Things to do in London this week

Each year, Meltdown invites one artist to curate its bill, allowing them to take over the Southbank Centre for a couple of weeks with their favourite stars from across music and culture. This year, Chaka Khan is taking up the challenge with a lineup that brings together established icons and lesser-known discoveries. This week, look out for gigs from Les Amazones d'Afrique, Norman Jay, Master Peace, Emeli Sandé, Rahsaan Patterson and the Chaka herself. 

The men’s UEFA Euros are back, kicking off on Friday when Scotland plays hosts Germany. Whether you’re a die hard footie fan or just looking for an excuse to drink four pints of lager on a weeknight, you’re going to want to know all the best spots in London to catch the matches. From screenings to sports pubs, these are the best places to watch Euro 2024 in London. 

Flatspot Records is a label from New York and Maryland championing a new wave of punk and hardcore music. In recent years, it’s been the premier imprint for heavy, boundary-pushing music emerging from the underground across the US. This night at The Dome will showcase some of the hottest talent it has on its roster, with fan favourites like Scowl, ZULU and Speed leading the charge. 

The Dome, NW5 1HL. Sat Jun 15 and Sun Jun 16, 7pm. From £30.25.

For the past couple of years Corrochio’s has been the Dalston strip’s best kept secret. Now, this tucked-away taqueria has broken out of its basement home and finally leapfrogged up to street level. The new restaurant is about four times the size of the original, with the added bonus of windows. Most importantly, the food is the real deal. Raised in Guadalajara, chef and founder Daniel Carillo knows what he’s doing. His short but punch-pulling menu revolves around regional specials (including huaraches, a flatbread-ish dish rarely found in London’s Mexican restaurants) and the three Ts; tacos, tortas and tostadas. Plus, Corrochio’s dedication to getting the booze just as right as the food is part of what makes it the perfect party restaurant. 

How’s this for a new night-out idea – immerse yourself in an exclusive after-hours journey through SEA LIFE London Aquarium at the all-new SEA LIFE Lates for adults only! As the day ends, the underwater wonderland comes alive just for you, offering unparalleled access to explore the colours and creatures of the ocean in a serene atmosphere. Sip on a complimentary drink on arrival and glide alongside the green sea turtles, trek through the Amazon Rainforest and go past the colony of Gentoo penguins. 

Get your ticket to SEA LIFE Lates for £29, only with Time Out Offers.

English artist David Micheaud’s show is full of uncomfortably precise interiors and still lifes; bare, minimal, crisp, hyper-real visions of a coat on its hook, feet up on a table, a hob, an intercom, the shadow cast by a cheese plant. Nothing happens, there’s no action, no big gestures or emotions, there’s just the blank reality of the stuff of everyday life, stared at for so long that it’s no longer comforting, it’s suffocating, overbearing. They’re gorgeous paintings, perfectly rendered. Micheaud manages to lose himself in the uncanny valley of existence, the erotic of the everyday. 

British conservationist Isabella Tree is a prime mover behind England’s rewilding and her bestselling book that’s now the basis of this impactful, topical doc. Produced by the team behind the Oscar-nominated ‘All That Breathes’, and with shades of the wonderful ‘The Biggest Little Farm’, it follows a couple’s efforts to unleash the power of nature on their country estate. Electronica maven Jon Hopkins co-wrote the film’s score, so expect soothing vibes.

Out Jun 14

Munch your way through dishes from the great and the good of the capital’s restaurant scene at this sprawling culinary festival in the picturesque surroundings of central London’s Regent’s Park. Korean rabata (barbecue) restaurant Roka, South American fusion from YOPO and Big Mamma’s quintet of maximalist Italian joints (that’s Gloria, Circolo Popolare, Ave Mario, Jacuzzi and Carlotta) are among the line-up of restaurants peddling plates. 

West London’s finest institutions including the V&A, the Natural History Museum, the Royal Albert Hall – pretty much every big landmark on Exhibition Road are joining forces for the Great Exhibition Road Festival, two days of events inspired by the 1851 Great Exhibition. Everything is free (if you register), and the programme is as mixed as a family bag of Revels. Head down if you fancy an AI silent disco, constructing mini robots or learning about revolutionary medical technology. 

Hit up this day of celebrations dedicated to the influential literary figure James Joyce. Bloomsday Festival gathers emerging and established Irish talent, including the likes of Irish singer BLÁNID and musician and podcaster Gareth Keane, for a mish-mash of music and spoken word performances. Singer-songwriter Imelda May is headlining, there’ll be ‘try an instrument’ sessions, Ceilidh dancing and – of course – plenty of hearty food and whiskey.

Pop down for a picnic by the water and then make your way to a (seated) concert in front of Henry VIII's iconic former residence at this open-air music festival in the historic Hampton Court Palace.  This week look out for gigs from Nile Rodgers & Chic and Tom Jones.  

Most productions of Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’ are about life. Jamie Lloyd’s production is about death. Taking place in a gloomy void, Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers’s titular lovers speak in halting, hushed voices, and the action jumps and skips like a half-remembered dream, as if they were looking back on all this from a great distance. It’s deeply compelling. Another one of Shakespeare’s heroes asked what dreams may come in death. This unsettling production feels like the answer.

In a 1978 American football game between the Oakland Raiders and the New England Patriots, Jack Tatum tackled Darryl Stingley so hard it left him paralysed from the neck down. It was an act of ferocious brutality that was captured on camera and replayed, reanalysed, rewatched a billion times over. It’s at the centre of Matthew Barney’s latest film, ‘Secondary’; a quiet, unnerving, uncomfortable exploration of how bodies can be broken, destroyed and remade, and how violence is humanity’s ultimate spectacle.

After a seven-year hiatus, the World Press Photo Exhibition returns to London, taking place at Borough Yards throughout May. Presenting the results of the 2024 World Press Photo Contest, the annual exhibition showcases the best and most important photojournalism and documentary photography of the last year. The winners were chosen by an independent jury made of 31 professionals from around the world who reviewed more than 61,062 photographs were entered by 3,581 photographers from 130 countries.

Get 20% off tickets to the World Press Photo Exhibition 24, only through Time Out Offers.

Have you noticed that everyone’s wearing kilts at the moment? It’s partly down to Glaswegian fashion designer and radical creative Charles Jeffrey, whose fashion brand Loverboy reimagined the textile, creating checked lewks that were more high club night than Highland fling. It’s been 10 years since Loverboy began and this exhibition will go behind-the-scenes, exploring how Jeffrey built the brand from scratch. 

How do you adapt one of the all time great British TV series of the ‘80s for the ‘20s stage? ‘Very respectfully’ is the answer offered by James Graham’s version of Alan Bleasdale’s ‘Boys from the Blackstuff’. It concerns the titular group of male Liverpudlian labourers, who as the play begins have already lost their jobs laying tarmac and are now on the dole, doing off the books work. In 2024, ‘Boys from the Blackstuff’ undoubtedly comes across as a period piece, but it has a timeless echo in any straightened times. And it is, simply, a tremendous story about men, masculinity and change. 

Never ending baskets of delicious dim sum. Need we say more? That means tucking into as many dumplings, rolls and buns as you can scoff down, all expertly put together by a Chinatown restaurant celebrating more than ten years of business. Taiwanese pork buns? Check. Pork and prawn soup dumplings? You betcha. ‘Supreme’ crab meat xiao long bao? Of course! And just to make sure you’re all set, Leong’s Legend is further furnishing your palate with a chilled glass of prosecco. Lovely bubbly.

Get 51% off bottomless dim sum at Leong's Legend only through Time Out Offers

Escape reality through maximum immersion and experience 42 masterpieces from 29 of the world’s most iconic artists, each reimagined through cutting-edge technology. Marble Arch’s high-tech Frameless gallery houses four unique exhibition spaces with hypnotic visuals reimaging work from the likes of Bosch, Dalí and more, all with an atmospheric score. Now get 90 minutes of eye-popping gallery time for just £20 through Time Out offers.

£20 tickets to Frameless immersive art experience only through Time Out offers 

To walk into London-based artist Alvaro Barrington’s Duveen commission is to walk into the Grenadian shack he grew up in. The sound of rain hammering on the tin roof echoes around the space as you sit on plastic-covered benches. In the central gallery, a vast silver dancer is draped in fabrics on an enormous steel pan drum. This is Carnival, this is the Afro-Carribean diaspora at its freest, letting loose, dancing, expressing its soul, communing. You’re brought into the frenzy, the dance, the community. Barrington has created a space of joy and togetherness, filled with love and critical anger.

Taking over north London’s iconic Roundhouse throughout June, The Last Word Festival is one of the best in the UK for championing exciting voices and emerging talent in the world of spoken word. This year, there’ll be poetry slam heats, a session called ‘redacted’ where poems are created by removing words from articles, chapters or magazines, plus much, much more.