Amy Houghton

It can’t be denied that Saturday is one of the greatest days of the week. For lots of us, the working week is over and it’s the one day that you can have a long lie in and stay up all night knowing that you don’t need to be up bright and early the next morning.  In other words, it’s the best day to make the most out of the huge spectrum of things that London has to offer. Whatever your budget, whatever your interests, whatever the weather, there are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of things you could do. Here are some of our favourites things you can get up to in London almost any Saturday of the year (see here for specific stuff going on this weekend).  London’s best Saturday things to do at a glance Best for being outdoors: Hampstead Heath  Best for shopaholics: Selfridges Best for a budget: Natural History Museum Best for group gatherings: Frank’s Cafe  Best for an all-nighter: MOT  RECOMMENDED: The 50 best things to do in London with kids. 

Things are getting more and more expensive here in Europe, and many of our reliably ‘cheap’ cities aren’t so cheap anymore. The hotspots in Greece, Spain, Italy and more that are plagued with overtourism are seeing hiked prices to match, and starting to look startingly similar across the board. But don’t fear: if budgets are tight this year, there’s still plenty of spots that won’t break the bank.  The best part? On the most part, this list of budget-friendly destinations tend to come hand in hand with other wins – we mean less tourists, less crowds, and the flights there are likely to be much cheaper too. Of course, it goes without saying that a ‘cheap city’ is highly subjective, depending on a whole load of factors: which city you’ve travelled in from, what time of year you’re visiting, how bougie your tastes are and all the rest of it. But the spots you’ll find below are lively, culture-packed, and generally incredibly good value for money. Read on for the cheapest (and best) cities to visit in Europe in 2026.  RECOMMENDED:📍 The best city breaks in Europe for 2026🌃 The most underrated travel destinations in Europe Ella Doyle is Time Out’s Europe editor. At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by experts across Europe. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. This guide includes affiliate links, which have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, see our affiliate guidelines. 

We all know travelling with the kids can be tricky, so finding a hotel that keeps everyone happy is key. From splashable pools to free breakfasts for little ones, London has plenty of spots that make family life on the go a whole lot easier. Here’s our pick of the best family-friendly hotels in the city, where parents can relax and kids can be… well, kids. The hotels we’ve selected all make travelling with kids as smooth possible. We look for places that are close to London’s top attractions, so you can zip from Hamleys to the park, without having to spend your whole day on public transport, as well as having the resources to keep the whole family entertained. How we choose our family-friendly hotels A family-friendly hotel is about thoughtful touches for children. Perhaps, there are extra cots, kid-friendly menus, splashable pools, and little surprises that make young guests feel welcome. These are hotels that go the extra mile, from milk and cookies at bedtime to a designated kids concierge services. We include luxury stays and budget-friendly finds. Finally, we consider atmosphere and accessibility: helpful staff, close to attractions and safe play spaces, and a vibe that makes both little ones and grown-ups feel at home. 📍 Looking for your own space? Check out our guide to the best Airbnbs in London London’s family friendly hotels at a glance 💰 Best for a cheap deal: Good Hotel 🗓️ Best concierge service: The Berkeley 🧠 Most iconic: The Ritz ☕ Best afternoon tea for

Thank god for Burns Night. As the long, bleak month of January rolls on, this kilt-raising, haggis-scoffing, whisky-fuelled celebration of Scotland’s national poet Rabbie Burns is a chance to banish the winter blues and have a rip-roaring time. The Bard turns 267 this year, but you don’t have to be in the big guy’s motherland to join in the festivities. An estimated 200,000 Scottish expats live in the capital, which technically makes it the third most populous Scottish city, so you can guarantee there’s plenty of feasting, boozing and partying to be done down here too.  When is Burns Night in London? Burns Night always falls on January 25, the day Robert Burns was born in South Ayrshire way back in 1759. This year’s celebration falls on a Sunday.  Whether you want to get sweaty at a ceilidh, pipe in a haggis, or have a classy time at a whisky tasting or indulgent Burns supper, this is how you can enjoy Burns Night 2026 in London.  RECOMMENDED: Here are London's best spots for a delicious Burns Night supper.

There’s a heck of a lot to get excited about in Britain over the next 12 months or so. Between now and 2027 Brits will gobble down platefuls of new restaurants’ grub, slurp tasty bevs in fresh bars, get cultural fixes at museum exhibitions, spectate at globally-renowned sport events and even witness moments of proper historic importance. In 2026 the UK will see the return of the Bayeux Tapestry (not seen on these isles in 900 years) and the completion of the nation-spanning King Charles III Coastal Path. Among the likes of new music festivals and theme parks will be the world’s biggest Irish cultural event, the premiere of one of this century’s most highly anticipated stage musicals and centenery celebrations for a globally-loved children’s character.  And that’s just the stuff that’s planned – who knows what else will define the year? Without further ado, here are the 16 best new things to do in the UK in 2026, chosen by Time Out editors and contributors. RECOMMENDED: 📍 The 14 best places to visit in the UK in 2026.🏛️ The 26 best new things to do in London in 2026.🌍 The best new things to do in the world in 2026.

January is here, which means we’re entering a brand new year. Despite all the January goals, resolutions and hopes we have for 2026, it’s no secret that January can ostensibly become the most depressing month of the year. The days are short and dark, it’s cold, and our bank balances are severely depleted after the December festivities. But, we’re here to help you realise it’s not all bleak.  For one thing, it’s the ideal time to discover London on a budget and without the crowds, while many of city’s very best theatre and musicals, restaurants and bars – ranked definitively by Time Out's crew of expert local editors – offer discounted tickets and cheap meal deals to entice you out of the house during the coldest and darkest days of the year. Believe it or not, but January can also a time for celebration, too. London will once again be playing host to plenty of Burns Night ceilidhs, haggis suppers and poetry readings commemorating Scotland’s most famous poet, plus dinners and parades in celebration of the Lunar New Year, which falls nice and early in 2025, on January 29. If you’re someone who likes to commit to a month of sobriety or a punishing new exercise regime at the start of the New Year, London definitely has your back too. The city is home to countless excellent sports clubs and fitness classes, plus dozens of glorious parks and spectacular walking routes, and there’s arguably nowhere that better caters for the sober and sober-curious. Of course, if you’d rather just s

2026 has officially landed. An entire year of adventure awaits, with Britain set for a deluge of thrilling new things to see and do. Beyond the individual openings, however – the new bars and restaurants, museums and attractions – where should be on your radar for places to visit in the UK?  If you’re up for being inspired here at Time Out, as always, we’ve got you covered. We’ve scoured the listings of all that’s happening in Britain in 2026 and consulted our nationwide network of writers and editors, harnessing all that info to put together a guide to the places that should be on your radar over the next 12 months.  Destinations made it onto Time Out’s list for a vast range of reasons. Some have swaggered onto the scene with a quickfire burst of thrilling new attractions. Others have built their cred slower and reached a point of quiet brilliance, while others still are established spots that simply remain very much worth their rep. Several places will be made even more tempting by those aforementioned 2026 openings, whether that be delicious places to eat and drink, game-changing new transport options or unmissable cultural events.  From trendy seaside towns to revived industries cities, medieval forts to ‘the new Berlin’: here are the UK’s 14 top places to visit in 2026. RECOMMENDED: 🇬🇧 The best new things to do in the UK in 2026.📍 The 26 best stuff to see and do in London in 2026. 

Whatever your vibe (and whatever your budget), London’s got it all – and anyone will find something they love here. Historic pubs, leafy parks and gardens and an unmatched restaurant scene make this city worth visiting year-round, but before you’ve booked anything in London, you kind of have to know where you’re going to be based. To get you started, we’ve rounded up the city’s best Airbnbs available to book right now, with expert tips from our local editors.  Should I choose an Airbnb or a hotel in London? London is not short on lovely hotels, ranging from budget to luxury and just about everything in between. But it’s fair to say that even the cheaper options cost a pretty penny – and you’ll often find them in more central, touristy areas in the city. If you want to live like a Londoner, an Airbnb can allow you to properly immerse yourself in a more residential area of London – and all the locally-loved bars, pubs and restaurants that come with it. You’ll find lots of our local tips below, but for a detailed breakdown of the best neighbourhoods to stay in London, check out our ultimate area guide. More of a hotels guy? No problem. Here’s our list of the best hotels in London.  📍 RECOMMENDED: Ultimate guide to the best hotels and Airbnbs in London Who makes the cut? While we might not stay in and review every Airbnb featured, our writers have based our list on expert knowledge of the destination covered, editorial reviews, user reviews, amenities and in-depth research to

Every week, a frankly silly amount of brilliant new restaurants, cafés and street food joints arrive in London. Which makes whittling down a shortlist of the best newbies a serious challenge. But here it is. The 20 very best new restaurants in the capital, ranked in order of greatness and deliciousness. All of them have opened over the past 12 months and been visited by our hungry critics. So go forth and take inspo from this list, which is updated regularly. Check in often to find out what we really rate on the London restaurant scene. And look here for all the info about the best new openings in January 2026. London's best new restaurants at a glance: 🍛 Central: Adoh!, Covent Garden 🍠 North: Ling Ling’s, Islington 🥟 South: Doma, Sydenham 🍝 East: Legado, Shoreditch 🥗 West: Martino’s, Chelsea January 2026: New additions include slinky Italian joint Martino's in Chelsea, cosy Chinese cuisine at Ling Ling's at Godet in Islington, Hunanese heat at Fiery Flavors in Surrey Quays, Sri Lankan fast food at Adoh! in Covent Garden, Caribbean classics with a twist at 2210 by NattyCanCook in Herne Hill, perfect pasta at Casa Felicia in Queen's Park, spicy southern Thai at the new branch of Plaza Khao Gaeng by Borough Market, and soup noodles at Khao So-i in Fitzrovia. Hungry yet? Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. RECOMMENDED: The 50 best restaurants in London. The hottest new openings, the tasties

December 2025 update: There's new songs being added to karaoke machines on a regular basis, so we see it as our duty to keep this list bang up to date. Our latest additions include a K-Pop Demon Hunters anthem, as well as an addicitve tune courtesy of Benson Boone. Whether you’ve got the voice of an angel or you’re totally tone deaf, karaoke unites us all. But heed our warning: choosing the right song is crucial (aka, don’t opt for that Whitney Houston tune if you haven’t the range. And if you don't quite have the skill, steer clear of rapping.) So we thought we’d help out a little bit. In our list of the best karaoke songs ever, we’ve got everyone from Adele to Toto, and from Frank Sinatra to Ricky Martin. There's even recent singalongs from Sabrina Carpenter, Huntr/x and Chappell Roan. Something for everyone. So down that shot, grab that mic and take to the stage. Your audience awaits you. Here are the best karaoke songs ever.  RECOMMENDED:❤️ The best love songs🎶 The 40 best songs of 2025🎉 The best party songs🕺 The 25 best albums of 2025  

Even after a couple of vintage years for new music, 2025 has been special. Sure, we didn’t get a clear-cut ‘song of the summer’, but artists have been instead putting out defining works in a longer format. The past 12 (well, 11) months have featured all manner of extraordinary album releases.  Belted-to-the-rafters country pop, plunderphonic majesty, ecstatic dance music, intimate electronic world-building, history-collapsing art rock, triumphant hip-hop… these are just a few of the sounds and styles that have been executed marvellously in 2025. Here are the year’s finest 25 albums, chosen by Time Out editors and contributors.

It’s easy to leave planning New Year’s Eve to the very last minute – often you get so tangled up in the tinsel-decked glories of Christmas that you forget there's another big bash, just a week later. But New Year's Eve is the kind of night that you forget at your peril. Attempt to wing it and you might well end up stuck at home with a glass of flat prosecco in front of Jools Holland’s Hootenanny, because all London's best clubs and parties book out weeks or months in advance.  But fear not, we're here to make sure you give 2025 a seriously good send-off. Here's our list of London best NYE bashes for ringing in 2026, from never-ending club nights to LGBTQ+- friendly celebrations. Assemble your crew, book your tickets, plan the perfect ‘fit and prepare to say a big fat goodbye to the year gone by. London’s best NYE parties at a glance 🎆 Best for views of the fireworks: New Year’s Eve at Sky Garden 🦖 Best for a one-of-a-kind party: NYE at the Natural History Museum 🍴 Best for midnight snacks: New Year's Eve at Aram, Somerset House  🏳️‍🌈  Best for LGBTQ+: Horse Meat Disco at Village Underground 🌟 Best for glitz and glamour: New Year's Eve at W London RECOMMENDED: Find things to do in London on New Year’s Day.

Prepare to have your senses thrown into chaos. Anish Kumar’s first major UK exhibition in the UK took place at the Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery in 1998. Nearly 30 years later, the internationally acclaimed sculptor’s work is coming back to the gallery for his largest UK show to date. The exhibition displays recent pieces by Kapoor made with futuristic light-absorbing nanotechnology, as well as works that defined the early part of his career.  There will be huge disorientating mirror sculptures, a colossal PVC installation, a foreboding mass of red and black wax drooping from the ceiling, and a striking collection of carnal paintings made using silicone, resin and pigment.  

Homely isn’t quite the word that comes to mind when you pull back the heavy velvet curtain separating Casa Felicia from the dozy Queen’s Park street outside. Chic, for sure. Elegant, certainly. A parade of two-cover tables are packed close together in the main whitewashed dining room, and over in a far corner, there’s a booth for larger groups which is painted entirely in an intense sultry red. But the deeper into the evening we go, the more we’re taken in by this place’s unexpected down-to-earth charm.   Fettuccine porcini and paccheri with mussels and squid are simple but impeccable Casa Felicia is helmed by chef Francesco Sarvonio, formerly of Manteca and currently of Elephant. The menu switches up daily, but always promises southern Italian ‘soul food’. A pleasing heap of puntarelle salad embellished with pear and hazelnuts, and a faultless seabass crudo speckled with crispy red pepper starts us off. We’re then presented with the most intriguing take on parmigiana I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t come in the traditional form of layered aubergine coins, but as the whole vegetable roasted, skinned and fried in a tempura batter, then cocooned in cheese fondue with a pool of marinara on the side. It’s fantastic – the batter lightly encases the vegetable like a chiffon blanket and the aubergine manages to be both firm and completely melt-in-the-mouth.   Don’t get carried away with the antipasti, as the bowls of pasta (handmade with just semolina and water, no egg) are truly generou

Adoh! (Sri-Lankan for ‘oi!’) is loud.  Sat on Maiden Lane in frenetic, tourist-packed Covent Garden, this Sri Lankan spot from Kolamba duo Eroshan and Aushi Meewella fits right in. While Kolamba and its sister restaurant on Liverpool Street are sleek, sophisticated haunts, this is a maximalist whirlwind. Chopped roti gets more heavenly with each chewy bite Adoh’s goal is to emulate the rapid, chaotic energy of Colombo and its street food culture. The decor is raucous – the tables a striking shade of red and the walls busy with storybook murals depicting hand-painted trucks of South Asia. As for service, it’s full speed ahead. You can very easily be in and out within an hour, and fully satisfied. In the throbbing heart of the theatreland that’s no bad thing.  The menu features a blend of authentic bits (isoo vadai, mutton rolls or roti and curry) and some milder hybrid dishes (fried chicken and curry leaf waffles are best suited to less adventurous members of your party). Shiny squares of prawn toast dolloped with tamarind sauce start us off, swiftly followed by a supple dosa spread with smoky masala, alongside a rather dry coconut roti with eye-wateringly hot lunu miris chilli paste.  The must-order main (which at £17 is the priciest item on the menu) is crab kothu, a late-night classic in Sri Lanka. The bronze mountain of chopped roti, egg and stir fried crab meat (mutton, chicken or jackfruit kothu are available too) isn’t particularly pretty, but drenched in curry sauce (p

One hundred years ago, a strange curtained box appeared on Broadway in New York City. If you went inside and slotted in 25 cents, you’d emerge with eight sepia tinged photos of yourself in a matter of minutes. It was the Photomaton – the world’s first fully automated photobooth. Fast forward to the 21st century and photobooths are in bars, train stations, cinemas, record shops and on streets all over the world. The Photographer’s Gallery is marking a century of the machines with Click!, an archival exhibition exploring their imperfections, their quirks and their most famous fans. Naturally, there’ll be a working photobooth for visitors to take their own snap.

The UK’s first major retrospective of acclaimed Ukrainian artist Boris Mikhailov is coming to the Photographers’ Gallery. A ‘kind of proto-punk’, Mikhailov has been capturing and commenting on life in Ukraine since the 1960s – from the everyday consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union to the realities of people living on the edges of society – through photography, conceptual work, painting and performance art. Ukrainian Diary brings much of that work together to illustrate the tumultuous social and political changes that have shaken Eastern Europe over the past fifty years.

In 1978, Zofia Rydet decided that was going to photograph the inside of every Polish household. Aged 67, she began knocking on doors and asking occupants if they’d be willing to partake in her project. She continued to knock on doors for the next three decades, collecting everyday stories and creating ‘one of the most important achievements in 20th century Polish photography’. More than 100 of Rydet’s prints will be on display at the Photographers’ Gallery alongside books and personal letters offering extra insight into her sociological mission.

When a place rates itself as assuredly (in huge bold letters, no less) as Good Hotel does, it’s natural to feel a little sus. But it’s true: Good Hotel really does make you feel good. Service is cheery and laid-back without being overly casual, the food leaves nothing to complain about and – maybe it’s the luxurious silence of the area or perhaps the proximity to gently lapping water – I visited in 2024, and I don’t know if I’ve ever had a better night’s sleep in the city. Aside from all that, guests can walk out of Good Hotel feeling extra gratified by virtue of its ‘do good’ DNA. Why stay at Good Hotel? As you walk along Royal Victoria Docks, this huge black shipping container is impossible to miss. Originally built as a Danish prison, this floating hotel docked in London in 2016 after sailing across from Amsterdam. Its founder, Marten Dresden, had come up with the Good Hotel concept four years prior while travelling in Guatemala. Now, each night you spend there pays for a week of school for a child in South America, with profits also going towards hospitality training for long-term unemployed locals (lots of whom become Good Hotel employees).  The hotel also hosts regular community workshops and events that guests can attend. There are comedy nights, yoga classes, salsa classes, kids art clubs and, if you’re in the mood to be extra good, litter-picking around the local area. What are the rooms like at Good Hotel? Throughout the hotel, the interiors are slick, earthy-toned

Crack Comedy Club brings pre-party laughs to Tunnel 267 – Wimbledon’s only nightclub – every Saturday night from 8pm to 10pm. For standup sets from four or five comics, tickets are £25 for general admission on the door or £21.50 if you book online in advance. You can also buy tickets that include dinner from a local restaurant beforehand, and if you stick around afterwards you’ll get free entry to Tunnel’s clubnight. Three in one. 

One of the more recent additions to Wimbledon Village, Good Fortune Club is bright and buzzy with a sprawling menu of Cantonese dishes, the best known of which is its handmade dim sum. Stop by with a large, hungry posse to pack your table with bamboo steamers and sample har gau (shrimp-filled dumplings,) xiao long bao (pork soup dumplings), cuttlefish cake and more.

Of its four south-west London outposts, DropShot’s Leopold Road location serves up hefty brunches on the daily. The portions here are breathtakingly generous, and the tennis-themed menu goes well beyond the standard eggs benny or avocado on toast; think mozzarella and chilli jam-filled potato pancakes andbig fat slices of French toast laden with monterey jack cheese and fresh pesto, or loaded with tiramisu cream and berries. The coffee is fantastic, too.

This quirky, tiki-themed minigolf course first popped up in Dalston's Efes in April 2015. A decade later, that debut site is no more, but you can now find Plonks outdoors in London Fields and under the arches at Borough Market. The Hackney course, which recently got a big ol’ refurb, takes you through a ‘Polynesian themed putt paradise’ complete with a tiki forest, a volcano canyon and octupuses. There are plenty of satisfying holes that fire your ball onto tricksy little mechanisms, a loop the loop, and a lot of impossibly steep ramps. All in all: it’s a great place for a plonking party. Prices start from £9.35 per person per play. 

There's a real sense of fun to this deliberately rough-around-the-edges course. Party tunes blare from speakers, graffiti jazzes up the walls and it's made from ‘twisted junk, car booty and charity shop shizzle’. Junkyard Golf Club has four courses – Gary, Pablo, Dirk and Bozo – that are all fabulously chaotic and mildly freaky. Depending on which challenge you take on, you’ll be putting past pirate pigs, dishevelled nightclub urinals, terrifying giant clown heads and a UV rave room. There's also a second location in Camden for more of the same.  Prices start at £12 for nine holes at off-peak times (Sunday to Thursday) and go up to £21 for 18 holes on busier days (Fridays and Saturdays). And as any good crazy golf should, Junkyard has a menu of themed cocktails to keep lubed up before, during and after your game. 

Coffee really is an art form. There are so many components that can make or break a good cup of joe – the beans, the roast, the grind, the brew, the milk – but, lucky for us, London is blessed with hundreds of coffee shops that have all of those mastered. Now, 11 of the city’s coffee shops have been named among the best in the entire country.  The Best Coffee Shops UK has scoured the country for coffee joints that excel in nine different categories. Those categories include the quality of coffee (of course), barista expertise, customer service, ambience, quality of food, consistency and community. A jury of coffee connoisseurs chose their top spots, then those choices were combined with public votes to create the final list.  Of the 44 coffee shops across the UK on the list, a quarter are here in the capital. They include Holborn’s Scandi-style Catalyst as well as Prufrock Coffee, which is just around the corner and has its own barista training centre.  Photograph: Andy Parsons Photographer Carbon Kopi, which moved from New Zealand to Hammersmith in 2019 also made the cut alongside Hackney’s Specialty Cafetiere, which has a special water filtration system to ensure it serves the best brews possible. There’s also Curators in the City of London which is run by Send Coffee, a social enterprise providing coffee training to people with special needs and disabilities.  Every place that made it onto the list are now in the running for a spot on the World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops 20

A piece of Paris is arriving in London later this year. Known for his soft tones, wispy brushstrokes and dreamlike romantic vignettes, the National Gallery is putting on a huge exhibition dedicated to one of the greatest French impressionists: Pierre-Auguste Renoir. And we’ve named it one of the best art shows coming to the capital city in 2026. Here’s why.  Renoir and Love will be at the National Gallery from October 3 2026 until January 31 2027. More than 50 works will go on display, with the show focussing on the most significant and prolific years of the artist’s career, from the mid-1860s to the mid-1880s. It’s been curated in partnership with Paris’s Musée d’Orsay and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.  Image: The National Gallery Photographic DepartmentLa Promenade; Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841 - 1919); 1870; Oil on canvas It’s the first time that London is hosting a Renoir exhibition since the National Gallery put on a display of his landscapes in 2007. The National Gallery promises that the show will ‘[trace] the evolution of the imagery of affection, seduction, conversation, male camaraderie and the sociability of the café and theatre, as well as merry-making, flirtation, courtship and child-rearing in Renoir’s art’. This one’s particularly exciting as Renoir’s most famous work (and one of the most celebrated works of the impressionist movement) ‘Bal au Moulin de la Galette’ (‘Dance at the Moulin de la Galette’) will go on display in the UK for the first time

Lily Allen and Ariana Grande aren’t the only megastars heading on huge comeback tours this year. Now, after years away from music, A$AP Rocky has revealed he’ll take to the road for a 42-date Don’t Be Dumb World Tour.  The tour announcement came hot on the heels of the release of the rapper’s fourth album – his first in eight long years. His highly anticipated Don’t Be Dumb features appearances from the likes of Tyler, The Creator, Gorillaz and Doechii, and it landed on January 16. Before it even dropped, the record amassed one million pre-saves on Spotify, making it hip-hop’s most pre-saved album ever on the app. Of the 42 stops on A$AP Rocky’s world tour, three are here in the UK. And, given the phenomenal success of the album, tickets are set to be snapped up very, very quickly.  From presales to resales, here’s everything you need to know if you want to see A$AP in the UK this year.  RECOMMENDED: The best major music tours coming to the UK in 2026. When is A$AP Rocky going on tour in 2026? The rapper will set off on his Don’t Be Dumb World Tour from May until September. The first leg will be across North America and he’ll start his European leg in August.  What UK tour dates have been announced so far? Only three UK dates have been announced for A$AP’s tour so far.  Sunday August 30: London, UK O2 Arena Friday September 4: Glasgow, UK OVO Hydro Saturday September 5: Manchester, UK Co-op Live Image: Live Nation When do A$AP Rocky tickets go on sale? General sale will

The City of London, particularly in the darks days of January, can be awfully grey. Grey skyscrapers, grey suits, grey pavements, grey skies... you get the gist. But at the end of this month, there’s a brand new festival arriving to inject some colour into the financial district.  ‘Vibrance’ will light up Roman ruins, medieval churches and secret gardens across the Square Mile on Thursday January 29 and Friday January 30 from 5.30pm until 8.30pm.  Created by Guildhall Production Studio in collaboration with the Culture Mile, it brings together more than a dozen artworks and live performances by emerging artists from Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Photograph: Guildhall Production Studio Guildhall Yard will be illuminated with a series of different large-scale projections; St Giles’ Cripplegate will host something called an extended reality installation, which combines sound, light and virtual reality (VR) technology to create an otherworldly effect; St Alphage London Wall and Garden, meanwhile, will host a sensory portal that responds to audience movement. A stone’s throw away, there’ll be a sonic installation at Salters’ Garden which will guide visitors down a route with speakers hiding in the greenery. Finally, Milton Court will come alive with visual lightworks that organisers say will reflect on ‘inner-city life and its impact on the human experience’.  The whole thing is completely free and there are no tickets needed – just turn up and wander around the kaleidosco

Pubs have been part of the UK’s DNA for thousands of years. Some have been serving ales since as far back as the 10th century, while the concept can be traced back to Roman taverns. Obviously, not all pubs stand the test of time, but the country is still packed with boozers that have welcomed generation after generation, and that have been preserved to ensure they can be enjoyed by generations to come. So, every year, the non-profit organisation Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) recognises people that have saved or have revived a heritage pub in the UK. For 2025, that award has gone to the people behind the renovation of The Vine in Stoke-on-Trent. CAMRA has given the Vine three stars for its historic interior, indicating that it is ‘of outstanding national historic importance’. The Grade-II listed Victorian boozer is hidden among terraced houses on a backstreet in the village of Pittshill. It closed down in 2020 but it was bought at auction and revived last year. The new owners, Steve Burke and his wife Lisa Combes, carried out extensive repair work on the pub’s roof, basement and beer yard while also ensuring its original layout and character stayed in tact. The Vine finally reopened in July.  Photograph: CAMRA When you enter the Vine, you walk down a passageway from the front door. To the left there’s a lounge and a games room that still have their original seating and 1950s fireplaces. To the right is the bar, which has an etched window inscribed with the word 'Vaults' and

The Caledonian Sleeper has been ferrying people from the UK’s capital city to bonny Scotland since 1873. Back in those days, it offered luxury cabins on board trains called the Night Scotsman and the Royal Highlander and terminated at Glasgow Queen Street. The overnight service (one of just two in the UK) has evolved a lot in the many decades since then, but last week it launched its biggest change in 30 years.  The world-famous service set off from Birmingham for the first time ever on Thursday January 15. Birmingham International Station is the first new stop added to the Caledonian Sleeper in three decades. It’s now the third stop on the train’s Highlander route, which runs from London Euston to Edinburgh Waverley then splits off towards Fort William, Aberdeen and Inverness. Before last week, the only stops between the English and Scottish capitals were Preston and Crewe. The new route is exactly the same, just with the extra pick-up at Brum. From there, it’ll take nine hours to get to Aberdeen, 10 hours to Inverness and 11 hours to the final destination at Fort William. Trains leave six nights a week – no service on Saturdays – and you can book up to a year in advance.  When you book a night onboard the Caledonian Sleeper, you can choose from a classic room with bunk beds and a washbasin, a ‘club en-suite’ with bunkbeds, a shower room and breakfast included, or (the most expensive room) a ‘double en-suite’ with a double bed, en-suite and complimentary breakfast.  If you

They’re back! The Met Office issued an extreme space weather alert over the weekend and, as predicted, the northern lights showed up on Monday (January 19) night to dazzle Britain with vibrant streaks of blue, pink and green.  The solar spectacle, caused by a particularly ‘severe’ geomagnetic storm, was seen everywhere from Scotland to Wales and even all the way down in Devon. If you missed it, don’t despair. People typically travel far north to Iceland, Sweden, Norway or Finland to tick a northern lights sighting off their bucket list, but heightened solar activity right now means that we can expect to see more stunning aurora borealis displays from right here in the UK in 2026 (Caithness in Scotland is one of Time Out’s best places to visit in the UK this year for that very reason). The next time you should look out for the borealis? Tonight. Here’s everything you need to know if you want to catch a glimpse of the northern lights.  What are the northern lights?   The northern lights are the result of geomagnetic storms. A stream of charged particles escape the sun in something known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) and then hurtle towards the Earth’s atmosphere at several million kilometres per hour.  When they hit our planet’s atmosphere, they combine with oxygen and nitrogen, triggering a geomagnetic storm and creating the multicoloured burst that we see from down here. A green glow is associated with oxygen while purple, blue or pink illuminations are associated with nit

After a period of bitter cold and the city’s first snow of the year, London has warmed up a little in the past week. But now the temperature is set to drastically drop once more.  Over the last few days, the city has enjoyed lovely mild temperatures of around 10C to 12C. Next week, though, we’ll see it return to around 5C and hit as low as 1C overnight. So, get that wool scarf right back out of its storage box.  Of course, as soon as the capital gets close to freezing, the question on everyone’s lips is: will there be snow? Here’s what forecasters are saying right now.  RECOMMENDED: London’s best things to do in winter.  When will it snow in London?  BBC Weather forecasts that there’ll be sleet and snow in London from Tuesday January 27 until Sunday February 1.  The Met Office hasn’t forecast that far ahead for London yet, but in its long-range forecast for the UK between January 24 and February 2 it says: ‘Rain or showers are likely at times, which may be heavy and persistent, especially in the south and west, with the best of any drier interludes in the far north and northwest. ‘Whilst mild conditions will encroach into the south and west at times, it is likely to turn somewhat colder through this period, bringing the risk of some snow, more especially on hills in Scotland and northern England.’ What time will it snow? The sleet and snow is mostly expected to fall overnight. It’s forecast to start at 6am on Tuesday and last until 9am. Then it’ll fall again from 10pm and go

Whether you’re on the hunt for a new home or looking to sell, it’s handy to know which areas of the UK are at the top of people’s wish lists. According to new research by the Telegraph and Savills estate agents, towns across the Home Counties are the most hotly sought after right now. And the number one most desirable spot in all of Britain is just a stone’s throw from the Big Smoke. Savills scored each town according to things like their green spaces, travel links and schools as well as the proportion of residents holding managerial and professional jobs, their level of qualifications and the state of their health (if you want to see a desirability ranking based on actual demand, see here instead). Based on those factors, the research concluded that that being within a commutable distance of London is a major contributor to a town’s desirability. Posh places in the south east of England dominate the top 20 (with the top five all near London), and in first place is the Hertfordshire town of Harpenden.  It takes just 30 minutes to get from Harpenden to London St Pancras on the train. The Telegraph said that the town has  ‘village charm’ with a ‘superb range of restaurants, wine bars and leisure facilities’. It also boasts a bunch of schools that are highly rated by Ofsted and 60 percent of its population have a bachelor’s level qualification. Photograph: Shutterstock One local told the paper that newcomers to Harpenden should be prepared to ‘navigate a lot of SUVs’ through

The Home Counties offer a best of both worlds. You get to enjoy gorgeous English countryside and a slower pace of life while still being able to commute to a London office and enjoy the buzz and culture (and higher salaries) of the capital whenever you fancy it. That’s probably why every single one of the country’s top five most desirable towns for 2026, according to the Telegraph, are in one of the counties bordering the Big Smoke. For its ranking, the newspaper collaborated with Savills estate agents and ranked each town based on factors like green spaces, travel links and schools. The report also looked well as the proportion of residents holding managerial and professional jobs, their level of qualifications and the state of their health.  With all of those factors combined, towns within 90 minutes of the capital city dominated the ranking. In first place was the Hertfordshire town of Harpenden, which is just 30 minutes from St Pancras. The Telegraph said that the town has ‘village charm’ with a ‘superb range of restaurants, wine bars and leisure facilities’. It also boasts a bunch of schools that are highly rated by Ofsted and 60 percent of its population have a bachelor’s level qualification. Of course, the more desirable a place is, the more expensive it tends to be, with the average property in Harpenden going for £950,000.  Photograph: Shutterstock The Telegraph’s second most desirable town is Cobham in Surrey, just over an hour from the Big Smoke. An local estate

Torquay, Paignton and Brixham are three towns in south Devon that together make up Torbay, an area otherwise known as the ‘English Riviera’. Once upon a time, the towns were grand tourist hotspots. They were especially popular during Victorian times and were frequented by Queen Victoria herself. In recent decades they’ve become rather worn down, but a series of renovations could soon bring them back to their former glory.  A whole load of redevelopments and improvements are lined up for Torquay, Paignton and Brixham over the next few years, totalling a whopping £300 million. Here’s a look at the most exciting upgrades lined up for the three Torbay towns.   First: Torquay. The town’s pavilion has been crumbling for more than a decade now, but in 2023 plans to restore it back to its former glory were announced. Right now, a consultation is underway to figure out how it can be transformed in a project expected to cost around £11m. In the past its been a theatre, a cinema, a shopping centre and an ice rink. Suggestions for its future include turning it into an Agatha Christie attraction, a research centre or a concert hall.  Elsewhere, Torquay’s Union Square Shopping Centre is set to be demolished and replaced with a complex of 100 new homes, healthcare facilities and new shops. The area surrounding the shopping centre on Higher Union Street is also due to get a makeover as part of a wider 10-year plan. Then, towards the harbour an abandoned Debenhams will be knocked down and rep

If there’s one thing we know about at Time Out, it’s city life. From New York to Lisbon, Paris to London, Melbourne to Singapore, it’s our job to keep tabs on all greatest things to see, do and eat in metropolises across the globe. Every year different events, new openings or major anniversaries give different cities a chance to shine. So, we’ve put together a guide on all the best city breaks in Europe to take in 2026, with one UK city set to have its turn in the spotlight.  We named Glasgow one of the best cities in Europe to travel to this year. In our guide to the city, Time Out contributor and Glasgow local Olivia Simpson said: ‘Long seen by outsiders as Edinburgh’s shabby little sibling, the city is enjoying a renaissance, fuelled by home-grown talents cultivated at the city’s world-leading art school and from within the thriving music and arts scene, all whilst grassroots community organisations fight to ensure that development happens as fairly as possible.’ Summer 2026 will be a particularly exciting time to make a trip to the city thanks to two major events. Around 3,000 athletes from 74 nations will land on Scottish soil to compete in the Commonwealth Games from July 23 to August 3. And, if music is more your thing the city will also welcome the very first WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) festival to be held in Scotland. Taking place on July 3 and 4, WOMAD at Kelvingrove Park promises ‘an eclectic line-up of high-profile and emerging artists performing a vast