s directed by Stephen Whiteson with choreography by Fabian Aloise, while Nick Winston headed up direction and choreography in the earlier run.

We don’t think you need to be a manga fan to be hooked in by the dark-themed story of Death Note, which helped elevate the other adaptations as picks to recommend to folks who don’t devour the stuff every week.

• All the A-list celebrities starring in London’s West End theatres (and beyond) in 2026

Call it innovation, call it a housing crisis, but London really does know how to make use of its boats. Gone are the days where barges were just for living and cruising, now you can find everything from free floating cinemas to live music venues. The latest addition to London’s (slightly whacky) waterways is a slightly more zen installment.

Over in Limehouse Basin, after a previous mooring at Little Venice, the Maria Alexander is the latest floating feature in London’s rivers, and it’s a veritable hub of relaxation.

The Maria Alexander is a unique wellness retreat, all set up on a seemingly traditional canal barge. From the outside, it looks as inconspicuous as any other widebeam boat, 12ft wide, 70ft long, with the classic nautical windows and trimmings. Inside, it’s a luxury wellness pad, with an impressive array of facilities and treatments including a wood fired sauna, a hot tub, and a full treatment menu which offers up everything from classic aromatherapy massage to rejuvenating facials.

The interiors look entirely like those bougie Swedish spas you see influencers permanently at, having a restorative break after… a hard week at work? A very exhausting period of events and editing, probably. As soon as you step in, you’ll be greeting with hushed neutrals, plenty of white walls, and fancy Scandi furniture which just makes you feel like you’ve got your life together. And if you’re worried about being claustrophobic, don’t be – it’s almost confusingly spacious, with an area to chill as you enter, with each section carefully designed to be compact without being small. In the main body of the barge, you’ll find the hot tub at one end, the treatment beds in the centre, and the wood-fired sauna to the back.

As you are probably getting from the above, it ain’t coming cheap. Its main USP though is that it’s completely private. Also, it has a maximum capacity of four people, meaning that once you’ve signed up for a session it’s completely up to you how long you spend in each space. No pesky waiting for someone to finally leave the hot tub after shriveling away like a prune for hours, and no one shepherding you briskly through eight different wet rooms which you’re not sure are really wet or just varying levels of other people’s sweat. The Maria Alexander is proper private luxury.

Prices vary depend on what you’re after and how long you want to book for. The cheapest option is £125 for the private floating spa package for one, or £175 if there are two of you. If you fancy two hours, the experience also includes an ‘aromatic foot soak’ which promises ultimate soothing, followed by a 30 minute massage. Both include use of all the spa facilities too.

Whilst it sounds spenny on paper, the floating spa package is £87.50 per person (if there are two of you), and given the average prices of London spas it works out around the same.

Whist you can find find floating saunas and spa adjacent boats across London already like TEMZ in Teddington, and Skuna boats, Maria Alexander is a bit different, as. it's more like an actual complete miniature spa rather than just housing one element (like a sauna or hot tub) and offers up treatments too. Apparently, the idea behind it from founders Corvin Roman and Ingrid Eriksson was to provide Londoners with a more personal experience than a hotel spa. Also, the choice of being a floating spa was deliberate, as the pair believe gentle rocking of the water enhances the therapeutic effect of heat, hydrotherapy and massage.

The space only opened up in 2025 and has already moored at a few different spots across the city, welcoming in everyone from stressed out commuters trying to recitfy their awful laptop-hunch induced back pain to hen dos looking for something ahh than aghghghgh.

You can browse the full range of packages available at Maria Alexander's website, as well as drool over some seriously stunning pics.

• This famed London pizza spot is launching a new tasting menu

Dishoom has been sweeping though the city in a waft of delicious black dhal and spicy aromas since it opened up its first site in 2010. Since then, the Indian inspired restaurants have spawned a further 9 branches across the UK, helping convince more, ahem, traditional diners that they do like Indian food and it’s not too spicy. Now, it’s set to head to London’s (definitely not official) foodie capital: Borough.

Dishoom will be popping up right next to Borough Market later this year, having submitted plans to the council last year for permission to build a brand new venue inside the former Hop Exchange building. The proposed site was originally the location where the Brewing Industry stored their raw materials and traded hops back in the early 1800s, hence its name.

The Grade II listed building was most recently a Bavarian-style beer hall which closed in August 2025. Called Katzenjammers, the bar occupied the basement of the building. Since then, it has been used mainly as office space, but Dishoom has proposed for the space to be developed to house its new venue which would sit in the building’s West Wing, and also make use of the covered verandah.

The original building is known for its dramatic glass ceilings (real rather than metaphorical) which Dishoom will no doubt be putting to good use, given its history of transforming its venues into stunning spaces which put a plush twist on traditional Irani cafes.

There’s no exact confirmation on what will be on the menu, but no doubt the cult classic Black Dhal, Gunpowder Potatoes, and Bacon Naan Roll will be making a feature. Dishoom tends to keep the menu relatively similar across their branches, but each location usually has a unique site-specific special so there could be a new addition to the dish roster soon.

The Borough outpost will be the chain’s eighth site in the capital, and its 11th overall, after launching sites in Birmingham, Oxford, Cambridge, Brighton, and most recently Leeds. Currently it has restaurants in Carnaby, Shoreditch, Canary Wharf, Kensington, Battersea and King’s Cross, as well as the original King’s Cross location. The first stateside outpost is also set to open up soon, in New York.

We don’t know exactly when the Borough site will open, but it’s expected to start serving up around autumn / winter 2026.

• This famed London pizza spot is launching a new tasting menu

London is semi famous for the amount of quirky venues it has sequestered under its historic wings. From secret cinemas that transform into wooded wonderlands, to hidden music gigs rocking out on stunning viewpoints, the big city has some pretty impressive artsy spots. One lesser-known addition to the big smoke’s artistic goings-on is Theatreship, a non-profit performing arts space onboard a historic ship in Canary Wharf’s old docks, which hosts free mystery cinema nights.

The space –or should we say boat – hosts a roster of events, from Q&As with directors and writers, to film screenings, and live performances. It’s the world’s largest floating arts centre and it’s actually made from an old cargo ship. Perhaps the best part is the free cinema screenings it hosts every Wednesday. The only catch – or gimmick, depending on your preference – is that you don’t know what you’re seeing, a bit like watching a dirty movie for the first time. And whilst it’s free to attend, you will need to grab a ticket in advance – and as you can imagine they get snapped up pretty quickly.

The free cinema evenings are mystery nights, where the film is only revealed as you’re seated and about to press play. Although if you know your films, you may be able to work it out from the cryptic clues posted on Theatreship’s Instagram during the week. If you guess right, you can get a free round of drinks – although only the first person to guess correctly gets the prize, so you might want to get your guess in pretty sharpish.

As well as the movie nights, there are plenty of live music gigs and art sessions. Recently they’ve hosted a golden hour session of modern trad music, folk nights, modern pop, and even their flagship (literally) Songs on the Water night which is a live folk singalong where everyone is invited to share songs and tunes. There are plenty of talks too, from book launches with local authors, as well as live podcast evenings.

Like any good cinema, it has a well stocked bar with open seating areas on the boat’s deck, so you'll be surrounded by some stunning scenes you as you sip. It also means that if you were perhaps dragged against your will to see some live music which doesn't really float your boat, you can grab some liquid entertainment to keep you company, and make the night slip past quickly. Sort of like the dads-and-a-gift-shop in historical buildings equivalent.

Theatreship isn't the only local artsy berth either; as well as its sister ship Artship (which is currently undergoing restoration), they are moored on the new Arts and Heritage Berth which brings together ships of public or historic interest.

It's a proper community spot, designed for locals to celebrate the wonderful creatives, whilst also giving the creatives a space to showcase their art. It's proof that you don't have to have an expensive annual art pass or drop serious dough on a museum ticket to get a front row seat to cultural events. Sure, it's a small scale operation, but that's the charm of it.

If you want to see what's on each week, head to their Instagram, or you can snap up tickets to their upcoming events here.

You can find Theatreship at Millwall Cutting, London.

• A brand new live music venue is heading to North London

London’s late night venues are always in the news, from new openings to forced closures, and a few grumpy local residents in between. Usually, when it comes to politics and parties, it’s mainly doom and gloom with cuts, taxes, and illegal raves. However, thanks to the UK’s new PM, London nightlife might just be getting the lifeline it desperately needs.

Burnham is set to cut business rates for pubs, cubs, and live music venues by a whopping 20%. This new move towards slashing business rates is one of the latest moves in a whole slew of policies since his new reign.

In practical terms, these cuts would save your average pub roughly £1,100 a year, with around 32,000 businesses that will qualify for the cuts. Some business won’t qualify for the cuts, like some of the capital’s largest music venues.

The cuts will ocst about £100m a year, but are saud to be partly funded by reviewing reliefs for anti-social businesses, like vape shops in particular. Vape shops are among the list of businesses which have been singled out as enterprises that “do not make a positive contribution to local communities”. The government are also set to look at raising further tax from “businesses that sell through online marketplaces but do not comply with their tax obligations”. Burnham has previously promised to raise taxes on out-of-town warehouses for said online companies like Amazon to help pay for cuts to rates for hospitality firms.

More details are expected to be outlined in the budget which will confirm the parameters of the benefits. Talking about the cuts, Burnham said that "For too long, governments have stood by while cherished venues have disappeared from our local high streets. So today I am changing that.

This government will back the businesses that people want to see in their communities. I said I would protect pubs and local high streets – the beating heart of our communities – and that’s what we will do. What we’re announcing today is just the start as we work to bring back hope across the country.”

Hopefully, this will mean London venues will be able to battle a little more easily against the cossie livs crisis, keeping their doors open for local Londoners and visitors alike. It follows London Mayor Sadiq Khan's plans to extend licensing back in February in a bid to boost night-time economy which is still recovering post-pandemic.

• A brand new live music venue is heading to North London

London is stacked to the brim with fantastic (and wildly unaffordable) homes, from historic houses, to penthouse flats with better views than right wing politicians. One such hidden gem is the former home of writer-director-producer Guy Ritchie and the Queen of Pop, Madonna which has landed on London’s illustrious rental market. All for a measly £8,992 per month – we’re assuming that’s excluding bills.

Ritchie owned the property back in the early 1990s. The white brick pad is a former coach house in Queen’s Gate Mews in Kensington. Madonna later moved in when the couple got together (around 1998), and the pair stayed there after their son was born. The property has had more screen time than Zendaya in The Odyssey, having appeared in Matthew Vaughn’s The Layer Cake, serving as the home of Daniel Craig’s character XXXX, a local drug dealer looking to retire. It also featured in the 1970 crime drama Performance, with the wider Mews appearing in the 2008 film The Bank Job.

It’s rumoured that Ritchie had a hand in the house’s decor too, having designed the house’s stainless steel kitchen which is located in a corner of the main living space. The Kensington pad spans over two floors and 1,540 square footage. It has an open-plan living area downstairs, the aforementioned Ritchie-kitchien, and two bedrooms and a study on the upper floor.

As well as its Hollywooded history, the building actually dates back to the 1860s, with some original features like its white brick facade, arched ground floor windows, and Juliet balcony still in place.

It’s in a pretty perfect South-Ken spot too, a short walk from Hyde Park, The Royal Albert Hall, V&A, and crucially, plenty of pubs.

Dexters said that "Properties with this kind of history simply don't come up often” and the house itself is “full of character, beautifully finished, and perfectly placed for anyone wanting to be in the heart of South Kensington”

Whilst Richie and Madonna sold the house is 2003 to other owners, meaning they won't be your landlords, it's still a pretty cool flex. If you happen to have a spare £9k a month and are a bit of a movie / music nerd then maybe it's the perfect time to upgrade your studio bedsit,

You can check out all the details of the listing at Dexters.

• This famed London pizza spot is launching a new tasting menu

If you want to dig into queer cinema, MUBI should already be high on the list of your must-have streaming services. But it’s now out to support queer cinema more explicitly in its new partnership.

MUBI and Gay Times have teamed up to launch a Queer Short Film competition, one that culminates in a London screening event for its three selected winners.

We don’t yet have details on how, or if, you’ll be able to get tickets to the the show, but we do know it’s currently pencilled in for some time between the 13th and 15th November.

Its theme is “Queer Life: The Beauty and the Chaos” and entrants need to be between 10 minutes and 20 minutes long.

“At a time where forces are attempting to dismantle LGBTQIA+ rights and community, this project focuses wholly on showcasing the creativity, beauty and the joy of queer existence. Together, Gay Times and MUBI are creating a platform to encourage and celebrate those telling the stories of our community with honesty, integrity and passion,” says Solomon Thomson, Managing Director at Gay Times.

Mubi's queer collection

Each of the three winners will be given £1,000 in prize money — some of which will likely to go funding their travel to the showcase as MUBI and co. won’t be comp’ing that part.

There’s no word as to whether these shorts will eventually end up on the MUBI platform yet either, but the streamer has plenty for you to try out beforehand.

Within MUBI’s library you’ll find the Pride Unprejudiced collection, which offers a load of slices of LGBTQIA+ cinema, including new films and oldies.

There’s Luca Guadagnino’s Queer from 2024, and classics like The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and The Times of Harvey Milk.

Want to dig in? A MUBI subscription costs £11.99 a month, while the £18.99 a month MUBI GO also includes a selected weekly cinema ticket.

To any aspiring filmmakers hoping to enter, the competition closes on 14th August and films made in 2025 or 2026 are eligible.

• The BIG London Cinema List 2026: Film festivals, seasons, Q&As and rep screenings

Frightfest is one of the highlights of London’s cinema calendar each year. But in 2026, we’re getting a little livener for those who enjoy gaming as well as movies.

SEGA will snatch a spot at Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square to show off Alien: Isolation 2, the sequel to one of the very best horror video games ever made.

Frightfest attendees will be able to play the game themselves, as part of a “prologue” preview that to date mostly only gaming jounalists have had the opportunity to play.

The bad news: we won't be playing on one of the cinema’s actual screens — those things are in short supply during Frightfest. SEGA will instead setup a demo pod for play sessions.

“Partnering with FrightFest is a perfect match. Their audience appreciates the craft of fear, and we can’t wait to let them experience the relentless dread of Alien: Isolation 2 firsthand,” says Al Hope, Creative Director at Creative Assembly — the game’s developer.

A rare luxury Alien screening

As part of the partnership, the original Alien will also be shown at Odeon Luxe’s top-billing screening room, arguably the most plush public screen in all of London, complete with luxury recliner seats, at 3pm on 30th August.

This may not sound too special. A horror movie shown at a horror fest is the norm, right? It’s not, though, as Frightfest is typically used to screen brand new movies. Plenty of the screenings are actual world premieres too.

A screening from 1979 is a rarity.

Not familiar with Alien: Isolation? It’s a game in which you are stalked around a space station by a relentless Xenomorph. Unpredictable and terrifying, the original still holds up more than a decade on — it was originally released in 2014.

Alien: Isolation 2 was announced in June 2026 and does not yet have a concrete release date. This demo may be the most convenient way for Londoners to have a play before that date arrives. Its other big upcoming showing will be at Gamescom in Cologne, from 26th August.

Frightfest 2026 tickets are available now, although as usual the most desirable seats sold out in no time — despite being released just a few days ago. A few Balcony area festival passes are available at the time of writing, for £225.

Those tickets offer reserved seating for the main screening room, while day passes and single tickets for the four Discovery Screen flicks go on sale on 25th July. Frightfest takes place between 27th and 31st August this year.

• The BIG London Cinema List 2026: Film festivals, seasons, Q&As and rep screenings

A museum dedicated to the secret spy and intelligence operations that went on during World War Two has opened in North London.

I don’t think we can do much better than to regurgitate the museum’s own explanation of the Trent Park House of Secrets. It sounds more like the synopsis of a Netflix show than a museum intro:

“In the 1920s and 1930s, Trent Park House was Sir Philip Sassoon’s glamorous country retreat, host to prime ministers, royalty and film stars.A decade later it held a darker secret,” the museum team explains.

“POWs including captured German generals and senior officers were housed here in apparent comfort, never knowing that the Secret Listeners were monitoring their conversations and gathering intelligence that helped change the course of the war.”

We're already halfway through our popcorn.

A hidden slice of history

On the outside the Trent Park House of Secrets looks like a lush stately home, and inside it has been restored to how it would have appeared in the 1930s — also pretty stately home-like, to be honest. But behind the luxury there are the listening rooms, decked out with replicas of the sort of equipment that would have been used back in the day.

Before it took on this unlikely role, the house was owned by Sir Philip Sassoon, who was friend to both Winston Churchill and Edward VIII. But after his death in 1939 the place was requisitioned by the government.

Trent Park House of Secrets director Dr Giuseppe Albano invites us to “discover the covert intelligence operation that took place here during the Second World War.”

But the museum also apparently digs into the place’s wider context as a part of 20th century British history.

You can find out what this entails by visiting yourself. Adult tickets cost £14 a pop, those aged under five get in for free and 5-17-year-old and students pay £12.

The Trent Park House of Secrets is clearly going to be compared to Bletchley Park, the famous code-breaking country house that was a key part of the Allied war effort. And while Trent Park doesn’t quite have the gravitas or significance of that place, it sure is easier to get to for Londoners.

The Trent Park House of Secrets sits just a few hundreds metres away from the Cockfosters Underground station, on the Piccadilly line.

The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm, and tickets are available for slots up to six weeks in advance. You specify an hour slot when booking, but the website suggests the staff will be lenient if you miss your slot thanks to Tube delays or similar.

• Pop, pots and prints: V&A museums' full exhibition schedule for 2027 and beyond revealed

London knows how to do festivals, from summer staples like LIDO Fest and Cross the tracks to slightly more niche celebrations like Picklefest and Burgerfest, London knows how to do a festival. Now a new festival is heading to West London and it’s all about restaurants.

Plated is a new festival for 2026 which will take place this August, a bit like Fringe but more plates than plays. Running from 1st-31st, the festival brings together over 30 different venues for a month of food, drink, and exclusive offers on multiple spots across the borough – including spots on the King’s Road. The festival will include a month of festival-exclusive menus, complimentary cocktails, chef collaborations, tasting experiences, and exceptional-value dining.

More than 30 different venues are already signed up for the fest, including big hitting names like The Ivy and Hawksmoor. At Hawksmoor (the Knightsbridge branch) they’ll be offering up a discounted run of their set menu, with two courses £25, and three at £30 which includes a complimentary drink on arrival. There’s Mexican restaurant Ixchel will be serving up its two-course lunch offering for £28. Italian gem Azzurra in Sloane Square offering a complimentary glass of champagne, you’ll get a welcome spritz at Heston Blumenthal’s gaff, and a rather fancy glass of Laurent Perrier at The Lanesborough.

There are loads of offers up for grabs, with discounts across both lunches and dinners, which means that you'll be able to dine out for less at some seriously stunning spots that are worth a visit. In the words of the organisers, it's "no membership, no fuss - just the best of summer in the city, one reservation at a time."

All the venues taking part in Plated 2026

• Azzurra
• Big Easy
• Chelsea Grill
• CLAP London
• Harry’s Dolce Vita
• Harvey Nichols
• Hawksmoor Knightsbridge
• Ixchel
• Kahani London
• Rabbit
• San Carlo
• SETTE at Bvlgari Hotel London
• Signor Sassi
• Sticks’n’Sushi
• The Cadogan Arms
• The Chalk
• The Ivy Asia Chelsea
• The Ivy Chelsea Garden
• The Lanesborough Grill
• The March Hare
• The Mayfair Chippy
• The Pig’s Ear
• The Trafalgar
• Tom Brown at The Capital
• Willet’s at The Cadogan

You can find a full list of exactly what’s on offer at the festival’s website.

• The BIG London gig list 2026: Your guide to this year's very best shows, festivals and concerts

Supper Clubs made a huge comeback post Covid and are still popping up across the city as Gen Z desperately look for some kind of connection and some quality screen-free time (which they later post obsessively about). Whilst you may be used to seeing them as the next mini pop up from a foodie influencer, the latest London supper sipper club comes from a slightly boozier place: Sipsmith Gin.

Sipsmith is opening the doors of is Chiswick distillery for its first Sipper Club – a new, intimate and theatrical dining experience that will be nestled amongst its copper stills (the big distilling vats, but you know, prettier). It’s a pretty limited run for the event, with the first event launching on 29th July, and a second date on 26th August where 28 diners will be treated to cocktails, a three course dinner, as well as mixology masterclasses, and after hours access to the distillery grounds.

On arrival (around 7pm) you’ll have a (very civilised) welcome cocktail on an actual converted bus – a vintage style Sipsmith one. Then you’ll be heading to a three-course dinner which has been created by Chef Guiseppe Trezza who is cheffing up straight from The Ned – and if you couldn’t tell by the name, the menu will be Italian inspired. And whilst you usually get curated wine pairings with each course, for this iteration, you’ll be getting a paired cocktail with every dish.

The evening also promises an immersive, theatrical experience as diners are seated in the heart of the distillery, whilst the hosts of the evening will be guiding you through storytelling, presumably about the dish’s provenance, but you never know they might whip out a copy of Harry Potter. At one point during the night it will be the guests’ turn to try their hand at cocktail making, getting hands on with the shakers and spirits to create their own sippable creation. And as a little reward for being sociable with strangers, you get your own little goodie bag to take home.

Like all supper clubs, they ain’t coming cheap, but at the same time for what you’re actually getting (four cocktails and a three course dinner) it’s actually a pretty good deal. The Sipsmith supper club is £90 per person, with the whole evening lasting around three hours. You can book tickets over at Sipsmith's website where there's plenty of information about the limited-run of events.

• This famed London pizza spot is launching a new tasting menu

Pizza isn’t exactly a unique thing to be dishing up, and there’s famously a whole heft of competition across the city over who plates up the best doughy delicacies, from traditional trattorias, to NYC style innovations. However, food aficionado or not, you’ll probably have heard of Napoli on the Road, a west London spot which recently got crowned the best ‘za in Europe for the third year running.

Now, the spectacular spot has launched something a little more unusual: a pizza tasting menu. Traditionally, you’ll hear “tasting menu” and immediately think of tiny portions in a glitzy Michelin starred joint, with words like sous-vide, seaweed foam, and emulsion, feeling like you need a dictionary as well as Grace Dent in the corner translating it all for you. Napoli on the Road will be doing it a little differently though, serving up a celebration of “slow eating, childhood memories, and the versatility of an Italian favourite.”

The tasting menu will launch at Napoli’s latest branch in Soho this August, which only opened up in February 2026, and is the chain’s third branch to date. The tasting menu itself starts with one of the most crucial parts of Italian food: the tomato. The first course kicks off with a glorious celebration of the humble and juicy tomato, showing it at four different stages of preparation, highlighting how proper good produce changes as it cooks, in true Jamie Oliver / Hugh Fernley Wittingstall manner. According to Napoli, this is to help guests slow down, and appreciate how time can transform the simplest of ingredients. Sort of like watching endless TikTok videos of people making sun-dried tomatoes and other dried fruit on their balconies in these recent heatwaves.

The next courses showcase a selection of fritti, pizzas, palate cleansers (think sorbet) before rounding the evening off with dessert. The tasting menu will include four different kinds of pizza as well as a range of other dishes, authentically Italian of course, and close to founder Michele Pascarella’s childhood memories.

As well as a delicious tasting menu which will no doubt leave you more stuffed than a cannoli, there will be a carefully paired wine menu which has been curated to compliment each dish. The menu will explore reds, whites, desert wine, and even a drop of sake.

Talking about the creation of the tasting menu, Michele Pascarella said that it was “not created with the idea of making something complex or “starred.” We did not want to impress with techniques for their own sake or build a journey that feels distant from people, but to do exactly the opposite. We want to tell a story made of memories, seasonality, ingredients, and flavours that everyone can understand from the very first bite.”

Given they were going for classic and delicious over complicated and fancy, it’s perhaps not surprising (and a welcome relief) that the tasting menu isn't in the eye-watering price bracket that a lot of them can be. It will cost £65 per person for the standard tasting menu, with the wine pairings an additional £40 if you fancy it. It’s only running at their stunning Soho site, and you can head to their website to find out more information, including when bookings open up.

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We’re almost getting whiplash between the number of exciting new openings gracing London's streets and the amount of iconic institutions having to shut their doors. All in all, it’s nice to know the UK music and arts scene is not entirely effed, and the new arrival of a community-built arts venue is further proof that it’s not all doom n' gloom, but rhythm n' blues.

Based in Tottenham, Radial is a new grassroots venue, inspired by and built for its local community. It’s all about championing arts, music, and culture through a varied and inclusive roster of live events, creativity, and collaboration. The space is set to open up on 5th September, with a decent 250-capacity.

The team behind the new site is ten87, a creative studio hub with 50 recording studios across the capital. Funded by the public, it works with the music industry to help new creators within the community. Radial marks their first move into live performance, taking their groovy, tuned music-making into a cultural event for all. Over the past decade, the studios have supported artists from Fontaines D.C to Wolf Alice and many more, who you’ll have snapped up tickets to recently.

Unlike a lot of spaces you can currently boogie the night away in across the capital, Radial is “a space developed around sound”, putting quality music at its core. In terms of what that’s going to look like, their programme is set to be rooted in active listening, expect intimate performances, eclectic club nights, as well as artist-led experiments like workshops and sound-based wellness. According to the team, the radial concept shapes every aspect of the physical experience - from how people arrive and gather, to how they move through, watch performances and connect with one another. It’s all sounding very art school tbh, but in the best possible way.

On the inside, it has capacity for 250-300 standing, or up to 80 seated, with the main space decked out in flexible Japanese-style loungers so they can keep switching up the look as needed. The main space is centred around a main performance room featuring a 10-point custom-built system with precisely designed acoustics, which has been headed up by renowned acoustician Nick Whitaker, whose work includes the legendary nightclub Plastic People.

Romy, who's also a recording artist, said: "Smaller venues are essential to London's musical ecosystem. Sadly, we’ve watched so many closures over recent years. We just want to give people a new space for culture and connection. Which feels important now, more than ever."

Although radial is set to open up on 5th September, they're running four one-off club nights across July and August. The nights boast sets from DJs and artists including: Jacklyn, Adult Woman, Meg Ward, Sub Basics, nohexcode, and plenty more.

You can find Radial at 39b Markfield Rd, N15 4QA.

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