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.
Thursday 1st April
Online events / webinars
Join Ginny Smith as she explores the remarkable world of neurotransmitters, chemicals inside each of us that touch every aspect of our life.
12:30pm to 1:30pm
What can institutions such as Universities, The Inns, The City, and Gresham do to reach out to students who may not have professionals in their family to open their eyes to their potential and the legal profession?
6pm to 7pm
Join Dr David Bramwell to uncover what drives some to con, deceive and pull pranks and explore the changing role of the trickster over time
7:30pm to 9pm
More London events on Thursday 1st April
Friday 2nd April
Unfortunately, there seems to be nothing special happening today. Sorry about that!
More London events on Friday 2nd April
Saturday 3rd April
Online events / webinars
An online workshop where we’ll be looking at how to grow food in small urban spaces - from balconies to window ledges and windowsills.
2pm to 4pm
A tour of the atmospheric style of cinema and theatre auditorium around the world.
5:30pm to 7pm
More London events on Saturday 3rd April
Sunday 4th April
A beautiful historic parkland designed by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown with Edwardian gardens in Reigate, Surrey.
1pm to 5pm
Reigate
A one acre garden restored to its original 1920s design.
2pm to 4pm
Tadworth
More London events on Sunday 4th April
Monday 5th April
Unfortunately, there seems to be nothing special happening today. Sorry about that!
More London events on Monday 5th April
Tuesday 6th April
Online events / webinars
In this talk, Rory Fraser will take us on an illustrated journey across England as he unearths the stories behind these often-overlooked architectural gems.
6:30pm to :
Planning & Heritage Expert, Alec Forshaw examines the appalling history of bad planning decisions in Spitalfields.
7pm to :
Join Deanna Petherbridge to explore European witchcraft from the ancient world to present day through a rich survey of images
7:30pm to 9pm
Gavin Bowyer tells the story of East Dulwich’s Friern Manor Farm Estate.
8pm to 9pm
More London events on Tuesday 6th April
Wednesday 7th April
Online events / webinars
Get a taste of the Royal College of Physicians fascinating 500-year history and award-winning architecture in a live virtual guided tour.
1pm to 1:30pm
Martin Sheppard, author and historian will relate some of the lesser known tales of Primrose Hill.
6pm to 7pm
Michael Hall examines the reasons why Queen Victoria commissioned a mausoleum for herself and Prince Albert in 1862.
6:30pm to 2pm
A talk highlighting the importance of pollinators in cities led by a leading pollination expert.
6:30pm to 7:30pm
A virtual walking tour down the secret, historic passageways in the Square Mile
7pm to 8pm
More London events on Wednesday 7th April
Thursday 8th April
Online events / webinars
Free
Get a sneak peek of Japan House London’s next exhibition MAKING NUNO: Japanese Textile Innovation from Sudō Reiko.
12pm to 1pm
An interview with two nurses on the nursing experience of the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic.
5:30pm to 7pm
Join Professor Brian Cox as he talks to scientists working at the forefront of research into long Covid, and campaigners with personal experience of the devastating effect it can have on lives.
6pm to 7pm
Suzanne Bardgett Head of Research at the Imperial War Museum will talk about the research her book about the Imperial War Museum’s paintings of London commissioned during the Second World War
6:30pm to :
A discussion about the history, the legacy and the thorny issue of restitution.
7pm to 8pm
An overview of King James I (VI)'s influential book on witchcraft.
8pm to :
More London events on Thursday 8th April
Friday 9th April
Online events / webinars
Join Dr Robert Lyman as he compares the deep operations conducted in Burma during the Second World War, and examines why some special forces groups are better remembered than others.
12pm to 1pm
Discover the extraordinary story of how and why the office of Prime Minister has endured longer than any other democratic political office in world history.
2pm to 3pm
Joined by performer and current RuPaul's Drag Race star Tia Kofi, we'll explore the lineage of drag, and the people who lived it as part of our ongoing LGBTQ+ history.
7pm to 8:30pm
More London events on Friday 9th April
Saturday 10th April
A beautiful country cottage style garden, designed by Sam Aldridge of Eden Restored.
2pm to 5pm
South Croydon
Online events / webinars
A virtual workshop where we will be sharing our top tips and tricks to get your growing herbs this spring.
11am to 1pm
11am to 12pm
More London events on Saturday 10th April
Sunday 11th April
Diverse garden dominated by a gigantic perry pear forming part of one of the East Dulwich orchards.
1pm to 5pm
Forest Hill
A beautiful country cottage style garden, designed by Sam Aldridge of Eden Restored.
2pm to 5pm
South Croydon
More London events on Sunday 11th April
Monday 12th April
Online events / webinars
City Guide Courtney Plank leads a virtual walk through the Barbican, looking at the very different churches of St Giles Cripplegate, St Botolph without Aldersgate and Jewin Welsh Church.
2pm to 3:15pm
This lecture looks at Humphry Repton’s work for the Quaker gun manufacturer Samuel Galton Junior at his estate at Warley Woods, Birmingham.
6pm to 7:30pm
Come to the forest, sit by the fireside and listen to intoxicating song, as Sam Lee tells the story of the nightingale.
7:30pm to 9pm
More London events on Monday 12th April
Tuesday 13th April
Online events / webinars
In the seventeenth century Oxfordshire was home to two remarkable gardens that shared a reliance on technology to indulge the enthusiasms of their owners and impress their visitors.
10am to 11:30am
An update on the key trends and challenges at universities across London, exploring the new campus developments.
10am to 11am
Excavations within the Great Kitchen of Westminster Abbey. Lecture by Joe Brooks, Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd
6:30pm to 7:30pm
Landscape architect Kim Wilkie will trace this development through looking at some of the projects he has worked on.
6:30pm to :
Join Naomi Oreskes as she explores what we need to consider when we want people to trust the science.
7pm to 8pm
Oliver Caroe, surveyor of St Paul’s Cathedral, discusses his descent from the Victorian and Edwardian architect W. D. Caroe.
7pm to 9pm
More London events on Tuesday 13th April
Wednesday 14th April
Online events / webinars
At the 550th anniversary Lester Hillman, explores the victors and vanquished, the dramas and the tragedies including the perspectives of City commentators like Shakespeare, writing a century later.
2pm to 3pm
This lecture pursues the gift of Gothic to later novelists, seeing how great Victorian novelists like Emily Brontë, Charlotte Brontë and Charles Dickens were entranced by the supernatural.
6pm to 7pm
Come and enjoy a talk on the eventful life and career of the late, great and quintessentially British film star David Niven.
6:30pm to 7:30pm
Join art director and movie poster designer, Art Sims, to discover how he captures the essence of a 90 minute feature film in one frame image to get a person excited to see it in the 10 second window that they are likely to see the printed image.
7pm to 8:30pm
In this talk Dr Susan Kay-Williams will reveal some of The Royal School of Needlework's visitors from Queen Victoria herself to foreign heads of state.
7pm to 8:15pm
Join Alison Weir as she discusses the fifth novel in her Six Tudor Queens series, Katheryn Howard: The Tainted Queen.
7:30pm to 1am
More London events on Wednesday 14th April
Thursday 15th April
A notice that the Thames Barrier and the Barking Barrier will have their monthly test closures today.
9:30am to 1pm
Online events / webinars
A talk about the challenges of deploying new technology and examine the balance between investing in new innovation and maintaining existing technology all while securing the trust of customers.
2:30pm to :
See examples of historic repairs to documents and learn why it is important for conservators to study old repairs.
4pm to 5pm
Rebecca Earle traces the history of the potato from the Andes to everywhere, revealing the ways in which our ideas about eating are entangled with the emergence of capitalism and why we have such an ambivalent relationship with government dietary guidelines.
6pm to 7pm
As we begin to think about renewing and rebuilding in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, how can the humanities help?
6pm to 7pm
Join Chanda Prescod-Weinstein on a journey into the world of particle physics and the cosmos
7pm to 8pm
£5.00
Joining us from Chicago, Lehrer speaks with Audrey Niffenegger about her memoir Golem Girl, an extraordinary story of tenacity and creativity.
7pm to 8pm
A talk will provide the audience with a fresh approach to designing and planting their gardens along with a host of tips on rejuvenating tired plants, lawns and patios.
7:30pm to 8:45pm
More London events on Thursday 15th April
Friday 16th April
Online events / webinars
John Professor Murray Pittock as he discusses the battle and its legacy.
12pm to 1pm
In this talk Chaucer enthusiasts Euan Roger and Henry Eliot dig deeper into the true story of Chaucer’s life, discussing the people and places that inspired his work.
2pm to 3pm
More London events on Friday 16th April
Saturday 17th April
Five gardens in a housing estate only open to the public through the National Garden Scheme.
10am to 4pm
Paddington
Online events / webinars
A talk about the oldest botanic garden in Britain, now in its 400th year.
10:30am to 12pm
Get a taste of the Royal College of Physicians fascinating 500-year history and award-winning architecture in a live virtual guided tour.
1pm to 1:30pm
Museums are full of the belongings of the dead! Come and see some remarkable objects and hear some incredible stories.
7pm to 8:15pm
More London events on Saturday 17th April
Sunday 18th April
One of London's prettiest secluded garden squares with a romantic rose tunnel that winds through the middle of the garden.
10:30am to 4pm
Kensington
A 70ft garden with trees, evergreen structure, perennial flowers and grasses.
12pm to 5pm
Kingston Upon Thames
This 100m-long unique and award winning garden is home to the Corokia National Collection along with a great number of other unusual plants.
1:30pm to 5:30pm
Muswell Hill
Front gardens in this pretty cobbled cul-de-sac of terraced houses, overlooking Thornhill Road Gardens in the heart of Barnsbury.
2:30pm to 5:30pm
Islington
Online events / webinars
Mike Jay is the author of Mescaline – a Global History - A definitive history of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to Western modernity.
8pm to 10pm
More London events on Sunday 18th April
Monday 19th April
Online events / webinars
Film featuring two former Foundling Hospital pupils talking about life at the school during WW2.
6pm to 7pm
A talk about the investigative journalism group, Bellingcat.
6:30pm to 8pm
Historic graffiti tell stories of the hopes, fears and desires of a nation echoing through time - here is their tale.
6:30pm to 7:30pm
More London events on Monday 19th April
Tuesday 20th April
Online events / webinars
Head gardener, Lucy Hart explores the winding history of the Fulham Palace wisteria, one of the oldest in London.
2pm to 3pm
A presentation on the works that prepared the site for the HS2 tunnel boring machines at the Chiltern tunnel.
5pm to 6:30pm
Join SAVE Britain's Heritage and architect and TV presenter George Clarke for a special live online lecture.
6pm to 7pm
In this lecture we will look at a bit of internet history, show how it works now and look towards the future.
6pm to 7pm
Let cultural historian Adam Endacott take you through the career of one of Britain's most beloved comics, Kenneth Williams
6:30pm to 7:30pm
Join NASA geneticist Christopher E Mason as he argues we have a moral duty to explore other planets and solar systems
7pm to 8:30pm
Curator Lauren Stephenson will delve into the rich history of the globally important Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire.
7pm to 10pm
City guide Julian Romain presents a history of the Lord Mayor of London.
7pm to 8:30pm
7pm to 8pm
More London events on Tuesday 20th April
Wednesday 21st April
A country garden atmosphere in this 120ft long garden, with a Judas tree as a focus.
6pm to 8pm
Online events / webinars
Speakers from London and Chicago will discuss how tall buildings and the zero-carbon agenda affect both cities.
2pm to 3:30pm
This talk by Andrew Lane explores the discovery, conservation and form of this important public building and examines how in a little over thirty years new excavations have transformed our knowledge of the area.
2pm to 3pm
This lecture asks how it came to emerge over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, tracing its roots in the Reformation and showing how political chance and the traumas of civil war led to its slow and improbable ascent to dominance.
6pm to 7pm
This lecture traces the extraordinary story of the Brooke Rajahs through the heraldry of the family and the state during the period and into modern times.
6:30pm to 8pm
This lecture explores the City of London's long and complex relationship with the Monarch and Royal Family
7pm to 8pm
Join Dr Stephen Asma, author of "On Monsters", as he examines the human condition by looking at what scares us most
7:30pm to 9pm
More London events on Wednesday 21st April
Thursday 22nd April
Online events / webinars
This illustrated lecture marks 150 years since Dickens’s death by reflecting on the nature of his creative genius and his legacy.
1pm to 2pm
A Zoom talk presented by award-winning storyteller Vanessa Woolf on the mystical life of Dr Dee including his links with Fulham Palace
5:30pm to 6:30pm
A discussion on the plan to restore Bennerley Viaduct and create an exciting new public space.
6pm to :
This lecture will explore the current and future scope of the law of incitement to religious hatred in light of our long and troubled history of dealing with religious speech.
6pm to 7pm
Newspaper reports and a few photographs in the museum archive reveal that the house was squatted, but who were the squatters and was the building experienced at that time?
6:30pm to 8pm
An online talk about historic graffiti located in Southwark Cathedral
6:30pm to 7:30pm
Miles will discuss his life and work, from the changing landscape of advertising to his lifelong support of the arts.
6:30pm to 7:30pm
A Capital Feast – the history of London’s most famous food and drink emporiums from breakfast tea to after-dinner
6:30pm to 7:30pm
On the eleventh anniversary of the burial of Malcolm McLaren in Highgate's East Cemetery, a talk about his life and work.
7pm to :
This talk will look at four shortlisted entries in Highgate Cemetery’s ‘landscape masterplan’ competition.
7:30pm to 9pm
More London events on Thursday 22nd April
Friday 23rd April
London’s West End galleries mark the re-opening of the art world with a special spring edition of The Mayfair Art Weekend Gallery HOP! on 23 April
5pm to 8pm
Online events / webinars
Join historian Andrew Salmon MBE as he marks the 70th anniversary of the bloodiest battle fought by UK troops since the Second World War.
12pm to 1pm
Julie Attenborough and Lisa Reynolds share the stories of nurses who have challenged the status quo throughout history.
5:30pm to 6:30pm
£5.00
In this talk, Sue Stuart-Smith, a distinguished psychiatrist and avid gardener offers an inspiring and consoling work about the healing effects of gardening and its ability to decrease stress and foster mental well-being in our everyday lives.
6:30pm to 8pm
More London events on Friday 23rd April
Saturday 24th April
A monthly opening of the House of Dreams in East Dulwich - a house given over entirely to a unique form of art.
10am to 5pm
East Dulwich
Rummage through a selection of salvaged treasures from 30 handpicked vintage traders.
11am to 6pm
Stoke Newington
Established suburban garden of ⅓ acre on sandy acid soil, spatially organised into separate sections.
2:30pm to 6pm
Raynes Park
More London events on Saturday 24th April
Sunday 25th April
From shade specialists to plants for pollinators, meet the growers and pick their brains on what will flourish in your garden, balcony or allotment.
10:30am to 5pm
Southwark
Rummage through a selection of salvaged treasures from 30 handpicked vintage traders.
11am to 6pm
Stoke Newington
Spectacular in spring, when 2000 tulips bloom among Camellias, irises and tree peonies.
12pm to 5pm
Clapham
London’s smallest botanical garden, densely planted with 500 labelled species grown in themed borders.
2pm to 5pm
Herne Hill
A woodland garden at its peak in spring, with rhododendrons, flowering dogwoods, early roses, bulbs, ferns and rare exotics.
2pm to 6pm
Notting Hill
This garden will surprise you with its unexpected length (160ft) and beautiful individual ‘rooms’ on different levels.
2pm to 5:30pm
New Cross
Online events / webinars
Karen Averby reflects on the architecture and design from this golden age of hotel building and shares stories from her research of the people associated with these fashionable places.
3pm to 4:15pm
More London events on Sunday 25th April
Monday 26th April
Online events / webinars
City Guide Jill Finch’s talk look back at that history and at the street today. From literary lions to waxworks and a pub that crossed the road, Fleet Street still has a tale or two to tell.
2pm to 3pm
Join Dr Brett Kahr to learn what Freud—having lived through WWI, the Spanish Flu, and Nazi occupation—can teach us in this new pandemic
8pm to 9:30pm
More London events on Monday 26th April
Tuesday 27th April
Online events / webinars
10am to 11:30am
The Green Man: A review of the many theories that attempt to explain his origin and meaning.
2pm to 3pm
Dr Anjna Chouhan examines Shakespeare’s contradictory narratives of the sea.
5:15pm to 6:30pm
The story of Westminster before 1512
6:30pm to 7:30pm
Using many unpublished illustrations, historian Philip Mansel shows that Napoleon was not, as Hegel called him ‘the world soul on horseback’, but above all a monarch.
6:30pm to :
The Cosmic Shambles Network are hosting a night at the Royal Institution to celebrate the 'Father of the Nuclear Age', Ernest Rutherford.
7pm to 8:30pm
Learn all about the remarkable Pinwill sisters who worked as professional woodcarvers in Victorian Ermington and then Plymouth.
7pm to 10pm
Dave Goulson will explain why insects are in decline, and suggest how we can all help to tackle this crisis, by turning our gardens and urban greenspaces into oases for life.
7pm to 8:30pm
More London events on Tuesday 27th April
Wednesday 28th April
Online events / webinars
To celebrate the release of Simply Raymond: Recipes from Home, the official cookbook to the ITV series, coming out on 29th April.
6:30pm to :
£5.00
Elain Harwood will talk about cinemas, seaside buildings, factories and other buildings in this most fantastic of styles.
6:30pm to :
Dr Denis Sivkov and Makar Tereshin speak on how the heritage of the Soviet space project is maintained and engaged with in regional museums across Russia.
7pm to 8:30pm
Amy Hare explores how hand embroidery looked to the past and to the future by creating the Art of the moment.
7pm to 8:30pm
More London events on Wednesday 28th April
Thursday 29th April
Online events / webinars
A presentation about the upgrade works to the Isle of Wight Railway.
5:30pm to 7pm
Join Stephen Walker, in conversation with celebrated British travel writer Colin Thubron, as he speaks about his new book, Beyond - the history of the first human to leave our planet.
6pm to 7:30pm
A talk and recreation of how amputations used to be carried out in the Old Operating Theatre.
6pm to 7pm
Listen as the team delve into the horrors of surgery before the arrival of anaesthesia and antiseptics that helped pave the way to our modern medical procedures.
6pm to 7pm
Naomi Games will talk about her father’s work on the Festival of Britain symbol following the story from the designer’s brief, development of his ideas, to winning the competition.
6:30pm to :
Pay a visit to the toilet with historians Lee Jackson and Simon Fowler as they plumb the depths of London's lavatory legacy.
7pm to 9pm
This talk will illuminate works by some leading figures such as ElLissitzky, Kurt Schwitters, Moholy-Nagy and Piet Zwart, as well as lesser known designers like Johannes Molzahn, Walter Dexel and Max Burchartz.
7pm to 8:30pm
Once British, Always British is a collection of two 30-minute audio dramas exploring migration to British port cities by Yemeni and Indian sailors during the 1920s.
7pm to 9pm
Simon Saville will describe Butterfly Conservation’s new “Big City Butterflies” project, which will run for four years from 2021.
7:30pm to 8:30pm
More London events on Thursday 29th April
Friday 30th April
How accurate are science fiction films? Separate fact from fiction with astronomers from the Royal Observatory Greenwich
7pm to :
Greenwich
Online events / webinars
Free
Christine Hallett challenges some of the popular myths surrounding the allied nurses of the First World War.
12pm to 1pm
Peter Daniel talks about the Cato Street Conspiracy, a daring plot to assassinate the British Prime Minister and his cabinet.
6:30pm to 8pm
Learn about one of the protagonists of the Cato Street Conspiracy, a daring plot to assassinate the British Prime Minister and his cabinet.
6:30pm to 8pm
