BEST Things To Do In London Today
The Event Oracle knows ALL the fun things to do in London. Select your date above then scroll down to check out what events are going on this week...
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Laughing Matters: The State of a Nation
Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
London, SW7 2RL
Through over 30 objects, ranging from costumes to scripts, from puppets to music, this display unpicks the punchlines to discover what humour since the Victorian era – whether subversive, surreal, mocking or celebratory – can tell us about what it means to be British today.
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Undercover: Life in Churchill's Bunker
Churchill War Rooms
Clive Steps, King Charles St, Westminster
London, SW1A 2AQ
Discover the stories of the staff who spent thousands of vital working – and sleeping – hours from 1938 onwards at the Cabinet War Rooms.
See historic images, objects and interviews with the men and women who worked in the underground hideaway, revealing what it was like to work in secret alongside Winston Churchill during the Second World War.
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Playing with Money: currency and games
Room 69a The British Museum
Great Russell Street
London, WC1B 3DG
The 20th century witnessed the transformation of money from precious metals to paper, from credit cards to crypto-currencies, all against a fluctuating financial backdrop. These changes are chronicled in the evolution of childhood games from the 19th century to the present.
Discover new acquisitions of toy and board game money, including recognisable classics such as Monopoly, as well as notes from other games. Many have economic themes and cover subjects from buying and selling paintings, investing in railways to playing the stock market. Often they comment on society and economics: Class Struggle is a Marxist critique of capitalism, Ratrace satirises consumerism and Black Friday is a comment on the 2008 financial crash.
Elsewhere in the exhibition, a fully stocked toy shop from the 1930s and decimalisation games from the 1960s, remind us that playing with money is essential for understanding how the world works. The exhibition playfully shows how skills and experiences we acquire in our formative years inform our adult lives.
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Making the Modern World
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
Chart 250 years of science and technology and discover some of the most iconic items that have shaped our society.
The Making the Modern World gallery presents some of the Museum’s most remarkable objects. Come face-to-face with the Apollo 10 command module, Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 1, Crick and Watson’s DNA model and the first Apple computer.
You’ll also find thought-provoking objects such as penicillin from Fleming’s laboratory, a porcelain bowl salvaged from Hiroshima and a clock that will tell the time for the next 10,000 years.
Visit this exceptional gallery to follow the cultural history of industrialisation from 1750 to the present day.
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Challenge of Materials
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
Explore and experience the properties of materials in our eye-opening Challenge of Materials gallery.
Walk across a magnificent glass bridge suspended by steel wires spanning the main hall. Discover historic gems, state-of-the-art materials and bizarre items, such as a steel wedding dress. You'll also see art installations from around the world.
From cotton, wood and glass to titanium alloys, visit this gallery to discover a wide variety of materials.
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British Dinosaurs: From Fossils to Feathers
The Walter Rothschild building
Akeman Street, Tring
Hertfordshire, HP23 6AP
Go on an adventure around Britain and discover why it's the birthplace of dinosaur studies.
Explore the surprising diversity of British dinosaur species and find out about the dinosaurs that still live among us in our gardens and parks.
Exhibition highlights:
- Come face-to-face with the cast of a Baryonyx walkeri skull and see how massive it could grow with backbone specimens found in Surrey.
- Stand up tall and measure yourself against the femur and tibia of an Iguanodon, one of the first dinosaurs to be discovered.
- See the complete skeleton of a young Hypsilophodon foxii, discovered on the Isle of Wight.
- Chomp! How do your teeth compare to Megalosaurus bucklandii teeth found in Oxfordshire?
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Victoria: A Royal Childhood and Victoria: Woman and Crown at Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace State Apartments
Kensington Gardens
London, W8 4PX
Mark the 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s birth by visiting Victoria: A Royal Childhood and Victoria: Woman and Crown at Kensington Palace.
Step back in time as you explore the rooms where Victoria spent her formative years under the watchful gaze of her mother, the Duchess of Kent. Delve into a scrapbook of mementos created by Victoria's German governess, Baroness Lehzen, to glimpse at the royal upbringing of a girl destined to be queen.
Then make your way to the Pigott Gallery, where the second part of the exhibition looks at the private woman behind the public monarch, as well as her later life and legacy.
Learn about Victoria's family life, friendships and interests, including her fascination for India, as you discover extracts from her diaries inscribed in Urdu and pieces from her private wardrobe, which go on display for the first time. Look out for a cotton petticoat dated to around the time of her marriage and a striking pair of silver boots.
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Typhoon Force
Science Museum
London, SW7 2DD
Fuel your adrenaline and feel what it's like to fly a low level mission in the RAF's latest Typhoon jet.
Our new simulator takes you on an action-packed flight, demonstrating the aircraft's manoeuvrability through the beautiful landscapes of North Wales and the Lake District.
Experience the thrill of riding in the cockpit of this impressive aircraft, with a rapid descent from 40,000 feet, formation flying with a second Typhoon and landing at RAF Coningsby.
Located in our Fly Zone gallery on Level 3, this flight simulator offers a state-of-the-art audio-visual presentation that gets you closer to the action than ever before.
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Slavery, culture & collecting
Museum of London Docklands
No.1 Warehouse, West India Quay
London, E14 4AL
The latest display in the London, Sugar and Slavery gallery at the Museum of London Docklands highlights the connection to slavery of some of Britain's oldest cultural organisations. See a map of how London's Docklands are connected to slavery.
Slavery, culture and collecting follows slave owner and art collector George Hibbert, a prominent member of a large subsection of British society which derived its wealth directly from the slave economy. These figures were often active philanthropists, and are commemorated in memorials for their associations with charitable causes, while their connections to slavery are invisible even today.
Hibbert was instrumental in building the West India Docks which now house the Museum of London Docklands. This connection positions the museum as an important place to think about the relationship between slavery and cultural heritage.
The wealth generated by slavery was used to create cultural institutions such as museums, universities, art galleries and charities. Advocates of slavery would then use culture in their arguments for the continuing use of enslaved labour, on the grounds that Africans needed the "civilising influence" of Europe.
The display contains a short film, as well as objects from the collection to encourage further debate around this challenging issue.
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Wonderlab: The Equinor Gallery
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
Revealing the beauty of the science and maths that shape our everyday lives, this unmissable experience will ignite your curiosity, fuel your imagination and inspire you to see the world around you in new and exciting ways.
With over 50 mind-blowing exhibits, shows and demonstrations to enjoy, Wonderlab is an experience unlike any other.
Spread across seven different zones, there's loads of opportunity to get hands on with real scientific phenomena. Take part in live experiments at our Chemistry Bar, see lightning strike before your eyes, play with forces on giant slides or travel through space under a canopy of stars.
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Engineer Your Future
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
Could you shape the world we live in? Find out if you've got the problem-solving, big-thinking, team-working skills to be a globe-trotting engineer of tomorrow.
Visit our interactive exhibition for teens thinking about their futures, where challenges, games and films will help you understand what engineers do—and find out whether this could be a job for you.
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Discovery Motion Theatre: Legend of Apollo
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
Based on the Apollo lunar landings of 1960s and 1970s, this film's exceptional 3D computer animation will fly you to the moon, where you can experience the sights and sounds of an Apollo expedition.
Spread across two rooms, the Discovery Motion Theatre experience begins with a documentary style pre-show film. Following the documentary, collect your 3D glasses and enjoy the animated Legend of Apollo 3D film with physical special effects, which may include water, wind, flashing lights and moving seats.
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Sol Calero: El Autobús
Tate Britain
Millbank, Westminster
London, SW1P 4RG
Tate Liverpool presents a new commission by Berlin-based artist Sol Calero (born in Caracas, Venezuela, 1982). Calero’s work takes the form of brightly coloured, large-scale immersive installations that explore themes of representation, identity, displacement and marginalisation, all informed by her own perspective as a migrant.
Calero’s new commission, El Autobús 2019, is inspired by a recent journey through Latin America. Visitors are invited to travel through the Wolfson Gallery, exploring the floor-to-ceiling mural which overwhelms the space with a landscape of patterns, panoramic views, floral motifs and architectural elements.
Rooted in the centre of the gallery is a bus-like structure, which is reminiscent of the buses used by locals in Latin America. Visitors are encouraged to jump aboard to continue their own journey through the exhibition. Listen out for bus announcements, which promise to take you to destinations that can never be reached.
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Edvard Munch love and angst
Room 35, British Museum
Great Russell Street
London, WC1B 3DG
The creator of art's most haunting and iconic face. A radical father of Expressionism. Norway’s answer to Vincent van Gogh. But who was Edvard Munch? Discover this pioneering, subversive artist as the British Museum lifts the veil on his life and works in the largest show of his prints in the UK for 45 years.
The emotional intensity of The Scream has reverberated through history, speaking to generations. The fact that it needs no explanation is arguably one of its strengths. Yet perhaps it is also the reason that, beyond his name, so little is known about its creator – The Scream speaks for itself. Although it has become a universal symbol of human anxiety, it is a deeply personal response to Munch’s upbringing and experiences as a young artist.
Looking at the cities of pre-war Oslo, Berlin and Paris, the exhibition shows how new ideas about personal and political independence gave rise to an important voice. Visceral, rebellious and hungry for new experiences, Munch rejected his strict Lutheran upbringing to pursue an unconventional lifestyle. He travelled across Europe, drawing artistic inspiration from the bohemian circles he encountered and his passionate love affairs. Munch’s work articulated his experiences of life in a rapidly changing Europe, that was to be shattered by the first global industrialised conflict.
In this collaborative exhibition with the Munch Museum in Oslo, discover how he mastered the art of printmaking and explore his remarkable body of work. Munch’s innovative techniques, bold use of colour and dark subject matter resonated with shifting attitudes – and mark him out as one of the first truly ‘modern’ artists.
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Manga マンガ
Room 30, British Museum,
Great Russell Street
London, WC1B 3DG
Enter a graphic world where art and storytelling collide in the largest exhibition of manga ever to take place outside of Japan.
Manga is a visual narrative art form that has become a multimedia global phenomenon, telling stories with themes from gender to adventure, in real or imagined worlds.
Immersive and playful, the exhibition will explore manga’s global appeal and cultural crossover, showcasing original Japanese manga and its influence across the globe, from anime to ‘cosplay’ dressing up. This influential art form entertains, inspires and challenges – and is brought to life like never before in this ground-breaking exhibition.
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Flight
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
From mankind's earliest dreams of flight to the wide-body aeroplanes of today, discover the absorbing story of flight.
Overhead walkways allow you to get up close to aeroplanes suspended in the air. Examine exhibits from the pioneer days of aviation, including the world's most authentic Antoinette monoplane (1909), Amy Johnson's Gipsy Moth and the Vickers Vimy, which first crossed the Atlantic in 1919.
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Who Am I?
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
What makes you smarter than a chimp? What makes you smile? What makes you, you?
Who Am I? invites you to explore the science of who you are through intriguing objects, provocative artworks and hands-on exhibits.
Discover what your voice sounds like as a member of the opposite sex, morph your face to see what you’ll look like as you age, or collect DNA to catch a criminal in our brand-new interactive exhibits.
Investigate some of the characteristics that make humans such a successful species, such as personality, intelligence and language.
Reflect on the big questions that new techniques in science are raising, and explore how your genetics and brain combine to create your unique identity.
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Pattern Pod
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
Pattern Pod is an amazing multi-sensory area for children under 8 years old.
In Pattern Pod, children can explore water ripples without getting their feet wet, create symmetrical images on touch screens, follow robot trails and much more. Fun, interactive exhibits encourage them to recognise and copy patterns—or create entirely new ones of their own.
Like scientists, children explore the world by trying to make predictions about events happening around them. It’s often easier to make these predictions if these events repeat themselves or if there is a pattern to them.
There’s something for grown-ups too. Touch screens give fascinating insights into the science behind the exhibits and the ways in which children play and learn.
Visit Pattern Pod on the ground floor of the museum—it’s a fun and stimulating place where children can learn through play to develop their science skills.
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Symbolist prints
Room 90a The British Museum
Great Russell Street
London, WC1B 3DG
From the 1850s onwards, artists such as Rodolphe Bresdin and Gustave Moreau used symbolism in their prints and paintings of mysterious, dream-like subjects. They had great influence on artists drawn to the Symbolist movement, who began to seek subjects from their imagination and emotional life
The Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, whose prints can be seen in our latest special exhibition Edvard Munch: love and angst was also drawn to Symbolism and would have been familiar with many of the artists on show in the display such as Paul Gauguin, Maurice Denis, Max Klinger and Odilon Redon.
Like Munch, these artists made prints as part of their artistic practice and contributed to the plethora of illustrated journals and magazines that began to appear in the latter part of the 19th century, enabling their work to reach a wider audience.
From the languid morphine addicts depicted by Albert Besnard to the disturbing smiling spider in the lithograph by Odilon Redon, all of the prints on display come from the British Museum’s rich collection of graphic work.
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Information Age
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
Re-live remarkable moments in history, told through the eyes of those who invented, operated or were affected by the new wave of technology, from the first BBC radio broadcast in 1922 to the dawn of digital TV.
Discover how wireless technology saved many lives on the Titanic and spread news of the disaster to the world within hours. You can also hear the personal stories of the operators who worked on the Enfield Telephone Exchange, the last manual telephone switchboard.
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Panorama: London's lost view
Museum of London
150 London Wall, Barbican
London, EC2Y 5HN
The stunning 20 feet wide panorama of London was painted around 1815 by the French artist Pierre Prévost.
Painted as the Napoleonic Wars drew to a close, the panorama is provides a 360° view of London as the Duke of Wellington would have known it. Looking from the tower of St Margaret’s, the church situated in the shadow of Westminster Abbey, we are presented with a sweeping view over a sunlit city. Dominating the foreground is the Abbey and the old Palace of Westminster (the Houses of Parliament), which burnt down in 1834 and includes the medieval House of Lords Chamber, target of the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
Prévost made panoramas of many European cities, but this particular example is thought to have been created at the height of his career. His first panorama of London, now lost, was made when he visited the city during the Peace of Amiens in 1802. He is thought to have returned to London in 1815, shortly after the Battle of Waterloo, to create this remarkable image of London.
This panorama has been acquired with the help of Art Fund, the Aldama Foundation and a group of individual donors, with additional support from Michael Spencer, the Leche Trust and other donors who wish to remain anonymous.
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Britain 1500-1900 Tour
Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
London, SW7 2RL
One of our knowledgeable V&A Volunteer Guides will introduce you to the V&A's stunning Britain Galleries which house the most comprehensive collection of British design and artworks in the world.
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Reimagining Captain Cook Pacific perspectives
Room 91, The British Museum
Great Russell Street
London, WC1B 3DG
This exhibition explores these Pacific perspectives and displays the work of contemporary Pacific artists, alongside objects collected on the voyages themselves. Michel Tuffery’s powerful painting Cookie in the Cook Islands, imagines how Cook might have been transformed by his Pacific experiences. Lisa Reihana’s Taking Possession, Lono, shows Captain Cook and his men about to hoist the British flag on a Polynesian island, raising questions about what each group might have understood by the idea of ‘taking possession’. An imposing Tahitian costume worn at ceremonies to mark the death of a chief, is on display for the first time in many decades. Collected on Cook’s second voyage and one of only a handful still in existence, it has been extensively conserved.
As commemorations abound on this major anniversary, this exhibition considers some of the complexities of Cook’s legacy in the Pacific, from New Zealand to Vanuatu and from Australia to the islands of Hawaii.
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Mathematics: The Winton Gallery
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
Our bold and thought-provoking gallery, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, examines the fundamental role mathematicians, their tools and ideas have played in building the world we live in.
From war and peace to life, death, money, trade and beauty, the objects in Mathematics: The Winton Gallery reveal how mathematics connects to every aspect of our lives.
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Exploring Space
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
From rockets to satellites, probes to landers, this gallery showcases some out-of-this world objects.
You’ll be able to see a full-sized replica of Eagle—the lander that took astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin to the Moon in 1969. Then discover how we are able to live in space—to breathe, eat, drink and go to the toilet.
Get a unique insight into the history of rockets. Suspended from the ceiling are two real space rockets—a British Black Arrow and a United States Scout.
You can also find out how the space age started in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik 1 and see a full-size replica of the Huygens module that landed on Titan in 2005 and a model of the Beagle 2 Mars lander.
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Fly Kids
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
Take off with the Red Arrows!
Fly Kids is a pay-as-you-go flight simulator that lets your child experience the sights and sounds of flying with the Red Arrows during one of their aerobatic displays.
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BMW Tate Live Exhibition
Tate Britain
Millbank, Westminster
London, SW1P 4RG
In 2020 Tate Modern’s Tanks will again play host to an exciting series of installations and live performances.
In 2019, Anne Imhof created a new large-scale commission, Sex. 2018 celebrated the performance pioneer Joan Jonas, while the first exhibition in 2017 included work from a range of artists including Isabel Lewis, CAMP, Wu Tsang, Fred Moten and Fujiko Nakaya.
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FOOD: Bigger than the Plate
Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
London, SW7 2RL
From gastronomic experiments to urban farming, this exhibition brings together the politics and pleasure of food to ask how the collective choices we make can lead to a more sustainable, just and delicious food future.
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The Garden
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
An exciting interactive space, created especially for children aged 3–6 and their parents and carers.
Inquisitive children can explore the main areas—construction, water, light and sound. While playing, they can find out about floating and sinking, shadows and reflections, and much more. At the same time, they’ll develop the skills of observing, predicting, testing and drawing conclusions.
Explainers are on hand to help—you can’t miss them; they all wear bright red T-shirts. They are happy to answer questions or join in the games to make sure that everyone gets the most from the gallery.
Visit The Garden in the basement of the museum for non-stop fun. From giant tubes that carry whispers to a flying saucer that radiates white light, it’s an ideal place for 3–6-year-olds to discover science through play.
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Paper Castles
Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
London, SW7 2RL
Paper Castles imagines alternative future architectures, floating above the past. Fifteen practices have been invited to create a paper model to sit on top of the cases in the V&A’s Architecture Gallery. These new models sit in dialogue with those underneath, building on this history to project into the future. Contributing practices include: OMMX, Hayatsu Architects, Office S&M, Madelon Vriesendorp, Interrobang, Akil Skafe-Smith, Mobile Studio, WUH architecture, Makespace, Zaha Hadid Architects, PUP architects, Sarah Wigglesworth, Prince + Selasi, Office Sian.
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Rembrandt thinking on paper
Room 90 The British Museum
Great Russell Street
London, WC1B 3DG
Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) is among the best-loved artists in the world. The British Museum has one of the greatest collections of Rembrandt’s works on paper and a selection of these treasures is being exhibited to mark this milestone anniversary.
Thematic displays of self-portraits, landscapes, portraits and biblical scenes showcase his artistic development and working methods, while chronological comparisons reveal how he tirelessly pushed boundaries.
Comprising 65 prints and drawings, this stunning exhibition will highlight Rembrandt’s technical and creative ingenuity on paper.
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'Qamt' by Elias and Yousef Anastas
Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
London, SW7 2RL
‘Qamt’, a circular lintel bench, forms part of architects Elias and Yousef Anastas' Stone matters project and is the second experiment presenting systems of lintels inspired by stereotomy found in Jerusalem. It serves as a functional element as well as an illustrative architectural fundamental element. It is an effort to question the local and global exchange of techniques and trace unseen analogies between architectural forms across borders. 'Qamt' has been recently acquired by the V&A, and is on display for the first time for London Festival of Architecture. In addition, Elias and Yousef Anastas will be presenting their Stone matters research as a talk during the Festival.
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Lumière Mystérieuse
Sir John Soane's Museum
13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, Holborn
London, WC2A 3BP
Sir John Soane wielded light so successfully that it may as well have been another building material. This exhibition will explore how Soane utilised light, not just through the shapes and ornamentation of his architectural compositions, but also by implementing tools such as top lighting, grilles, coloured glass and mirrors. Together these devices allowed Soane to form lighting effects, as well as effects of shadow and gloom, which dramatically impact the way we experience his work.
Installed in the Museum’s galleries, the exhibition will illustrate how Soane created various lighting effects and moods by showcasing original drawings alongside the objects, such as stained glass and mirrors, which Soane used to transform the experience of his spaces.
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Wildlife Photographer of the Year
The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
London, SW7 5BD
Now in its fifty-fourth year, Wildlife Photographer of the Year showcases extraordinary animal behaviour and the breathtaking diversity of life on Earth.
Explore the world's best nature photography, exhibited on 100 exquisite light panels.
Experience the changing face of nature and uncover the surprising, and sometimes challenging, stories behind the photographs.
Chosen from over 45,000 entries by expert judges, the images were awarded for their creativity, originality and technical excellence.
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Energy Hall
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
Trace the remarkable story of steam and how it shaped the world we live in today.
Steam has been the driving force behind British industry for 300 years. Without it, the Industrial Revolution could never have happened. Even now, steam provides 75% of the electricity we use every day.
Discover an unparalleled collection of historic full-size engines and models. Displays include:
- The oldest surviving and unaltered atmospheric engine
- Rotative engines built by James Watt
- High-pressure engines of the type pioneered by Richard Trevithick
- A steam turbine designed and built by Charles Parsons
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The Clockmakers’ Museum
Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington
London, SW7 2DD
Discover the world’s oldest clock and watch collection in its new home at the Science Museum.
The collection includes more than 1000 watches, 80 clocks, 25 marine chronometers and a number of fine sundials and examples of hand engraving, mapping the history of innovation in watch and clock making in London from 1600 to the present day.
Assembled by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers and once located in the Guildhall, this remarkable array of timepieces traces the story of the capital’s clockmakers—from their first marine chronometers and mechanical clocks through the evolution of the wristwatch.
John Harrison was the inventor of the marine chronometer. Among the collection’s highlights are the fifth chronometer he made, which he completed in 1770, and a four-month duration longcase clock by the father of English watchmaking, Thomas Tompion.
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Behind-the-Scenes Tour: Spirit Collection
The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
London, SW7 5BD
Go behind the scenes with our knowledgable science educators for a look at the Museum's fascinating zoology collection preserved in spirit.
As we explore some of the Darwin Centre’s 27 kilometres of shelves, you’ll encounter numerous treasures hidden among the 22 million animal specimens housed here.
You’ll meet Archie, our 8.62-metre-long giant squid, view specimens collected by Charles Darwin himself and learn more about our cutting-edge research.
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Les Miserables
Queen's Theatre
London, W1D 6BA
The West End's longest running musical, Les Misérables has been enjoyed by over 70 million people in 42 countries and in 22 languages around the globe and is still breaking box-office records as it passes its 30th year in London. The original production, which features direction by John Caird and Trevor Nunn, continues to run at the Queen's Theatre, having transferred from the Palace Theatre in April 2004.
Featuring a stunning score by Boublil and Schönberg, Cameron Mackintosh's original production opened in London at the Barbican Theatre on 8th October 1985 (beginning previews on 28th September), where it went on to become a musical theatre phenomenon. It opened at the Palace Theatre on 4th December, and transferred to its current home at the Queen's Theatre on 3rd April 2004. Fans of the show continue to revisit this dazzling original that includes hit songs such as “I Dreamed a Dream”, “Do You Hear the People Sing?”, “Bring Him Home” and “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables”.
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Fiddler on the Roof
Playhouse Theatre
Northumberland Avenue
London, WC2N 5DE
Fiddler on the Roof has transferred to the West End's Playhouse Theatre following its revival at the Menier Chocolate Factory, with director Trevor Nunn giving Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick's classic musical a new lease of life. The production opened in the West End to the Playhouse Theatre on 27th March 2019, after tickets for Fiddler on the Roof at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London sold out.
Set in Russia at the turn of the 1905 Revolution, Fiddler on the Roof centres around Tevye, a Jewish man who works hard to ensure that he raises his five daughters with traditional Jewish customs. When the village matchmaker brings news that a wealthy butcher wants to marry their eldest child Tzeitel, it’s clear that pairing people together isn’t what Tzeitel wants. Tzeitel wants to marry her childhood friend, Motel the tailor. Eventually, Tzeitel and Motel marry each other, with local Jews joining in with the ceremony, but they are not able to celebrate for too long, with Russians wreaking havoc in their community.
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Disney's The Lion King
Lyceum Theatre
21 Wellington Street
London, WC2E 7RQ
Walt Disney's long-running and multi-award winning musical The Lion King continues to delight audiences in London's West End. After opening on Broadway in 1997, the show has gone on to be the most successful piece of entertainment in history, mounting numerous world-wide productions including the original London production at the Lyceum Theatre in the heart of the West End.
Set against the majesty of the Serengeti Plains and to the evocative rhythms of Africa, Disney's The Lion King is unlike anything ever before seen in musical theatre, and will redefine your expectations of what theatre can be. Director and designer Julie Taymor crafts a colourful, imaginative and highly creative world that brings the flora, fauna and animals of Africa to live, set against a timeless score by Elton John and Tim Rice, with additional songs by Lebo M, Julie Taymor, Mark Mancina and Hans Zimmer.
Thousands continue to pack the Lyceum Theatre every week with their Lion King tickets to celebrate and revel in the majestic storytelling that transports audiences to a dazzling world that explodes with glorious colours, stunning effects and enchanting music. The Lion King began previews in the West End on 24th September 1999, with an official opening on 19th October 1999.
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Tina - The Tina Turner Musical
Aldwych Theatre
49 Aldwych
London, WC2B 4DF
Tina – The Tina Turner Musical chronicles the life of the rock ‘n’ roll legend who brought us hit songs like “What’s Love Got to Do With It”, “Proud Mary”, “The Best”, “River Deep Mountain High” and “Better Be Good To Me”.
Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on 26 November 1939 in Nutbush, Tennessee. She obtained Swiss citizenship in 2013 and currently lives in Küsnacht, Switzerland. She shot to fame in the mid-1950s singing with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, originally under the name "Little Ann." She became Tina Turner in 1960 and began the Ike & Tina Turner Revue with hits such as "River Deep – Mountain High", "Proud Mary" and "Nutbush City Limits", selling-out tickets to shows in stadiums and arenas across the world. She has since spoken openly about being a victim of domestic abuse and split from Ike in 1976.
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Matilda - The Musical
Cambridge Theatre
32-34 Earlham Street
London, WC2H 9HU
Adapted from the incomparable children's novel by Roald Dahl, Matilda The Musical is the multi-award winning musical from the Royal Shakespeare Company that continues to delight audiences in the West End. Since opening at the Cambridge Theatre in November 2011, the hit show has gone on to win over 50 major international awards, including 12 for Best Musical. Featuring a smart and witty original score by Tim Minchin, alongside an exciting book by Dennis Kelly, the musical adaptation is one of the most successful British musicals of modern times, and entertains audiences both old and young.
Matilda The Musical tells the story of an extraordinary little girl who, armed with a vivid imagination and a sharp mind, dares to take a stand and change her own destiny. After opening at the RSC's home in Stratford upon Avon, the musical transferred to the West End where it was greeted with a set of excellent reviews, with critics praising not only the charm of the score and book, but also the ingenious staging by director Matthew Warchus and choreographer Peter Darling.
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The Phantom of the Opera Tickets
Her Majesty's Theatre
57 Haymarket
London, SW1Y 4QL
Andrew Lloyd Webber's sensational long-running musical The Phantom of the Opera continues to run in its original form at the West End's Her Majesty's Theatre. Since opening in 1986 where it won the Olivier Award for Best Musical, the show features some of Lloyd Webber's most memorable music alongside the original stunning set design, costumes and special effects.
The haunting story of The Phantom of the Opera is adapted from Gaston Leroux's novel of the same name and is set in the heart of the Paris Opera House. As young ballet dancer Christine Daae becomes the object of The Phantom's secret affections, he manipulates her career at the expense and horror of the Opera House staff and stars. A truly romantic tragedy, this beautiful story is set against one of the West End's most memorable scores that includes hit songs such as “The Music of the Night”, “All I Ask of You”, “Think of Me”, and of course, “The Phantom of the Opera”.
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The Book of Mormon Tickets
Prince of Wales Theatre
31 Coventry Street
London, W1D 6AS
The Book of Mormon is the uplifting and satirical story of two Mormon missionaries who are sent from the comfort of Salt Lake City to Uganda in Africa in order to spread the word of the Mormon church. Whilst Elder Kevin Price is looking forward to his two year mission praying he will be posted to Orlando, his partner Elder Arnold Cunningham, a nerdy overweight missionary is only looking for a best friend. As the unlikely heroes arrive in Uganda their fears are confirmed as they are immediately robbed at gunpoint by a local warlord, General Butt-Fucking-Naked. The local villagers and Mafala Hatimbi soon tell the missionaries about their strategy for coping with life constantly battling against poverty, AIDS and famine, as well as the tyrannical General.
After meeting the other missionaries who have failed to convert the village, the pair develop two different coping strategies for handling the situation. While Elder Price optimistically believes that the Mormon word will prevail, Elder Cunningham finds himself teaching an alternative form of history and religion, one that captures the imagination of the citizens. The pair wrestle with their own integrity and beliefs, coming together to find that they both rely on each other in very similar ways.
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The Mousetrap
St. Martin's Theatre
West Street
London, WC2H 9NZ
Agatha Christie's legendary 'whodunit' is still delighting and thrilling audiences in London's West End, as the show enters its 65th record-breaking year on stage. Running at the St. Martin's Theatre since 1974, the original production opened across the road at the Ambassadors Theatre on 25 November 1952 and has since been presented in 27 different languages in more than 50 countries around the world.
"A group of people gathered in a remote part of the countryside discover, to their horror, that there is a murderer in their midst. Who can it be? One by one the suspicious characters reveal their sordid pasts until at the last, nerve-shredding moment the identity and the motive are finally revealed. A cracking yarn and an irresistible treat for amateur sleuths everywhere!"
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The Starry Messenger
Wyndham's Theatre
32-36 Charing Cross Road
London, WC2H 0DA
Matthew Broderick and Elizabeth McGovern star in the West End production of The Starry Messenger, written by Manchester by the Sea’s Kenneth Lonergan. It will run at Wyndham’s Theatre from 16th May 2019, with tickets available now.
The play centres around an astronomy teacher whose life is spiralling away from him: the planetarium he works at is under threat, his marriage is on the rocks, and he’s mourning the recent loss of his father. Though things begin to change when he meets a trainee nurse called Angela.
The Starry Messenger is at Wyndham’s Theatre from 16th May, with tickets available now.
Matthew Broderick will make his West End debut when reprises the role of Mark after he starred in the play at the off-Broadway venue Theatre Row in 2009. His other stage credits include his Tony Award-winning roles in the play Brighton Beach Memoirs and the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying, as well as his role in Mel Brooks’ hit Broadway musical The Producers.
He will be joined in the production by Elizabeth McGovern, who has appeared on stage in London in The Misanthrope at the Young Vic, Dinner With Friends at the Hampstead, and Hurlyburly and Complicit at The Old Vic. Her screen credits include the 1981 film Ragtime, for which she received an Academy Award nomination, Once Upon a Time and The Favour.
Writer Kenneth Lonergan’s previous stage plays include the Pulitzer Prize-nominated The Waverly Gallery, 1996 play This is Our Youth, and Lobby Hero, which was nominated for the Olivier Award for best play following its run at the Donmar Warehouse.
Sam Yates directs the play. His recent London credits include Glengarry Glen Ross starring Christian Slater at the Playhouse Theatre, The Phlebotomist at the Hampstead Theatre and Murder Ballad at the Arts Theatre.
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Come From Away
Phoenix Theatre
Charing Cross Road
London, WC2H 0JP
Come from Away, the Broadway musical by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, is based on the events in the week following the 9/11 attacks on America, when 38 planes were ordered to land in the small Canadian town of Gander. This true story tells the tale of the town who kept 7,000 stranded visitors housed and fed following the biggest tragedy the US had seen.
The musical began previews in London at the Phoenix Theatre on 30th January 2019, and tickets for the West End premiere of Come From Away are on sale now.
Come From Away saw Sankoff and Hein modestly set out to write a musical they wanted high school kids to perform, rather than aspiring for a Broadway musical. The pair travelled to the Newfoundland town on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and learnt of the kindness of its residents. They felt like these stories had to be told and wrote a positive, upbeat musical to celebrate the residents.
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9 to 5 the Musical
Savoy Theatre
Strand
London, WC2R 0ET
Tickets are now on sale for 9 to 5 the Musical which brings the brilliant music of Dolly Parton to life on stage. With a story based on the 1980 film of the same name, the show gets its West End premiere at the Savoy Theatre from January 2019. Dolly Parton - 9 to 5 The Musical is a hilarious story of friendship, gossip and revenge.
9 to 5 runs at the Savoy Theatre until 31st August 2019, with tickets on sale now. The show stars Louise Redknapp, Bonnie Langford, Natalie McQueen, Amber Davies and Brian Conley.
The musical opened on Broadway in 2009 at the Marquis Theatre, starring actress Megan Hilty. The production was nominated for four Tony Awards, including one for Parton herself who was up for Best Original Score. Reviews for the musical were generally positive, with The Guardian calling the musical “a triumph” when it opened in New York.
9 to 5 the Musical opened at the West End's Savoy Theatre on 17th February 2019 in the presence of Dolly Parton herself, who took to the stage during the curtain call to express her pride in the show and added that the cast 'made her look good!'.
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The Lehman Trilogy
Piccadilly Theatre
16 Denman Street
London, W1D 7DY
Tickets for Stefano Massini’s hit play The Lehman Trilogy completely sold out when the new English version premiered at the National Theatre’s Lyttelton Theatre in July. Starring Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley and Ben Miles, the play tracks three generations of the family behind one of the world’s biggest financial corporations.
The Lehman Trilogy will now transfer to the West End's Piccadilly Theatre in May 2019, with tickets now on sale.
Beginning in 1844, The Lehman Trilogy charts the formation of the Lehman Brothers bank, as a young man from Bavaria with a big dream made a splash in New York with the help of his two brothers. From here, the play skips 163 years of banking history, and tells of the establishment of the bank, and its doomed fate which led to the biggest global financial collapse in history, affecting each and every one of us.
Adapted by Ben Power, The Lehman Trilogy is directed by Sam Mendes – who directed West End smash-hit The Ferryman, as well as the latest James Bond film Spectre.
The production received a plethora of five-star reviews upon its premiere at the Lyttelton Theatre: the Guardian labelled it an ‘Engrossing play and an acting masterclass’, while The Times said ‘Sam Mendes triumphs’. Given its universal acclaim, a West End transfer may well be on the cards.
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The World Exists To Be Put On A Postcard
Room 90 The British Museum
Great Russell Street
London, WC1B 3DG
In this, the first major museum display of artists’ postcards, discover both the politics and playfulness of this unique collection of 300 postcards recently gifted to the British Museum by the artists’ postcard expert Jeremy Cooper - ranging from feminist artists such as Lynda Benglis and Hannah Wilke, to Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s anti-Vietnam War is Over postcard and the original invitation to Andy Warhol’s Holy Cow! Silver Clouds!! Holy Cow! exhibition.
