London in a fifth heatwave is a city that tests your loyalty, and this weekend the free London things to do are numerous enough to restore it. From an al fresco cinema on the canal at King’s Cross to a pop-up lido in the Docklands and a full-day hip hop showcase on the Southbank, the capital is putting on a spread that costs nothing to attend.
Swim, dance and catch a film: the free London things to do this weekend
Summer Splash at Royal Victoria Dock (until Sunday 16 August) is in its final weekend, and if you have not been yet, this is your last chance. The pop-up lido at Royal Victoria Dock, E16 1AF, offers free lap swimming against a backdrop of city skyscrapers, with sandpits and deckchairs arranged around the water’s edge. It closes on Sunday, so showing up sooner rather than later is advisable.
Over at Coal Drops Yard, N1C 4AB, the Summer Sounds festival runs until 23 August and carries a programme of outdoor music that asks nothing of your wallet. This weekend’s highlights include Little Grandad, billed as chaotic americana-indie, on Friday 14 August, and a Sunday showcase marking 35 years of jazz development charity Tomorrow’s Warriors, featuring Mercury Prize-nominated vocalist ESKA on 16 August. No booking required: the idea is to wander in and find something new.
The Barbican Centre is running Play Make Do across the full three days, a free family festival built around making and doing. Friday brings a clowning workshop, circus sessions and BoogiePod, a creative dance session for younger visitors. Saturday offers finger knitting and carnival prop-making. Sunday closes the weekend with hip hop workshops, Rueda Libre social dancing, and creative writing inspired by Black British history. Individual events need tickets reserved in advance, though there is no charge.
Pride, cinema and the future of hip hop
Croydon Pride is shifting venues this year, moving from Wandle Park to Boxpark at 99 George St, CR0 1LD, for what organisers describe as a higher-production-values affair. The all-day Saturday event on 15 August is hosted by Tiana Biscuit and Sophia Stardust and includes drag acts, vocalists and DJs. Absolute Britney brings the nineties nostalgia, the Alpha Dancers supply the camp choreography, and Drag Race star River Medway headlines the drag contingent. Entry is free.
Everyman on the Canal, the much-loved al fresco pop-up beside the waterway near King’s Cross, reaches its final weekend at Granary Square, N1C 4AA. The closing programme on Saturday and Sunday includes Paddington in Peru at 2.30pm on Saturday, Matilda at 5pm the same afternoon, and Bridget Jones’s Diary at 7.30pm on Sunday evening. Beanbags and astroturf are provided; the screenings are free.
The pick of the weekend, for energy and ambition, may well be the ZooNation showcase at the Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX, on Saturday 15 August. Kate Prince’s hip hop company ZooNation has spent years building its reputation as one of the most influential forces in British dance, training new artists every year and sending them out into a scene that now looks markedly different because of that work, as Time Out has documented. The Southbank takeover is part of the company’s River Sessions series and kicks off at 2pm with a DJ warm-up and a social grooves workshop open to all. From there, the afternoon runs through dance battles, rap battles, movement competitions and spoken word performances, with an open jam at the end for anyone who wants to join in rather than watch. It is the sort of afternoon that makes you realise how much of the capital’s creative energy circulates for free, if you know where to stand.
All six events are free to attend. Summer Splash and Everyman on the Canal close on Sunday 16 August, making this the final weekend for both.