Culture -- 18 days ago
5 things you need to do in London this week
Words: India Gladstone
It’s all too easy to waste the week away by opting to watch TV every night or go to the same pub time and time again with the same group of friends. Although these things are fun – and necessary – to do once in a while, a gentleman needs to get out of the house and remain cultured. Here are 5 things that you need to do in London this week.
This week sees the opening of the 12th annual London Design Week. The event this year is going to be held in the magnificent V&A, as well as having prominent installations set up at important points within the city. The whole festival is a celebration of London being repeatedly named as the ‘design capital of the world’ and if you’re a gentleman who likes to be in the know when it comes to art and design, you really don’t want to miss this.
For any gentleman who knows the city well, he’ll understand that Southbank has fast become one of London’s cultural headquarters. Merge Festival adds to the cultural heritage of the area and is curated by Illuminate Productions to encourage and promote the area with a set of performances and events. The whole idea of the event is to go beyond just what you can see along the river but instead to bring together local communities and workers to promote behind the scenes talent and opening up lost buildings – to name just a few.
As one of the most anticipated exhibitions of the year, any gentleman with any cultural knowledge will understand the scale of this event. The main galleries at the Royal Academy of Art have been taken over by the phenomenon that is Ai Weiwei and the exhibition as a whole has been curated in collaboration with his studio in Beijing. The exhibit promises to be one of massive importance and every gentleman needs to get to it, now.
If an exhibition or cultural experience isn’t something you’re in the mood to attend this week, fear not, because we have something for those gentlemen who would much rather a tipple. Cask Ale Week begins towards the end of the week and is a celebration of all things related to the popular beverage. The event aims to bring together pubs, breweries and beer drinkers and takes place the whole way across the country. Keep up-to-date on the latest restaurants and pubs to head to here.
Getting outside should be on every gentleman’s list of things to do at least once a week and now you have the perfect excuse to do just that. Kew Gardens is launching its first ever literary festival, with over 80 events covering everything from fiction to science, cookery to children’s books and everything in between. The whole of the grounds will be open for this event and authors being welcomed into the grounds include Michael Morpurgo and Bill Bryson.
