Entertainment in London
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Market Porter
This pub opens early on weekdays for the traders at Borough's wholesale market. It's good during normal opening hours, too, for its convivial atmosphere and excellent selection of real ales and bitters. This is the stuff of great pubs, and it's well worth making a detour for or stopping by for a quick 'un while perusing the stalls of Borough Market at the weekend.
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Luminaire
The Luminaire is one of London’s best small music venues. Compact but not crowded, it has a big emphasis on friendly service and silence while music is playing – but what’s really impressive is the list of people who’ve played here: Babyshambles, Bat For Lashes, Colleen, Editors, Dirty Pretty Things, Hanne Hukkelberg and Mark Eitzel of American Music Club are just a few.
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99 Club
Not quite the famous 100 Club, this virtual venue takes over various bars around town nightly, with three rival clones on Saturdays.
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Barbican
Urging Londoners to ‘do something different’, the extensive program of events on offer at the Barbican always provides something new and adventurous. It’s home to the wonderful London Symphony Orchestra, and the centre’s associate orchestra, the lesser-known BBC Symphony Orchestra, also plays regularly, as do scores of leading international musicians. On the contemporary scene, it hosts all manner of high-quality musicians, focusing in particular on jazz, folk, world and soul artists. Dance is another strong point and its multidisciplinary festival, Barbican International Theatre Events, showcases some great performances, as well as the work of exciting overseas…
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Barfly
This typically grungy, indie-rock Camden venue is well known for hosting small-time artists looking for their big break. The focus is on rock from the US and UK, with alternative-music radio station Xfm hosting regular nights. The venue is small, so you’ll feel like the band is just playing for you and your mates.
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BFI IMAX
Watch 3-D movies and cinema releases on the UK's biggest screen: 20m high (nearly five double-decker buses) and 26m wide.
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BFI Southbank
Tucked almost out of sight under the arches of Waterloo Bridge is the British Film Institute, containing four cinemas that screen thousands of films each year, a gallery devoted to the moving image and the Mediatheque, where you watch film and TV highlights from the BFI National Archive. There’s also a gallery space with shows relating to film, a film store for books and DVDs, a restaurant and a gorgeous cafe. Largely a repertory or art-house theatre, the BFI runs regular retrospectives and is the major venue for the Times BFI London Film Festival, which screens 300 films from 60 countries in the second half of October.
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London Coliseum
The Coliseum is home to the English National Opera (ENO), celebrated for making opera modern and relevant; all operas here are sung in English. After several years in the wasteland, the ENO has been receiving better reviews and welcoming much bigger audiences since the arrival of music director Edward Gardner.
The building, built in 1904 and lovingly restored 100 years later, is very impressive. The English National Ballet also does regular performances at the Coliseum.
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Guanabara
Brazil comes to London with live music and DJs nightly.
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Hope & Anchor
There is a scarcity of decent pubs in Islington, where the offerings are overwhelmingly cocktail lounges or DJ bars, but this rough-round-the-edges boozer with a famous musical past (U2, Dire Straits, Joy Division and, more recently, the Libertines have all played here) attracts a muso cross-section of the neighbourhood and is a lot of fun.
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KOKO
Once the legendary Camden Palace, where Charlie Chaplin, the Goons, the Sex Pistols and Ryan Adams have all performed in the past, Koko is keeping its reputation as one of London’s better gig venues – Madonna played a Confessions on a Dance Floor gig here in 2006 and Prince gave a surprise gig in 2007. The theatre has a dance floor and decadent balconies, and attracts an indie crowd with Club NME on Friday. There are live bands almost every night of the week.
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Lord’s Cricket Ground
A trip to Lord’s, aka ‘the home of cricket’, is often as much a pilgrimage as anything else. As well as being home to Marylebone Cricket Club, the ground hosts test matches, one-day internationals and domestic finals.
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O2 Academy Brixton
It’s hard to have a bad night at the Brixton Academy, even if you leave with your soles sticky with beer, as this cavernous former art deco theatre (holding 5000) always thrums with bonhomie. There’s a properly raked floor for good views, as well as plenty of bars. Massive acts show – including Madonna (once) and The Prodigy – but more likely artists are Band of Horses, Beady Eye or DJ Shadow.
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Royal Albert Hall
This splendid Victorian concert hall hosts classical-music, rock and other performances, but is most famously the venue for the BBC-sponsored Proms. Booking is possible, but from mid-July to mid-September Proms punters also queue for £5 standing (or ‘promenading’) tickets that go on sale one hour before curtain-up. Otherwise the box office and prepaid ticket collection counter are both through door 12 (south side of the hall).
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Royal Opera House
The £210 million redevelopment for the millennium gave classic opera a fantastic setting, and coming here for a night is a sumptuous prospect. Although the program has been fluffed up by modern influences, the main attractions here are still the classical ballet and opera – all are wonderful productions and feature world-class performers.
Midweek matinees are usually much cheaper than evening performances and restricted-view seats cost as little as £7. There are same-day tickets (one per customer available to the first 67 people in the queue) from 10am for £8 to £40. Half-price stand-by tickets are only occasionally available. Otherwise, full-price tickets go for…
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Royal Shakespeare Company
Productions of the bard's classics and other quality stuff.
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Southbank Centre
The overhauled Royal Festival Hall is London’s premier concert venue and seats 3000 in a now-acoustic amphitheatre. It’s one of the best places for catching world-music artists and hosts the fantastic Meltdown festival. Allies and Morrison architects worked on the £91-million renovations by using the existing 1950s materials – concrete, leather and wood – to superb effect. The sound is fantastic, the programming impeccable and there are frequent free gigs in the wonderfully expansive foyer.
There are more eclectic gigs at the smaller Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room. The three are also regular venues for the Dance Umbrella citywide festival, as well as…
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Absolut Ice Bar
At -6°C, this bar made entirely of ice is literally the coolest in London. Entry is limited to 40 minutes, and your ticket includes a vodka cocktail served in an ice glass. It's a gimmick, sure, but a good one, and there are plenty of places nearby that charge the same for a cocktail alone. Book ahead.
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Anchor
Firmly anchored in many guidebooks (including this one) – but with good reason – this riverside boozer dates to the early 17th century (subsequently rebuilt after the Great Fire and again in the 19th century). Trips to the terrace are rewarded with superb views across the Thames but brace for a constant deluge of drinkers. Dictionary writer Samuel Johnson, whose brewer friend owned the joint, drank here, as did diarist Samuel Pepys.
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Bar Music Hall
Keeping the East End music-hall tradition alive but with a modern twist, this roomy space with a central bar hosts DJs and live bands. Music runs the gamut from punk to jazz to rock and disco.
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Big Chill House
A three-floor space with a good selection of live music and DJs, and a great terrace for hanging out, this place is run by the same people behind the popular Big Chill festival and record label. The music choice is always varied and international, the sound system is fantastic, plus entry is free most nights. Food is also served throughout the day. The kitchen also churns out good burgers.
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Coach & Horses
Famous as the place where Spectator columnist Jeffrey Bernard drank himself to death, this small, busy and thankfully unreconstructed boozer retains an old Soho bohemian atmosphere with a regular clientele of soaks, writers, hacks, tourists and those too drunk to lift their heads off the counter. Pretension will be prosecuted.
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Favela Chic
Ticks the following boxes: hip young things; crazy theme nights; lumberyard meets jungle decor; fun and funky music.
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Flask
Charming nooks and crannies, an old circular bar and an enticing beer garden make this 1663 pub the perfect place for a pint en route between Hampstead Heath and Highgate Cemetery. It's like a village pub in the city. From Highgate tube station, cross Archway, turn right and then left onto Southwood Lane. At the lane's end, the Flask is a block to the right.
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