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Things to do in London: July 2018 edition

Fill the long days of summer with floristry workshops, exciting new theatre, an experimental afternoon tea and a musical promising to transport you all the way to Greece and back...

Shout Allelujah! at the Bridge Theatre

Dream team Alan Bennett and Nick Hytner are set to collaborate together for the 10th time with new play Allelujah!. Since first working together on the 1990 National Theatre adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, the writer/director duo have become the bread and butter of quality contemporary theatre. Their successes span the National Theatre, West End, Broadway and the big screen. This new play revolves around Bennett's characteristic themes of northern England, quotidian struggles and unlikely heroes. And, two of Bennett’s original History Boys cast members – Samuel Barnett and Sacha Dhawan – are leading the cast of stage and screen regulars.

WHEN

11 Jul 2018 – 28 Sep 2018, Monday to Saturday 19:45, Wednesday and Saturday matinees 14:30

WHERE

Bridge Theatre
One Tower Bridge, London, SE1 2UP

Turn your fingers green with a floristry workshop

Join Patch and Alice Vincent, Telegraph journalist and author of How To Grow Stuff, for a back-to-basics workshop on greening up your urban life. Whether you’re looking for your first house plant or some tips for nurturing your existing bulbs, this is a chance to get comfortable with all the essentials to keep your plants happy and healthy. There will also be an opportunity to ask any questions you have about household greenery.

WHEN

11, 15, 19 & 26 July

WHERE

128 Shoreditch High Street, London, E1 6JE

Take an outdoor exercise class

London is fully saturated with exercise classes – from the traditional to the boutique, and from slow and steady to high intensity. Why not use the warm weather as a chance to explore which classes take place in the great outdoors in your borough? Alternatively, you could check out our round up of London’s best running routes and build up a sweat that way. Or, take your yoga mat to a nearby park to stretch in the sun’s warmth.

WHEN

Hours vary

WHERE

Locations across London

Book a table at a chic new restaurant

Cora Pearl is the new 60-seater offering from the team that brought us Kitty Fisher's. The exciting new restaurant is housed in a Grade II listed building, boasting views across the ‘Actor’s Church’. Starters range from leek hearts with smoked eel to pig jowl and Montgomery cheese toasties, while main courses marry a traditional fish stew with a confit pork belly and a side of smoked quince. We’re expecting big things; book now to be among the first guests to dine there.

WHEN

Opens 10 July

WHERE

30 Henrietta Street, St James', WC2E 8NA

Hear an operatic masterpiece come to life

A madcap production of Handel's Saul with top-of-the-range singing returns to Glyndebourne Festival Opera. No need to get bogged down in the Old Testament background, though: it's enough to know that the plot concerns the older king Saul's handover to his heir David, which is curdled by his envy of the younger man. The opera, written in London by the German-born composer, was first performed in 1739 at the King's Theatre, on the site of today's Her Majesty's, home (appropriately enough) of Phantom of the Opera.

WHEN

19 July - 5 August

WHERE

Glyndebourne Lewes, East Sussex, BN8 5UU

Take a dip in an outdoor pool

We Brits aren’t known for our love of outdoor swimming and London is behind several other European cities when it comes to places to take a dip in the fresh air. But know where to look and you’ll find the city’s home to several options, from the likes of rural and idyllic Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds to the swanky rooftop pool at Shoreditch House. There’s also a spattering of lidos across the city, including heated pools in London Fields and Brockwell Park, and cold water swimming at Hyde Park’s Serpentine and Tooting Bec Lido. Why not use this long, hot summer to explore them?

WHEN

Hours vary

WHERE

Locations across London

Experience a make-up themed afternoon tea

Makeup enthusiasts and fans of a classic English tea will be in their element at the new Bobbi Brown pop-up at Balthazar. Inspired by Bobbi’s cosmetics, the pastries – created by talented pastry chef Régis Beauregard – closely replicate beauty products on every woman’s wish-list; from the Balthazar Hollywood Red Lip Gloss Kiss to the Blueberry & Lemon Smokey Eye Mascara. Wow and yum.

WHEN

Various dates in July

WHERE

Balthazar, 4-6 Russell Street, London, WC2B 5HZ

Immerse yourself in the book of the month

Described as a shocking, hilarious and strangely tender novel about a young woman’s experiment in narcotic hibernation, My Year of Rest and Relaxation has potential to be the book coming out this month. Set in the year 2000, the story follows a young, pretty, recent Columbia graduate, living in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like everything else, by her inheritance. But there is a vacuum at the heart of things, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents in college, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her alleged best friend. To deal with it all, she decides to hibernate with chemical assistance in order to 'drown out her thoughts' and avoid the world, since she 'hate[s] everyone and everything.'

Celebrate the Man In The Mirror

After the powerhouse that was Pink Floyd at the V&A, it’s unsurprising that The National Portrait Gallery wants a slice of pop action. And so, they have alighted on the most iconic pop figure of all time: Michael Jackson. The exhibition is not intended to tell the well-writ biography of Jackson, instead it's a collective reaction of almost 50 artists to his cult image, inspiration and legacy. With the surround sound of 'Thriller', 'Bad', and other cult classics, you'll leave as a new member of the Michael Jackson clan.

WHEN

28 Jun 2018 – 21 Oct 2018

WHERE

National Portrait Gallery , St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

Watch the latest sofa-gripping thriller

Gillian Flynn's debut novel wasn't the literary – and then filmic – sensation that Gone Girl was. However, since the author's stratospheric rise to fame, two other novels by Flynn have been snapped up for screen adaptations – including her first, Sharp Objects. Coming to Sky Atlantic this July, Sharp Objects stars Amy Adams and follows the story of a newspaper journalist who returns home to report on a series of murders.

WHEN

Airs 8 July

WHERE

Sky Atlantic

See A Monster Calls on stage

Mourning, imagination and a giant creature rule the stage in the world premiere of A Monster Calls. Patrick Ness' 2011 novel boasts a scoop of awards, a legion of fans (children and adults alike) and a 2016 film adaptation. Director Sally Cookson, whose numerous successes include an imaginative stage adaptation of Jane Eyre and a gleefully subversive Peter Pan, expect a dark, fantastical aesthetic and a fantastical monster at its heart.

WHEN

7 July - 25 August

WHERE

The Old Vic, The Cut, London, SE1 8NB

Belt out your favourite ABBA numbers

It's been 10 long years since Mamma Mia! made a splash in UK cinemas and we've felt every single one. Thankfully, the whole of the old cast and some newbies, including Andy Garcia, Lily James and Cher, are sailing back onto our screens this summer for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. So leave your scepticism at home and embrace the feel-good tunes. You won't be able to help singing along...

WHEN

20 July

WHERE

Cinemas across the UK