It is Thursday, October second, and if you are in London, there is no shortage of events to tempt you out this week and into the weekend. Kicking off today, art lovers can catch the last days of Drawn From The Heart at Mall Galleries, featuring the photorealistic wildlife drawings of Gary Hodges. Admission is free, with the exhibition running through to October fifth.

Fans of portraiture should make time for the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025, showcasing a broad range of contemporary and classic portraits. For a deep dive into international art history, the Millet: Life on the Land exhibition gives a taste of nineteenth-century rural France and is a must for fans of realist painting, while Ancient India: Living Traditions at the British Museum explores the roots of sacred art from across the subcontinent. Both are closing soon, so seize your chance.

Tomorrow, Friday the third, sees the top ballroom dancers in the world gliding into the Royal Albert Hall for the International Ballroom Dancing Championships. Expect Latin American sparkle and quick-steps galore. For music, film, and culture fans, BFI London Film Festival gets underway later this month, but you can get in the spirit with plenty of smaller film screenings and talks happening in indie cinemas across the city.

On Saturday, the city goes to the dogs—literally—with Chelsea Dog Day taking over Duke of York Square, where listeners can browse dog-themed goodies, attend workshops, and pose beside a giant sausage dog bench, all with free entry. Meanwhile, Rich Mix in Shoreditch puts on the family-friendly Deaf Rave Festival, celebrating Deaf culture with daytime workshops, a gaming zone, and, after 8 PM, live music for the over-eighteens.

For families, Islington’s Festival of the Girl is a weekend-long celebration at the Business Design Centre, brimming with workshops and inspiring talks covering everything from coding to sports, activism, and body confidence, running both Saturday and Sunday. Theatre lovers, Jodie Whittaker stars in The Duchess at Trafalgar Theatre, reimagining the classic tragedy with a contemporary twist.

If your perfect weekend is fuelled by great food, the London Restaurant Festival continues citywide through October with special menus, tastings, and chef-hosted meals in dozens of restaurants. Cocktail enthusiasts should mark down London Cocktail Week, where hundreds of venues across town are mixing up inventive drinks and offering entry to a sprawling Cocktail Village.

And do not miss the More than Human exhibition at the Design Museum, where radical ideas in design invite visitors to imagine a more sustainable future for people and the planet.

Finally, on Sunday, Potters Fields Park at Tower Bridge hosts the London Memory Walk, a fundraising, family-friendly event for Alzheimer’s Society, with both 2k and 5k routes available.

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