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This Monday to Thursday, there’s plenty of poppin’ fun to be had in London town. Wimbledon’s kicking off and there are places all across the capital screening games and serving up treats, Hackney Downs Studios is opening its doors to the public and the Brixton Pound Café will be packed full of events, talks and workshops all week. Score!
CENTRAL
Independence Day Party, Benjamin Franklin House, Tue, £10. Celebrate Independence Day in the London home of America’s Founding Father Benjamin Franklin with a day of cake, prosecco and a Fourth of July quiz.
Brooklyn Nights: ‘Jaws’, Prince Charles Cinema, Tue, £10 members £12.50 non-members. See a movie with some teeth at this Prince Charles Cinema special with Brooklyn Brewery Beer, where you’ll sit down to watch 1975 classic ‘Jaws’ with a can of its Summer Pale Ale.
Fourth of July celebrations, Balthazar, Tue, free-£20. Balthazar is going all-out this Independence Day, offering a free all-American-inspired menu to the first 100 patriotic diners of the day (but you have to be dressed in stars and stripes).
Shakespeare in the Squares: ‘Romeo and Juliet’, various outdoor locations, Tue-Wed, £14.12-£27.23. This fun version of Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy hits up some of London’s prettiest green spots this summer.
‘Macbeth’, St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, Tue-Thu, £18, £14 concs. A slightly loopy outdoor take on Shakespeare’s violent Caledonian tragedy.
Pride in Carnaby, Carnaby Street, all week. Carnaby Street is getting a colourful makeover in celebration of London Pride. Its Love Happens Here festival will see exclusive in-store promotions, products, discounts and events across Carnaby’s 13 streets, while its iconic arch will be transformed into a rainbow.
Gregory Crewdson: ‘Cathedral of the Pines’, Photographers’ Gallery, all week, £4, adv/concs £2.50, free before noon. An eerie series of meticulously staged tableaux, in which the listless townsfolk of the US town of Becket appear in drab living rooms, static trailers and litter-strewn clearings in the pinewoods that girdle the town.
The Pimm’s Wimbledon Bar, Selfridges, all week. Watch the Wimbledon tennis championships against the backdrop of the London skyline while enjoying a glass of the ultimate summer tipple at The Pimm’s Wimbledon Bar on the terrace of Selfridges.
NORTH
Darlingside, Union Chapel, TONIGHT, £17. Catch ’60s-influenced pop and indie from the Massachusetts ensemble.
‘A Kid for Two Farthings’, JW3, Wed, £12. From 1955, ‘A Kid for Two Farthings’ is the fanciful tale of a young boy who mistakes a one-horned goat for a miraculous unicorn and eagerly anticipates good fortune for his friends in the neighbourhood.
Strawberries and Screen, Cubitt Square, all week, free. Tennis fans who haven’t got the willpower to queue for Murray Mound should pack a picnic and head to King’s Cross for these free outdoor screenings of Wimbledon 2017.
EAST
Open Studios: Hackney Downs Studios, Hackney Downs Studios, Thu, free. Get your skates on a for a free roller disco in Hackney Downs as part of this mini art festival. When you’re not doing doughnuts, you can check out roaming theatre performances, live painting demos, printmaking and weaving workshops.
Pop-up India, Proud East, Thu, prices vary. Step into India without leaving the confines of the M25 at Proud East’s Pop-up India, which will be celebrating the subcontinent through a carefully curated series of events, workshops, art, live music, DJs and food.
Rooftop Film Club: ‘Withnail & I’, Roof East, Thu, £15. One of the great London movies, up on the roof with a view of the city.
Penguin Classics Book Club: ‘The Island of Dr Moreau’, Barbican, Thu, £18.50. A series of book club events from Penguin Classics, each focusing on an iconic title from the Science Fiction genre. Tonight, Simon Winder, publishing director of Penguin Random House, chairs a discussion on ‘The Island of Dr Moreau’.
SOUTH
Open Collective, Brixton Pound Café, Tue-Thu, free. A collective of young entrepreneurs and creatives are teaming up with youth-led creative network Livity and taking over the Brixton Pound Café for a week of live events, workshops, talks, displays and exhibitions.
‘Dreamers Awake’, White Cube Bermondsey, until Sep 17, free. ‘Dreamers Awake’ is a group show of a century of women artists influenced by surrealism. It’s a riot of bits and bobs, from Hannah Wilke’s terracotta vaginal desk-tidies, to Louise Bourgeois’s weighty bronze ‘Breasts and Blades’.
Vauxhall Cinema Club: ‘Postcards from the Edge’, The Workshop, Wed, £10. Feminist film festival Bird’s Eye View and pop-up cinema The Extraordinary Travelling Film Show join forces for a tribute to the mighty Carrie Fisher, with this adaptation of her notorious Hollywood exposé.
Heart n Soul’s Big 30 Summer Takeover, various venues in Deptford, Wed-Thu, prices vary. Arts charity Heart n Soul is celebrating 30 years of helping people with learning disabilities explore creative opportunities with The Big 30, a party of performances, exhibitions and more.
Florence Peake: ‘We Perform I Am in Love with My Body’, Bosse & Baum, until Sep 8, free. Florence Peake makes drawings of naked human bodies as part of choreographed performances, the paper laid out on the floor as she moves around it.
The Multi-Story Orchestra: ‘In Colour’, Frank’s Café, Thu, £5. Catch singers from John Donne and Kender Primary Schools joining forces with The Multi-Story Orchestra and conductor Christopher Stark for the premiere of their new work ‘In Colour’.
WEST
Moretti Gran Tour, Hyde Park, Mon-Wed,Thu, free entry. This festival celebrating authentic Italian cuisine and culture is back for the summer and this year it’s offering Londoners a 4D immersive sensory experience of Italy.
British Summer Time: Kings Of Leon, Hyde Park, Thu, prices vary. Seven albums in and the Kings continue to serve up epic rock that simply was born to be performed in arenas, stadiums and massive parks.
Reveal Festival, V&A, all week, free. Celebrating the V&A’s 165th anniversary and the opening of its brand-new Exhibition Road Quarter, Reveal is a free, week-long festival inviting the public to explore the new space through events and activities, which will bring the architecture and collections to life.
The Jam Tree Rum Festival, multiple venues, all week. Celebrate rum in all its glorious varieties at this month-long festival paying homage to the tropical spirit. Both Chelsea and Clapham venues are taking part.
Pottermore Pop-up, Graffik Gallery, all week, free. For one week Portobello Road’s Graffik Gallery will be filled with original posters and mounted digital prints inspired by Harry Potter.
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