We've curated 31 experiences in London, guaranteed to make you love the next few months.
1. Pies, Pints, and Peculiar Pubs
Discover why no other country does a pub quite like we do. This walking tour not only includes a fascinating history but a pint at the beginning and a pie and a pint at the end. Cosy experiences in London don't get much better than this.
2. The Vyktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities
The macabre, the surreal, the banal and the beautiful. It’s all here in a basement in Hackney, from two-headed kittens to McDonalds Happy Meal toys - open your mind to it all; the Vyktor Wynd Museum seeks not to educate, but to subvert. Oh, and there’s a free cup of tea included with your entry fee.
3. Happiness Forgets
A secret little cocktail den. Happiness Forgets is the bar to take your best friend. This candlelit, basement bar in Hoxton serves killer cocktails - the best in London according to Georgio (our Head of Experiences at HQ) - so there you go.
4. Cinnamon Kitchen Curry
Curated by The Indytute this experience can't be found anywhere else and is our best seller. A sumptuous 9-dish sharing supper or 3-course lunch at Cinnamon Kitchen in the shadow of Battersea Power Station.
5. Sit on the Iconic Friends Sofa
To celebrate 25 years since Friends graced our screens, the iconic sofa from Central Perk is taking in the sights. Two of the thirty replica sofas are coming to London, one in Abbey Road and the other outside the London Eye. Here’s your chance to make ironic comments while drinking coffee from primary colour mugs…
6. Cheese & Fondue
Gooey, cheesy, dripping fondue. Cheese. The comfort food of Kings. Paired with wine and a mate - what could be cosier?! Check out our exclusive experience in London with The Cheese Bar
7. Dennis Servers House
A breathtaking time capsule and immersive experience in Spitalfields, it's open all year round but if you are quick on the button you can secure tickets for Dennis Servers annual Christmas installation, from November 26th the house will be aglow with festive glory.
8. Candlelight Club
Step up that date night or put those Swing Dancing moves to practice and get yourself down to the Candlelight Club - a pop up 1920's speakeasy. Its so undercover that you won't know the location until 2 days before and as the name suggests the venue is entirely candlelit. Expect fortunetellers, jazz players to burlesque dancers and hooch-laden cocktails.
9. Japanese Whisky
Pick a rainy day for this treat (and let's face it, there might be a few) - step into Map Maison, a cosy bar in Hackney and discover the biggest collection of Japanese Whisky in London. This incredible London experience includes tastings, history and cocktail making - you won't want to leave.
10. V&A's Tim Walker Exhibition
Head to the V&A for a little bit of escapism. Tim Walker's exhibition at the V&A is must-see, blurring fantasy and reality to create pictures that are surreal, lavish, humorous and touching. Over 300 items will be exhibited, encompassing photographs and the V&A objects that inspired them, short films, photographic sets and props, scrapbooks and sketches.
11. Bustronome Dinner
See the twinkling lights of London while tucking into a 6-course, fine dining dinner (or lunch) - aboard on a bus! The food is fabulous the views are panoramic in this London experience. The roof of the bus is customised with glass for your 360 view. And .... all the cutlery is magnetic so you won't be fishing about under the table for your lost fork, phew!
12. Brick Lane Sunday Market
Lose yourself to hours ferreting around the various markets surrounding Brick Lane; whether it’s vintage furniture, kitsch collectables or bric a brac, you never know what treasure will be unearthed in the organised chaos. There’s Bangladeshi curry for lunch or a smoked salmon bagel from Beigel Bake, open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Discover our other favourite markets here >>
13. Make Sloe Gin
You’ll thank yourself for it next year as you fortify yourself from a hip flask of hedgerow nectar on a frosty walk…spend your weekend on the forage for some sloes: add sugar, gin and patience.
14. Gothic Splendour at Brompton Cemetery
Wrap up and get out. Indulge some gothic fantasies and take in the faded grandeur of one of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ cemeteries of London. Originally built in 1840, Brompton was one of seven burial grounds to be built to deal with the burgeoning population of London. Show your respect and wander in contemplation through the shaded groves and hidden paths.
15. Maggie Jones in Kensington
Maggie Jones has been a favourite with locals for over 40 years. Hidden down a cul-du-sac between Kensington High Street and Kensington Church Street. They have magnums of house wine and you only pay for what you drink. There aren't many of these authentic and romantic British restaurants left in the heart of West London.
16. Olafur Eliasson @ The Tate Modern
Remember the glowing sun at the Tate Modern that drew winter-bitten Londoners into its solar sphere? That was courtesy of Olaf Oliasson and he’s back, introducing natural phenomena into the gallery space and exploring his relationship with society and the environment. He’s also taken over the Terrace Bar which will be serving the same organic vegetarian food that is produced in his Berlin studio.
17. Cinema Supper Club
Kino Vino is the only, pop up, cinema supper club you should go to this year. Cocktails and candlelight on arrival before discovering an art-house film then settling into a divine 3-course dinner, cooked up by an acclaimed chef. The next dates are October 24th and December 19th for their Christmas special.
18. Rioja Festival
A whole festival dedicated to the region of Rioja! Discover 100 of the best wines from the area chosen by a panel of experts. They'll be informal speed tastings and delicious food from BBQ tacos to tapas. All your tastings and food are included in your £40 ticket - so tuck in on October 17th at a secret location the South Bank.
19. Spiritland
The mecca for music lovers. Spiritland is a listening bar (no dancing please), just sit and listen to your favourite vinyl just how the artist would have wanted you to hear it while sipping a 'Clover Leaf' cocktail.
20. Pottery Workshop
Pottery is having something of a renaissance in the home. And so it should. Art created from a lump of moist clay, fashioned on a wheel to produce something totally unique to the potter who made it. Truly no two pots will ever be the same. We don’t like to overuse the word mindful, but this is a craft where you can find the hours passing without thought as you tune into the clay.
21. Read The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Take time out. Cosy up in one of these London pubs, in front of an open fire with a great book. If we really are going to hell in a handcart, let it be to the tune of Margaret Atwood’s vision of the misogynistic theocracy of the future. It’s an astonishing 34 years since The Handmaid’s Tale was published and chillingly, it has never seemed more relevant. Her follow up, ‘The Testaments’ revisits her dystopian republic fifteen years on. Hold on to your hats.
22. Autumn Colours in Kyoto Gardens
For a zen experience to banish the urban decay, look no further than this little enclave of Holland Park, Kyoto Gardens. Built in 1992 as a celebration of Japan Festival, it’s a wonderfully peaceful place to banish the ants from your pants. Go to revel in the fiery scarlets and burnished gold of the maple trees…there’s koi carp in the pond and you might even see a peacock.
23. Zetter Town House Marylebone
We're loving Time Out's description of the Zetter Town House... "Marylebone’s Zetter Townhouse is like a cross between a boozy version of the Sir John Soane’s Museum and an extravagant country pile." Book us in for Winter please...
24. Experimental Cocktail Club
Another clandestine find, ECC wears its chic behind its deceptively shabby peeling front door. But with cosy seating, plush decor and a piano, this is a beguiling find in Chinatown with cocktails to put some va va voom into the witching hour.
25. Mini Cooper Gin Tour
Whizz from bar to bar in a souped-up Mini Cooper with your hipster guide and driver. Discover gin bar that boasts over 1400 G&T's and the capitals first dedicated gin distillery.
26. Emerge Festival - late openings 28th/29th September
What happens to London when the lights go out? There’s life in these old buildings and Emerge is encouraging you to make the most of it. Breathe these stones to life with an eclectic choice of behind-the curtain moments; Code breaking in the Jewel Tower? A wartime tea dance at the Fusiliers Museum? Or full theatrical immersion into regency high society in The House of Scandal at Apsley House…
27. Candle Making Workshop
Get your glow on this Autumn with a candle making workshop. There are candles and there are soy wax candles. We like the kind of candle that is so smart that really you are rather loath to light it. In fact, there is a whole language based around lighting a candle. Did you know about tunnelling, optimum burn time and the full melt?
28. Street Food at Seven Dials Market
Autumn is the time for welcoming gluttony back into your life. Cheese! Where have you been? Deep-fried loveliness - welcome back into the fold my friend. And in this new venture from KERB, you will have the opportunity to do just that. Choose from a fabulous line up of street traders and wash it down with some locally produced booze. THIS is wellness.
29. Fermenting Workshop
Winter is coming... don't fear the germs, annihilate them with the gut flora of a superhero. Learn the ancient art of fermenting - you'll go home with recipes and jars of delicious preserved lemons (which could make rather nice presents with your new found hobby).
30. Top Secret Comedy Club
Hard to know when to shout about something that considers itself ‘Top Secret’ but when the wisecracks are this good, it’s too selfish to keep it a secret. The Top Secret Comedy Club has big name comedians popping in to try out fresh material, festival preview shows and some old stalwarts, what better way to look on the bright side of life? Cheap bar too.
31. Cindy Sherman @ National Portrait Gallery
Who lies behind the mask? Sherman’s extreme self-portraiture asks us some searching questions about beauty, artifice and the person beneath the facade. In our times of celebrity worship and the pursuit of youth, her photographs are more relevant than ever. Discuss over a Negroni in the NPG bar overlooking one of London’s best-known skylines.
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FURTHER READING
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