Summer bank holidays in London feel like a culmination of the season: it’s London at its peak, performative best. Out east, there’s thumping music at from a stellar line up of international talent at All Points East (no dodgy André 3000 set this weekend, either) while in W10, Notting Hill Carnival takes to the streets with colour, dancing and (naturally) food.
While there’s a lot of headline activity in town, this bumper guide focuses just off the beaten track: we’ve got big and bold new restaurant openings, alongside smaller, quieter affairs, DJ days to rival the best of recent festivals, and highbrow classical music to boot.
Elsewhere, titans of US rap are in town, London has its own Fringe festival and there’s free food for your four-legged friends, just because. Music, art, culture, comedy and restaurants galore: everything that makes London special, and it’s all right here in this stacked bank holiday guide.
The hot table: Ambassadors Clubhouse
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The latest opening from JKS sees the behemoth restaurant group renovate the former Momo site on Heddon Street, with lavish interiors, a sprawling terrace and a clubby downstairs bar. The food is set to focus on regional Punjabi cuisine with early dishes revealed to include lesser seen kebabs, sigri and tawa, and curries cooked in cast-iron karahis and earthen clay matkas, alongside towering biryanis of the sort which have become staples at two-star Gymkhana. Elsewhere, nalli chapli kebabs, Punjabi atta chicken, and Haryali rara rabbit keema are all listed to feature. London’s glitziest opening in a while.
The (other) hot table: Kolomba East
Milo Brown
Kolomba helped to advance Sri Lankan food in London, and the latest outpost in east London near Spitalfields is the most refined restaurant of the emerging group yet. Whereas Kolomba in Soho feels homely, the E1 restaurant feels mature and sophisticated, designed as it was by interior studio Fare Inc. The menu has lost none of its value in the move east though, with smaller dishes starting at about £4 and bigger sharers from around £12: it means one can eat exceptionally well here for less than £40.
The drinking den: Marquee Moon
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The Cause is a popular clubby venue near docklands, but the team behind the nightclub space has set aside the DJ decks in favour of small plates and natty wines. This team has good form: it’s the same bunch who opened All My Friends in east London and the Greyhound in Peckham and now Marquee Moon, whilst also a hi-fi bar, will be the most food-forward of the lot. Drinks come courtesy Emmanuel Ferris-Hue, ex The Ned and Disrepute, and will focus on independent beers and spirits, with the cocktail menu blending classics with east Asian flavours. This includes the Pandan Old Fashioned: a bourbon mixed drink with clarified brown butter, demerara sugar, topped with a Pandan leaf.
The party (and the afterparty): RALLY
Returning to London this year is RALLY, the community-led day party with a focus on creating an atmosphere conducive to the best possible day out. DJs include Two Shell, Move D and DJ Fart in the Club with live performances from Actress and Mount Kimbie, marking this one out as a very special event. With four stages across the day, dance, electronica and house never sounded so good.
The highbrow concert: Battersea Park in Concert
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For an altogether more grown-up affair, Battersea Park in Concert returns this bank holiday weekend with proms, musical show tunes and jazz all getting the orchestral treatment over the course of three days. Myleene Klass hosts the opening day with pieces from Mozart and Tchaikovsky, before Saturday’s “Night at the Musicals” which sees performances of the best-loved tunes from Chicago, Rent, The Greatest Showman and Greece. Closing out the weekend is an afternoon of swinging jazz, afro-beats and beloved jazz standards, courtesy the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra.
The comedy fix: Camden Fringe
For anyone who didn’t schlep up to Scotland for a month of laughs, the Camden Fringe is the best place in town to find comedy this bank holiday weekend. The Camden Fringe, as in Edinburgh, takes place across a multitude of pub venues, theatre stages, comedy clubs and, frankly, anywhere a microphone can be hooked up to a speaker. The shows are a mix of work-in-progress acts and more settled performances, including the likes of the “Silliad”, an entirely improvised comic retelling of classic myths and legends. Tickets tend to be keenly priced, from as little as £5, so it’s one not to miss.
The gig: Killer Mike at Scala
Exterior shot of Scala in Kings Cross, London.
Unsplash / Mathew Browne
Killer Mike won the 2024 Grammy for rap album of the year and his upcoming Scala gig marks not only his first UK concert in a year, but the first since his latest album “Michael” received its awards nod. Killer Mike’s flows span topics of racial injustice, his Atlanta upbringing and life in post-Trump America. His career has ebbed and flowed of late, but this is his first solo album in 11 years and while Killer Mike won’t sell out stadium tours, Scala will no doubt feel electric as he takes the stage.
The art fix: Moco Museum
Moco
Central London’s newest art space, Moco, has opened in a tricky site on Marble Arch, next door to the short-lived Hard Rock Hotel, the short-lived Mound and the Frameless art installation (which feels as though you’re stepping into a screensaver). Moco has banked on the biggest global names in contemporary art to get the punters in though, meaning its inaugural exhibition sees works of Jean-Michel Basquiat alongside Andy Warhol, KAWS, Pablo Picasso and Keith Haring. The space is able to accommodate such big hitters thanks to a blend of physical and digital artworks and with a huge new Marina Abramovic exhibition planned for September, this new gallery going all in from the off.
GDIF
The Greenwich + Docklands International Festival (GDIF) is a multi-disciplinary, multi-faceted, multi-hyphenate exhibition, spanning public art installations, dances, circus acts and plenty more, opening this weekend. From Life Lines, which sees five parkour performers traverse the docklands, to Thaw, an eight-hour aerial show charting one performer’s battle against a huge melting block of ice, the diversity of live theatre, artworks and performance art is truly unique. Some performances are ticketed, while others are available to view publicly at certain times throughout the day.
The food festival: Hampton Court Palace Food Festival
Hayley Bray Photography
The Hampton Court Palace Food Festival returns this year withmore than 150 vendors and exhibitors lining the London palace grounds. From sushi to British cheeses and from wine to whiskies, the variety of stalls will doubtless keep the family happy as you pick through the epicurean offerings surrounding the historic Henry VIII palace.
The free day out: Dog Food market
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There’s really no escaping the fact that pets are expensive. For a few days this weekend though, your pets’ food bill at least should be a little lower as the vendors at Vauxhall’s Market Place are slinging freebies the way of your four-legged friends. Yorkie-shire pudding from Yorkshire Burrito, hound-dock & chips from Wicked Fish and pawsome poke from Inamo Sukoshi are just a few of the pun-riddled pet-friendly dishes your pooch can enjoy over the weekend.
August 24-26, Market Place Vauxhall, 7 South Lambeth Place, SW8 1SP, marketplaceuk.com
The ticket to book now (for later): All Jokes Aside by Kindred
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Kindred, the members club-turned-community space, is once again set to host its popular comedy night, All Jokes Aside, on August 28. Comedians Axel Blake, winner of 2022 Britain’s Got Talent, Leah Davies, and Kane Brown are all set to attend, offering what the venue calls “intimate fireside vibes”. There’s an option to pair with cocktails and food from the Cellar at Kindred’s kitchen too, before ending the evening with DJs. Don’t miss this.
