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What to Do in London This Weekend (and Beyond)
From exhibitions to new restaurants, we've got you covered
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Spring provides plenty of opportunities for Nice Long Walks. But these walks will become much longer, and much less nice, once you realise that every vaguely interesting cultural event taking place in London – every exhibition, every hyped pop-up, you’d take a ball-pit bar if it meant you could finally have a breather – has been booked up until 2025. Because having a good time in London really is a matter of military-grade preparation, and you should start the process as soon as possible. To help you out on your mission, we've rounded up the most exciting dates on the capital's cultural calendar, as well as things you could do this very weekend.
See the many faces of conflict at 'Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington'
It would be wrong to describe photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who was killed in a mortar attack in Libya in 2011, as a war photographer, for the simple reason that it dismisses and underplays the subtlety and depth of what his work was about. Far from being drawn to the machismo and the weaponry, Hetherington was concerned with exploring the whole range of human feelings – including fear, and even tenderness – that the extremes of conflict evoke: in one series, while embedded with US soldiers in Afghanistan, he filmed them sleeping. This new show at the Imperial War Museum, which opens on the 13th anniversary of his death, shows the incredible range and thoughtfulness of his work with both stills photography and film, and features contributions from Hetherington’s collaborators including the American journalist Sebastian Junger, with whom he directed the Oscar-nominated documentary, Restrepo.
20 April to 29 September, IWM London, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ
Get your saucepans out for 'Nye'
Nye, a new play by Tim Price now being staged at the National Theatre, is a somewhat stirring tribute to Aneurin Bevan, the Welsh miner’s son who rose from poverty to become the crusading Labour MP for Ebbw Vale and founding father of the NHS. Directed with wit and energy by the NT’s outgoing boss, Rufus Norris, it stars another charismatic son of south Wales, the wonderful Michael Sheen, as the title character. Sheen has long been celebrated for his chameleonic portrayals of famous real-life figures — Tony Blair, Brian Clough, David Frost, Kenneth Williams — but you get a sense, watching him dominate the stage at the Olivier, that Bevan is the role he feels he was born to play. It’s a barnstorming performance, balancing firebrand intensity and earthy humour.
National Theatre, Upper Ground, South BankLondon SE1 9PX
Be naan the wiser at Tandoor Chop House
Do you like New York-style Jewish deli food, specifically the diabolically unctuous sandwich known as the Reuben? Us too! Do you enjoy the food of the Indian subcontinent, specifically the dreamy breads used to mop up those insanely moreish sauces? Us too! Would you, in that case, be tempted by the idea of a Reuben-style salt-beef naan? Of course you would! This hybrid collab is the offspring of an assignation between Brixton smokehouse Ruben’s Reubens and Covent Garden’s Tandoor Chop House, which is where you’ll find it. The details: a naan bread fresh from the tandoor oven is stuffed with cheese, topped with Ruben's smoked salt beef brisket, “everything” seasoning, sauerkraut, and pickled yellow mustard seeds. The result: bread heaven. At a recent “working” lunch, we followed ours with crispy lamb chops, black pepper chicken tikka and black dahl. Plus beers. Don’t wait: the naan is only on the menu until the end of April.
Tandoor Chop House, 8 Adelaide Street, London WC2N 4HZ
See sculpture in action at 'When Forms Come Alive'
The current eye-catching exhibition at the Southbank's Hayward Gallery shows sculpture at its most dynamic, whether that's literal movement, as with Olaf Brzeski's dancing petticoat-cum-chandeliers or Michel Blazy's slowly pumped-out foam creations, or bursting organic forms from the likes of Franz West and Tara Donovan (left), that give a sense of mutating growth. It's serious artworks with a refreshing sense of fun.
Until 6 May, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
Face the wind at Three Sheets
Late night, Soho. Where are you going for a drink? For a pint, you’re sorted. But it feels increasingly hard to find just the right place for something smarter without membership to a private club. So it is a warm welcome to Three Sheets, the first outpost of Dalston’s much-loved bar of the same name opened by brothers Max and Noel Venning. If you are familiar with the East London joint, you will know what to expect: moody lighting, tasteful interiors, a vibe which encourages either dressing up or down. The menu is divided into one, two or three sheets – as in, how many of those you want to be to the wind – and we say: dive into the heaviest portion with a dirty martini. The brothers landed on a heady and ridiculously smooth mix of vodka, olive oil, sea salt, Picpoul, koseret tea (that last ingredient is a type of Ethiopian tea, if you are less familiar with non-alcoholic drinks). Was it shaken or stirred? I didn’t ask and couldn’t really tell. But the drink tasted very nice, came with three olives and a tiny plate for their stones (classy!). We ordered seconds.
Three Sheets, 13 Manette Street W1D 4AW
Contemplate a masterpiece at 'The Last Caravaggio'
Much like the National Gallery’s press view for The Last Caravaggio, an exhibition of the final painting by the late-Renaissance master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, the action depicted in “The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula” takes place, says the wall panel, “in a dark, crowded space”. Here, in the middle of the canvas, is the doomed princess, her 11,000 virgin followers already slaughtered somewhere out of view, her hands framing the cavity in her chest made by the arrow just fired by her rejected suitor, the King of the Huns, who is standing to her right. And there’s the ghostly face of Caravaggio himself, over her left shoulder, the drama of his own life – fighting, murder, facial disfigurement – temporarily side-lined. The painting, displayed in an intimately atmospheric room with the NG’s own moody Caravaggio, “Salome receives the Head of John the Baptist”, is on loan from the Intesa Sanpaolo in Naples, and well worth a contemplative lunch break while it's here.
Until 21 July, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN
Head for 'The Hills of California'
A new Jez Butterworth play is always a talking point in the theatre world, and his latest, directed by Sam Mendes, is already drawing the crowds. A black comedy set in 1970s (and 1950s) Blackpool that explores the relationships between four sisters and their dying mother, we can assure you it's a lot more fun than that sounds. Charismatic performances and dark humour, plus a magnificent Bates Motel-style set, will help you power through.
Until 15 June, Harold Pinter Theatre, London SW1Y 4DN
Learn how it all began at 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow'
For a show with as much high-concept sci-fi kitsch as Stranger Things, the thought of a theatre version might rightly fill you with trepidation. Will we get cardboard demobats and demigorgons in Lycra body stockings in this story about the origins of Henry “Vecna” Creel’s strange powers? Fear not, because the Duffer Brothers’ iconic series is in safe hands with writer Kate Trefry and director Stephen Daldry (and co-director Justin Martin) who have put together a show that is as fun and dazzling as the TV original, with some genuinely genius stage craft and genuinely heart-stopping jump scares to boot.
Until 30 June, Phoenix Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0JP
Celebrate the reopening of The Guinea Grill
Two years ago, Oisin Rogers left his role as landlord at the legendary Guinea Grill in Mayfair – the oldest pub & steakhouse in London – to open his own wood-panelled boozer down the road. You’ve probably heard of it: The Devonshire on Denman Street, AKA the TikTok Arms, known for serving “the best Guinness in London”™ by people who try to crowbar that kind of thing into conversation (me).
It is possibly the hardest place in the capital to get a table at right now. And its viral success can probably be attributed to the fact that it's quite a lot like The Guinea Grill, but in Piccadilly Circus. But here’s the thing: The Guinea Grill’s enduring appeal lies in the fact that it actually is the Guinea Grill, and that it is not, crucially, in Piccadilly Circus. Instead, it sits in a calm street off Berkeley Square, where you can have a nice pint without moonlighting as a social media background extra.
It's just reopened following an artful expansion to the various dining rooms and we celebrated the news by ordering up a big, reliably delicious slab of côte de boeuf with all the trimmings. Then we enjoyed a few drinks outside, away from the commuter crush and roving camera phones. Over 70 years later, you still can’t beat it.
30 Bruton Pl, London W1J 6NL
See architecture afresh at ‘Tropical Modernism’
Exhibitions about architecture always run the risk of being underwhelming: all spidery drawings and piddly maquettes. The V&A South Kensington’s new show, Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence, goes deftly beyond these potential limitations, with a show that is as vibrant and engrossing as it is informative. Focussing specifically on the ways in which the Modernist school of architecture was brought to West Africa and Southeast Asia by Western practitioners in the late 1940s, before being gradually “adopted and adapted” – to use the phrase favoured by Ghana’s then-President Kwame Nkrumah – into a richer, more responsive school of the architects and governments of those regions, it features archive films, artworks and magazines that bring a fascinating creative period to life.
2 March to 22 September, V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2R
Enjoy a fine dining Indian tasting menu
Atul Kochhar is a legend of London’s fine dining scene. The first Indian chef to be awarded a Michelin star, he set about changing the world’s perception of South Asian cuisine as head chef of Tamarind in Mayfair thirty years ago, before following it up with his own place (which he has since left), Benares, in 2002. Another Michelin star followed, and he’s since opened plenty of acclaimed restaurants outside of London. But he still holds firm footing in Mayfair thanks to Kanishka, the restaurant he opened in 2019 to pay tribute to India’s north east ‘sister states’. If you haven’t had the pleasure of tasting Kochhar’s transformative food, then now’s the time: Kanishka is currently offering a six-course tasting menu with a bottle of wine chosen by the in-house sommelier.
17-19 Maddox St, W1S 2QH
Get face to face with 'Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads'
The artist Frank Auerbach is 92 and still works every day at his studio in Camden Town, the same studio he’s occupied since the 1950s. A Berliner by birth, he was sent here at age seven, in 1939, by his Jewish parents, who stayed behind and were murdered at Auschwitz. His paintings — portraits of people and street scenes — are immensely vivid and moving. But a major new exhibition at the Courtauld shows a different side of his oeuvre: these striking large-scale drawings, made in the late Fifties and early Sixties, emerge from darkness, not unscathed but defiant, like the artist himself. It’s the first time such a group has been shown together, and the Courtauld is displaying them alongside paintings of the same sitters.
Until 27 May, The Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN
Enjoy an art deco upgrade on your daily commute
A British Pullman train voyage is already a bucket list experience, but that hasn’t stopped Belmond from stepping things up a gear with its new Carriage Club offering. Inspired by the decadent legacy of the Devonshire-turned-San Marco Restaurant in London’s St James during the Twenties and Thirties, it presents itself as the capital’s first cabaret on rails experience: inside your beautiful art deco carriage (opt for the Wes Anderson-designed Cygnus space if you can) you’ll be treated to a delicious five-course fine-dining menu alongside an immersive show of dance, magic, music and comedy, all conceptualised by Private Drama Events. And, of course, some beautiful scenery. It beats your daily commute, that's for sure.
Prices per person start at £545 and include round trip on the luxury British Pullman, welcome champagne, 5-course dinner and live cabaret performances.
Think again at Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind
Beatlemaniacs may have taken a while (55 years?) to warm to Yoko Ono — and some holdouts, rather pathetically, still resist — but in contemporary art circles, she has long been regarded with awe. Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind at Tate Modern, a major retrospective of seven decades of work and set to be the season’s must-see show, will cement her position as one of the most significant artists of the second half of the twentieth century and beyond. Look out for greatest hits including the notorious Cut Piece and the excellently titled Film No. 4: Bottoms.
Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG
Limber up at 'Guys and Dolls'
It feels sacrilegious to say it, but Guys and Dolls, the 1955 movie starring Marlon Brando as high-rolling gambler Sky Masterson and Frank Sinatra as the beleaguered middleman Nathan Detroit, ain’t great. (Brando’s singing often gets the blame, but actually it’s Sinatra who fails to bring the spark.) What truly is great, is Nicholas Hytner’s current production at The Bridge Theatre in London, which has now been extended into next year. The leads have charisma oozing out of every pore – Marisha Wallace, who plays lovelorn showgirl Adelaide is phenomenal – and Bunny Christie’s dynamic staging keeps the audience (especially if you opt for standing tickets, which we highly recommend) well and truly on its toes.
Runs until 31 August, The Bridge Theatre, 3 Potters Flds Pk, London SE1 2SG
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Say thank you for the music at 'ABBA Voyage'
Is Abba’s state-of-the-art digital stage show at a specially built arena in Stratford the clinical future of “live” entertainment? Certainly it’s an excellent business model, with beamed-in likenesses of in-their-prime Agnetha, Anni-Frid, Benny and Björn performing songs including “Knowing Me, Knowing You”, “Mamma Mia” and “Gimme Gimme Gimme” while the real members – hopefully – warm their toes by the fire in four cosy island cabins in the Stockholm archipelago. But, because of the strength of the material, the engaging visuals and the excellent live backing band, Abba Voyage is also irresistibly joyous. You may be whooping at a avatars, but you’ll hope they can hear.
ABBA Arena, Pudding Mill Lane, London E15 2PJ
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