42 hot things to do in London this week

London is celebrating its exciting makers, designers and creatives this week with loads of huge festivals and events taking place across the city. Get yourself to exhibitions, talks and workshops scheduled for London Design Festival or get a glimpse into the inner workings of the fashion industry with London Fashion Weekend's jam-packed programme. Here are the best things to see and do this week. Enjoy!

Things to do 

Meditate in Trafalgar Square on World Peace Day, Trafalgar Square, TONIGHT, free. Gather by Nelson’s column for half an hour of group meditation with thousands of other Londoners. 

Art Booty, Brixton East, Tue, free. Bag yourself some original artwork at this celebration of madcap makers in south west London. The event which coincides with the Brixton Design Trail brings together artists, performers, installations and great grub.

Nerd Nite London, EPIC Dalston, Wed, £7.50, £6 early nerds. Be there and be square is the mantra for this series of monthly talks. At the September event, a trio of top boffins explain why they think the geeks shall inherit the earth. 

London Design Festival: Tent London & Super Brands London, Old Truman Brewery, Thu, £12, £6 5-16s; £10/£6 adv; free under-5s. These two trade shows are a great opportunity to catch up with the freshest design ideas from across the globe, showing work from both well-established and emerging practices.

Radio Times Festival, Hampton Court Palace, Thu, from £10, £6 children. This four-day event is actually a vast line-up of talks, panel discussions, exhibitions and children's workshops which celebrate TV, radio and books.

Magic, Mind-Reading and Mayhem Show, The Ivy House, Thu, £15, £10 in advance. From 7pm, there will be close-up magic from Magic Circle members in the bar. Then, at 8pm, the first of three acts takes the stage: expect, yes, magic and mind-reading, but also performances of other 'contemporary arts' - perhaps ventriloquism or juggling.

London Fashion Weekend, multiple venues, Thu, £20-£50. Invitation to the Burberry show lost in the post? London Fashion Weekend offers us mere mortals an insider’s perspective on the fashion industry, with trend-led catwalks from big name designers.

London Design Festival, various venues, all week, prices vary. This multi-event, multi-venue, nine-day festival takes place across the capital to bring remarkable design both old and new to a vast London audience. The V&A and Somerset House will both be major landmarks in the line-up, hosting talks, events and several large-scale installations.

Art Social, The House of St Barnabas, all week, free. Homelessness charity the House of Barnabas are opening up to the public once more with their fantastic fundraising initiative: a week long festival of arts, music and culture.

Louis Vuitton Series 3, 180 the Strand, all week, free. Discover the inspiration behind Louis Vuitton’s autumn/winter collection at this bold, beautiful and slightly baffling ‘experimental’ exhibition.

…or check out more events happening in London this week.

Eating and drinking

The Graphic Gin Off, Graphic Bar, TONIGHT. A newly monthly gin competition where eight of the bar’s gin brands battle it out to create the tastiest tipple. Entry is free with everyone receivies a free G&T on arrival, plus two free cocktails. 

Singapore Sling's centenary, Boisdale of Bishopsgate, Wed, Members free (plus one guest at members’ price). Non-members £15. Singapore Sling's centenary: the romance of the Far East in a few easy cocktails. Dan Davies hosts a celebration of the famous cocktail.

México by Kitchen Theory, Maida Hill Place, Thu, £105 dinner and drinks package, £65 dinner only. Kitchen Theory's latest offering comes infused with the flavours of Mexico with sophisticated dishes inspired by Central America making up the menu.

…or check out the latest restaurant reviews.

Comedy

Sam Simmons – Spaghetti for Breakfast, Soho Theatre, Tue-Thu, £10-£20. 2015's triumphant Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award-winner Sam Simmons heads straight to London for a Soho Theatre run. This Aussie absurdist is erratic, loud and relentlessly silly, and 'Spaghetti for Breakfast' is his best show yet.

Tommy Tiernan – Out of the Whirlwind, multiple venues, Wed-Thu, £22. Tommy tackles the big issues of today – sex, religion and family – with a mix of his personal demons and trademark sense of outrage. He's a must-see for any true comedy fan.

Mae Martin: Us, The Invisible Dot Ltd, all week, £10, £9 concs. Mae Martin's long been a crowd pleaser, but now she's ditched her guitar and decided to talk about something true to her heart and more relevant than ever. Gender and sexuality are her topics of choice, as she tells personal anecdotes and reflects on our attitudes in 2015.

Liam Williams: Bonfire Night, The Invisible Dot Ltd, all week, £12, £11 concs. Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award-nominated stand-up Liam Williams is one of the smartest young comics on the circuit. His intelligent, bleak, thought-provoking shows are always intriguing and full of smart jokes.

Stewart Lee – A Room With a Stew, Leicester Square Theatre, all week, £24.50. 'A Room With a Stew' sees the influential comic testing ideas for the fourth series of 'Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle'. But, as this is Stewart Lee, don't expect these new routines to be messy and joke-less, even when testing new material Lee is always spectacularly funny.

…or check out all the critics’ choice comedy shows.

Live music

Outfit, Electrowerkz, Mon, £10. Laying calypso-tinged melodies and funk rhythms over spooky, gnarled electronic textures, these impressive, chillwave-toned Scousers are the rising stars of UK synth pop. 

Florence + The Machine, Alexandra Palace, Mon-Tue, Thu, £37.50. Florence Welch and her band have notched up a third consecutive Number One album with their mighty new album ‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’, and to celebrate they’re playing no fewer than four enormous Ally Pally shows.

Joanna Gruesome, Scala, Tue, £11. Mixing up early My Bloody Valentine’s sweet fuzz with punk thrust and indie-pop jangling, the impeccably named Joanna Gruesome are an exciting four-piece from Cardiff whose debut album ‘Weird Sister’ was a real treat.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra, O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, Wed, £17.50. Ruban Nielson and his freaky pop cohorts bring songs from their new album ‘Multi-Love’ to London. 

…or take a look at all the live music events in London this week.

Nightlife

Morning Gloryville, Ministry of Sound, Tue. A pre-work mid-week fitness rave, which aims to give punters a healthy, start to the working day via snacks, massages and a lot of dancing.

Ovation: Zebra Katz x Leila + L-Vis 1990, Oval Space, Thu, £12-50-£15. Edgy, hip and super-sharp rapper Zebra Katz teams up with Warp Records artist Leila for a heady combination of dark electronica hip hop and beats.

Brixton Disco Club, Phonox, Thu, £5-£7. A weekly dose of disco in new south London club Phonox. There'll be everything from classic '70s funk jams to contemporary deep disco cuts.

Hot Tub Cinema, The Laundry, all week, £20-£25 per individual ticket. Kick back in a hot tub, quaff a few drinks and watch cult and classic films, with a party and music afterwards.

…or see all the parties planned this week.

Film

Classic Matinee Screenings & Ballroom Boogie, Regent Street Cinema, Wed, £11, £1.75 seniors, £7 under-16s, £10 unemployed & students. The matinee season is a great way to introduce yourself to the recently reopened Regent Street Cinema, whose history stretches back to the screening of the first moving picture by the Lumière Brothers back in 1896.

Or at the cinema...

Everest ★★★★☆ Baltasar Kormákur’s disaster movie is a physical experience that will leave you breathless – and possibly suffering vertigo.

Irrational Man ★★★☆☆ Joaquin Phoenix is a shambling philosophy professor in Woody Allen's uneven drama.

…or see all of the latest releases.

Theatre

Martyr, Unicorn Theatre, Tue-Thu, £12-£18, £8-£12 concs. A bold tale of an unfamiliar kind of radicalisation in the classroom from German playwright Marius von Mayenburg.

Jane Eyre, Lyttleton Theatre, Thu, £15-£55. After a well-received run as a two-part production at the Bristol Old Vic, Sally Cookson’s newly-condensed adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre’ has forged its way on to the National Theatre’s Lyttelton stage.

Hangmen, Royal Court Theatre, all week, £10-£35. Martin McDonagh returns to retake his crown with this superb dark comedy.

Casa Valentina, Southwark Playhouse, all week, £18, £16 concs. A bright and engaging production about a politically conflicted transvestite colony. 

…or see our theatre critics’ choices.

This week's best new art

Rock Style, Sotheby's S|2, Tue-Thu, free. Celebrating the relationship between fashion, music and photography, Jeffrey Deitch and Tommy Hilfiger curate this show of famous faces from Elvis and The Beatles to David Bowie and Janis Joplin. 

Jumana Manna, Chisenhale Gallery, Wed-Thu, free. The Palestinian artist presents a major new film commission for her first UK solo show.

Prem Sahib: Side On, ICA, Thu, £1 day membership. For his first institutional show, the London-based artist will present new and recent work that reflects upon sexuality, intimacy and the gay community.

Julia Margaret Cameron: Influence and Intimacy, Science Museum, Thu, free. Marking the 200th anniversary of the pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron birth, the Science Museum's Media Space presents this free exhibiiton of her bold portraits of the Victorian cultural elite.

Kemang Wa Lehulere: Sincerely yours, Gasworks, Thu, free. The gallery reopens after a major redevelopment with a show by the emerging South African artist.

LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair, Berkeley Square, all week, £20. 105 distinguished members of the Association of Art and Antiques Dealers gather in Berkeley Square to sell a wide variety of art, furniture, textiles, jewellery, decorative arts, paintings, sculpture, ceramics and design pieces .

…or see all London art reviews.

And finally

Win... one of 50 pairs of exclusive tickets to Tate Modern’s 'EY Exhibition: The World Goes Pop' or a year's gym pass to No1 Fitness Personal Training Studio

Grab... £6.90 tickets to The Chocolate Show at Olympia National Hall

Book... these gigs while you still can

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