All the fun stuff you should have on your radar for summer 2023 in London (2024)

Thanks to the city’s wealth of queer bars, clubs, nights and other spaces,London’s LGBTQ+ scene is among the most fabulous in the world. But, it’s Pride Monthwhen the LGBTQ+ celebrations really take off, as Pride in London fills the city with LGBTQ-themed events, protests and parties. At its very centre is the annual Pride parade.

This year London’s Pride parade will place onSaturday, July 1 and once again this yearthe route will begin in Hyde Park, heading down to Piccadilly Circus, before ending in Whitehall Place.

This year’s line-up of live acts and floats is yet to be announced, but if previous years are anything to go byexpectmarching, floats and dancing, singers, dancers, lip-synchers and entertainers performing over multiple stages.

Nothing says summer like the tennis whites, strawberries and cream and Pimms of Wimbledon. Missed out on ticketsin the Wimbledon Tennis Championships(July 3-16)? Can’t facecamping out on the streetfor day tickets? No problem. London is a city that gives back and this summer it will be peppered with big screens showing all the Murray Mound (okay, Henman Hill) action in so much blown-up high-res glory that you might as well be court-side.

There’s a screen for everyone, with some offering special-edition co*cktails and finger food and coming withpop-up tennis lessons.

Every year, the Serpentine Pavilion shows up to herald the start of summer, and it’s 22nd incarnation is designed byFrench-Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh.

Titled ‘À table’,the pavilion is inspired by Ghotmeh’s Mediterranean upbringing, which involveddiscussions over the dinner table. Fittingly, it’ll have its own concrete table surrounded by intricate stools with the cafe serving a new menu based around organic ingredients.

The wooden pavilion which is shaped like the surrounding tree canopies will be a place ‘to simply enjoy, stroll, and meet while discussing the difficulties of today to spur necessary change,’ according to Ghotmeh. The revolution starts here.

The Greenwich + Docklands International Festival – the spectacular Docklands-based festival of street theatre – is back, baby!

As ever, the highlights are several and varied, but the most talked about are set to be‘Cygnus’ (Aug 31-Sep 3),a regatta of illuminated swans performing a water ballet on the surface of Royal Victoria Dock, thegrime-soundtracked Afrofuturistic circus extravaganza ‘Ancient Futures’ (Aug 27 and 28) combining circus storytelling and sound system culture and ‘Bouncing Narratives’ (Sep 9 and 10) an unusual dance piece that takes place on top of a trampoline, with the audience underneath the trampoline.

Less overtly spectacular but certainly the hardest-hitting piece of theatre is ‘The Architect’ (September dates TBA). A tribute to Stephen Lawrence, three decades on from his murder, which takes the form of a bus tour of south-east London.

For a lot of Londoners, Notting Hill Carnival flashes by in a blaze of feathers, Red Stripe and tinnitus. To those who make it happen, it is a year-round operation to createone of the biggest and oldest street parties in the world.

More than two million people are expected to flock to west London to watch theiconic paradeshowcasing the best of mas, soca, calypso, steel bands and soundsystems over the bank holiday weekend.

Dazzling floats, check. Kaleidoscopically dressedperformers, check. Rib-shaking soundsystems, check. The sweet, smoky smell of jerk chicken, check. What ’cha waiting for?

The Grade II-listed former Victorian waste water pumping station Walthamstow Pumphouse stopped sloshing around sewage a while ago and is now home to something far more palatable. Hidden inside the museum are trains,planesand various other landmark automobiles that are some of the firsts of their kind, likeoriginal steam engines from the Victorian era and aniconic London ‘B’ type bus. Look out for theirregular tube supper clubs where you canfeast on a six-course tasting menuwith fellow rail enthusiasts in a vintage tube carriage.

Let’s be honest: urban beaches are in no way as good as real beaches. We’re not going to stand here and try and kid of you of that. There’s no sea to swim in. There’s very limited access to high-quality fish and chips. It’s very unlikely you can go surfing at one.

That being said...you can’t catch the Tube to the coast,so, why not make life a bit easier for yourself and visit an urban beach? They have sand, they have co*cktails, they often have beach parties and they sometimes (when we’re lucky) get a bit of sun. We’re not going to turn our noses up at any of that. So, we’ve rounded up the very best ones in the city.

We’ve got the lowdown on exactly which sky-high barsareopen for cool co*cktails on hot summer days. These places can be pretty popular, so it’s worth booking where you can. Fromswanky city skyscrapers to informal warehouse hangouts, cheersto getting up on the roof.

Beer gardens are one of the best things about London. There’s no finer way to spend a sunny (or not-so-sunny) afternoon in the capital, than sipping a few cold ones with the city’s famous skyline in the background. We want you to relish in the pleasure of supping away in the breezygreat outdoors, so here are the best alfresco pint-sipping spots the city has to offer.