Looking for something to do in SW London this month? Here are the best events...
1. The Bull’s Head
📍 Barnes 📅 Various dates & times
Another great month of live music in Barnes: highlights include The Dana Ali Band, Zeateah Massiah (left), Tim Penn & Chris Proctor, Alison Neale, Andy Roberts and NYJO Nonet – a super line-up of jazz, rhythm and blues.
2. RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival
📍 Hampton Court Festival 📅 July 1-7
For a whole week in July, Hampton Court Garden Festival displays the very best in horticulture. So we are delighted to hear that Liz Viney, founder of the Little Hanging Garden Company which we featured in a sister title back in 2017, has been allocated a stand by the RHS selection panel. Liz says, “I am so excited but at the same time totally petrified as I am still a very small business working from my back garden, rubbing shoulders and selling next to well established, large nurseries.”
3. Events at the Landmark Centre
📍 Landmark Centre, Teddington 📅 July 7, 9, 11, 13
Some great events on this month, including the Richmond Orchestra presenting a classical, family-friendly concert – Once upon a Time, including pieces from Hansel and Gretel and Sleeping Beauty (July 7); Bring Your Own Baby comedy (July 9); Simon Brodkin aka Lee Nelson tells his life story (July 11, includes supper) and Chores, a show of circus tricks and comedy (July 13).
4. National Trust Fan Club
📍 The Exchange, Twickenham 📅 July 9; 7.30 pm
Written and performed by Helen Wood and directed by Chris Head, Helen tells the story of her one-woman quest to visit every National Trust site in the UK, on her journey to become the NT’s biggest fan.
5. Open Air Cinema
📍 RHS Wisley 📅 July 11 & 13
Enjoy a picnic and outdoor screenings of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (July 11) and The Greatest Showman (July 13).
6. Family Fun Garden Adventures
📍 RHS Wisley 📅 July 20 - Sept 1
Join The Very Hungry Caterpillar to mark its 50th anniversary with a host of family activities over the summer.
7. Party at Chiswick Pier
📍 Chiswick Pier 📅 July 21; 11.30 am - 4 pm
Enjoy plenty of fun both on and off the river at Chiswick Pier’s summer party. Take part in taster sessions with the Chiswick Canoe Club, there’s river dipping for children with the Thames Explorer Trust and free boat trips aboard Princess Freda – a Dunkirk Little Ship.
8. Alice in Wonderland
📍 Kew Gardens 📅 July 20 - August 26 (£22.90 adults, £17.70 children)
Lewis Carroll’s classic story is brought to life in a family-friendly outdoor theatre by the Australian Shakespeare Company. Go along with Alice as she tumbles down the rabbit hole and meet all your other favourite characters. A perfect summer holiday treat!
9. Big Wild Sleepout
📍 Farnham Heath 📅 July 27 & 28; 10 am - 4 pm (£22.90 adults, £17.70 children)
A wonderful chance to explore nature is this special event at RSPB Farnham Heath; pitch camp in a secret meadow, roast jacket spuds on the campfire and learn bushcraft skills in the woods. There are even toasted marshmallows before bed.
10. Kew the Music
📍 Kew Gardens 📅 July 9-14
This year’s Kew the Music is back for more dancing under the stars. Enjoy some of the music industry’s biggest names performing in the spectacular surroundings of Kew Gardens; this year’s headline acts are Beverley Knight, Billy Ocean, Jess Glynne, Jools Holland, Craig David, Garbage and Rick Astley.
11. BCA Barnes Fair
📍 Barnes Green 📅 July 13; 9.30 am - 5.30 pm (FREE)
There’s always plenty to see, do, buy, eat and drink at the BCA Barnes Fair and this year is no exception. Expect almost 300 stalls selling everything from jewellery and gifts to handmade clothes for adults and children, plants, homewares and more. Together with a carousel and traditional fairground attractions, there’s a full programme of live music and entertainment planned, plus many of Barnes’ popular restaurants, including Rick Stein, will have stands alongside Barnes brewery Jeffersons’ beer tent and the BCA Pimm’s stand. New for 2019 is an animal-themed fancy-dress parade open to all children under 11 judged by BBC presenter Kate Silverton.
12. Othello Remixed
📍 Omnibus Theatre, Clapham 📅 Until July 14
Set in a modern-day London boxing ring, this inventive adaptation by Intermission Theatre takes a fresh look at the themes of love, jealousy, knife crime and turf rivalry.
13. Edinburgh Previews
📍 Omnibus Theatre, Clapham 📅 Until July 16-27
A dynamic mix of work from emerging and established theatre-makers. All tickets are £9 or less.
- Phoenix: New musical comedy heartbreaker from Fringe First winner Richard Marsh, July 16.
- The BonBons Cabaret on Tour, featuring queer collective The House of Love, July 18.
- Algorithms (above), a bisexual Bridget Jones for the online gen, July 18.
- Madame Chandelier’s Rough Guide to the Opera, a camp fusion of comedy, cabaret and opera, July 19.
- Crashing the Party, a humorous patchwork of stories about life in a sketch team, July 19.
- The Red, a bittersweet family drama written and directed by Marcus Brigstocke, July 22-26.
- Trying it On, playwright David Edgar looks back at his 20s, July 23-24.
- Passengers, writer Kit Redstone explores the epic battles within the psyche, July 25-27.
14. Pop-Up Ceilidh
📍 The Bedford 📅 July 4, 7.30-11p m
Fiddle Paradiddle brings the dance-floor alive with their energetic nu-folk sound playing all the classic ceilidh dances and a few more adventurous ones.
15. Hansel and Gretel
📍 Putney Arts Theatre 📅 July 11-13
The theatre’s talented 8-13-year-old youth group performs the classic fairytale.
16. Happy Streets Festival
📍 Nine Elms (Thessaly Road, St George's School, SW8 4AN 📅 July 13; 12-6 pm
Celebrate the colourful redesign of Thessaly Road rail underpass at this free family festival with live music, dance and craft workshops, a giant puppet and outdoor performances.
17. Guided walks
📍 Wimbledon & Putney Commons 📅 July 10 & 28; 7 pm & TBC
Summer Evening Walk
Find out more about the history of Putney Lower Common and conservation work with the senior management team on July 10, 7 pm.
Butterfly and Dragonfly Walk
Join local experts Bill Budd and Simon Riley on Wimbledon Common on July 28, time TBC;
18. Northcote Road Summer Fete
📍 Northcote Road 📅 July 14
This popular event features over 100 stalls, a live performance stage hosting music, dance and entertainment and an open-air big screen showing all the action from the Wimbledon Men’s Tennis Final.
19. Mediterranean Supper Club by Letitia Clark
📍 Pear Tree Café, Battersea 📅 July 16 & 17
After last year’s successful Sardinian Supper Club, the chef and food writer is hosting a new club with her partner Luca, a cheesemaker. There will be no bookings, but turn up early to grab your table.
20. The River Stage
📍 Various locations 📅 July 12-14, 26-28
The National Theatre launches its summer festival scene with a month of family theatre, dance and music. Highlights include the Shubbak Festival (July 12-14) celebrating the Arab cultural scene and the National Park City Festival, dedicated to all things green and wild (July 26-28).
21. Family shows
📍 White City 📅 From July 23
London’s newest theatre opens on the site of the former BBC Media Village in West London, launching with a children’s festival with four productions playing in rep from July 23, including Little Baby Bum Live, Monstersaurus!, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show and Aliens Love Underpants.
Run by the team behind the excellent King’s Cross Theatre, Troubadour White City Theatre will be large enough to stage West End-scale shows with a 1200-seat fully flexible theatre, as well as an 800-seater space (which hosts the festival of children’s theatre).
22. Sport in the Park
📍 Battersea Park 📅 July 30 - August 2
First established in 2000, Battersea Summer Scheme’s Sport in the Park is an opportunity for many of the borough’s less privileged 8-16-year-olds to try a variety of sports run by professional sports coaches, as well as more daring activities such as high ropes and a climbing wall. The four-day event which also includes arts and crafts and music costs £1 a day and is open to all.
23. On your marks!
📍Wimbledon College 📅 From July 20
England Athletics are offering fans a chance to get close to the action by becoming licensed officials for events. Find out how to start races, keep time, judge events and keep things fair on a Level One qualification course at Wimbledon College, starting on July 20.
24. CASA Latin American Festival
📍 Venues across East London 📅 July 16-27
The UK’s largest celebration of Latin American arts – the CASA festival – showcases a wealth of multi-disciplinary talent including dance from Argentina, theatre from Mexico, puppetry from Chile and film from Venezuela.
In addition to thirteen individual handpicked pieces of especially curated theatre and dance (ranging from one-off nights to eight-day runs) and 12 films chosen due to each of them providing a true taste of everything Latinx, the festival will host a new works evening to support emerging Latin talent, a 10th Edition Party, as well as cabaret and salsa evenings.
25. Kew Science Festival
📍 Kew Gardens 📅 July 20-21 (£16.50)
Kew’s world-leading scientists bring their work out of the labs and into the gardens in this two-day event packed with workshops, hands-on experiments, shows and behind-the-scenes tours. For families, one of the highlights is food adventurer and science whizz, Stefan Gates and his extraordinary live show Gastronaut Live: The Wildest Food Show on Earth – a combination of bizarre plant biology, explosive chemistry, sensory perception and spectacular physics, revealing some of the secrets behind the foods that we eat every day.
“The show involves loads of energy. We’ll get people up on stage and create chemical reactions in their mouths by feeding them absolutely revolting things, and we’ll have a whole load of edible insects there, as well as some live ones,” Stefan reveals. “We’re doing a bunch of food rockets, and there’ll be a section on farting and acoustics, and I’ll be bringing my absolutely ginormous whoopee cushion with me.”
The theme for this year’s Science Festival is Rare and Threatened and visitors will have the opportunity to go on a journey with Google’s 360-degree virtual reality goggles, get futuristic with liquid nitrogen in the ‘Cryo Corner’ and learn how to be a honey detective.
Read our interview with Stefan Gates ahead of his live show at the festival.
26. Golden Age Card Show
📍 Putney Library 📅 July 1-13
An exhibition of over 70 Putney post and greetings cards collected by Hugh Thompson, Vice President of the Putney Society and resident for 45 years. The collection dates back to the pre-first world war ‘Golden Age’ of the Royal Mail when homes could have as many as ten postal deliveries a day and correspondents could be so sure that local cards would be delivered on time, they could write ‘see you at 4 pm tomorrow’.
27. Brainiac Live
📍 Garrick Theatre 📅 July 31 - September 1 (£16.50)
Based on the much loved television programme, this fact-filled fun one-hour show explores the weird and wonderful world of science through a series of high energy experiments from exploding dustbins to supercharged spinning chairs.
28. Pride
📍 Various locations 📅 Various dates & times
Pride in London is the UK’s biggest, most diverse LGBT+ celebration. This year, it is celebrating the #PrideJubilee, remembering 50 years of activism, protests and victories.
Pride Parade
Over a million people joined the iconic Pride Parade in London last year, marching, protesting, and celebrating. This year’s parade sets off from Portland Place at midday, moving down Oxford Circus, along Regent Street to Piccadilly Circus, Lower Regent Street, Pall Mall and then passing Trafalgar Square before finishing on Whitehall at around 5.30pm.
Pride Stages
In addition to the big stage in Trafalgar Square, Pride in London also has several other stages dotted around Soho and Covent Garden. This year sees the return of the DIVA Women’s Stage in Leicester Square, the Cabaret Stage in Dean Street and the Family Area at St Giles-in-the-Fields - as well as a brand-new World Area in Golden Square and a Community Village in Soho Square. July 6, from 12 midday.
LGBTQ+ Late
Gunnersbury Park Museum hosts its first LGBTQ+ Late to kick off Pride weekend: dance to classics, get crafty in zine-making workshops, test your knowledge in a gay history pub quiz and enjoy a drag king tribute to west London’s own Freddie Mercury. July 5, 7-10pm. £6, 18+
Queer stories
From West Five to E.M. Forster’s Blue Plaque, Dusty Springfield to Freddie Mercury, Gunnersbury Park Museum’s Assistant Curator Amy Dobson presents a series of stories from Ealing and Hounslow. July 20, 3-4pm, free; Both at Gunnersbury Park Museum
All the fun of the fair!
There’s always plenty to see, do, buy, eat and drink at the BCA Barnes Fair and this year is no exception. Expect almost 300 stalls selling everything from jewellery and gifts to handmade clothes for adults and children, plants, homewares and more. Together with a carousel and traditional fairground attractions, there’s a full programme of live music and entertainment planned, plus many of Barnes’ popular restaurants, including Rick Stein, will have stands alongside Barnes brewery Jeffersons’ beer tent and the BCA Pimm’s stand. New for 2019 is an animal-themed fancy-dress parade open to all children under 11 judged by BBC presenter Kate Silverton. July 13, 9.30am-5.30pm, free, Barnes Green.
29. Walk tall
📍 Chiswick Pier Trust, The Pier House, W4 2UG 📅 July 1; 2 pm (£14)
Enjoy a sociable walk with a difference this month, as Elizabeth Dodgson returns to Chiswick Pier Trust to host an Alexander Technique workshop. The first hour will include a lesson on how to walk tall with freedom and ease, followed by an accompanied walk to put it straight into practice. The session will end with questions and refreshments back at Pier House.
30. Chiswick's Choir summer concert
📍 St John's Smith Square, SW1P 3HA 📅 July 5; 7.30 pm (£10-£16)
Over the course of its 40-year history, Chiswick Choir has built an impressive repertoire principally based on the European tradition from the 16th to 20th centuries. Under the direction of award-winning composer and conductor Hilary Campbell, you can catch the choir in action this month as they perform Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana and Songs and Cries of London Town by Bob Chilcot at the prestigious St John’s Smith Square in Westminster. For this concert, the Choir will be joined by the Barnes-based Music Makers of London and the award-winning New Forest Children’s Choir.
31. A Midsummer Night's Dream
📍 St John's Smith Square, SW1P 3HA 📅 July 10; 7-10 pm (£16, £10 children)
The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the UK’s premier all-male theatre company celebrates its 15th year with Shakespeare’s enchanting comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Chiswick House’s 18th-century gardens.
32. Open-air Shakespeare
📍 George IV, 185 Chiswick High Rd, W4 2DR 📅 July 11, August 1
This summer, Fuller’s is transforming 32 of its pub gardens into a magical setting for an evening of open-air Shakespeare. You can catch al fresco performances of The Merry Wives of Windsor and Romeo and Juliet, playing at pubs in Chiswick, Ealing, Hammersmith, Barnes and beyond.
33. Lovebox returns to Gunnersbury
📍 Gunnersbury Park 📅 July 12-13
Founded by DJs Groove Armada, this two-day music festival moved to Gunnersbury Park last year and features some of the biggest names in house, techno, hip-hop, R&B and grime. This year sees headline sets from Chance the Rapper, Solange, Cypress Hill, J Hus, 2 Chainz and dozens more.
34. Citadel Festival
📍 Gunnersbury Park 📅 July 14
Citadel is a one-day festival in Gunnersbury Park, packed with live music, comedy, art, talks, debates, workshops and lots of tempting street food and drinks. This year’s line-up features a headline set from Catfish and the Bottlemen, and performances from Bastille, Friendly Fires and Bear’s Den.
36. Great British Food Festival
📍 Chiswick House & Gardens 📅 July 12-14
Feeling peckish? At the Great British Food Festival at Chiswick House and Gardens you’ll find 50 artisan producers, celebrity chef demos, Men v Food Challenges, ‘gin-offs’, ‘cheese-offs’, ‘cake offs’ and more, as well as blind taste challenges and live music.
Daytime sessions start at £10 adults, £4 for children. Evening sessions start at £7.50 adults, £4 for children. Weekend tickets £20.
37. Festival of British Archaeology
📍 Gunnersbury Park Museum 📅 July 20 & 27; 1-2.30 pm (£10 including refreshments)
As part of the Festival of British Archaeology, there are two special events at Gunnersbury Park Museum this month; a talk on Prehistoric West London and another on Roman and Medieval West London, both by the museum’s curator Julia Tubman.
38. Luna Cinema
📍 Chiswick House & Gardens 📅 July 23-25; 7.30 pm
The Luna Cinema returns to Chiswick House and Gardens this month for three nights of cinema under the stars, for all the family to enjoy. Catch Bohemian Rhapsody, Moulin Rouge and Jurassic Park. Doors open at 7.30pm and the film starts at 9 pm - don’t forget to pack a picnic! Ticket prices range from £15 for adults and from £9.50 for children.
39. Summer fun at Chiswick Park
📍 Chiswick Park 📅 July 26; 12-5pm (Family Fun Day)
Escape to the tropics without getting on a plane this month, as Chiswick Park transforms into a sandy beach destination. ‘Chiswick Park Island’ is hosting a special ‘family fun day’ - an afternoon filled with sand and sun (hopefully!), as well as children’s activities, live entertainment and performers. The business park is also taking full advantage of its outdoor screen by turning every Thursday evening in July into the campus’ own ‘Film Festival’, with movies shown from 6 pm. The Plaza Film Festival is free and open to the public.