Things to do in London this weekend

New Year’s resolutions not gone quite to plan yet? Well, there’s another chance to turn over a new leaf as Chinese New Year arrives. This year it falls on Wednesday 29 January, and this time around it’s the Year of the Snake. London’s Chinatown, Trafalgar Square and the West End will fill up with hundreds of thousands of revellers, in the biggest Lunar New Year celebration in the world outside of Asia. The centrepiece of the festivities is a spectacular parade, as well as free performances and, of course, feasting galore. The parade takes place on February 1 and there’ll be plenty of other smaller ones taking place across the week – here are our favourites.

The Brutalist is a major work of art that asks something from its audience but gives back in spades. Weighing in at a meaty 210 minutes, complete with an old-school opening overture and a 15-minute intermission, it’s like a trip to the pictures circa 1962. Brady Corbet’s epic can handle the hyperbole. This is a monumental parable about the false promises of the American dream, as well as the act of creation and its uneasy relationship with money, all underpinned by a rich and complex love story. It’s a new world symphony.

In US theaters Dec 20 and UK cinemas Jan 24, 2025.

In the early twentieth century Brazil was a country shackled by artistic conservatism but bursting at the seams with vibrant indigenous and immigrant cultures, so the modernists decided to create something new and totally Brazilian. That new Brazilian cud is on display here, and it’s gorgeous. The 10 artists in this show mash together indigenous aesthetics, art history and influences from the new European avant garde with a social consciousness and desire to address the challenges of life in Brazil. Poverty, racism, immigration, radicalism and more colour than your eyes can handle.

Jackson Boxer’s fish-forward Ladbroke Grove restaurant Orasay, has been re-edited and renamed as Dove. The menu is less serious, a playful offering of what Boxer feels like experimenting with at any given time, but, largely, it’s comfort classics with flair. There is a burger, a big, beefy doorstop of a thing that laughs in the faces of the city’s weedy, pulverised smashburgers. There are grenades of lasagna, immaculate roast herb-fed chicken with yielding Tokyo turnips, and ricotta dumplings drenched in pink lobster and lime-leaf cream. Orasay was all well and good, but Dove might just be the dose of sheer pleasure that Ladbroke Grove needs.

Kyoto, by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson, is so indecently entertaining it almost feels like the result of a bet to choose the dullest, worthiest subject imaginable and make it as fun as humanly possible. The play is about the Kyoto UN climate change conference of 1997, at which every country on the planet eventually agreed to curb its greenhouse emissions. The secret is that Kyoto is actually a play about a total bastard. Don Pearlman was a real oil lobbyist whose fingerprints were all over climate conferences in the ‘90s. US actor Stephen Kunken is terrific as Pearlman with boundless cynicism and endless lawyer’s tricks. It’s a total thrill ride. 

The Princess of Wales Conservatory at Kew Gardens is getting a Peruvian makeover this February, courtesy of the latest annual mind-bending orchid display that takes over the iconic glasshouse each year. As ever, the exotic display will celebrate the natural beauty and biodiversity of its subject country: Peru is home to over 3,000 varieties of orchids, plus vast amounts of other flora and fauna. Look out for sculptures of native animals carved out of plants, plus a cornucopia designed to resemble the iconic Lake Titicaca. 

Now in its 79th year, this weird and wonderful annual service sees dozens of clowns descend on Haggerston’s All Saints Church dressed in full costume for a gathering celebrating the lives and artistry of recently deceased clowns from the community, and honouring the King of the Clowns, Regency era entertainer Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837). The service starts at 3pm, and spectators are also invited to stick around after for a free clown show and a slice of cake. It’s best to arrive nice and early, as the church tends to be packed out for the occasion. 

In The Lonely Londoners, Roy Williams lifts the words from the pages of Sam Selvon’s seminal 1956 novel about the Windrush generation in London and sears them onto the stage. Moses (Solomon Israel) is our eyes and ears into the city as he greets – and quickly shows the ropes to – other immigrants from the Caribbean seeking a new life. From the novel’s picaresque shape, Williams crafts a story that touches on Black immigrant experiences without patronising his characters. We feel their rage in a postwar UK that has exploited their citizenship for gain but treats them like dirt. 

Imagine indulging in all the dumplings, rolls, and buns you can handle, crafted by a Chinatown favourite with over a decade of culinary excellence. Savour Taiwanese pork buns, savoury pork and prawn soup dumplings, and luxurious crab meat xiao long bao. To top it off, enjoy a chilled glass of prosecco to elevate your feast. Cheers to a truly delightful dining experience at Leong’s Legend!

The Southbank Centre kicks off an exciting new partnership with Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival this winter, via a weekend of events celebrating the legacy of legendary Nina Simone. The main event is a Friday night concert with the Nu Civilisation Orchestra, where special guests including Corinne Bailey Rae and Laura Mvula will perform some of the American jazz and blues singer’s biggest hits. Elsewhere you can catch saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch premiering his new album, join a celebration of writer and activist James Baldwin and get down with gender-diverse musical platform Peng Femme Jam at a Saturday night afterparty. 

In the short, dark days of midwinter, it’s pretty rare you get a chance to bask in the sun’s warm glow. That is, unless you pay a visit to Greenwich’s Painted Hall over the next couple of months to catch Luke Jerram’s latest installation. A to-scale sculpture of our sun, complete with sunspots and filaments, Helios is the most recent addition to the British artist’s ongoing series of large-scale celestial installations. Accompanied by a soundscape created by acclaimed composers Duncan Speakman and Sarah Anderson, the seven-metre-tall sculpture is suspended from the ceiling of the Old Royal Naval College’s magnificent Baroque dining hall. 

Sometimes, it’s necessary to embrace your emotions fully – and GothBoiClique provides the perfect outlet. Comprising of Lil Peep (who passed away in 2017), Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Cold Hart, Døves, Fish Narc, Horse Head, JPDreamthu, Lil Tracy, Mackned and Yawns, the nine-member-strong emo collective has churned out brooding tunes to suit every mood, from country ballads to turn-up anthems and heart-wrenching croons. Now, for the first time since forming in 2012, all living members of the GothBoiClique will come together for just three worldwide gigs. Given the significance of their reunion, you can only expect this show to be an emotional rollercoaster. 

Troxy, E1 0HX. Fri Jan 31, 7pm. From £35.81.

Some of the most potent symbols of queerness come from the natural world: like pansies, fruits, and especially, lavender. This fragrant herb is getting a moment in the spotlight at ‘A Dash of Lavender’, Chelsea Physic Garden’s collaboration with Queer Botany in honour of LGBTQ+ history month. Visitors to the garden can pick up a printed map which shares stories about plants from a queer perspective, and get stuck into various activities across February all exploring queer ecology. Look out for botanical drawing workshops, poetry evenings, folklore circles and more. 

Eats Everything concludes his XOYO residency with an all-night long party. He’ll be joined by special guests who’ll go b2b with him on the decks – and will be announced soon. Whether you’ll be emerging from a month of Dry January or are on a party roll already, Eats Everything All Night Long promises to be a spectacular night of DJs, dancing and good vibes.

Step the first London outpost of the legendary Parisian institution Café Lapérouse at The OWO. Nestled within the luxurious Raffles London at The Old War Office, this iconic destination offers a perfect blend of heritage touches and modern elegance. For £45 per person, indulge in a set-menu lunch or dinner featuring French classics like butternut squash velouté, duck leg confit, and crème caramel – all paired with a complimentary glass of champagne. Make your reservation today and enjoy a Gallic escape in the heart of London.

Make your reservation today and enjoy a truly Parisian escape in the heart of London for £45, only with Time Out Offers.

Steven Soderbergh is on the upswing again with this highly original ghost story about a non-specific presence. We view everything from the perspective of something that’s confined to an empty house. It’s not clear how long it’s been there, nor what it wants, but through Soderbergh’s creeping camera we see everything it sees. And what it mostly sees is a family suppressing ghosts of their own. This is very effective, experimental filmmaking – and at 85 minutes it never becomes indulgent – and the most exciting thing Soderbergh’s done in quite some time.

In cinemas worldwide Fri Jan 24.

The business district will glow brighter than usual in January thanks to the addition of sparkling illuminations created by artists from around the world. The Winter Lights Festival returns for its ninth edition with a new set of dazzling artworks, installations and interactive experiences, plus some old favourites from previous years. There’ll be 11 immersive illuminations dotted across the area as well as sweet treats and hot drinks to warm you up. 

It’s always a happy occasion when Chelsea Physic Garden’s annual Heralding Spring season rolls around. London’s oldest botanical garden has its very own unique microclimate, which means that come late January the ancient spot is home to over 120 species of snowdrops that bloom unusually early each year there. Guests are invited to embark on the Heralding Spring trail to check out the dainty white flowers and other early spring plants including a 70-year-old grapefruit tree. You can also learn more about snowdrops, including their unique place in folklore, at a variety of workshops. 

London has a ‘fully reconceived’ take from two old Oliver! hands: Cameron Mackintosh and director Matthew Bourne. Bourne is best known for sexy gothic dance pieces, and he certainly brings his full gothic sexiness to bear here: a cumulonimbus-worth of dry ice seeps through the inky recesses of Lez Brotherston’s brooding multilevel Victorian London sets. It’s solid. The songs remain a remarkable achievement and Bart does an impressive job of telescoping the sprawling plot of Oliver Twist into two-and-a-half hours.

Soil – it’s not something you really think about, unless you’re doing the gardening. But this new exhibition at Somerset House will change all that, shining a light on its important role in our world, including the part it plays in our planet’s future. Top artists, writers and scientists from across the globe are all involved in the thought-provoking exploration, which aims to stop you thinking of soil as mere dirt and start considering it as something far more powerful instead.

Ditch the usual pub pint and get hands-on with clay at Token Studio near Tower Bridge! For just £32, enjoy a 90-minute session crafting pottery, from spinning the wheel to painting your own design. Prefer painting? Choose from already-fired mugs, plates, or bowls to customise for £23. The best part? You can BYOB! And if you love your masterpiece, come back in two weeks to pick it up for just £10.

Get the ultimate pottery experience from £23 at Token Studio, only with Time Out Offers.

Find out what the UK's most promising fine art graduates have been up to in this annual showcase of up-and-coming talent from across the UK, which is now in its 75th year. Featuring 33 exhibitors selected by renowned artists Liz Johnson Artur, Permindar Kaur and Amalia Pica, the exhibition launched in Plymouth in autumn 2024, before arriving at the Institute of Contemporary Art in January 2025.

Grade II-listed Art Deco masterpiece Battersea Power Station is the backdrop for this festival of shining light installations designed by international artists. Look out for an interactive musical light sculpture inspired by the pollination process in plants, an ‘Aurora’ designed exclusively for the station’s Art Deco Turbine Hall, and another interactive installation in the shape of a horse on a spring which lights up when ridden. 

American ecologist David Abram, whose 1996 book ‘The Spell of the Sensuous’ is the inspiration for this group show at Edel Assanti, had a theory that the codification of language into written form was a turning point for humanity that saw us sever our ties with nature. Mirtha Dermisache’s indecipherable, invented alphabets open the show, before we see Kat Lyons’ swirling, psychedelic painting, Marguerite Humeau’s twisting sculpture and aboriginal Australian artist Yukultji Napangati’s stunning abstract landscapes. It brings together artists who think in similar ways about nature and time and the speculative future of humanity and it’s hard to argue that they’re wrong.

London might well be the world’s greatest food city, but in the midst of a cost of living crisis, it’s not like any of us can eat out as much as we’d like to. So welcome to our list of London’s best cheap eats. Every highlighted dish here costs £10 or less and variety is the name of the game – so expect London staples like fish & chips and pie & mash, but also discover the best bargain places for burek, dosa, shawarma, naan, jianbing, buns, baps, doubles and bao. These places give you the kind of buzz only a bargain bite can deliver, while you can relish the fact that you’re supporting small independent London businesses when they need you the most.

★★★★ 'Frameless has managed to create something genuinely exciting' - Time Out

Escape reality through maximum immersion and experience 42 masterpieces from 29 of the world’s most iconic artists, each reimagined beyond belief, through cutting-edge technology. Situated in Marble Arch, Frameless plays host to four unique galleries with hypnotic visuals and a dazzling score. Enjoy 90 minutes of surreal artwork from Bosch, Dalí and more for just £24!

Get £24.80 tickets (originally £31) to Frameless, only with Time Out Offers.

While the RMS Titanic proved to be all too sinkable, this titanically camp musical spoof of the James Cameron film should sail on for quite some time. Titanique is a cabaret-style parody that marries the considerable kitsch appeal of the 1997 film with that of its true star – Quebecois singing icon Celine Dion, forever associated with the movie thanks to the ubiquitous power ballad My Heart Will Go On. The show’s undoubted masterstroke is making Dion the main character and Lauren Drew is sublime as the Canadian chanteuse. Ostensibly here to tell us the story of the sinking from her perspective, Drew’s spangly whirlwind perfectly captures the real Dion’s peculiar mix of old-fashioned showbiz cheese, mad aunty dottiness and weapons-grade lung power.

The London International Mime Festival was a true city staple, bringing weird and wild physical theatre from across the globe to the capital each year. Rarely ‘mime’ in the stereotypical sense, the fest brought mind-expanding theatre to London for 47 years straight. The 2023 edition was its last, but MimeLondon is the same idea in all but name, and returns for its second edition in January 2025, with shows spread across the Barbican, Southbank Centre and the Sadler’s Wells Peacock Theatre and The Place, with a series of workshops at Little Angel Studios and Shoreditch Town Hall. 

You’ve probably heard all about Versailles’ dazzling Hall of Mirrors and its gorgeous, well-manicured gardens – maybe you’ve even seen them IRL. But do you know about the role the French royal court played in not just spreading scientific knowledge, but making it fashionable, too? The Science Museum’s latest exhibition, ‘Versailles: Science And Splendour’, will uncover that lesser-talked-about side of the palace’s history, diving into the royal family’s relationship with science, women’s impact on medicine, philosophy and botany at the royal court, and showcasing more than 100 items that reinforce those stories – many of which have never been displayed in the UK before. 

A platter of three glimmering grilled oysters are garnished with spring onions and thin slices of lemon; slices of wagyu sit plump and perfectly formed; bowls of ramen are topped with chopsticks. Feeling hungry? These dishes aren’t there to eat: every single one is made entirely from plastic. Welcome to a tasty exploration of one of Japan’s centuries-old traditions, Shokuhin Sampuru - Japanese food replicas. Against the backdrop of these brightly-coloured meals, visitors are treated to some tasty little morsels of Japanese culinary history. You’ll leave primed with new facts about the art of food replicas.