London events in July 2025

As soon as June hits, London is packed with parades, parties and protests for Pride Month to mark the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. The London Pride parade is traditionally the focus of festivities, but there are plenty of other LGBTQ+ events taking place both before and after it. Over a million people take to the streets of London for the celebration each summer, with this year’s event scheduled for Saturday July 5.

Recommended: Everything you need to know about the London Pride parade 2025.

The last Lyttelton theatre show to be programmed by Rufus Norris prior to his departure looks like a good one: following the Jodie Comer-fuelled West End smash Prima Facie, writer Susie Miller and director Justin Martin join forces with a new star for for follow-up Inter Alia. Rosamund Pike has had a good few years with screen hits Saltburn and The Wheel of Time, and now she makes her National Theatre debut to star as Jessica Parks, a maverick high court judge who precariously balances her work and her home life. We don’t know a lot more about the Miriam Buether-designed show just yet, but the fact Pike will be joined by actors Jamie Glover and Jasper Talbot points to the fact that this won’t be a monologue in the vein of Miller’s last.

It may be known for its sleepy scent and soothing properties, but there’s nothing dozy about the explosion of colour that happens around London’s lavender fields each summer. There are several farms dedicated to the mauve blooms just outside the capital, in Kent, Surrey and Hertfordshire. Immerse yourself in a purple haze this summer by visiting one of London’s fragrant lavender gardens, or head out of town on a day trip to find sweeping fields of the stuff.

When the sun’s out and the weather’s at its summery best, hiding away in a dark, stuffy room isn’t the most appealing option. Thank god then, for outdoor cinemas letting us get our film fix under the stars and with a sweet summer breeze in our hair. London is home to some brilliant alfresco movie spots, which will be popping up all over the city in 2025, everywhere from docks and parks to rooftops and manicured gardens. Here’s a list of our favourites. 

From screeching tubes to the podcast on my commute, sound shapes my day more than we realise. Feel the Sound at the Barbican takes that idea and runs with it, turning the entire centre into a multi-sensory journey into how we experience noise.

Eleven installations take over the Barbican, from Silk Street to the Lakeside Terrace – even the underground car parks become a club-style space. Sing with a digital quantum choir, feel music without sound, and explore collabs with Boiler Room, Joyride and Nexus Studios, diving into underground subcultures and the science of rhythm.

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In the sweltering city heat, few things are more inviting than the prospect of plunging into one of London's finest al fresco swimming pools. And everyone knows it. The capital has well and truly caught the open-air bathing bug over the last few years, but that also means that on the hottest days of the year, you’ll need to book well in advance if you want to secure a poolside spot. The good news is that there’s a bounty of places for getting your outdoor swim fix in the city. Heated or unheated, regimented lanes or wide open water, serious fitness or chilled family fun – these are all of London’s best lidos and outdoor swimming pools for whatever floats your boat.

Respectable theatre? Not this month. Plied and Prejudice is Jane Austen gone off the rails — and we mean that in the best possible way. Think corsets, cocktails and chaotic costume changes as five actors tear through 20 roles with a wink, a wobble, and maybe a whisky or two. Expect scandal, silliness, and the wettest t-shirt contest Regency England never asked for. Whether you're Team Darcy or just here for the drama, this one's a riot.

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Anyone who’s keen to replicate Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet's iconic rendition of a doomed romance in the 1997 movie Titanic will fall head over heels for this new immersive show. It’s a new offering from the makers of the surprisingly good virtual reality spectacular Tutankhamun: The Immersive Exhibition, which uses all kinds of cinematic wizardry to bring its world to life. This time, we’re promised immersive 360° projections, a moving VR tribute to the ship’s brave orchestra, and a 5D Augmented Reality Metaverse walk through theTitanic’s decks. A perfect settling to canoodle with your loved one of choose. Or just get nerdy about the Titanic’s story, with plenty of intricate detail about its plunge from art deco design classic to barnacled wreck at the bottom of the ocean. 

Emily Kam Kngwarray is a renowned artist hailing from Australia who pours her experiences as a senior Anmatyerre woman from the country’s Utopia region into her works. This exhibition will take you into her homelands through textiles, paintings, film and audio, covering both land and ancestral heritage.

Step into the stories shaping our world at the World Press Photo Exhibition 2025! This renowned exhibition showcases award-winning photojournalism from across the globe, capturing urgent, intimate and unforgettable moments from the past year. From the frontlines of conflict to the quiet strength of everyday life, these images demand to be seen.

Get your tickets for just £11.50 to see the World Press Photo Exhibition 2025, only with Time Out Offers.

Projection-based performance space The Lightroom goes back to the Cretaceous with its latest show, which is a collaboration with Apple TV and its spectacular CGI dinosaur documentary series Prehistoric Planet. There’s no mention of David Attenborough serving as narrator on this one – which strongly suggests he isn’t, let’s be honest – but there should be considerable recompense from the wonder of being surrounded by gargatuan lifesized dinosaurs. The 50-minute film is a mash-up of the highlights of the show’s two seasons, plus a few new and extended scenes. 

Nothing sums up the best of London’s balmy, thriving summers quite like the noble sunflower. The clue’s in the name, after all: during the part of the year where we’re blessed with the most of those sweet, sweet rays, that’s when we see the most of these golden, spindly, great-vibe giants. There are plenty of dazzling pick-your-own sunflower fields within very easy reach of London. Before you head off on a sunny adventure, make sure to check in with these sites in advance to be sure of fresh crops and full blooms – Mother Nature is an unruly and unpredictable force.

You’ve probably heard of ‘Instagram face’. This summer, Somerset House is dedicating a whole exhibition to things like the internet’s inclination for everyone to look exactly the same. In Virtual Beauty, Somerset House will explore the impact of digital technologies on how we define beauty today. The show will display more than 20 artworks from the 'Post-Internet' era, an art movement concerned with the influence of the internet on art and culture. It will feature sculpture, photography, installation, video and performance art, with highlights including ORLAN’s Omniprésence (1993), a groundbreaking performance in which the artist live-streamed her own facial aesthetic surgery, and AI-generated portraits by Minnie Atairu, Ben Cullen Williams, and Isamaya Ffrench. 

Disney’s newest big budget musical has finally hit the West End. The stage adaptation of Hercules, the 1997 Greek myth-inspired animation, is good looking and high energy. Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah’s book is appropriately big hearted with a handful of very funny gags. The show’s not-so-secret weapon is the retention of the film’s sassy quintet of singing Muses. Here turbocharged into a full-on gospel group, they’re a whole lot of finger snapping, head shaking, quick-changing fun, and also add a note of character to Alan Menken’s likeable but unremarkable Alan Menken-style score.

The RA’s annual showcase of all the artists you need to know about right now is back to brighten up the summer holidays. The great thing about the Summer Exhibition is that it’s open to all, and the selectors pick from thousands of entries. That means that your mate’s mum’s weird little whittled sculptures of George Michael might be shown alongside something by Antony Gormley. It’s a good opportunity to spot an art star of the future, but it also still knows how to get the big art names in. And there’s a huge amount to see. From miniature paintings to enormous canvases, architectural models to photography, the exhibition features literally hundreds of works, meaning there’s something for everyone. And hey, most of it is for sale, so you may just be able to nab a bargain.

Inside the Royal Academy’s 2025 Summer Exhibition

While we await the futuristic new trains promised for the Piccadilly line, London Transport Museum is offering people the opportunity to ride the dark blue line on an actual art deco Underground train that dates all the way back to 1938. The locomotive will chug along three different Picadilly routes across three days, with journeys lasting around 90 minutes. You’ll have to buy a ticket in advance, with prices differing according to each day (although all kids under three go free). 

After 25 years of trading, the legendary, family-run Thai canteen shut down its Leytonstone location in autumn 2024. But last month it made a momentous return and now calls Shoreditch it’s home. Singburi gained semi-mythical status due to its famous blackboard specials menu, and dishes such as their phenomenally good crispy fried pork belly moo krob. Chef-patron Sirichai Kularbwong will be joined by chef Nick Molyviatis (previously at Oma, Agora, Speedboat Bar, Plaza and Kiln) for Singburi 2.0, with Kularbwong’s parents - who ran the original Singburi - retiring from the kitchen. 

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Cocktails in the City, a pop-up festival unfolding over two weekends (July 10–12 and August 7–9). Every summer, cocktail-loving Londoners flock to Bloomsbury’s Bedford Square Gardens, which are taken over some of the city's very best bars, mixologists, and booze brands. Enjoy a complimentary welcome drink on arrival, then start exploring creative concoctions from a star-studded roster of top mixologists. Experimental Cocktail Club, Vesper Bar, Archive & Myth, and Viajante87 are just a handful of the celebrated London bars on the line-up, while guests will also be able to check out live music, street food, ice carvings, and masterclasses within the picturesque private gardens.