The ianVisits guide to April's unusual events, tours, lectures and exhibitions happening around London.
Coronavirus: Events may be cancelled and venues closed at short notice, you are advised to check on their websites before making a trip.
Sunday 5th April
Monthly open day at the museum to London's first international airport - in Croydon.
All Day
Croydon
There will be extensive bus displays, heritage bus trips and a huge selection of trade stalls.
10am to 5pm Weybridge
Open days usually feature the restored engines in operation, a light railway trip, and walks around the Victorian buildings.
10:30am to 4pm Abbey Wood
A monthly opening of the Victorian museum of industrial testing equipment.
11am to 5pm SouthwarkMonthly open day at Gatton Park, the core 250 acres of the estate originally laid out by Capability Brown.
1pm to 5pm Reigate
£18.50
London Coffee Festival
An event for discerning coffee lovers and those working in the coffee scene.
All Day WhitechapelMore London events on Sunday 5th April
Monday 6th April
In this talk Dr Sheila Kanani combines the story of a pioneering woman astronomer, with an account of the science behind comets, asteroids and meteors. This talk will end with a demonstration of how to make a comet model using kitchen ingredients.
1pm to 2pm Barbican
£16.00
Tom Kerridge in Conversation
Join the Michelin-starred chef, bestselling author and BBC presenter in conversation with Gilly Smith.
7pm to 8:30pm CamdenMore London events on Monday 6th April
Tuesday 7th April
At the fifth anniversary of the Easter burglary in 2015, the biggest in English legal history, we explore the drama including local links and colourful twists in the story.
6:30pm to 7:30pm Holloway
An insight into the food culture of Early Modern Europe told through the art and artefacts of the time.
7:15pm to 8:30pm CamdenMore London events on Tuesday 7th April
Wednesday 8th April
£14.00
Power UP evening sessions
Play your way through 160 consoles, hundreds of video games and five decades of gaming history.
5pm to 6pm South KensingtonFor one night only, comedy and consoles collide for an evening of laughs and levelling-up.
6:15pm to 10pm South KensingtonJoin Dr Rebecca Bullard to discover what eighteenth-century obituaries can tell us about the world in which Samuel Johnson lived and worked, and how they compare with printed memorials in our own time.
7pm to : HolbornMore London events on Wednesday 8th April
Good Friday
A full-scale re-enactment of The Passion of Jesus, performed in the shadow of the National Gallery.
12pm to : Trafalgar SquareMore London events on Friday 10th April
Saturday 11th April
Complete with a musical finale with a song that was once heard in many music halls up and down the land, join Sheldon from the Cemetery Club to discover a real gem of London's heritage.
1:30pm to 3pm Barnes
More London events on Saturday 11th April
Easter Sunday
Monthly opening of the only surviving fully working watermill in Surrey.
2pm to 5pm Cobham
More London events on Sunday 12th April
Easter Monday
Open day at the restored Victorian steam powered pumping station, with the machine running regularly throughout the day.
11am to 5pm South Tottenham
More London events on Monday 13th April
Tuesday 14th April
Free
In Ghostly Japan
Explore the wide variety of Japanese ghosts, demons, and monsters with Japanese curator Yasuyo Ohtsuka.
1pm to 2pm Camden
£14.00
Power UP evening sessions
Play your way through 160 consoles, hundreds of video games and five decades of gaming history.
5pm to 6pm South KensingtonJoin scholars, poets, activists and wanderers in this evening of readings and discussion, marking the 250th anniversary of Wordsworth’s birth.
7pm to 8:30pm CamdenThe first comprehensive biography in three decades on Margaret Beaufort, the mother of the Tudor Dynasty.
7pm to 8:30pm Southwark
Join Stephen and Meera in conversation as they discuss the importance of writing in 2020 and beyond.
7:30pm to 9:40pm CamdenMore London events on Tuesday 14th April
Wednesday 15th April
The tour is a great opportunity to experience the hustle and bustle of the City of London’s last surviving food market first hand.
6:30am to 8am Barbican
£14.00
Power UP evening sessions
Play your way through 160 consoles, hundreds of video games and five decades of gaming history.
5pm to 6pm South Kensington
£6.00
Shapeshifters: A History
Featuring a fantastic and ghoulish array of examples from history, literature, film, tv and computer games, Shapeshifters explores our secret desire to become something other than human.
7:30pm to 9:30pm HolbornMore London events on Wednesday 15th April
Thursday 16th April
£15.00
This Golden Fleece
Join author Esther Rutter as she unpicks the history of wool-crafts in the Britain from the link between knitting and protest to the legend of identifying fishermen by the knit of their jumpers.
2:30pm to 3:30pm South Kensington
£10.00
Village of the Damned (1960)
A screening of the British-American science fiction horror film.
7pm to : Homerton
Live screening in the cinema of a David Attenborough documentary and Q&A.
7:10pm to : Barbican
The presentation will explore the local political and economic drama two centuries ago, with illustrations from Regency comedy, art, literature, climate, music, rhyme, and even table decoration.
7:30pm to 9pm HampsteadMore London events on Thursday 16th April
Friday 17th April
£15.00
Pools
Celebrating the joy and enduring allure of the swimming pool, Lou Stoppard marks the publication of her new book, 'Pools', with a discussion of role of the swimming pool in photography and visual culture.
7pm to 8pm South KensingtonMore London events on Friday 17th April
Saturday 18th April
Free
Record Store Day
You are exhorted to visit your local independent purveyor of music and make purchases of physical storage media.
All Day
Monthly tour of the former Inland Revenue offices, now a artists workshop.
Starts at 1:15pm Strand
More London events on Saturday 18th April
Sunday 19th April
The Reserve is open to the public just once a year at a time when the bluebells are at their most beautiful.
10am to 4pm Greenford
£17.95
MG and British Marques Day
Alongside the special MG displays there will be a whole host of British built vehicles, from the pre-war Alvis, Norton and Sunbeam right through to the latest Jaguar model.
10am to 5pm Weybridge
Semi-regular vintage fashion clothing fair.
11am to 5:30pm Chelsea
Free
London Hat Walk
See lots of people promenading in grand hats - or, if hatted, join in.
2pm to 3:30pm Southwark
Hear from the Jewish Council of Racial Equality (JCORE) as they explore the identity of minority communities in Britain and the potential for building bridges between these communities in an increasingly fractured world.
2pm to 3:30pm Camden
More London events on Sunday 19th April
Tuesday 21st April
Ceremonial military guns will go bang bang at the Tower of London and Hyde Park to mark HM The Queen’s Birthday.
12pm to 1:30pm
More London events on Tuesday 21st April
Wednesday 22nd April
Free
Critical Thinking
This talk will explain how to discern what and who to trust, how to know whether evidence is causation or just a correlation, and how to overcome the temptation to accept views that we agree with.
6pm to 7pm BarbicanIn this talk, climate scientist Emily Shuckburgh presents the facts and figures, based on world-class research conducted at Cambridge Zero, the University of Cambridge’s zero-carbon future initiative.
6pm to 8:30pm Victoria Dock
More London events on Wednesday 22nd April
Thursday 23rd April
£11.00
The Mayflower People
Take a peek below deck at the lives of those who boarded the Mayflower and changed the world forever
7:15pm to 8:30pm Camden
£10.00
Malcolm McLaren
On the tenth anniversary of the death of Malcolm McLaren, writer and cultural commentator Paul Gorman will talk about the ‘late cultural iconoclast’.
7:30pm to : Highgate
More London events on Thursday 23rd April
Friday 24th April
Celebrate the life and significant contributions of Mollie Hunte to the Black community with key speakers throughout the day.
9:30am to 4:30pm Clerkenwell
A rare insight into the Bank of England's historic art collection in an illustrated lecture by City Guide and former Bank employee Tim Kidd.
2:30pm to 4pm
Artist Tim Redfern explores the wonderful world of queer personal ads in the British Library collection following the recent work of his bearded Drag Queen alter ego Timberlina with the National Archives.
7:15pm to 8:30pm CamdenMore London events on Friday 24th April
Saturday 25th April
Occasional open day of the eclectically designed home of artist, Stephen Wright.
10am to 5pm East Dulwich
More London events on Saturday 25th April
Sunday 26th April
Occasional open day in the walled garden that houses the Kilmorey Mausoleum.
10am to 3pm Twickenham
A monthly open day at a quirky transport museum housed in an old water pumping building.
10am to 4pm Enfield Town
Discover the history of the building and climb the 135 stairs for the best view of Hackney.
2pm to 4:30pm HackneyMore London events on Sunday 26th April
Monday 27th April
This lecture will present the endeavours of cosmologists and particle physicists, as they attempt to explain the fundamental nature of these mysterious dark components.
1pm to 2pm BarbicanMore London events on Monday 27th April
Tuesday 28th April
The lecture will focus on a number of equations and algorithms which are making a profound difference to the way that we live.
1pm to 2pm BarbicanMore London events on Tuesday 28th April
Wednesday 29th April
This Spring Southwark Cathedral would like to invite all amateur and professional photographers to spend an evening taking photos of the Cathedral lit by candlelight.
7pm to 9pm Southwark
More London events on Wednesday 29th April
Thursday 30th April
Simon’s father was Oliver Postgate, the co-creator of such children’s TV classics as the Clangers, Bagpuss, Ivor The Engine.
7pm to 8:30pm New Oxford Street
Watch a showing of the 1964 film, Becket in Southwark Cathedral while lit by candlelight.
7pm to 10pm Southwark
An illustrated talk followed by a wine reception. Dr. Nicola Streeten draws, talks, writes about, teaches and organises events to do with comics.
7:15pm to 8:30pm Camden
