Staged in Regent’s Park, it is without a doubt one of the world’s most influential contemporary art fairs.

This year they present some of the most forward-thinking galleries from around the globe with work by over 1,000 of the world’s most innovative artists

Exhibitor details can be found here.

Tickets are £15 in advance (booked via See Tickets) or £25 on the date

For more info visit the website here.

Full Details

Date: 14th-17th September

Time: 10am-6pm

Address: Regent’s Park, Chester Rd, NW1 4NR

Nearest Tube: Bond Street

Admission: Free

Park Nights are  the Serpentine’s acclaimed evening programme of public events.  They range from readings to film screenings to music. For example, coming up soon is a screening of the film Safe, directed by Todd Haynes, and starring Julianne Moore.

For the full programme, visit the Serpentine’s website here.

PS. The Pavillion is truly spectacular when you get there – defo worth the visit

Date: Until 16th October

Time: Usually from 7pm

Address: Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA1

Nearest Tube: Lancaster Gate / Knightsbridge

Admission: Free

Just a short meander from the city, Columbia Road Flower Market is one of the prettiest street markets in London, and one of the busiest.

Every Sunday, from eight in the morning till two in the afternoon, the narrow cobbled Victorian street is transformed into a bright sea of colour and lined with people from all over London.

I will confess at the outset, I am not particularly green-fingered, I can tell a dandelion from a daffodil but that’s about as far as it goes. If you are like me don’t let this worry you, the traders are very helpful and will explain exactly how to look after any purchases. Some even label plants specially for the horticulturally-challenged, such as myself, with signs reading “hard 2 kill.” Perfect.

You really will find yourself completely spoilt for choice. There are not only potted plants, but also herbs, shrubs, trees, hanging baskets, all sorts of bulbs and hundreds of bouquets of cut flowers.

The shops around the market are all small and quirky. As well as ones focused on beautiful, and often bizarre, things for your garden, there are quite a few selling home décor pieces, there is a fabulous little second hand book shop, and there are also a number of really cute owner-run cafes. There are rumours that one of these cafes, Café Columbia, is a haunt of trendy London band the Libertines.

Alas, not a Libertine in sight.

From 1pm onwards there are fantastic deals are to be had. Just as I stood by one stall at around 1.30pm,  the price of their strawberry plants went from the original two for a fiver, to three for a fiver and then four.

By closing time, beautiful Orchids were selling for £5 each and almost all the cut flowers were massively reduced. At one point I saw a bunch of 30, yes 30, roses go for £3. In the words of the Orchid-sellers “you don’t get that down Marks & Spencer now, do ya?” Too true.

Great link for extra info: http://columbiaroad.info/

Time: 8.00am-2.00pm

Address: Columbia Road, E2 7RH

Nearest Tube: Old Street – Come out of the tube and walk left down Old Street, then bear left onto Hackney Road and walk down until you see Columbia Road on your right.

Featuring dresses from her films High Society and Rear Window, the gown she wore to accept her Oscar in 1955, as well as the outfit she wore to her first meeting with her husband Prince Rainier of Monaco.

There is also a wealth of magnificent costume jewellery in addition to her Hermès bag, renamed the Kelly bag in her honour.

For more info visit the V&A website.

Although be warned, you will probably have to do a survey when leaving the film as you will be seeing it first so the makers can gauge audience reaction.

Sign up here to see the new films before anyone else.

We can completely believe it and we’ve been. It’s hilarious.

The latest event to emerge is Indie Bingo at the trendy Queen of Hoxton.  Get your bingo on whilst you listen to some great retro tunes from the live DJs at Candybox and drink cocktails from the Queen’s underground bar.

Entry is free and each bingo card is just £1.

Bingo is on from 7pm to midnight every Wednesday.

Address: Queen of Hoxton, 1 Curtain Rd, London, EC2A 3JX.

Nearest Tube: Old Street

Check out the Queen of Hoxton website for more info.

There are some things that every Londoner should experience, and the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park certainly fits the bill. This quintessential part of London life demonstrates all the admirable qualities of our society, from persevering whatever the weather, to the good manners practised by those wishing to be perceived as cultured. Well great news – it’s returning on the 24th of May!

If only we could screen the audience members

Nevertheless, our more long standing followers might well remember I gave a slightly more tempered review of the experience last year, having sat next to a belly-presenting, stella-loving, idiocy-embracing shell of a sentient man, and it’s true this does somewhat lessen the magic of the place.

You can take action to minimise the impact of the Mr sub-par intellectual man from Middle-England, such as opting for the more dumb downed plays during which they seem to be content to listen, follow, and laugh when they realise that others are laughing too.

The same can’t be said for some of our country’s finest classical plays, where such types tend to wear the face of a deer caught between the headlights for the first half-hour, followed by non-stop fidgeting for the rest of the play once they have finally deduced that they’ll simply never understand what’s going on. Which would be fine, were they not to occupy themselves by opening numerous cans of Stella, and making a sport out of their approach to each and every sip, by this I mean – BIG BREATH IN – SLUUUURP – BIG SIGH.

You can’t avoid them though – they get whisked almost directly to the entrance courtesy of an convoy of economy buses, a pity given most wouldn’t be able to survive/navigate the walk across the park.

So what is one to do?

If you can’t beat them, then joining them in a homage to dumbed down theatre seems to be the best option, if like me, you can only find their presence irksome.

“Into the Woods” is probably your safest bet, right at the end of the season – 5 August to 11 September.

Though we might well venture down early and hope the somewhat-inevitable Mr sub-par intellectual man from Middle-England doesn’t find “The Crucible” too great a challenge.

Previous Article: ‘Open Air Theatre – Come Rain or Shine’

This May over 250 brightly decorated, life-size baby elephants have trundled onto the streets of London to raise awareness and money for the conservation of Asian elephants.

Asian elephants used to number over 200,000 a century ago and it is estimated that now there are less than a fifth of that number still in the wild.

To raise money, each of the elephants across London has been sponsored and will be auctioned for the charity at the end of the summer, with the organisers hoping to raise £2 million.

You can see the elephants are everywhere from Berkeley Square, to Notting Hill to the South Bank and Greenwich Market.

Go and check out the brilliant artwork, with all sorts from solar powered lit-up elephants to one covered in all-seeing eyes.

PS – the picture is one of the elephants on Baker Street

For a full list of participating theatres and details on how to claim your free tickets across the country visit their website: A Night Less Ordinary

For The National Theatre’s Entry Pass scheme visit: National Theatre Website

Haven’t heard of the Barbican Cinema? Well judging by my friends you’re not alone, but the truth is this unique facility is surely something every city worker should experience at least once. With 3 screens, ranging from the smallest ‘Cinema 3′, a long narrow room that seats 153, to the largest ‘Cinema 1′ which holds 280 people in a more typical theatre surrounding. Granted none of them deliver the £17.50 West End experience, the screens are fairly modest in size, and the sound quality leaves a little to be desired, though it’s hard to beat the location and price that the Barbican equivalent offers.

Some parts are even better than the West End. Because each screen is geographically isolated, there are no mass refreshment stands at the Barbican; instead there are small confectionary stalls next to each Screen selling a small selection of drinks and snacks. That means no Nachos, no Pizza, no Hot Dogs, no other steaming smelly food that most modern cinemas seem to insist on selling. “Shame” you say? Leave now!

…I was about to talk about the drawbacks of no fresh Popcorn, but having previously lambasted a server at the Empire, my favourite London Cinema, for coughing into his hands directly before scooping out my popcorn mid Swine Flu hysteria, I can certainly live without that too.

Nevertheless there are several things you should be aware of before visiting the Barbican cinema:

1. If you’re going to screen 3, be prepared to walk – see this map for details.
2. Either way leave a few minutes to get lost or disorientated – it’s the Barbican afterall.

I can’t bring this article to a close without mentioning my last experience, which was spoiled by two people. The first, sitting directly infront of me, had fashioned the largest afro I have seen in years and felt it necessary to roll around in OTT hysterics at every funny moment in the film – Bruno, was clearly a bad choice. Meanwhile the second person had clearly considered antiperspirant/deodorant a luxury he could do without during the credit crunch. All this in ‘Cinema 3′ led to a cramped, malodorous experience with an obstructed view.

Nevertheless I’d still advise you make the most of the fantastic experience the Barbican has to offer, just strongly suggest that should you be caught in a similar situation, get up and move. The seating might be preallocated, but I’ve never seen one of the screens sell-out.

[Barbican Film Website]

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