From summer rooftops to one-day only immersive experiences and the coolest restaurants, never miss one of these one-off wonders ever again. This is our up-to-the-minute guide to the best London pop ups to check out.
Jamii, the online marketplace and discount card for Black-owned businesses in the UK, is running a pop-up for the first time at Boxpark Shoreditch. Over 20 Black British brands, including Diaspora Socks, Everyday Froday, Kiya Cosmetics, Afrocenchix, Bespoke Binny, Tihara Smith and Lanji Candles, will be showcased at the shop with discounts of up to 20% for those who have a Jamii Card (you’ll also be able to sign up for one in store too). Check out even more Black-owned businesses here.
Best known for biking salads around town, Karma Cans is taking over the rooftop at Hoxton Docks for a summer pop-up. They’ll be firing up the BBQ and serving up dishes like grilled sourdough with homemade chilli XO sauce, roasted garlic & herb chicken with romesco, wild mushroom & turtle bean burgers, and crispy potatoes with a mustard dressing. Keeling Andrew (the team behind Noble Rot) will be providing the bevs and you’ll get all of that with a view over the canal. Groups of 2-6 are welcome and you will need to book.
Rapha is riding on over to Canary Wharf this summer with a pop-up clubhouse featuring everything you need for cycling around town. The pop-up is also hosting weekly workshops covering topics like roadside repairs, route planning and group riding, and the Rapha official ride leaders have collated a route library to help you get out and explore the city. And you can put all that practice to good use by taking part in the City Island Challenge.
West London has got a cool wine shop in the shape of Glug Glug! in Westbourne Grove. Specialising in low intervention, biodynamic and organic wines, the shop is stocked with bottles from around the world, with reds, whites, roses and orange wine on offer. Glug Glug! is also running a phone-in sommelier service so you can get advice and pairing suggestions for the recipes you’re cooking up at home, with orders available for same-day collection.
Julian Denis is bringing vegan Chinese restaurant Mao Chow and its bold Szechwan flavours to Fitzrovia as part of the Mortimer House Guest Chef takeover series. The menu will feature new dishes created for the residency, including Husband + Wife Celeriac, braised celeriac with pickled chilies & toasted rice powder; Dongpo Tofu with spicy aromatic ginger sauce & ginger rice; Lijiang Rice Sausage with crispy greens & chili oil; and Xiao Mian – numbing garlic noodles with tempeh & chickpeas. Booking for the four day residency opens on 1st August.
After launching ‘Giz & Green’s Monday Night Fakeaway’ on Instagram during lockdown, Gizzi Erksine and Professor Green are taking things IRL with a summer pop-up at Passo in Old Street. The cooking series saw Gizzi and Pro Green recreate classic takeaway dishes in their own kitchens, and now the pair are taking the most popular one – the deep dish stuffed crust pizza – and serving it at the Giz & Green pop-up. The menu will include Hawaiian, pepperoni and veggie stuffed crust pizzas as well as a chicken BBQ version with Tabasco chipotle sauce, alongside local drinks like Dalston’s Soda Co. The pizzas are available to eat in at the restaurant and also on delivery.
Elliot’s are running a summer pop-up terrace opposite their restaurant in association with Venetian aperitif SELECT. There are SELECT spritzes galore and plates including Cantabrian anchovy toast; Isle of Mull cheese puffs; potato flatbread with Irish trout roe and sour cream chive butter; tuna crudo; langoustines with ginger and white pepper; and pizzas like taleggio, sage and brown butter and epic mortadella, olive, and pistachio.
Get the bevs in at an abandoned car wash in East London as The Old Car Wash in Homerton opens for the summer. The cocktail bar has a huge (and covered) outdoor space with seating for 70, and it’s all socially distanced so there’s plenty of space for everyone. The drinks menu will feature a mix of classic and bespoke cocktails as well as beers from Camden Brewery. There will be some spots left for walk-ins but if you want in, you can book for groups up to 8 – if you book for 6th and 7th August you’ll get a free cocktail.
Selfridges has opened its first-ever open-air market on the mews at the back of the Oxford Street store. Open on the weekends, Market on the Mews features a rotating selection of food, drink, plants, magazines, flowers, bikes and furniture. Traders include Assembly Coffee, Two Tribes Beer, Darlish, Moyses Stevens, Furniture by The Conran Shop, News on the Mews, Your London Florist and Selfridges Bakery with new pop-ups joining throughout the summer.
The Underbelly team, best known for its festival on the South Bank, is popping up in the area with new concept StreetEat. The pop-up will feature food traders like Hola Guacamole, Lukumade Doughnut Tales, Katsutopia, Kurbside Kitchen, The London Grilled Fish Company, Simply Falafel, Smoketeers and Coco Labelle, alongside open-air bars and socially distanced seating. There’ll also be free live music, DJ and cabaret performances on the StreetEat stage. Other sites will open over the summer, including one in Wimbledon Park (running 31st July – 23rd August with traders like Pabellon Venezuelan Food, It’s a Wrap, Cripes it’s Crepes, Fiore Truck, DeliVita Richmond, Vegan Junkies, Just in Bean and Cristina’s Far From Home.) and one in Victoria Park (running 7th – 31st August, with traders like Cyprus Kitchen, Ces’t Cheese, The Coffee Bug, Seawise, Rainbo, Uncle G’s Gourmet Fried Chicken and Eat the Village).
Mexican restaurant La Pilarica, set up by Federico Perez Diaz and Michael Kutziola who have been working together since they met at Marco Pierre White’s Frankie’s Bar and Grill in 2010, is taking over evenings at Loafing Cafe on Well Street. There’s a focus on slow cooked meats, with burritos, tacos, quesadillas, salads and a Mexican pulled pork burger on the menu, alongside Mexican fruit sodas.
After closing Dock Kitchen in 2017 Stevie Parle is making a return to Portobello Docks with brand new pop-up JOY. Created in collaboration with Tom Dixon, the space will include a bar, a 70-cover restaurant called FLORA, a farm shop from Canterbury’s The Goods Shed and a honey store featuring Parle’s very own hives. FLORA will be filled with hundreds of dahlias and floral displays, and the daily-changing menu will feature seasonal produce from The Goods Shed and will include dishes like clams cooked with fresh peas; red prawn with burned lemon; Fosse Meadows chicken stuffed with ricotta and nduja; Wilfra New potatoes & smoked butter; American Pie; and egg yolk & chocolate cookies.
Tomos Parry is taking Brat al fresco this summer with a residency at Climpson’s Arch. Home to the coffee roasters by day, the arch hosts some of the city’s best chefs and restaurants by night, with Tomos having cooked there a few years back. He’ll be serving Brat’s signature whole roasted turbot, spider crab and grilled bread from the wood ovens in the courtyard, as well as new dishes like grilled Crocadon Farm aged mutton chops, petit snap greens with smoked new season garlic & homemade ricotta, Basque fish soup with Cornish velvet crabs and slow-grilled pollock, laverbread and tomato salad. Brat’s wine selection will be available alongside bottled and on-tap cocktails from Climpson & Sons, including fermented Bloody Marys, Pineapple Tepaches and Espresso Martinis.
