Cultural, Culinary and Creative Things To Do In Jul
We are now in the full swing of Summer, so we can't just wait around hoping something or other will pop up and entertain us. We must be the masters of our destinies and choose something delicious or fascinating to sweep us out of our reality, even if only for an hour or two. So, in that vein, we have cobbled together a list of marvellous activities to take your mind off elections and other such troubling situations.
That said, we obviously want everyone to do their civic duty and vote on Thursday, July 4th.
Peace didn’t know what she needed when her father died. Then she found Bolu, her half-brother from Nigeria she didn’t know existed. Despite her mother’s concerns and encouraged by her partner, Peace invites Bolu to England. Filled with grief and a thousand questions, his arrival feels like something clicking into place. My Father’s Fable is a gripping story of grief, belonging, and a family on the edge from Alfred Fagon Award winner Faith Omole with a cast including BAFTA-winner Rakie Ayola.
William Balthazar Rose is infamous for his “Cook series” of paintings, which play out the weird and wonderful intrigues of man. Alongside, he has also extended his humour and observations towards his love of the tennis game, and brought his playful ideas to the subject in his inimitable way.
To celebrate the launch in the U.K. Lucy and Caroline are having an exhibition at 8 Holland Street’s new gallery. Of photographs by Lucy Laucht and paintings by Caroline Popham for the launch of Il Dolce Far Niente travel book.
RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival epitomises an English summer garden party with gardens to admire, talks to inspire, food to enjoy and lots of plants, ideas and tips to take home. RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival is an annual flower show, stretching over 31 acres and attracting around 120,000 visitors. It is a celebration of gardening set in the historic grounds of Hampton Court Palace within easy reach of central London.
Plates was born from a lifelong fascination with food, a deep appreciation of nature, flavour and a passion for sustainable craft. Siblings Kirk and Keeley Haworth combined these things to create something new in hospitality that shows a wider audience how versatile food can be, both on and off the plate.
Their terrace BBQs are back for 2024 with an updated name and an additional XL Green Egg to play with, courtesy of their friends at Highland Park Whisky. Join them for a rustic, abundant meal packed full of seasonal ingredients, cooked over live fire using the Green Egg and their trusty Firemade Portico grill. The aim is to make the events as accessible as possible with a very keenly priced £35 set menu.
After the End of History British Working Class Photography 1989–2024, 3rd July – 14th September, Focal Point Gallery, The Forum, Elmer Square, Southend-on-Sea, SS1 1NS
Focal Point Gallery is delighted to present ‘After the End of History: Contemporary Working Class Photography 1989–2024‘ which will explore contemporary British working class photography since 1989. Instead of looking at working-class people, the exhibition will explore life through the lenses of working-class practitioners, who have not only turned their gaze towards their own communities but also out towards the world.
This Unlocked walking tour is designed to complement the course ‘London: A Proud City 1851- 2000' led by Mike Berlin. The V&A famously traces its origins to the 1851 Great Exhibition held in Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace. This walk will reveal the transformation of South Kensington from the semi-rural court suburb around Kensington Palace into the grandeur of late Victorian Albertopolis, named in honour of Prince Albert, envisaged as a centre of culture and learning.
The Idler Festival is back for a weekend of talks, workshops, comedy, music, philosophy and merriment in the idyllic surroundings of Fenton House and Gardens. There’ll be dancing on the lawn, lounging to DJs in the 400-year-old orchard and harpsichord recitals in the house. Plus beekeeping, ukulele, bibliotherapy, life-enriching talks, workshops and walks. The Idler Festival is their biggest annual gathering. It’s a chance to hang out with fellow idlers in the surroundings of Fenton House and its bucolic walled gardens.
You’ll be entertained and enlightened by their favourite comedians, writers, musicians, philosophers and tutors. Headliners include Zadie Smith, Rowan Williams, Dominic West, Tim Key, Rosie Holt, DJ Paulette, Nina Stibbe, Arthur Smith, Olivia Laing, and Georgia Mann.
Barbie®: The Exhibition, 5th July 2024 - 23rd February 2025, the Design Museum, 224 – 238 Kensington High Street, London, W8 6AG
Opening to coincide with the 65th anniversary of the Barbie brand in 2024, the exhibition will explore the story of Barbie through a design lens, including fashion, architecture, furniture and vehicle design.
Highlights include a rare first edition of the very first doll released by Mattel in 1959 (‘Number 1 Barbie’), the groundbreaking Day to Night Barbie from 1985 and the best-selling Barbie of all time, 1992’s Totally Hair Barbie which sold over 10 million across the globe.
Luke Turner looks at the art of Tom of Finland and Beryl Cook through the bisexual gaze. Society has, historically, forced the bisexual to peer out of a closet of loneliness, frustrated desire, and taboo, creating lurid stereotypes that they're oversexed, rapacious. Therefore, the outré bawdiness in the work in this exhibition has a curious, specific appeal to the bisexual eye that roves and wanders one step removed from hetero conventionality and queer liberation. This event forms part of their Saturday Talks series, in which artists, curators and writers lead personal responses to Beryl Cook / Tom of Finland. These talks, readings and performances are an opportunity to explore specific aspects of the exhibition, from 'bad taste' to class tourism, masculinity and sexuality in the military, and London's lost queer spaces.
The Grand Finale – an exciting day out for all the family. Heath Street is closed to traffic and will be lined with over 100 stalls selling artisan crafts, designer fashions, and international food and drink. Give yourself plenty of time. A fantastic day out for the whole family, there’s entertainment for everyone including a funfair, the Sport Zone, and a Circus School for children. All this to a background of great live music on THE BIG STAGE sponsored by Streathers - you may want to dance in the street.
The exhibition, 'After the Storm' by Mohammed Sami, will mark a decade of Blenheim Art Foundation's award-winning programme of contemporary art. Through exploring retroactive memories, his paintings capture a world shaped not just by the weight of the past but also the present, creating scenarios that are often left to the viewer to interpret through the lens of their own experiences.
On Sculpture: Cornelia Parker And Veronica Ryan, 10th July, 6.30 pm - 7.45pm, Royal Academy, Benjamin West Lecture Theatre, Burlington Gardens, 6 Burlington Gardens, London, W1J 0PE
Join two of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary artists, Cornelia Parker RA and Veronica Ryan RA, as they explore sculpture and the role of art in the public realm. Artists Cornelia Parker and Veronica Ryan transform the ways in which they understand sculpture. In this conversation they will come together to discuss its place in society – both now, and in the future.
The Hot Wing King By Katori Hall, 11th July - 14th September, Dorfman Theatre, National Theatre, South Bank, London, SE1 9PX
Things are heating up in Memphis as the annual Hot Wing Festival rolls into town. With their sights set on the crown, Cordell, his partner Dwayne and friends Isom and Big Charles team up again as the New Wing Order, with a new attitude and a mouth-watering new wing recipe. But after an unexpected family emergency, their plans get derailed as the men navigate the meaning of love, family and staying true to yourself. Full of laughter, song and healing, Katori Hall’s (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, The Mountaintop) Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy makes its London debut in a fiery new production directed by Roy Alexander Weise (‘Master Harold’… and the boys, Nine Night).
An Evening In Mali Featuring Fatoumata Diawara + Amadou & Mariam, 12th July, 7:30 pm, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA
Their opening Friday night is an unmissable celebration of the brightest and boldest Malian music, featuring rising star Fatoumata Diawara and the legendary duo, Amadou & Mariam. Fatoumata Diawara continues to innovate on each successive project, rewriting the rules and rewiring traditional African musical forms and rhythms with unexpected colours from Afrobeat, jazz, pop, electro and even hip hop. One of Africa’s most successful and popular musical pairings, Amadou & Mariam’s story is one of the most inspiring tales in the music world; a love affair that propelled two veterans of Mali’s music industry, who first recorded together in the 1970s, into the charts and around the globe.
Now, across multiple weekends, they put on incredible shows featuring legendary headliners and support from today's rising stars, plus great food and drink and hospitality packages. The legendary singer, songwriter and storyteller Stevie Nicks will perform on Friday 12th July. “Anything that draws me back to London ~ and therefore to England ~ fills my heart with joy. And to be able to visit and make music… is always a dream come true…” says Stevie Nicks. With Special Guests Brandi Carlile, Anna Calvi, Paris Paloma, Baby Queen, Nina Nesbitt, Siobhan Winifred, Catty, Talia Rae, Stevie Bill and Nina Versyp.
Join them for a special evening to learn about the gardens of the Bloomsbury group. To coincide with their current exhibition, Gardening Bohemia: Bloomsbury Women Outdoors, join them for a special evening with current and former head gardeners Troy Scott Smith of Sissinghurst Castle, Sara Jackson of Monk’s House, and Hannah Gardner, formerly of Garsington Manor to hear about the gardens of the Bloomsbury group. Chaired by Olivia Laing.
Leonora Carrington: Rebel Visionary, 12th July - 26th October, Newlands House Gallery, Pound Street, Petworth, West Sussex, GU28 0DX
In May 2024 Leonora Carrington became the most successful female artist in UK history, in terms of sales: her painting Les Distractions de Dagobert (1945) was sold at Sotheby’s in New York for USD$28.5 million. Her legacy is now on a new footing. This summer, Newlands House Gallery in Petworth, Sussex brings together a wide range of Carrington’s work, to show the span of her output across a wide range of media. Loans will include a wall of masks; a series of masks made for a theatrical production of The Tempest in the 1950s; original lithographs; tapestries; sketches; sculptures; jewellery – and of course paintings. Together they will show the full range of Carrington’s prolific and original output, across a career that spanned eight decades.
Nestled in the heart of London's vibrant Notting Hill neighbourhood, their new flagship restaurant and cocktail bar combines creative vegetable-forward dining, a chic and sophisticated ambiance, and a dedicated commitment to low waste and sustainability. Showcasing that sustainable dining can be both flavoursome and fashionable, their stunning new restaurant and cocktail bar interior will feature modern, elegant, and earthy design elements, fusing luxury fashion with warm and generous hospitality.
An exhibition featuring work in a variety of media by students graduating from the Diploma in Art and Contemporary Craft, Fine Art Graduate Diploma, and MFA programmes at West Dean College.
Hot Border will feature a broad range of work by emerging artists, working across a variety of media including sculpture, installation, printmaking, painting, film, ceramics, and textiles. There will be an opportunity to meet the artists at the late opening on Thursday, 18th July, 6-8pm.
The Grapes of Wrath, 17 July - 14 September, Lyttelton Theatre, National Theatre, South Bank, London, SE1 9PX
The Grapes of Wrath is Based on the novel by John Steinbeck, adapted by Frank Galati. The great American novel reimagined. Forced to travel West in search of a promised land, the Joad family embark on an epic journey across America in the hope of finding work and a new life in California. Their story is one of false hopes, wrong turns and broken dreams, but also a hymn to human kindness and a tribute to the endurance of the human spirit. Carrie Cracknell (Julie, The Deep Blue Sea) directs Frank Galati’s award-winning adaptation of John Steinbeck’s masterpiece. Tony Award-winner Cherry Jones (The Glass Menagerie, Succession) is joined by Harry Treadaway (The Chemistry of Death, Penny Dreadful) in this moving and deeply atmospheric story of a struggle against a hostile climate to find a place to call home.
Luciano Giubbilei is the visionary garden designer whose projects have taken him around the world, from the rolling hills of Tuscany to the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia. Fergus Garrett is one of the UK’s most innovative and influential gardeners, and has led Great Dixter for over 20 years. Close collaborators for many years, they are united by their understanding of gardens as spaces for experimentation and evolution. Both are bound by a deep respect of tradition but a refusal to be constrained by it. Together they will explore what drives their creative process and where they turn to for sources of inspiration.
Festival of the Garden brings together today’s most pioneering gardeners and designers, artists and activists, writers and musicians to reimagine our relationship with the land. Join them for their main stage events on their colourful outdoor stage in The Yard, or spend the day soaking up the festival atmosphere and enjoy our free drop-in fringe programme in the Orchard – full of demos and practical tips for gardening in your own space. Browse plant stalls from leading specialist nurseries and curated garden stalls with ceramics, natural dyes and garden tools. Caccia & Tails will be serving a delicious summer menu of seasonal food, made here at Charleston from locally sourced ingredients.
Ottoline Morrell: Life on a Grand Scale - Talk, 19th July, 12 pm - 1 pm, The Garden Museum, Lambeth Palace Road, London, SE1 7LB
Join author Miranda Seymour to hear the story of how the Ottoline and her husband Philip came to Garsington Manor and created a garden, based on Ottoline’s early time at a ravishing Italian villa which had a garden that provided the template, to which the Morrells added their own glorious and sometimes idiosyncratic touches.
Writer Nathalie Olah leads a talk in response to the art of Beryl Cook. Situating Cook in the British mid-century, Olah explores the artist’s work in relation to the academic interests of that time — namely pop-culture as a relatively new phenomenon, and the spread of American soft power through its entertainment machine. With reference to writers and theorists including Raymond Williams, Richard Haggard and Stuart Hall, Olah offers a re-reading of Cook’s practice.
Discover the life, loves and influence of Mabel Pryde Nicholson, a talented and versatile painter in turn-of-the-century Britain. This summer, The Grange Gallery will present a landmark exhibition tracing the life and art of the painter Mabel Pryde Nicholson (1871-1918) – ‘Prydie’ to her family and friends.
For more than a century, Mabel’s story has been overshadowed by the artistic success of her husband, the society portrait painter and still life virtuoso William Nicholson, and her sons, the pioneer of British abstraction Ben, and modernist architect Kit. Set within the historical context of Edwardian Britain and France, Prydie: the life and art of Mabel Pryde Nicholson – will be the first exhibition of the artist’s paintings for more than 100 years. Several were made at The Grange itself – the Nicholsons’ home between 1909 and 1914.
Curated by David Bomford and Lucy Davies, the show brings together nearly 30 objects from private collections and national institutions including portraits of the artist by her husband William and poignant letters, photographs and personal objects, almost all of which have been unseen since Mabel’s death in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918.
A traditional Village Fete with a Soho Twist! Some events include the Soho Waiters Race, 6 hours of live music and The French House Bar, Tug of War, Soho Police vs Soho Fire Service, Raffle Draw and much more.
Soph and Adam met whilst working as food writers at BBC Goodfood and Olive magazine, what started as a climbing friendship (hilarious given that Adam has a fear of heights!) turned into a marriage and now a son! They both have over 10 years experience working in food. Adam in Michelin star restaurants and as a baker before becoming a food writer. Soph as a private chef, caterer and cookbook author. Scramble LDN is the combination of both our passions and expertise. They put on supper clubs and events, as well as catering weddings and parties and between them we have authored 17 cookbooks and written thousands of recipes for BBC Goodfood, Olive Magazine, Mob, Sainsburys, Tesco, Co-op, Ocado etc. They love being chefs and food writers and Scramble is the meeting of those two, allowing them to work together on exciting things.
Peter Kennard: Archive of Dissent Exhibition, 23rd July - 19th January 2025, Galleries 5, 6 & 7, Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London, E1 7QX
Archive of Dissent marks one of the most extensive displays of Kennard’s work to date and has been specially conceived for Whitechapel Gallery. Taking over three galleries within the former Whitechapel Library space, the exhibition brings together work from across the artist’s prolific and influential five-decade career, offering an important repository of social and political history while illuminating an artistic practice that has continuously countered and protested the status quo.
Join them for a weekend of discovery set within the stunning surrounds of Henham Park. Let your curiosity guide you through the very best in music, dance, comedy, poetry, theatre, literature, podcasts, family activities and wellness.
Get ready for an explosion of flavours, spices and colours - all raided from the recipe books of friends and family members back in Colombo (or Kolamba to those in the know). They hope to bring the delicious multi-cultural delights of their sun-soaked island to London. Expect a vibrant blend of Sinhalese, Tamil, Moor, Dutch and Malay tastes and textures; a creative combo of iconic dishes, generous sharers and legendary street food made with love.
New Film Releases
MAXXXINE (5th July), Fly Me To The Moon (12th July), Widow Clicquot (19th July)
Antique & Flea Markets
Auctions