London Museums

How to find cool events and things to do in London

London Events

I love being in London. It's an amazing city with so many things to do. You can even plan every night of the week to be out doing something entertaining. I keep getting asked how I find all the cool events I go to. I also get responses to my Snapchat story that say "oh wish I knew" "how did you even find that?" The answer is simple, I look for interesting things to do with my time because interesting events lead to interesting people. Sometimes I go alone and sometimes I take my friends. Either way, I make sure I go there and enjoy myself! Here are my go-to places to find events

Events at museums and galleries

The start of the month, I take a look at my favourite museums, art centres and venue just to check what's on. Some events are free, but others are paid. Usually they are reasonably price and under £20. The places I check are:

Barbican Centre, British Museum, National Gallery, Vitoria and Albert Museum, Leighton House Museum, Prince's School of Traditional Arts, Somerset House, Saatchi Gallery, Fashion and Textile Museum and The Design Museum.   

Live Music in London
Barbican Exhibition in London

Events at cool London venues

There are so many trendy venues around the city that host events. The ones I check are The Book Club in Shoreditch, The Forge in Camden and Soho Theatre

Events via Meetup groups

I mentioned meetup.com in a pervious post "Ten Ways to Make International Friends". It's not only good for meeting new people and making friends, but there are so many groups that are based in London that do all sort of events from drawing at galleries  to socialising at new London spots and etc. 

Events from event websites

There is always the dependable Timeout London. I also like Le Cool London and the Nudge. I am sure there are other cool ones, but these usually fill up my schedule and notify me with the major London events.   

Street art in London
The book club in London

I hope you find these locations and links useful. By the way, you should also ask your friends to share cool events that they might have heard of from work or other friends. This city has lots to offer and you will surly find something you enjoy. You can mix it up and go to events that you aren't sure about. It is fun to experiment! 

Over to you: How do you find cool events in London? Do you know any cool venues and websites that I didn't mention? Please feel free to share them in the comments below. 

 

The British Museum

My absolute favorite thing in the whole of London is the British Museum. I could just spend a whole day there. It's just full of international culture and valuable wonders. I like their little audio tour guide at least you would know what's going on. It's a rich source for information and stories. It's only two pounds something to hire it if you have a student card. I think it's very worth it! Especially, that entrance is free. They also have some changing exhibitions every few months. Some of them require an extra fee to see. 

It's impossible to take a pic of just the entrance. It's always overloaded with people.

The design of it on its own is worth seeing. The building was completed in 1823 in the Greek Revival style. It was designed as four wings; North, South, West & East. In 2000, Norman Foster, an amazing English designer who is renowned internationally designed the glass dome reading room, which gave the building that contemporary touch making it a real example for two worlds colliding and creating wonderful architecture. 

The impressive glass dome with its pattern that reflects on the white structure and flooring 

Here's a picture round of of a trip I took down the museum: 

Started the visit with checking out the Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone. This is what started languages!

It's always crowded around it and the protective glass makes it hard to take a proper pic

A try for a Rosetta stone close up

After that, I followed the path to the Egyptian heritage and saw so many pharaohs. Most pictures had million people passing through, so here are few close ups  

If you love the pharaohs so much,

you can buy a little cheesy pharaoh duck as a reminder

I continued to the section about Africa

This actually spells an Arabic sentence! Can you see it?

It says المعرفة احلى من العسل  which means "knowledge is sweeter than honey"

Look at how the artefacts displayed

I really wanted one of these!

Then headed to Asia section

Followed it with the Islamic World

Old Arabic script

This is pretty interesting if you are into Arabic calligraphy

The 99 names of Allah written in Arabic

Close up!

I really loved all these patterns

 Then to a picture gallery that was on at that time

At the end, the gift shop is a must!

The book stand in the gift shop is full of interesting looking books!

They are organized by historical era and country.