36 great things happening in London this week

There are plenty of events to get your prepped for Halloween this week. Attend a masterclass in perfect pumpkin carving, celebrate Day of the Dead with an evening of performance with The Crick Crack Club or get down to big beats with Kiss FM's Haunted House party. Enjoy!

Things to do 

Pumpkin Carving Masterclass, The Black Penny, Wed, £7.50 + booking fee. Pumpkin pro Zeena Shah will lead this workshop, teaching visitors to create spooky spirals, petrifying patterns and fantastical faces as they become expert carvers.

Brit Pong, The Game, Wed, £25. This tournament will see 64 teams of two players compete to be crowned Brit Pong champions by bouncing ping pong balls into their opponents' cups (read more about the rules on the Brit Pong website if you've no idea what we're on about).

Science Museum Lates: Computing, Science Museum, Wed, free. As well as the usual silent disco, pub quiz and bars, this month's iteration of the Science Museum's brilliant late openings will feature talks, workshops and demonstrations of a computer science bent in tribute to Victorian pioneer Ada Lovelace.

Mary Beard in Conversation with Bettany Hughes, Royal Geographical Society, Wed, £20, £15 concs. Join classicist Mary Beard and historian Bettany Hughes for the launch of Beard's latest book, 'SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome'.

The Original James Bond, The Illustration Cupboard, Wed-Thu, free. This exhibition brings together original artworks created by illustrator John McLusky for Ian Fleming's original 007 books.

Eerie Evening Tours of Kensington Palace, Kensington Palace, Thu, £27.50. Three centuries' worth of secret and spooky stories are hidden within the walls of Kensington Palace. Find out about the unexplained happenings and shadowy mysteries of the building's many royal residents on these 90-minute guided tours.

The Crick Crack Club Presents: The Day of the Dead, Rich Mix, Thu, £8, £6 adv. The Crick Crack Club's annual celebration of the Día de los Muertos festival where guests are invited to bring along photos of lost loved ones to add to a special altar. 

Dark Arts at Warner Bros Studio: The Making of Harry Potter, Warner Bros Studio, all week, included with admission. Potter buffs who dig the darker side of Rowling's creation should head to Warner Bros. Studios during the run-up to Halloween where the eerier aspects of the film series are being explored.

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

Eating and drinking

The Beer Bakery, 186 Hackney Road, Tue-Thu. Beer and bread have both been produced in this country for centuries, and very fond of them we are too. This pop-up shop merges the pub with the bakery, and will sell breads made with beers and beers that go with breads.

Wandsworth Common Halloween Beer Festival, Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, Wed-Thu, £4/£30, under-18s free. This Halloween edition of the popular festival – featuring 100 beers from across Britain, as well as wine and cider – takes place in the grounds of the very spooky Grade II-listed Royal Victoria Patriotic Building.

The House of Peroni, The Boiler House, Thu, free. A food-focused tribute to Italy even your nonna would approve of.

Make Night Market, Kingston Market Place, Thu, free. In its previous guise, The StockMKT, this night market brought food, drink, crafts, live music and dancing to Kingston, Bermondsey and Spitalfields, livening up evenings with good-humoured and enthusiastic events that are inspired by the vibrant night markets of East Asia.

…or check out the latest restaurant reviews.

Comedy

Jerry Sadowitz presents Magic Challenge, Soho Theatre, TONIGHT, £10-£15. Jerry Sadowitz tones down his trademark ragingly offensive stand-up in this magic panel show, suitable for all audiences.

Sean McLoughlin – Whatever It Takes, Museum of Comedy, Mon-Wed, £10. If there's an optimistic side to this grouchy 27-year-old comic, he keeps it well hidden – Sean McLoughlin's stuff is all about his bleak lifestyle, and it's all the better for it.

Richard Gadd: Waiting for Gaddot, Soho Theatre, Tue-Thu, £10-£15. Undoubtedly the buzziest comedy show from this year's Edinburgh Fringe. Richard Gadd's 'Waiting for Gaddot' had people queuing for hours hoping to nab one of the few pay-what-you-want seats.

Liam Williams: Bonfire Night, Soho Theatre, Tue-Thu, £10-£17.50. The Edinburgh-nominated stand-up returns with another thought-provoking show full of smart jokes. 

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

Live music

Foxes, Heaven, Tue, £14. Louisa Rose Allen, aka Foxes, smashes together yearning harmonies and glitch-fangled pop to make some appealing stuff. Fans of Florence Welch and Marina And The Diamonds, check it out.

Kiss FM Haunted House Party, Wembley Arena, Thu, £25-£45. Drum and bass hitmakers Rudimental, ‘X Factor’ alumnae Little Mix and R&B pop starlet Rita Ora top the bill, with more big-hitters including Jess Glynne and Years & Years backing them up. 

Stormzy, Koko, Thu, £12.50. Stormzy’s a south London MC who’s been working on his sound since the tender age of 11, when he first heard Wiley and Skepta. That’s right: grime has reached its second generation. Catch the kid born Michael Omari here before he truly blows up.

Cat Power, St John-at-Hackney Church, Thu, £27.50. Powerful songcraft and an edge-of-your-seat performance style from singer-songwriter Chan Marshall.

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

Nightlife

Musical Bingo's Infamous Halloween Ball, Concrete, Thu, £12. A special Halloween edition of the full-on fun party that gives the humble game of bingo a manic, musical twist. 

Rave Karaoke, Old Queen's Head, Thu, £4. Sing your heart out to tons of classic '90s dance anthems – don't forget your glowsticks and whistle.

Night Tales, Red Market, Thu, £3-£5. A Tokyo-themed pop-up party and cocktail bar in a Shoreditch market space, with top DJs, plus Japanese-inspired food and drink.

…or see all the parties planned this week.

Film

Chronique d’un eté, Curzon Bloomsbury, Tue, £5. What distinguishes this attempt by filmmaker Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin to 'bottle' the climate of Paris in the summer of 1960 is their camera's candid assumption of its own disruptive presence: interviewees are introduced to each other, form groups, and may well (in one case) have got married after shooting was over.

Mirroring Tarkovsky: 'The New World', BFI Southbank, Thu, £8.35–£11.75. Terrence Malick’s blend of stirring historical drama and moving love story is not only wondrously beautiful down to every perfectly executed detail, but imaginatively poetic and philosophically profound.

Kennington Talkies: ‘Wings’, The Cinema Museum, Thu, £6. The first ever Best Picture Oscar winner justifies almost every adjectival extravagance. A spectacular tribute to the American flyers of World War I, born of director William Wellman's own experiences with the Lafayette Flying Corps. 

Or at the cinema...

Spectre ★★★☆☆ The 'Skyfall' team of director Sam Mendes and star Daniel Craig take James Bond for another spin, with messy but enjoyable results. 

…or see all of the latest releases.

Theatre

Joanne, Soho Theatre, Tue-Thu, £14-£16, concs £12-£14. The great Tanya Moodie delivers five powerful monologues about a young woman failed by society.

Treasure, Finborough Theatre, Tue-Thu, £16-£18, concs £14-£16. There’s plenty to treasure in this uneven staging of a historic Jewish drama.

Plaques and Tangles, Royal Court Theatre, all week, £10-£20. Early onset Alzheimer's becomes strangely alluring in Nicola Wilson smart new play.

…or see our theatre critics’ choices.

This week's best new art

Berenice Abbott, Beetles & Huxley, Tue-Thu, free. This show of the important American documentary photographer Berenice Abbott (1898-1991), gives an overview of her varied projects including early celebrity portraits, her famous ‘Changing New York’ series and her ground-breaking science photography.

Burt Glinn: Cuba 1959, Serena Morton Gallery, Wed-Thu, free. To coincide with the Reel Art Press publication, this exhibition presents Glinn’s remarkable documentation of the Cuban revolution.

Collaborators 4, Roaming Room, Thu, free. A group of emerging and established artists including Gordon Cheung and Amikam Toren present experimental interventions for the gallery’s new space.

…or see all London art reviews.

And finally

Win... a multisensory Italian night out for two at The House of Peroni or a pair of tickets to the Natural History Museum Swarovski Ice Rink

Grab... £30 tickets to a Halloween boat party and after-party featuring Maya Jane Coles and friends

Book… these gigs while you still can

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