35 fantastic things to do in London this week

Check out Gilbert and George's latest work in Bermondsey, welcome the return of Winterville to Victoria Park, or sweeten up your week with a dessert-focussed dining club in east London this evening. There's lots to be done, so get planning, people! 

Things to do 

Memento: Trinity Buoy Wharf Audio Guide, Trinity Buoy Wharf, Wed, free. Arts collective Screen Deep are the brains behind this new audio tour which explores the exciting east London area of Trinity Buoy Wharf.

Science Museum Lates, South Kensington, Wed, free. A super fun math themed evening in the museum, giving visitors the chance to become undercover reporters tasked with exploring how numbers can solve practice problems and change lives.

Cockpit Arts Christmas Open Studios, Cockpit Arts Holborn, Thu, £5. These open studios are a great chance to support independent designer-makers and pick up unique Christmas gifts that you won't find on the high street.

Pepys' Late, National Maritime Museum, Thu, £15. Party like its 1669 at this late night opening of the National Maritime Museum. Samuel Pepys, the original party animal, is the inspiration for this night and the museum’s current exhibition Samuel Pepys: Plague, Fire, Revolution.

Winterville, Victoria Park, Thu, free entry; attractions and events individually priced. East London's festive playground is back for a second year, filling a corner of Victoria Park with dancing, eating, laughing, drinking, skating and plenty more besides.

A Taste of Gillray, Cartoon Museum, Thu, £40, £35 friends of the Cartoon Museum. This celebration of English caricaturist and printmaker James Gillray (1756-1815) combines a candlelit dinner courtesy of the Georgian Dining Academy with a historical reenactment and a tour of the Gillray's Ghost exhibition.

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

Eating and drinking

Happy Endings Dessert Nights, Eat 17, TONIGHT, £20. Scrap dinner and head straight for dessert at this seriously sweet dining event. Pastry chef Terri Mercieca will serve up cocktails, tea and petit fours and a candy-coated menu, and a special selection of dessert wines will be on offer for anyone who fancies an extra tipple.

Meet Paul A Young, The View from The Shard, Wed, £50. A chance to eat delicious tasters while admiring the beautiful London skyline from The View from The Shard, this event sees master chocolatier Paul A Young introduce four chocolate pairings that represent the four corners of London.

Thank Ya Papa, Styx Bar, Wed-Thu, £35-£45. Tuck into a Mississippi-style Thanksgiving feast with Slap Ya Papa, whose Michelin-trained chefs have designed a menu of candied yams, deep-fried turkeys and plenty more.

Thanksgiving meals in London, Thu. With a huge number of US expats living in London, it’s no wonder many London restaurants choose to celebrate the main culinary festival of the States. Falling on the fourth Thursday of November - Thanksgiving is your chance to have a pre-Christmas turkey dinner with our top pick of places to celebrate in London. 

…or check out the latest restaurant reviews.

Comedy

The Horne Section's Questions Sessions, Soho Theatre, TONIGHT, £15. Alex Horne's jazz-accompanied comedy-party returns to the Soho Theatre, but this time as a quiz show. It's heaps of fun, with games, challenges and nonsense from Horne and his hugely talented band.

Beth Vyse: As Funny as Cancer, Soho Theatre, Mon-Tue, £10. Beth Vyse has long been one of the most batshit crazy character comics on the circuit, presenting ludicrous ideas without any sense of pretension, just pure silliness. This year, though, she's gone personal.

Bridget Christie: A Book for Her, Leicester Square Theatre, all week, £17.50. 'A Book For Her', which shares its title with Christie's first book, isn't a half-arse promotional tour. The groundbreaking political stand-up is on furious form as she tackles the Tory government, comments on civil rights activist Rachel Dolezal, and contemplates the future careers of right-wing comedians.

Max & Ivan: The End, Soho Theatre, all weekend, £10-£15. Max and Ivan aren’t just any old sketch act – their feel-good storytelling shows are like live Hollywood movies, complete with explosions, love interests and unexpected twists.

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

Live music

Disappears, 100 Club, TONIGHT, £10. The Chicago four-piece, influenced by fuzzy noise rock, punk and experimental music, cover the whole of David Bowie’s 1977 masterpiece ‘Low’.

Braids, Scala, Tue, £12. These soft-core, atmospheric art rockers from Calgary made quite a name for themselves with their debut album, 'Native Speaker' and its follow-up 'Flourish/Perish', which channeled Animal Collective, Toro Y Moi and Gang Gang Dance.

This Is The Kit, Scala, Wed, £11.50. Kate Stables and her band create sublime, haunting folk-pop with vocals, banjo, guitar and the odd bit of whistling, drawing on the Appalachian bluegrass music and British folk-rock as well as the singer-songwriter tradition.

Courtney Barnett, The Forum, Wed-Thu, £17. Young Australian Barnett is one of the biggest songwriting talents around at the moment, crafting sharp, witty lyrics that tease out the hidden significances in everyday life.

Portico, ICA, Wed-Thu, £17.50-£19.50. Formerly Portico Quartet, our favourite post-jazz band are now trading under a different name after the departure of percussionist Keir Vine.

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

Nightlife

Superstition, Village Underground, Thu, £10-£20. This new monthly night at Village Underground showcases all kinds of underground sounds with a focus firmly on the darker end of the electronic spectrum.

Ovation: Saschienne + Sascha Funke, The Pickle Factory, Thu, £10. Berlin techno duo Saschienne spin heady four-four at new Bethnal Green venue The Pickle Factory, withone half of the duo, Sascha Funke, also playing a solo DJ set.

Karaoke Rumble, Star of Kings, Thu, free. Hosted by comedian Quint Fontana (disclaimer: possibly not his real name), this popular night combines pop karaoke and comedy – two disciplines that are inexplicably intertwined when you think about it.

…or see all the parties planned this week.

Film

Ocean’s 11, The London Edition, Tue, £35. Celebrate the Sinatra centenary with an evening of live Frank-inspired jazz and this goofy but enjoyable crime comedy, later remade with George Clooney.

‘A Fistful of Fingers’ + Edgar Wright Q&A, Prince Charles Cinema, Tue, £11, £8.50 concs. Edgar Wright's 1995 debut ‘A Fistful of Fingers’ is a ludicrous but genuinely funny spaghetti western shot in Somerset and starring – among many others – Jeremy Beadle as himself.

The Duke Mitchell Film Club, The Phoenix Artist Club, Thu, free. More freaky film fun from those past masters of the form, the Duke Mitchell Film Club. In addition to the usual trailer mash-ups, shorts, competitions and nonsense – all retooled along seasonal, Santa-bothering lines – this month’s main feature is festive obscurity ‘The Gathering.

Or at the cinema...

The Lady in the Van ★★★★☆ Maggie Smith is excellent in this cosy comic tale carved from writer Alan Bennett's own life.

Tangerine ★★★★★ This ultra-low-budget LA drama was shot on iphones but buzzes with ideas, energy and wit.

…or see all of the latest releases.

Theatre

Monotones I and II / The Two Pigeons, Royal Opera House, Tue, £4-£100. It’s 30 years since The Royal Ballet staged Frederick Ashton’s two-act fable The Two Pigeons and a return has been eagerly awaited. You can see why. This is the Ashton of La Fille Mal Gardée territory, unabashedly romantic and delightedly cheeky, dallying with panto cliché but delivering fiercely dazzling steps.

Flowering Cherry, Finborough Theatre, Tue-Thu, £18-£12, £14-£16 concs. This first ever revival of 'the British "Death of a Salesman"' is worth a look.

Morgen und Abend, Royal Opera House, Wed, £5-£85. Georg Friederich Haas does not deal in the business of traditional plot-driven opera. His latest ‘Morning and Evening’ sets a narrative that can be explained in a sentence – ‘A man is born and, in a moment, he is dead.’ 

…or see our theatre critics’ choices.

This week's best new art

Gilbert & George: The Banners, White Cube Bermondsey, Wed-Thu, free. This new series of text-based works by Gilbert & George feature slogans such as ‘Burn that Book’ and ‘Fuck the Planet’. Displayed in the 9 x 9 x 9 gallery, the ten hand-written banners in the duo's immediately recognisable brash style confront prejudice with provocative, accessible wit.

Michael Craig-Martin: Transience, Serpentine Gallery, Wed-Thu, free. He transformed this year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition with bright walls of pink and turquoise, bringing the 247 year-old show exploding into the twentieth century. Remarkably this is the first survey of the British artist since 1989 and will bring together works from the 1981 to 2015.

…or see all London art reviews.

And finally

Win... exclusive tickets to 'Soaring Flight' at The Courtauld Gallery and a private gliding lesson or a ride with Formula One driver Jenson Button

Grab... up to 60% off a two or three-course meal at a Marco Pierre White restaurant - from £39

Book… these gigs while you still can

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