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So, 2024. Quite the year, eh? And among its admirable sporting achievements, sizeable political shifts, extreme weather events and constant stream of fascinating stuff (from the partial solar eclipse to once-in-a-decade Northern Lights events), the past year was packed with cultural highlights too.
As always, we here at Time Out kept on top of everything culturally great about 2024. Over the past year London was host to show-stopping gastronomy, awesome theatrical productions and mighty exhibitions, as well as non-London-specific highlights in music, film and TV.
Whether you’re looking to catch up on 2024’s highlights while you still can or are simply in a reminiscent mood, here’s a round-up of London’s best bits from the past 12 months.
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The best restaurants, pubs and dishes
Topping our list of the city’s best individual dishes was the Scotched ’nduja olives at Sesta in London Fields: ‘tubby, deep-fried nuggets of spicy sausage served like a scotch egg’ which our food and drink editor Leonie Cooper called ‘heroically tasty’. You can find all eight of the best things we ate in the city here.
Sesta also took home the gong in our ranking of the best new restaurants in London (find that list here), while our overall best restaurants list (featuring older estabs too) was topped by Clapton’s Mambow. We named Dalston’s Army and Navy the city’s best pub in 2024.
The best theatre
Time Out theatre editor Andrzej Lukowski crowned the Old Vic’s Machinal the capital’s best production of the year, saying that its final moment was ‘about as powerful a moment as I’ve ever seen in the theatre’. You can read Andrzej’s full top 12 shows here.
If you’re looking for the best bits of London theatre still showing and as chosen by our wider circle of critics, top spot is currently occupied by Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Almeida.
The best art and exhibitions
Of the countless gallery shows UK art editor Eddy Frankel saw in 2024, he named ‘Fragile Beauty’ at the V&A the best. Elton John’s photography collection is ‘dazzling, glamorous, excellent photography that absolutely won’t go breaking your heart’. You can read the full list here – including some exhibitions which are still on.
The best film and TV
Then, of course, there’s the cultural stuff that us Londoners benefitted from but isn’t really specific to the city – like film, TV and music.
When it comes to 2024’s best films, Time Out global film editor Phil de Semlyen crowned Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust masterpiece The Zone of Interest the year’s best movie. The Zone of Interest is the most recent entry in our ranking of the 100 best movies of all time, and it beat The Substance and Anora to the top spot (though both of those make the top 10). Read the whole ranking here.
For TV, Japanese ‘warring states’ period drama Shōgun was our best show, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Wolf Hall, Slow Horses and Baby Reindeer. Find that full list here.
The best music: songs and albums
Sure, Brat Summer made the headlines – but what was the best music of 2024? In our list of the year’s 30 best songs, Chappell Roan’s ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ triumphed (the full list is here), while we named Fontaines DC’s Romance the best album of 2024.
On to 2025!
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