The sweet, sweet weekend. The land of no alarms, no commutes, no colleagues
Obviously, you want to make the most of this precious time, to squeeze every last drop out of the days before you even have to contemplate going to work on Monday morning. So, we’ve rounded up all the best things to do in London this weekend into one handy place, meaning you can go from bottomless brunch to that new exhibition with ease.
After a long and cold winter, we’re embracing all things spring – the weather is still changeable so we’ll not be up on the rooftop bars and out in the beer gardens just yet but we’re counting down the days until al fresco drinking and dining is back.
Still looking for things to do in London this weekend? Check out what’s on at the theatre in London, find the best London bars or hit up one of the hottest new London restaurants. The temperatures are struggling to climb again since those two warm days we had last week but fear not, because there’s plenty happening that doesn’t require being outside. From the opening of a long-awaited new museum to a massive taco festival, here’s what’s worth your time this weekend.
Check Out the New V&A East Museum
The V&A East in Stratford is opening this weekend and the opening exhibition is The Music Is Black: A British Story, which celebrates 125 years of Black music in Britain and showcases the contribution that it has made to culture both here and around the world. The immersive exhibition will use a mix of never-before-seen items, instruments, equipment, personal possessions, photography, film, and fashion to take visitors through a range of genres, including jazz, reggae, 2 tone, drum & bass, jungle, trip hop, garage, dubstep, grime and drill. The stories of a whole range of musicians, from early pioneers like Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Emile Ford and Janet Kay to pioneers like Goldie, Massive Attack, Jah Shaka and Saxon Sound to today’s groundbreaking artists like Sampha, Kano, Stormzy, Little Simz, Ezra Collective and FKA Twigs, will be explored in the show.
Sat 18th & Sun 19th April 2026
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, E20
vam.ac.uk
Head to Brixton For This Massive Taco Festival
Listen up taco fans! The London Taco Experience is back for 2026 and it’s taking over Freight Brixton, London’s biggest rooftop bar, with some of the city’s best taco traders in tow. Run by Street Eats, the fest will feature tacos from the likes of MexClub, Los Gordos, Pako Taco, Taco Bros, Polanco, TACOS MX OFFICIAL, Carne, and Hungry Taco, and there’ll also be a hot sauce showcase for those who want to turn up the heat. The margaritas and micheladas will be flowing, a mariachi band will be playing, and DJs will be spinning to keep the party vibes going all day long.
Sat 18th April 2026, 3pm – 10pm
33 Brixton Station Road, London, SW9 8PB
@streeteatshq
Judge the Best Cheesecake in London at This Cheesecake-Off
Countertalk is bringing The Cheesecake-Off 2026 to Crate Brewery in Hackney Wick on Sunday 19th April, where some of London’s best restaurant and bakery teams will battle it out for the title of the city’s ultimate cheesecake champion. Following the Countertalk Tiramisu-Off in 2021, this latest cook-off will see Big Mamma Group, Cakes & Bubbles by Albert Adrià, Honey & Co, Barrafina, Bad Boy Pizza Society, Donostia and Elliot’s serving their signature cheesecakes for guests to try and vote on. The winner will be decided by a judging panel including Ravneet Gill, alongside a live People’s Choice vote.
Sun 19th April 2026, 3pm – 6pm
Crate, Unit 7 Queen’s Yard, London E9 5EN
countertalk.co.uk
Spice it Up at the Phed Mark Pop-Up
If you want pad kaprao – the popular Thai street food dish made with stir-fried meat or seafood, holy basil, rice and crispy fried eggs – in Bangkok Phed Mark is one of the best places to get it. For two months this spring, Phed Mark will be taking over Platapian in Soho. Starters, like spring rolls and pork satay, will come from Platapian, with pad kaprao taking centre stage as the main offering, which will come in beef, chicken or veggie versions and varying spice levels. Phed Mark will also be doing a London special of stir-fried mama noodles with lobster, holy basil and a fried egg, especially for the takeover too.
Sat 18th & Sun 19th April 2026
15 Greek Street, London W1D 4DP
platapiansoho.com
Celebrate Three Sheets Turning Ten
Three Sheets is turning ten, and it’s celebrating by teaming up with a legend, literally. This April, Max and Noel Venning are marking a decade of the bar with a two-part collaboration alongside Lucas and Geoff Leong of Dumplings’ Legend, bringing dim sum and tea-infused cocktails together across both venues. There’ll be anniversary specials running at both sites from Wednesday 1st April. At Dumplings’ Legend, diners will be able to order a 10 Year Anniversary Milk Oolong Old Fashioned, created by Three Sheets, while over at Three Sheets, Dumplings’ Legend’s spicy duck dim sum will join Head Chef Ethan Pack’s regular bar menu. Sounds legendary to us.
Sat 18th & Sun 19th April 2026
Three Sheets Soho + Dumplings’ Legends
threesheets-bar.com
See Aidan Turner and Lesley Manville on Stage
Marianne Elliot is directing a new production of classic French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, adapted by Christopher Hampton at the National Theatre. Aidan Turner, Lesley Manville, and Monica Barbaro are starring in the tale of love, power and social warfare, that sees aristocrats Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont turn on each other in a game of seduction and revenge.
Sat 18th April 2026
National Theatre, London SE1 9PX
nationaltheatre.org.uk
See New Works by David Hockney at Serpentine
David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting at Serpentine North is the artist’s first exhibition at the gallery. The show features new works from Hockney – five still lifes and five portraits of people in his close circle – all sharing a similar frontal composition and a recurring gingham tablecloth motif. The gallery will also display Hockney’s ‘A Year in Normandie’, a ninety-metre-long frieze inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, depicting the changing of the seasons at his former studio in the French region. Working on his iPad, Hockney produced over a hundred images during the first Covid lockdown in 2020, recording the changes in light and weather during the spring. As lockdown lifted and the seasons shifted, he continued to digitally capture the whole cycle of the year, showcasing the ways that art and technology can come together and highlighting the beauty in the everyday. The whole digital print will be shown in the North Gallery, with a large-scale printed mural highlighting a scene from the spring cycle being presented in the garden.
Sat 18th & Sun 19th April 2026
Serpentine North Gallery, W Carriage Dr, London W2 2AR
serpentinegalleries.org
Watch Rebecca Lucy Taylor on Stage
After a stint playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret and launching her latest album A Complicated Woman with theatrical shows at the Duke of York’s Theatre, Rebecca Lucy Taylor, aka Self Esteem, is back on stage this year. She’s taking the lead role in the 50th anniversary revival of David Hare’s Teeth ‘N’ Smiles, which follows Maggie Frisby, the lead singer of a failing rock band as the 60s comes to an end. As well as playing Maggie, Taylor is also contributing original music to the show, joining the existing music and lyrics by Nick and Tony Bicât.
Sat 18th April 2026
Duke of York’s Theatre, St Martin’s Ln, London WC2N 4BG
teethnsmilesplay.com
Get 50% Off Your Bill at Aram by Imad Alarnab
Imad Alarnab, the founder of Imad’s Syrian Kitchen, along with his co-founders Michalis Ntais and Christos Georgogiannopoulos, is celebrating the food of the Eastern Mediterranean at his Somerset House cafe, deli and restaurant Aram. The light-flooded space overlooking the river serves baked goods, salads, brekkies, lunches and other dishes inspired by Syria, Turkey, Cyprus, Jordan and beyond. Here’s how you can get 50% off.
Sat 18th & Sun 19th April 2026
Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA
arambyimad.co.uk
See Portraits by Catherine Opie at the National Portrait Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery is hosting the first major museum exhibition of American artist Catherine Opie’s work in the UK. Her work explores topics like home, family, intimacy, identity, politics and power structures and over the past 30 years, she’s photographed queer communities, surfers, political crowds, children, high-school footballers, and often herself too. In Catherine Opie: To Be Seen, works from across her career will be displayed, including her first major piece ‘Being and Having’, her Hans Holbein-inspired portraits of LGBTQ+ friends and her Baroque-like portraits of artists.
Sat 18th & Sun 19th April 2026
St. Martin’s Pl, London WC2H 0HE
npg.org.uk
Check Out the Biggest Ever Tracey Emin Exhibition at Tate Modern
Tracey Emin: A Second Life, the biggest show of Emin’s career, features over 90 works, including paintings, videos, neons, sculptures and textiles, showcasing the way she uses art and the female body to explore love, passion, trauma and healing. The show opens with her early work, including tiny photographs of her art school paintings from the 1980s and pieces from her first solo exhibition at White Cube. Many pieces connected to Margate feature in the exhibition, alongside works that address her experience of sexual assault and abortion. Her seminal installations, ‘Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made’ and the Turner-Prize nominated ‘My Bed’, act as a bridge from Emin’s first life to her post-illness and surgery second life. This second life is represented with her large-scale paintings, and pieces that explore her experiences of cancer, surgery and disability, including her 2024 bronze sculpture ‘Ascension’ and a new documentary showing the stoma she now lives with.
Sat 18th & Sun 19th April 2026
Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG
tate.org.uk
Grab a Slice From Hot Saint Pizza
After cutting his teeth at Dough Hands, Tom Budakan is running his own pizza concept (and continuing the tradition of pizza pop-ups in pubs) with Hot Saint Pizza at The Old Queen’s Head in Islington. His NY-style pies are made using high-protein Canadian flour and rye, with the dough being left to ferment for 48 hours, resulting in a light, crispy crust. Toppings-wise, he’s doing a Spicy Hawaiian (with San Marzano tomato, fior di latte, guanciale & smoked ham hock, pineapple, smoked chilli and jalapeños), a Meatball Ricotta (with San Marzano tomato, fior di latte, house meatballs, ricotta and parmesan), and a Vodka Pesto (with vodka sauce, stracciatella, pesto and parmesan).
Sat 18th & Sun 19th April 2026
44 Essex Rd, London N1 8LN
@hotsaintpizza
Find Out How Wallace & Gromit Come to Life at This Exhibition
Dive into the world of Aardman, the studio responsible for some of the most-loved characters of all time, with the Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends exhibition at the Young V&A. The show, coinciding with the studio’s 50th anniversary, will take you behind the scenes of the animation process, covering development, storyboarding, model making, filming and post-production, exploring how the likes of Morph, Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep come to life. Over 150 items, across sketches, concept art, puppets, props, scripts, and set models, will be on display, including development sketches for Morph; Wallace & Gromit’s motorbike and sidecar from Vengeance Most Fowl; a storyboard for the train chase in The Wrong Trousers; and set pieces from Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
Sat 18th & Sun 19th April 2026
Young V&A, Cambridge Heath Rd, London E2 9PA
vam.ac.uk
Watch Cynthia Erivo Take on Dracula
Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Dracula, adapted and directed by Kip Williams, is premiering at the Noël Coward Theatre, with Cynthia Erivo starring in the one-actor production. It’s Erivo’s first time back on the stage in almost a decade and she’ll be playing all 23 characters in this radical reinterpretation of Bram Stoker’s gothic tale. The show will be the final (and most ambitious) in Williams’ gothic trilogy, following The Picture of Dorian Gray and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Sat 18th April 2026
85-88 St Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4AU
draculawestend.com
