Amy Houghton

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 February 2026. London's best new restaurants at a glance: 🍛 Central: Dover Street Counter, Mayfair 🍠 North: Ling Ling’s, Islington 🥟 South: Doma, Sydenham 🍝 East: Tiella, Bethnal Green 🥗 West: Martino’s, Chelsea February 2026: We have a new Number 1! The newly-opened Tiella in Bethnal Green has scooped the top spot thanks to knockout regional Italian dishes from chef Dara Klein. Other fresh additions include the slinky Martino's in Chelsea, foodie wine bar in a one-time Clerkenwell tattoo parlour Passione Vino, perfect produce at Dockley Road Kitchen in Bermondsey, Hunanese heat at Fiery Flavors in Surrey Quays, Ukrainian elegance at Sino in Notting Hill, cool diner energy at Dover Street Counter in Mayfair and spicy southern Thai at the second branch of Plaza Khao Gaeng by Borough Market. Hungry yet? Leonie Cooper is Time Out London’s Food and Drink Editor. For more about ho

With a bounty of great parties happening in the capital this Easter bank holiday, you can dance till you drop. Here’s our round-up of the long weekend’s best parties from Thursday April 2 to Monday April 6 2026, from (hopefully) sun-soaked daytime soirees to late-night ragers at some of the city’s best clubs.  If you’ve got the stamina, you could turn Easter into a proper bender. Just don’t count on a quick resurrection in time for work on Tuesday. RECOMMENDED:The best Easter events and activities in LondonThe 50 best nights out in London

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

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. 

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

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.

Gather your brood and join Hackney’s ceilidh band Cut A Shine for its afternoon of family friendly St Patrick’s barn dancing. The bandmembers will teach you and the little’uns all of the crucial ceili moves and ensure that everyone is kept fueled with traditional Irish stew and champ (vegan option available). Things will round off at 3.30pm with a disco where the kids can show off all their newly-learned Celtic choreography. Oh, and there’s a fully stocked bar of Guinness and whiskey for the grown ups. 

Prepare to have your senses thrown into chaos. Anish Kapoor’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

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.

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. 

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. 

The Maldives have you in a state of pure wonder before you even land. From above, those hundreds of white-sand islands, haloed by gleaming blue lagoons, appear otherworldly. And once we touch down via seaplane at Ananaea Madivaru, a new twin-island resort on the North Ari Atoll, it’s even harder to believe that such a place is real life.  Why stay at Ananea Madivaru?  A stay at Ananea Madivaru is a lesson in sophisticated laziness. With resorts in the Algarve, Thailand, Zanzibar, Greece, and Italy, Ananea is already well-versed in the art of slow, minimalist glamour. Pair that with the unrivalled natural beauty of the Maldives and the hotel’s flawless gastronomic offering, and you have yourself a trip that dreams are made of. To top it all off, the resort was at almost full capacity during our visit, but there wasn’t a single moment that it felt crowded. Photograph: Ananea Madivaru What are the rooms like at Ananea Madivaru?  ‘Rooms’ is a severe understatement. Ananea hosts 110 luxury villas, each one with its own very generously sized outdoor pool and ample privacy. I was put up in one of the 28 deluxe water pool villas on the manmade north island. Through the front door, you walk straight into the dreamy high-ceilinged main bedroom, the bed facing out of huge glass doors and towards the Indian Ocean. To the right of the entrance, there’s the pantry room with a mini fridge, Nespresso coffee machine and a bottle of mozzie spray; to the left, a wardrobe room housing robes, s

There are only a matter of days to go until Michelin hands out (or takes back) a new set of its esteemed stars (the ceremony is next Monday, January 9). But before restaurants can be in with a chance of being awarded one of those stars, they must first be added to the Michelin Guide. The guide is updated with new recommendation-worthy eateries every single month, but January was the final chance for any restaurants hoping to be considered for a star this year. So, let’s take a look at the London spots that made the cut.  Of its January newcomers, the Michelin Guide spotlighted Bonheur, the hotly anticipated first solo project of Matt Abé. It said: ‘Suffice to say that Bonheur doesn’t disappoint, with the very best ingredients presented in expertly judged combinations and cooked with immense technical skill.’ It also gave a shoutout to new luxury bistro Corenucopia by Clare Smyth, which serves an array of elevated traditional dishes like fish and chips, toad in the hole and sticky toffee pudding.  Time Out favourite Belly earned recognition thanks to its ‘concise menu’ that’s ‘full of originality and appeal’. The Kentish Town Filipino bistro may be best known for its tempura cod pandesal, a sort of posh filet o’ fish served a slice of American cheese and salty salmon roe in a sweet Filipino bun. That dish so good, it featured on Time Out’s roundup of the best things we ate in 2025. Guides editor Ella Doyle said: ‘Belly Bistro is full of great dishes, but I’d come back again an

There’s more to school life than exam results. But they are probably easiest, most quantifiable way of judging whether a school is doing well or not. And when you’re prepared to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds on sending your child to a private school, you want to be assured that they’re in with a good chance of getting the best grades possible.  We’ve scanned the Top School Guide to find out which private schools in England boasted the best exam results across both A-Levels and GCSEs in 2025. And London schools came overwhelmingly on top.  Following last summer’s A-Level and GCSE exams, the title of the best school in England belongs to St Paul’s School in Barnes, London. The all-boys establishment, which was founded in 1509,  saw 93 percent of its A-Level entries achieve either A or A* and 97.9 percent of it’s GSCE entries awarded top results of 9, 8 or 7. Its sister school, St Paul’s Girls’ School, came in a very close second with 88.7 percent achieving the highest A-Level results and an impressive 99.5 percent attaining the GCSE equivalents.  The third best independent in the country based on 2025’s exam scores is King’s College School in Wimbledon with 86.1 percent of students getting A* or A at A-Level and 98.26 percent getting 9, 8 or 7 at GCSE.  Hot on its tail was Westminster School (a former stomping ground of people like Andrew Lloyd Webber, Helena Bonham Carter, Louis Theroux and Jacob Rees-Mogg). It had an A-Level A*/A rate of 86 percent and a GCSE 9 to 7 rat

When you’re craving a weekend of full blown rest and relaxation, the last thing you want is for huge crowds to disturb your zen. Yes, Bath’s famous Thermae Spa and Budapest’s Szechenyi Baths are both lovely, but they’re also constantly packed with people. So, Time Out’s travel experts have put together a lost of Europe’s best lesser-known spa destinations for when you next need a good old uninterrupted pamper.  You could go to the Saturnia Hot Springs in Italy, the Greek island of Evia or the Sky Lagoon in Iceland, but there’s really no need to go that far. For some of the best and most underrated R&R that Europe has to offer, just head to Harrogate.   Harrogate’s history of pampering the people of Britain goes way back. The Yorkshire town was a popular spa destination during the Victorian era, when people would flock to bathe in its mineral-rich spring water. But its medicinal, therapeutic sulphur waters were actually discovered way before that in the late 1500s, and its first public bathing house was was built in 1663.  While the town’s Royal Baths no longer operate, its pièce de résistance is its nearly perfectly preserved Turkish Baths, which are almost 130 years old. Those baths are in fact Britain's most fully restored Victorian Turkish Baths and one of only seven across the country that remain. They’re decked out with beautiful Islamic arches and screens, walls of bright glazed brickwork, arabesque painted ceilings and terrazzo floors that were laid by Italian experts.

If you ask us, Wales has long been home to some of the most spectacular walking trails in the world. There’s the 870-mile coastal route that, until the arrival of the King’s Charles III Coastal Path in England, was the only public footpath to follow a country’s entire coastline. Then there’s the hike up to its highest peak on Mount Snowdon, which rewards walkers with stunning views over Eryri National Park. But that’s not enough for the small Celtic country. This year, it’s launching two more walking trails that open up new landscapes and histories to explore.  The Teifi Valley Trail launches in April. It’s a 83-mile route that will kick off at Strata Florida Abbey in Ceredigion then follow the River Teifi all the down to Poppit Sands in Pembrokeshire. If you were to take it on in one go, it would take around eight days, but it can also be split up into three more manageable chunks.  Photograph: Shutterstock The first stage of the walk takes three days and goes from the ancient monastic ruins at Strata Florida, past the six Teifi Pools and into the town of Lampeter. Stage two is a two day 22-mile hike that goes further into the Teifi Valley and through the towns of Llanybydder and Newcastle Emlyn, while stage three is another three day excursion taking walkers by the National Wool Museum in Dre-fach Felindre,  the Teifi Gorge, Tironesian abbey and the market town of Cardigan before finishing by the river estuary at Poppit Sands. You can find out more about the trail here. I

The largest ever Tracey Emin retrospective is landing in London at the end of the month – and we’ve named it one of the city’s most unmissable exhibitions of 2026.  Tracey Emin: A Second Life will kick off Tate Modern’s 2026 programme later this month, tracing the four decade career of one of Britain’s most renowned living artists.  Over 90 pieces will be exhibited in the landmark show, including Emin’s defining works. From her signature neons to textiles to never-before-exhibited bronze sculptures, prepare for plenty of confessional, confronting art exploring love, trauma and the female body. Her Turner Prize nominated ‘My Bed’, the controversial work that catapulted her to fame in 1999, will of course feature. The famed installation, if you’re unfamiliar, is a dishevelled unmade bed topped with stained sheets and surrounded by an array of empty vodka bottles, condoms, underwear and pills. Emin created it following a dark four-day period of binge-drinking and smoking following a bad break up, but its rawness upset a lot of critics and it sparked a fierce debate over what really constitutes a work of art.  Another seminal work on display will be ‘Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made’ (1996), for which Emin locked herself in Stockholm’s Galleri Andreas Brändström for three weeks and forced herself to rekindle her relationship with painting after abandoning the practice for six years.  Photograph: Tracey Emin, ‘I whisper to My Past Do I have Another ’, 2010. © Tracey Emi

Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth has been home to many an eye-catching installation. There was the huge ship in a bottle in 2010, a big blue cockerel in 2013, an unsettling horse skeleton in 2015 and that swirl of whipped cream topped with a cherry, a fly and a drone in 2020.  Right now, the plinth is occupied by Teresa Margolles’s ‘Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant)’, a poignant homage to the existence of trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people. But soon, it’ll be time for a new artwork.  ‘Lady in Blue’ by New York-based artist Tschabalala Self will officially take over the Fourth Plinth in September (sorry, we don’t know the exact date yet).  Photograph: James O’Jenkins The 10ft sculpture depicts a confident woman of colour striding in a blue dress and heels and is meant to represent a contemporary everywoman that ‘many can relate to’. She’s made from bronze and patinated with a rare pigment called ‘lapis lazuli blue’.  Self said of her piece: ‘She is not an idol to venerate or a historic figurehead to commemorate. She is a woman striding forward into our collective future with ambition and purpose. She is a Londoner who represents the city’s spirit.’ Selected back in 2024 by the Fourth Plinth commissioning group (which includes artist Jeremy Deller and former broadcaster Jon Snow), it’ll be the sixteenth sculpture to be displayed on the plinth since the scheme started in 1999. Several celebrated artists and sculptors have had pieces atop th

Did you know that the oldest surviving gasholder in the entire world can be found in Fulham?  The imaginatively named Gasholder No.2 is nearing 200-years-old. It was designed by Samuel Clegg (a man widely recognised as the world’s first gas engineer) alongside a guy called John Kirkham, and built between 1829 and 1839. At that time, it was the largest gasholder to have ever been built and is still considered a ‘remarkable feat in design’. Of course, at that age, Gasholder No.2 is looking more than a little weary. The cast iron structure has been plagued by severe corrosion over the years and is currently on Historic England’s list of heritage structures at risk. But now Hammersmith and Fulham Council has given the official thumbs up to plans that will save it.   Photograph: Chris Redgrave The newly-approved plans by Berkeley Group are part of a wider development of the area. They’ll involve the landmark being dismantled, refurbished and then re-erected at the centre of a new public park with seating, planting and water installations. Large parts of the gasholder are past the point of being salvageable but those that are will be restored offsite and reassembled within the park. It should look as good as new in time for its 200th birthday. The proposals have been enthusiastically welcomed by heritage groups like Historic England, the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society and the Hammersmith and Fulham Historic Buildings Group. Tom Foxall, regional director at Histori

Humans are simple creatures, really. Give us warmth and loads of bright sunshine, we’re happy. Give us grey, wet weather and a few hours of natural light a day and we become fairly miserable. Unfortunately, the UK is the midst of the gloomiest time of year right now and it looks like the winter blues are getting to lots of us.  In a new survey carried out by British Gas, 42 percent of Brits admitted to feeling more depressed in January than during any other month of the year. Half also said that they feel more irritable at the start of the year. But which city feels the most depressed of all during the winter months? Norwich, apparently. Yep, according to British Gas, Norwich is UK’s ‘most depressed’ city this time of year. Of the Norwich residents that took part in the survey, 25 percent said they feel genuinely depressed from mid to late January thanks to rubbish weather and lack of daylight. A total of 57 percent of Norwich-based respondents said that they’re currently craving sunlight and warmth.  Photograph: Shutterstock The people of Swansea and Stoke-on-Trent came in joint second place with 24 percent reporting seasonal depression. Manchester took third place with 21 percent while Edinburgh, Glasgow and Oxford shared fourth place with 16 percent.  As miserable as that sounds, it’s best to take the numbers with a pinch of salt. British Gas only surveyed a total of 2,000 Brits for its research (for comparison, Norwich has a population of 150,000). A separate report by

London is, obviously, home to some of the greatest galleries on the globe. But it’s far from the only place in the UK where you’ll find world-renowned masterpieces and exciting contemporary works. The country’s regional art galleries, from the V&A Dundee to the Hepworth Wakefield, give institutions in the capital more than a run for their money.  We’ve been deprived of one of Britain’s finest regional galleries for two years now – but in just one month’s time, it’ll make a grand return. Following a big £2.23m renovation, the brilliant Southampton City Art Gallery is set to reopen on Saturday March 7.  The Grade II-listed gallery is home to a collection of more than 5,000 pieces spanning 800 years. The formidable collection features works ranging from John Singer Sargent, JMW Turner and William Blake to Gilbert & George, Antony Gormley, Lucien Freud and Claude Monet. Its huge refurb has involved the restoration of the its crescent-shaped windows, the replacement of the west wing roof and several internal repairs.   Alongside its permanent displays, Southampton City Art Gallery will relaunch with a special exhibition from Southampton-born artist and Pixies and Band of Skulls musician Emma Richardson. Titled Levitate Me: Desire, Ecstasy and The Sublime, it’ll display Richardson’s collection of large-scale oil paintings that ‘explore desire, euphoria and the awe-inspiring natural world through a female lens’. It’s Richardson’s first major solo exhibition and will take over the e

Before Queer Britain launched in King’s Cross in 2022, there wasn’t a single museum in the whole of the UK that focused on LGBTQ+ history. Four years later, it’s still the only space of its kind.  The museum closed for redevelopment at the end of November, but this week it’s back with six brand new displays and a rich lineup of special temporary exhibitions. Queer Britain will reopen its doors at 2 Granary Square in King’s Cross on Wednesday February 4. From explorations of LGBTQ+ protest music to stories of gay representation in sport, there’s a lot to look forward to. There will be more than 200 objects on show, taken from collections like the National Football Museum and the Women’s Liberation Music Awards.  The relaunched space will have a collections gallery split into six different themes. Each of those six themes will spotlight an individual story in British queer history, with those stories changing on a rolling basis.  ‘Resist!’ will focus on the story of London’s Black Lesbian and Gay Centre; ‘Queer Kids’ will highlight the Women’s Liberation music-making movement of the 1970’s and 1980’s while ‘Body and Mind’ will aim to reclaim narratives around LGBTQ+ experiences of health, illness and disability, displaying a panel from the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt. Photograph: Laura Gallant for Time Out Then, there’s ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ which will tell stories of queer domesticity and relationships, focusing on Bloomsbury group members Lytton Strachey and Dora Carrington; ‘The

It may, famously, be the most important meal of the day, but breakfast is often severely underrated – overlooked in favour of a trendier brunch or simply skipped altogether. Not by us. London is stuffed with places serving fry-ups, pancakes, pastries and porridge and more worth rising early for. And Time Out has put together a new list of the very best.  Number one in our ranking of London’s greatest spots for breakfast is The Wolseley. There are few places that take the first meal of the day quite as seriously as this Piccadilly restaurant. It’s been famed for its breakfast spread for decades – one of the UK’s most renowned food critics, the late AA Gill, even wrote an entire book dedicated to it.  Time Out’s food editor Leonie Cooper called the Wolseley an ‘always-fun and always-busy art deco-styled grand café - and still a celeb-spotting paradise’. She added: ‘If you like to start your day with a sense of occasion, it doesn’t get much better than The Wolseley. From a just-baked pastry or an omelette Arnold Bennett, to a decadent kedgeree or the creamed porridge with fruit compote.’ Photograph: The Wolseley   Alongside every breakfast classic you could wish for, the Wolseley’s has a selection of specialities that include grilled kipper with mustard butter, fired haggis and duck eggs with whiskey sauce and fishcakes with poached eggs and hollandaise.  This is a rather posh venue, so prices aren’t low. But, Leonie says, ‘at a place of this exceptional quality you wouldn’t e