The ianVisits guide to August'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.
Saturday 1st August
Unfortunately, there seems to be nothing special happening today. Sorry about that!
More London events on Saturday 1st August
Sunday 2nd August
Monthly open day at Gatton Park, the core 250 acres of the estate originally laid out by Capability Brown.
1pm to 5pm
Reigate
Here is an oasis in Camden’s urban density, where resourceful planting outflanks challenges of space and shade and Mrs Dickens, who once lived here, is an amiable ghost.
2pm to 4:30pm
Camden
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Monday 3rd August
Unfortunately, there seems to be nothing special happening today. Sorry about that!
More London events on Monday 3rd August
Tuesday 4th August
Unfortunately, there seems to be nothing special happening today. Sorry about that!
More London events on Tuesday 4th August
Wednesday 5th August
Unfortunately, there seems to be nothing special happening today. Sorry about that!
More London events on Wednesday 5th August
Thursday 6th August
Online events / webinars
Your presenter takes you on a guided 360° virtual tour. You will have a detailed look inside several rooms including the Commons Chamber, Lords Chamber and Central Lobby with its magnificent octagonal ceiling.
6pm to 7pm
More London events on Thursday 6th August
Friday 7th August
Roy Vickery will lead this walk taking a look at the wide range of wildflowers growing in the beautiful Streatham Cemetery (in Tooting!).
11am to 12:30pm
Tooting
Online events / webinars
Free
Emma Major delivers this highly illuminating talk on 18th Century gin crazes. Meet gin-dispensing cats and Old Toms, as you learn who drank gin and how, and why there was a gin craze.
2pm to 3pm
Join Emma Major to find out about the eighteenth-century gin craze.
2pm to 3pm
More London events on Friday 7th August
Saturday 8th August
Online events / webinars
Live online Zoom talk. Rosalind McCutcheon and Jill Williams cover the story of Ireland.
4pm to 5pm
More London events on Saturday 8th August
Sunday 9th August
Unfortunately, there seems to be nothing special happening today. Sorry about that!
More London events on Sunday 9th August
Monday 10th August
Online events / webinars
Ideas for living that aid physical and mental health, from homes for heroes and key worker housing to communal dwellings that improve wellbeing.
4pm to 5pm
Introduced by Interpretation Manager Jane Nielsen, join Curator, Mark Dennis, as he uses examples from our collection to illustrate this unique art form born out of conflict.
7:30pm to 8:15pm
More London events on Monday 10th August
Tuesday 11th August
Online events / webinars
Join our expert-led webinar that will give you guide you through all the basics to get started with discovering your family history within half an hour.
2pm to 3pm
Hear fascinating and unexpected tales of London's great West End stores, from Selfridges to John Lewis via Liberty, HMV and many others
3pm to 4pm
These talks will explore not only the mirage of safety and control presented by nurses, but also the toll this mask of resilience took upon the human being behind it.
5:30pm to 6:30pm
Stuck at home? Get to know Rome in an hour with a professional tour guide and lover of art, Olga Cuckovic.
6:30pm to 7:30pm
£10.00
Using results from the most powerful telescopes and particle colliders, Katie Mack describes how small tweaks to our incomplete understanding of reality can result in starkly different predictions of how the Universe will end.
7pm to 8:30pm
A lecture about the diplomacy and science needed to understand the origins and hazards associated with Mount Paektu, a large volcano on the border of the North Korea and China.
7:30pm to 8pm
More London events on Tuesday 11th August
Wednesday 12th August
Online events / webinars
Professor Dany Nobus will reflect upon the enduring legacy of one of Freud’s most controversial texts, gauge its value for our contemporary living conditions, and open some new perspectives for revisiting this absolute classic of Freudian psychoanalysis.
3pm to 5pm
Stuck at home? Come along to this virtual tour of Art Deco New York with author Anthony Robins.
6:30pm to 7:30pm
More London events on Wednesday 12th August
Thursday 13th August
Online events / webinars
Join historian Yasmin Khan in conversation with journalist and author Shrabani Basu as they discuss India’s role in the Second World War.
12pm to :
Florence Nightingale apparently loathed having her photograph taken. Why then did she accept to sit for these images?
5pm to :
This online slideshow followed by a Zoom Q&A is a nice start on a journey through the ritual year.
8pm to 10pm
More London events on Thursday 13th August
Friday 14th August
Family open weekend at the gardens of Chiswick House
11am to 4pm
Chiswick
Online events / webinars
A talk about the nature of erotic writing in the 16th century from book burning to the Renaissance.
1pm to 2pm
Join General Lord Richards, President of the Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League, in conversation with Dr Peter Johnston as they explore the contribution of Commonwealth soldiers during the Far East campaign.
2pm to :
James Sumner (Manchester University) discusses the challenges that brewers faced in promoting new innovations to an often justifiably suspicious public.
2pm to 3pm
In 1809 a London brewery was prosecuted for the unusual offence of trying to remove cloudiness from its beer by dosing it with an extract of fish-skins.
2pm to 3pm
Brighton is not just the sea front, pier and pavilion. Let Stephen show you the many sides of the city often called London by the Sea
3pm to 4pm
More London events on Friday 14th August
Saturday 15th August
Family open weekend at the gardens of Chiswick House
11am to 4pm
Chiswick
Look to the skies, as the Red Arrows will fly over London in the late-afternoon.
5:25pm to 5:35pm
Online events / webinars
Join historian Julie Summers and Geoff Gill from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in conversation with Emma Mawdsley on the treatment and conditions of prisoners of war working on the Thai-Burma Railway.
12pm to :
This talk describes the development of the aircraft and eventual need to have a “standoff missile“ capable of allowing the aircraft to stay clear of the target area.
2pm to 3:15pm
A virtual lecture on the Arms of the City of London and its diverse ancient and modern Livery Companies
6pm to 7:30pm
More London events on Saturday 15th August
Sunday 16th August
This garden takes vertical planting to new heights – but is not for those who are afraid to walk a gangplank.
1pm to 5:30pm
Upper Norwood
Unusual walled and paved garden with different compartments on 2 levels, substantially restructured since previous opening in 2008.
2pm to 5pm
Wandsworth
More London events on Sunday 16th August
Monday 17th August
Unfortunately, there seems to be nothing special happening today. Sorry about that!
More London events on Monday 17th August
Tuesday 18th August
Online events / webinars
Hear about Taziker Engineering’s approach, the challenges and the solutions.
1pm to 2pm
Should governments be allowed to reduce consumer food choice by legislating that food producers and retailers supply exclusively healthy foods from sustainable food systems?
7pm to 7:30pm
More London events on Tuesday 18th August
Wednesday 19th August
A block of 10 days where the Transport Museum's main storage depot in Acton is open to visitors.
11am to 6pm
Acton
Online events / webinars
The event will also cover Blue Roofs - engineering for multifunctionality and integrating SuDS into highway schemes and working with below ground constraints.
1pm to 2pm
More London events on Wednesday 19th August
Thursday 20th August
A block of 10 days where the Transport Museum's main storage depot in Acton is open to visitors.
11am to 6pm
Acton
Online events / webinars
Artist Mary Branson discusses her contemporary light sculpture 'New Dawn'. Commemorating the women's suffrage campaign, this was the first piece of abstract art commissioned for permanent display in the Palace of Westminster.
6pm to 6:30pm
A talk about why, in 1066, for the first time, multiple foreign powers invaded England.
7pm to :
This virtual live event explores the role of theatre and performance in military life, especially in boosting troops’ morale.
7:30pm to 8:30pm
More London events on Thursday 20th August
Friday 21st August
A block of 10 days where the Transport Museum's main storage depot in Acton is open to visitors.
11am to 6pm
Acton
More London events on Friday 21st August
Saturday 22nd August
A block of 10 days where the Transport Museum's main storage depot in Acton is open to visitors.
11am to 6pm
Acton
More London events on Saturday 22nd August
Sunday 23rd August
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 block of 10 days where the Transport Museum's main storage depot in Acton is open to visitors.
11am to 6pm
Acton
More London events on Sunday 23rd August
Monday 24th August
Online events / webinars
Did you know that freemasons have supported schools for the children of members for over 200 years?
7:30pm to 8:15pm
More London events on Monday 24th August
Tuesday 25th August
Online events / webinars
£10.00
Emily Levesque reveals the hidden world of the professional astronomer. She celebrates an era of ingenuity and curiosity, and asks us to think twice before we cast aside our sense of wonder at the universe.
7pm to 8:30pm
More London events on Tuesday 25th August
Wednesday 26th August
A heads up that the bookings page for London Open House weekend opens today.
All Day
A block of 10 days where the Transport Museum's main storage depot in Acton is open to visitors.
11am to 6pm
Acton
Online events / webinars
Consultant gynaecologist Sir Marcus Setchell, reflects on the royal connections at Barts, which go back 900 years to Rahere and Henry VIII
7pm to 8pm
Join Gabriella Swaffield to time- travel back 600 years at the Charterhouse.
7pm to 8pm
More London events on Wednesday 26th August
Thursday 27th August
A block of 10 days where the Transport Museum's main storage depot in Acton is open to visitors.
11am to 6pm
Acton
Online events / webinars
Experience a day in the life of a virus scientist in this livestreamed event for all the family, hosted by BBC presenter Greg Foot.
10:30am to 11:15am
Curator and author Joanna Banham will be delving into the colourful history of Victorian wallpapers.
7pm to :
Uncover the long-standing relationship between the Army and artists past and present in this live online discussion.
7:30pm to 8:30pm
More London events on Thursday 27th August
Friday 28th August
A block of 10 days where the Transport Museum's main storage depot in Acton is open to visitors.
11am to 6pm
Acton
Free
Luke Jerram’s ceremonial art installation has been created as a memorial to those we have lost in the COVID-19 pandemic.
2:30pm to 8pm
Woolwich
Online events / webinars
This talk shows how the theory and methods of space syntax can help historians find new ways of using maps and town plans as sources in urban social history.
3pm to 4pm
Croydon isn't just boring 1960s office blocks and shops. Join Stephen to learn the fascinating story of a little old town with big ambition.
3pm to 4pm
More London events on Friday 28th August
Saturday 29th August
A block of 10 days where the Transport Museum's main storage depot in Acton is open to visitors.
11am to 6pm
Acton
Visit this green oasis in a urban setting it is a one of the many local green lungs in Forest Hill where you can find some interesting wildlife.
12pm to 4pm
Forest Hill
Free
Luke Jerram’s ceremonial art installation has been created as a memorial to those we have lost in the COVID-19 pandemic.
2:30pm to 8pm
Woolwich
More London events on Saturday 29th August
Sunday 30th August
The museum has it's first open day with some engines in steam since the lockdown started.
11am to 3pm
Walthamstow
A block of 10 days where the Transport Museum's main storage depot in Acton is open to visitors.
11am to 6pm
Acton
Free
Luke Jerram’s ceremonial art installation has been created as a memorial to those we have lost in the COVID-19 pandemic.
2:30pm to 8pm
Woolwich
More London events on Sunday 30th August
Monday 31st August
Free
Luke Jerram’s ceremonial art installation has been created as a memorial to those we have lost in the COVID-19 pandemic.
2:30pm to 8pm
Woolwich
