Free things to do in London this week

The first museum exhibition dedicated to artist Audrey Amiss brings together drawings, paintings and other exhibition materials to explore the life and work of Amiss who died in 2013. Committed to psychiatric hospitals several times throughout her life, Amiss used her art to advocate for people who were mistreated by the mental health system. The Surviving Exhibitions focuses on works that records suggest Amiss exhibited or intended to make public. 

Once again, Regent’s Park will be taken over by sculptures this autumn to coincide with the Frieze art fair coming to London. While tickets to the fair can cost up to £250 and are usually reserved for the collectors, dealers and creators of the art world, Frieze Sculpture is totally free to visit and gives a chance to the proles to get a peak at some contemporary artworks in the open air. Fatoş Üstek will curate the exhibition for the fourth year in a row. This year, instead of viewing the sculptures in isolation, the display is curated as a web of interconnected objects, linked together with materials, stories and communities. Highlights will include Angel Otero’s threshold-like doorway descending beneath the grass, and Tarini Sethi’s intricate stainless-steel screens depicting utopian scenes. 

It feels a bit like Oktoberfest all year round at Munich Cricket Club, but it really takes the Bavarian joy up a notch as the season approaches. From mid September til the end of October, the spirit of the fest will take over its Canary Wharf, Tower Hill and Victoria locations. Expect foaming steins, platters of sausage and a live oompah band to get the vibes flying. Dancing on tabletops is encouraged – just be careful not to slip on any saus. The festivities also include the ceremonial tapping of the Oktober barrel, straight from Munich, plus games, silliness and surprises. 

2026 is, according to the Chinese zodiac, the Year of the Fire Horse. In 19th-century London, however, there were real-life fire horses galloping through the city, hauling fire engines and firefighters to burning buildings. Peckham Road Fire Station opened in 1867 to accommodate them, and is the earliest surviving purpose-built fire station in London. Since 2014, though, it has been South London Gallery’s second site (following a 73-year stint as a sausage factory), and for the next few months, it and the gallery’s main building across the road are home to a series of twisted architectural works by Polish artist Monika Sosnowska. The building’s past feels relevant to the exhibition: Sosnowska has made a career probing how architecture shapes us, outlives its purpose and bears witness to a changing city. The Weight of Matter, her first solo show at a London institution in more than 20 years, brings together 14 years of her work across the SLG’s two sites. Her fascination with cities in flux stems from her own experience. Coming of age as Poland’s communist regime collapsed in 1989, Sosnowska watched Warsaw transform as one political and economic order gave way to another. That upheaval became raw material for her sculpture. Steel, concrete, rebar, staircases, handrails and gates – the functional stuff of modernist architecture – are bent, buckled and twisted into strange new forms. In the old engine room, a contorted heap of black steel sprawls across the floor At the Fire...

Gagosian’s Grosvenor Hill gallery will be filled with apples, hats, pipes and clouds this autumn as it hosts a free exhibition on Belgian surrealist René Magritte. A first major London exhibition of Magritte’s subverside artwork in more than 30 years, it will feature works on paper, sculptures and photography from Magritte’s four-decade-long career, many of which have been loaned by museums and private collectors. These include ‘La Lampe Philosophique (The Philosopher’s Lamp)’, made shortly before the International Surrealist Exhibition that took place in London in 1936, and last displayed in a landmark Magritte exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) 20 years ago. Gagosian’s exhibtiion will also explore Magritte’s legacy via works created specifically for the exhibition by several contemporary artists, including painters Harold Ancart, Allison Katz and Dana Schutz. 

We’ve all heard of Sid Vicious, Joe Strummer and Iggy Pop. But what about Gina Birch, Ari Up and Gaye Black? Although not completely unknown, these women pioneers of punk often go unsung. In a new free exhibition, the Museum of Youth Culture (MOYC) is finally giving them their safety pin-adorned flowers with a show dedicated entirely to the ‘she punks’ of the past 50 years.  Taking place in a single room at the MOYC, God Save the Queens brings together rare and previously unseen artwork, photography, fashion, film and archival material. A large chunk of the exhibition comes from the archive of the late Poly Styrene – the braces-wearing frontwoman of X-Ray Spex – and is curated by her daughter Celeste Bell.  The museum crams a lot into the fairly compact space. On the far wall is a gallery of larger-than-life photos – the highlight of the exhibition. Vivienne Westwood, shot by Dennis Morris (1978), leans nonchalantly against the SEX shop counter with her iconic spiked hair. Debbie Harry, by Bob Gruen (1977), looks at the camera in her Wayfarers, while sitting in a car smoking a cigarette. Jayne County of the Electric Chairs squats down on stage, holding the mic stand to her crotch like an appendage, shot by Jill Furmanovsky. Poly Styrene, Siouxsie Sioux and Soo Catwoman are also all here.  The women in these photos look like the coolest people on earth The women in these photos look like the coolest people on earth, and what’s most striking is how they all appear...

Don’t just carve your pumpkin this year – use it as a big orange canvas! Two of London’s Royal Parks are putting on free pumpkin painting sessions for kids in the lead-up to trick-or-treating night. Wear fancy dress for the occasion, and there’ll also be a Halloween treat up for grabs.  Sessions take place at Regent’s Bar & Kitchen, The Regent’s Park and Pavilion Café, Greenwich Park on October 29, 30 and 31. Sessions will take place at 10am and 2pm on 29 and 30 October, and at 10am, 11am, 1pm and 2pm on October 31.   

Every winter the Southbank Centre turns the banks of the Thames into a frosty wonderland, full of little wooden Alpine-style cabins selling gifts, warming drinks, and snacks. You’ll find huts serving up truffle burgers, duck wraps, mulled wine, Dutch pancakes, churros and many more tasty morsels to nibble on while you look through gifts, jewellery and decorations made by independent craft traders. Or, once you’re done browsing, snuggle up at pop-up king Jimmy Garcia’s riverside venue Fire And Fromage, where you can snaffle all you can eat raclette, sip on seriously decadent hot chocolates, and even toast your own marshmallows round a cosy fire pit.  When is Southbank Christmas Market open? The market opens on November 2, and will stay open until January 3 in the New Year. Do you need to buy a ticket? No, it's free to enter and have a wander. 

Oxford Street is one of the most iconic areas for London’s Christmas lights, and for good reason, given that a hefty proportion of us Londoners will see them lighting our way as we do battle for Yuletide gifts. This year, the lights are Harry Potter-themed to mark the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone TV show, scheduled to premiere on HBO on Christmas Day. Alongside the usual display, look out for the Hogwarts-themed designs. As is now tradition, the lights will be made from eco-friendly materials, including LED lights and recycled plastic. Featuring 5000 twinkling stars – they shine from 4pm to midnight daily until early January.  The switch-on, on November 4, will also coencide with the opening of the new Harry Potter Shop Oxford Street, which will be the largest shop in the UK to sell memorabilia from the magical franchise.