Wot's happening in London in 2 weeks?

July 12, 2011 5:22 AM

Suggestions for relatively inexpensive things to do in the evening in London July 23-28?

My LDR-person and myself will be crossing paths in London, UK (we both live in North America) and I want to find some good activities in the evenings this week (daytimes are taken care of). I'm looking for what might be going on such as festivals and outdoor music, or less temporal things like good walking areas. I've looked at things like the schedule for Southbank Centre which is a good start. What would you want to do this week?

Also! Restaurant recommendations are very welcome. We both like pubs, but are looking for something that's more of a "date" but not super-duper-fancy.

We'll be staying near Camden but can travel by public transport to anyplace reasonable from there.

posted by transient to Travel & Transportation around London, England (10 answers total)

Best answer: Well, you could enter the draw for free tickets to the iTunes Festival at the Camden Roundhouse. You might end up with free tickets to a big-name band.

More practically, you could buy £5 "groundling" (IE, standing close to the stage) tickets at The Globe Theatre. I haven't been there this season, but their shows are uniformly worth seeing. (If you do buy groundling tickets, make sure to bring some sort of poncho -- you won't have any cover if it rains. If you feel like sitting, and having a roof over your head, you can buy regular tickets fairly cheaply.)

Before seeing a show at the Globe, you could eat at the nearby Tas Restaurant, which is a very good value.

Also, more or less next to the Globe: the Tate Modern is free, and open until 10PM many days.
posted by yankeefog at 6:32 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh, and just to be clear-- although the Roundhouse is in Camden, the Globe, the Tate, and Tas are about 30 minutes away from Camden, on the South Bank, which (obviously) is also where the South Bank Centre is. I don't think you could do the Globe, the Tate, and the South Bank centre in a single evening! But if your evening starts earlyish, you could (say) wander around the Tate for a little while before seeing a show at the Globe.
posted by yankeefog at 6:35 AM on July 12, 2011

Best answer: Check the listings guide on Timeout London. You can search by event type, cost, date and day. They list free stuff as well as big name.
posted by freya_lamb at 7:05 AM on July 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

Sometimes The Academy of St. Martin in the Field has candlelight performances that are unforgettable.
posted by effluvia at 7:08 AM on July 12, 2011

If you are going to hit the Southbank Centre, you might consider stopping at the Pitt Cue BBQ truck - yum! (TimeOut, twitter, open Wed-Sun)

Tate Modern is open late only on Fridays & Saturdays.
posted by KatlaDragon at 8:08 AM on July 12, 2011

Best answer: I've got an old school mate who lives in London and runs a blog of stuff to do

Tired of London, Tired of Life which could be good for nabbing some ideas
posted by Wysawyg at 8:24 AM on July 12, 2011

If you're at the South Bank then book onto the London Eye, at sunset if you can manage it.
posted by epo at 8:52 AM on July 12, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks for all the suggestions! No decisions yet, but I have more to look at now!
posted by transient at 5:02 AM on July 13, 2011

If you can get to London a daily earlier, St Martin in the Fields is having one of their candlelight concerts (Vivaldi's Four Seasons) on July 22.
posted by lukemeister at 8:51 PM on July 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

We're going to Hyper Japan if you're into that kind of thing.
posted by quiet at 6:24 PM on July 16, 2011