Visit
Named after the late Bernie Grant, the MP for the area who envisioned the creation of a flagship performing arts centre to house diverse artists and audiences, the Bernie Grant Arts Centre is a multi-art venue that includes a 250-seat auditorium, a gallery, rehearsal studios, creative workspaces and a cafe. BGAC works to make the arts and creative industries more accessible by providing a space for Black-led work and Black artists to thrive. The Centre hosts everything from theatre productions and music performances to dance classes for children.
As one of the largest open spaces in Haringey, it’s a popular spot for dog walkers, joggers and locals looking to spend a bit more time out in nature. The 100-acre marshes have changed a lot over the last century – once floodplain for the River Lee, it was home to tennis courts and outdoor lido in the 1920s, before being used as landfill after WW2. Now part of Lee Valley Park, the marshes are home to a range of birds, voles, and fruit trees. It’s a great place for a picnic on a sunny day but there’s also a cafe in the middle of the marshes if you don’t fancy packing up your own food.
Broadwick Live, the team behind Printworks, Beams and Manchester’s Depot Mayfield, took over the old IKEA site in Meridian Water in 2023 and turned into its biggest venue yet. The 608,000 sq ft, 15,000 capacity Drumsheds nightclub is the ultimate warehouse space and has played host to the likes of Skepta and Jammer, Bicep, Hercules & Love Affair, Sugababes, Chase & Status, Bonobo, Elrow, Fatboy Slim, The Blessed Madonna, The Chemical Brothers and Craig David. With epic lighting and production tech, it makes for the one of the best places to experience music in London.
Bermondsey Antique Market has been running for over 75 years, and though it’s changed a bit over that time (it now starts at 7am every Friday rather than 4am like it did in the sixties), it’s still one of the best antiques markets in the capital, if not the country. You can find a mix of veteran traders and antique shop owners alongside a younger generation of sellers, and with many of the stall holders running antique businesses outside of London, there’s always an influx of interesting items to browse.
There are a few floating restaurants in London (like Caravel, and The Cheese Barge), floating hotels, a floating bookshop, and now, we’ve got an arts space to add to the list of buoyant attractions. It’s called Theatreship and it offers a programme of film, theatre, visual arts and music performance, featuring a mix of local and international talent. Originally a cargo ship built in 1913, Theatreship took 18 months to convert into its current form and is now home to a 100-seater theatre, a cafe & bar and exhibition space, making it the UK’s largest floating theatre and cinema.
Go back in time to the Victorian era and explore how medicines were made and surgery was carried out 200 years ago at the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret. Housed in the attic of the church of the Old St Thomas’ Hospital and installed in1822, the operating theatre (the oldest surviving surgical theatre in Europe) was used for operations on females before anaesthetics and antiseptics, and was a place where medical students would learn their profession. As well as the operating theatre itself, you can also explore the herb garret, where herbs for medicines were dried and stored, and artefacts used before the advent of modern science in procedures like cupping and trepanning.
The buildings that make up Wilton’s Music Hall (which now house the box office, bars, offices and rehearsal space) date all the way back the 1690s, with the Victorian music hall being opened by John Wilton in 1859, who wanted to bring a bit of West End glamour and entertainment to east London. With many original features still intact, it’s one of the few surviving music halls left in the East End and, after a period of time as a Methodist mission and a storage warehouse, it now operates as a performance venue once more. Over 300 events, including everything from theatre to stand-up to classical music concerts, are held at Wilton’s each year.
Whether you’re not ready to call it a night yet or just longing for a classic house party like in the good old days, then Soho’s House Party is where it’s at. Bringing cocktails and pizza with a heavy side of nostalgia, the new concept bar is the brainchild of the Stormzy and hospo group Cream. Located on Poland Street, the venue’s huge with seven floors in total from the basement to the roof terrace. This means it’s guaranteed to cater for everyone in your group, from those usually found in the kitchen to the wannabes hogging the microphone at karaoke, and even the friends who want to keep it chill kicking back on the sofa playing retro video games. Best bit? You won’t be left with the tidying up in the morning.
The Spa at 45 Park Lane is a real oasis right in the heart of London. Designed by Jouin Manku, the spa features a mega 20-metre swimming pool set against a backdrop of Venetian floral mosaics, a sauna, a steam room, a hydro pool and a state-of-the-art gym. You can indulge in ishga and Valmont facials, massages and body treatments; Mii manis and pedis; and treatments by Dr Uliana Gout in the LAM Lux suite, or you can just chill out in the Residents Lounge overlooking the pool, where you can also tuck into healthy dishes created by 45 Park Lane’s executive chef Elliott Grover.
It’s farewell to The Glory but it’s long live The Divine. Yes following the closure of legendary queer bar The Glory in Haggerston, owners Jonny Woo, John Sizzle and Colin Rothbart have opened a new spot just down the road in Dalston. The Divine is a 200-capacity bar with a bigger stage, a new light and sound system, and a packed programme, with the likes of Yshee Black, Keela Kraving, Rose Feroce, Baby Lame, and Crayola The Queen passing through. The legendary LIPSYNC1000 and MAN UP drag contests made famous at The Glory are also making the move up the road too, so we’re sure The Divine is going to be just as raucous and become just as beloved as its predecessor.
TRAFALGAR SQUARE CHRISTMAS MARKET
Trafalgar Square’s traditional German Christmas market has 34 wooden chalets stocked with high-end gifts, mulled wine, hot cider and festive food. It’s totally free to enter and while you’re there you can grab some pics with the Square’s famous Norway Spruce.
Explore a Bubble Planet
Bubble Planet, a new immersive experience centred around all things soapy and spherical, has landed in London, featuring lights, lasers, VR, and projection technology and eleven themed rooms. They include a bubble getaway with a robot-led bubble show; a giant bubble room; an ocean of balloons; a bubble bath pit; an inflatable cloud room; an infinity room; and a balloon flight simulator, and, of course, there’ll be numerous photo ops along the way – and that’s before you even reach the selfie room.
It’s balls galore at Bounce and we love it. Bounce is the home of ping pong and whether you’re super competitive or just wanna hit a few balls whilst holding a cocktail in the other hand, Bounce will ping your night to a whole new level. The Battersea Power Station location is the first Bounce in South London and it’s a whopper of a site, so you’ll have no trouble grabbing a bat and ball here. There are a bunch of games to choose from, including the classic ping pong, the immersive wonderball, beer pong and shuffle board, and you can have a post-match debrief over sourdough pizzas and a round of bevvies. And if you wanna watch the professionals in action, there are screens showing all the major sporting fixtures, so you can stay on top of the scores even if you can’t manage to rack up any points of your own.
FLASHBACK RECORDS
An outpost of the city-wide franchise, Flashback Records in Crouch End is the ideal spot for some neighbourhood vinyl shopping. The original N8 location had been the site of a record shop for a while, having been home to Listen Records before Flashback took over in 2006, so music was pretty much in the bones of the place. They’ve since moved to a bigger space to make more room for their wide selection of used and new vinyl – and we’re not complaining!
If your daily commute just isn’t enough time spent in London’s transport system, then spend a day at the London Transport Museum. The institution, which is the world’s leading museum of urban transport, showcases the past 200 years of history of travel in London as well as the stories of the people involved in it. Most of the museum’s collection is held at the depot in Acton (which is only open to the public for certain events throughout the year) but you can see everything from tube roundel designs and vintage posters to early trams and modern black cabs.
Housed inside the old St Mary-at-Lambeth church, which is where early gardener and plant hunter John Tradescant is buried, the Garden Museum is tells the story of British gardening from the 16th century to today. The museum’s collection includes gardening tools and artefacts as well as art, photography and painting, and it’s also home to the Archive of Garden Design, which features records from British garden designers from the last two centuries. You can’t very well have a museum dedicated to gardens without one of its own, and it’s a beauty – the courtyard garden, inspired by Tradescant and designed by Dan Pearson, it’s an eden of rare plants. The museum also boasts an excellent cafe, so it really is a place to make a day of it.
Explore the past 4.5 billion years of history through 80 million objects at the National History Museum (which is a renowned research centre as well as a cultural institution) whose collection covers botany, entomology, zoology, mineralogy and palaeontology. The museum is most famous for its massive skeletons hanging in the main hall, including Dippy the diplodocus and his replacement, Hope the whale, and it also hosts popular temporary exhibitions like the Wildlife Photographer of the Year show.
Founded by Sir Terence Conran in 1989, the Design Museum in Kensington (where it’s been since 2016) is the world’s leading museum dedicated to contemporary design. As well as holding a collection that spans architecture, fashion, furniture, product, graphic design and transport, the museum hosts varied exhibitions that cover all aspects of modern design, from surrealism to Amy Winehouse, sneakers to electronic music and football to Stanley Kubrick.
