Discover our pick of events in London this week: 3 - 9 March 2025.

Lola Young at O2 Forum Kentish Town

We’ve all heard her song Messy blow up on TikTok and Instagram. Now, Lola Young’s rescheduled show on 10 December 2024 will take place in Kentish Town this week. The South London singer-songwriter and BRIT Award nominee is touring her latest album, This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway.

Date: 3 March 2025. Time: 7pm. Location: O2 Forum Kentish Town, 9-17 Highgate Road Kentish Town, London, NW5 1JY. Book now.

Romeo and Juliet

Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet returns to The Royal Ballet this week to celebrate its 60th anniversary. Regarded as a masterpiece of The Royal Ballet’s repertory, this adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic love story is set to Sergei Prokofiev’s powerful score and features Nicholas Georgiadis’ Renaissance-inspired designs. The production stars a stellar cast, including Royal Ballet Principals Francesca Hayward, Marianela Nuñez, Natalia Osipova, and Joseph Sissens, making his debut as Romeo.

Date: 4 March – 26 May 2025. Location: The Royal Opera House, Bow St, London WC2E 9DD. Price:  from £9 - £180. Book now.

British Pie Week

British Pie Week (3 –9 March 2025) kicks off this week, making it the perfect time to indulge in one of Britain’s favourite dishes. Whether you’re craving a traditional pie and mash or Michelin-starred creations, the city has plenty to offer.

Click here for our pick of the best pies to have in London this week.

Weather Girl

Following a multi-award-winning, sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival, Brian Watkins’ dark comedy Weather Girl opens at Soho Theatre this week. Stacey, a California weather girl, is an oversexed, underpaid harbinger of our dying planet—until her routine of wildfires, prosecco, and teeth whitening spirals into catastrophe. From the producers of Fleabag and Baby Reindeer and starring Off-Broadway’s Julia McDermott, it’s a dizzying rampage into American strangeness—seatbelts not provided.

Date: 5 March – 5 April 2025. Duration: 60 minutes. Location: Soho Theatre, 21 Dean St, London W1D 3NE. Price: from £23. Book now.

Czech Philharmonic/Semyon Bychkov: Shostakovich 5 with Sheku Kanneh-Mason

The Czech Philharmonic will have a two-day residency at the Barbican this week, featuring Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony and Cello Concerto No. 1. The Fifth Symphony, known for its emotionally charged slow movement and triumphant yet ambiguous finale, received an hour-long ovation at its 1937 premiere. The Cello Concerto No. 1, originally written for Mstislav Rostropovich, will be performed by Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who won BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2016 with the piece.

Date: 7 March 2025. Time: 7.30pm. Location: Barbican Centre, Silk St, City of London, London EC2Y 8DS. Price: £15+ £4 BF. Book now.

Click here for more classical music in London this spring/summer 2025.

Jasmin Vardimon NOW 

Jasmin Vardimon Company will perform its new production NOW at Sadler’s Wells East this week as part of its UK tour. The production celebrates the company’s 25-year history, revisiting iconic moments and reflecting on the ever-changing world. NOW examines imagination, art, and socio-political dynamics through Vardimon’s unique dance theatre style, with an international cast and extracts from past works like Lullaby, Park, 7734, Yesterday, and ALiCE. This performance is part of the opening season of Sadler’s Wells East, a new purpose-built theatre for dance on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Date: 5 – 8 March 2025. Duration: 1 hour 25 minutes (no interval). Location: Sadler’s Wells East, 101 Carpenters Rd, Stratford Cross, London E20 2AR. Price: from £15 + £4 maintenance fee. Book now.

Art After Dark

Art of London’s Art After Dark returns this week, bringing a free cosmic art experience to London’s West End. Led by award-winning artist Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian, the event will feature massive inflatable moon rocks in Piccadilly Circus, UV-reactive sculptures inspired by quantum physics, and a unique soundscape broadcasting audio signals from the moon.

Date: 6 - 8 March 2025. Location: Piccadilly Circus, London W1J 9HP.

Mitsuko Uchida: Beethoven & Schubert

Renowned pianist Mitsuko Uchida will perform a programme of late works by Viennese composers Beethoven and Schubert at Royal Festival Hall. Uchida, celebrated for her interpretations of Vienna’s great composers, will explore Beethoven’s contrasting Sonata in E minor Op. 90 and Schubert’s poignant final sonata, the B flat major D. 960.

Date:  7 March 2025. Time:  7pm. Duration: 1 hour and 55-minute. Location: Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX. Price: from £17 + BF. Book now.

International Women’s Day 2025 at Marylebone Village

Marylebone Village is celebrating International Women’s Day 2025 with a week-long campaign spotlighting female-founded and led businesses. The village will host in-store activities, exclusive shopping experiences, and a panel discussion with influential female entrepreneurs. The campaign will also raise funds for the Marylebone Project, supporting vulnerable women in the community.

For more on Marylebone Village’s International Women’s Day programme, visit: marylebonevillage.com.

Cinema

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found

Ernest Cole, a South African photographer, was the first to expose the horrors of apartheid to a global audience with his 1967 book House of Bondage. Published when he was just 27, the book led him into exile in NYC and Europe, where he struggled with his identity and the world’s indifference to apartheid. Director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro, 2016) explores Cole’s artistic turmoil, anger at global silence, and the discovery of 60,000 of his negatives in a Swedish bank vault in 2017. This powerful film will be on show at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) Cinema from 7 - 13 March.

Date: 7 - 13 March 2025. Location: ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts),The Mall London SW1Y 5AH. Price: from £10. Concessions available. Book now.

Arts & Culture

Opening this week

Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2025

The Photographers’ Gallery will host the 2025 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize exhibition, featuring shortlisted artists Cristina De Middel, Rahim Fortune, Lindokuhle Sobekwa, and Tarrah Krajnak. Celebrating its 28th year, the prestigious Prize recognises photographers whose exhibitions or books have made a significant impact over the past year. The shortlisted projects explore themes of migration, community, family history, and cultural identity through documentary photography, self-portraiture, and performance. The winner of the £30,000 Prize will be announced in May, with each finalist receiving £5,000.

Date: 7 March – 15 June 2025. Location: The Photographers' Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies St, London W1F 7LW. Price: £10 / £7 concessions (members go free). Advance online booking: £8.50 / £6 concessions. Ticket covers entry to all exhibitions on the day of your visit. Book now.

Jorge Jobim: Fantastical Autonomy

Jorge Jobim’s Fantastical Autonomy opens on 7 March 2025, featuring a series of vivid, psychedelic oil paintings that embrace both spontaneity and precision, much like his approach to jazz. His large-scale works, filled with swirling patterns and recurring motifs like twisting branches and octopuses, create a sense of movement and improvisation, drawing viewers into a world where the boundaries of self continuously shift. The exhibition is the inaugural show at Tache, a new contemporary gallery in Fitzrovia dedicated to championing emerging artists.

Date: 7 March - 10 April 2025. Location: Tache Gallery, 33 Percy Street, London W1T 2DF. Price: Free. tachegallery.com

Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300‒1350

The National Gallery will host a landmark exhibition, Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300–1350, bringing together a rare collection of 14th-century Italian paintings. Featuring around one hundred works, the exhibition will highlight the pivotal role of Sienese artists in shaping Europe’s artistic landscape. Key pieces include Duccio di Buoninsegna’s Maestà panels, Simone Martini’s Orsini Polyptych, and works by Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti.

Date: 8 March ‒ 22 June 2025. Location: The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN. Price: from £20. Book now.

#FLOFavourites: This week

Claudia Pagès Rabal: Five Defence Towers

Claudia Pagès Rabal’s exhibition Five Defence Towers marks her first institutional solo show in London and features the premiere of a significant new moving image commission. The work explores the historical and cultural significance of five defence towers built in Catalonia during the 9th and 10th centuries, situated along the former borderlands between European forces and the Muslim-ruled Al-Andalus. Pagès’ new moving image piece, The Night of Five Defence Towers, blends scripted dialogue, choreographed dance, light, and sound to reflect on themes of surveillance, control, and refuge. The work is presented on a large-scale LED screen in the form of a Catalan vault, with accompanying lightboxes displaying photographs of the towers at night.

Date: 28 February – 11 May 2025. Location: Chisenhale Gallery, 64 Chisenhale Road, London E3 5QZ. Price: Free.

Click here to discover more art exhibitions in London celebrating female artists this International Women’s Day 2025.

Last Chance

Mire Lee: Open Wound

With only a few weeks left before it closes in March 2025, this is the last chance to see Mire Lee’s Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. In her first major UK presentation, Lee’s visceral, kinetic sculptures blend mechanised elements with organic forms, exploring the tension between soft and rigid systems. Using materials like steel, cement, and silicone, this striking installation has transformed the iconic space.

Date: 9 October 2024 – 16 March 2025. Location: Tate Modern, Turbine Hall, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Price: Free. tate.org.uk.

Artist Talk

Prem Sahib in Conversation with Francesco Ventrella

Artist Prem Sahib joins art historian Francesco Ventrella to discuss their exhibition Documents of a Recent Past. The show reflects on The Backstreet, London’s oldest gay leather bar, which closed in 2022 after nearly four decades. Sahib will explore their archival practices and the ways their work documents public and private queer spaces. The talk will also introduce Footnotes for Heroes, a new audiovisual work-in-progress that merges personal history with social record.

Date: 6 March 2025. Time: 7–8 pm. Location: Studio Voltaire, 1A Nelsons Row, London SW4 7JR. Price: from £5. Book now.

#FLOFavourites: Pick of the Week

Free location of the week

The Hill Garden and Pergola

The Hill Garden and Pergola is a hidden gem in London, offering a peaceful escape with incredible views and beautiful gardens. Located in Hampstead, this historic site features a magnificent pergola, lush greenery, and tranquil pathways, making it perfect for a weekend stroll. It’s also a great spot to couple with a visit to Kenwood House for a day of natural beauty and exploration.

Location: Hampstead Heath, London NW3 7JR.

Interview of the week 

In conversation with Huimin Zhang

Huimin Zhang is an artist known for her intricate 22K gold creations, blending cultural techniques like filigree, engraving, and embroidery. In her Mammary Gland series, inspired by a close friend’s battle with breast cancer, Huimin combines gold and her friend’s hair to create delicate breast flowers, symbolising beauty, strength, and the impact of a brief life.

Click here for the full interview.

Drink of the week

PATRÓN El Alto

PATRÓN El Alto, the newest and smoothest tequila from PATRÓN, is now available at Bacchanalia in Mayfair as well as Los Mochis, Viajante87, Dear Darling, Selene, and B London. We visited Bacchanalia to sample their exclusive PATRÓN El Alto cocktails, each named after a precious gemstone. A standout was the ‘AMETHYST’, a beautifully balanced mix of PATRÓN El Alto Reposado, butterfly pea flower, chili, citrus, and prosecco—every cocktail we tried was incredibly smooth and expertly crafted.

Cause of the week 

National Trust

The National Trust is a UK-based charity dedicated to preserving and protecting historic places, gardens, and nature reserves across the country. With over 500 sites in its care, the Trust plays a vital role in conserving Britain’s cultural heritage and natural beauty for future generations. Volunteering with the National Trust in London is a rewarding way to contribute to this mission while gaining unique experiences and making new connections. Whether you’re helping in historic houses, assisting with events, or supporting conservation efforts, volunteering allows you to be part of something meaningful. Examples of places to volunteer include Ham House and Garden, Fenton House, and Kensington Gardens.

Click here to discover current volunteer opportunities.