The August bank holiday is your last chance to grab that summer feeling before the cool touches of autumn start to creep in.
With the weather predicted to be nice and warm, you might be looking to get out and about while you still can.
Here, we’ve rounded up some of the best free activities to get up to, from exhibitions to visiting London’s finest outdoor spaces.
Take a trip to the London Wonderground
London Wonderground is a new summer playground with events for both adults and children.
Depending on the day, there’s shows for all the family, late night comedy, a city beach and vintage rides plus live acoustic music and some of London’s finest street food and outdoor bars.
London Wonderground is free to enter and will run until September 26.
The closest station to London Wonderground is West Brompton.
See the Northern Lights
Travel restrictions be damned – you can see the Northern Lights (yes, those Northern Lights) right here in London… sort of.
Borealis is the free centrepiece of this year’s Greenwich + Docklands International Festival.
It will see a recreation of the Northern Lights projected on to the sky above Greenwich for two-and-a-half hours every night.
The closest station is North Greenwich.
Make your own work of art at the Tate
A great one for emerging artists or with kids who love to scribble on the walls, this summer, everyone is invited to turn the floor of the massive Turbine Hall into a giant work of art.
‘Mega Please Draw Freely’ will see visitors scribble, doodle and deface the vast surface using art materials provided by the gallery. The project is the brainchild of artist Ei Arakawa, inspired by the radical post-war Japanese artistic group Gutai, who wanted to effect social change through painting, performance and children’s games.
The nearest station is Southwark underground.
Go to an outdoor cinema
Watch a feel good movie – perhaps THE feel good movie – for free at Wembley.
Wembley Park’s Summer on Screen will be showing Paddington for free on Saturday, August 28.
It’s first come, first serve for the deck chairs, but everyone can watch the film for free.
The nearest station is Wembley Park underground.
Visit one of London’s green spaces
The weather is set to be nice, so what better time to visit one of London’s many pastoral pleasures?
Despite being called the Big Smoke and London has plenty of parks and other special monuments. These include:
- Hampstead Hill Garden and Pergola – less popular and crowded than the Heath, this area includes impressive gardens and a dramatic elevated walkway, where overhanging plants create a lush canopy and tangled roots twist around smooth stone columns. Nearest station: Hampstead Heath overground.
- Kyoto Garden, Holland Park – A picturesque waterfall flows into a peaceful rock pool, where koi carp dart beneath the surface and peacocks stalk past on the banks. Nearest station: Holland Park underground.
- Abney Park cemetery – the overgrown woods of Abney Park Cemetery are a hidden treasure near Clissold Park and Finsbury Park. Nearest station: Arsenal underground.
- World Peace Garden – Between Hampstead Heath and the Royal Free Hospital, World Peace Garden is a peaceful woodland glade with three ponds and a wishing well. Nearest station: Hampstead Heath Overground
- Crystal Palace Park Maze – Dating from around 1870 (and renovated in 2009), the puzzle is tucked away near the park’s northern lake. Nearest station: Crystal Palace.
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