Your March Agenda

Ah, March.

It’s the only month that’s also a direct order.

And given how much stuff is going on over the next few weeks, you’re going to want to follow it.

Because you’ll want your legs to whisk you sharpish to everything from a completely unique concert that dissects a classic piece of music and allows you to wander through it; to a stunning volumetric laser installation inside one of the most cavernously large spaces in the city; a chance to do some life drawing with models who literally might eat you; an immersive show that’ll take you deep into the earth’s most diverse biomes thanks to vast 360-degree screens; a whole constellation of supperclubs from Finland, New York, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and the mid-19th century, and the welcome resurrection of a globe-trotting pop up bar with live music every night…

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POP UP EVENTS
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Brilliant Jerks

Uber. There, we said it. That’s what Brilliant Jerks is about.

Because this play – taking stage at the Southwark Playhouse throughout the month – takes pains to artfully skirt around any mention of its inspiration by name, instead referring to the idea (“Tap a button. Get a ride.”) and the notion that it’s based on the creation of “a multi-billion-dollar app, which you might even use to get home afterwards…”. And after having debuted back in 2018, now it’s back, and it’s definitely getting more than 4.7 stars…

Details: 1st – 25th March | The Southwark Playhouse, 77-85 Newington Causeway, SE1 6BD | £24 (£19 Conc, £16 Previews)
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The Girl Power Experience

When The Spice Girls dropped the phrase ‘Girl Power’ into everyone’s collective lexicon back in the ’90s, it became one of the cultural touchstones of the era. And now, as if to prove it, decades later an eight piece band called The Girl Power Experience are about to step onto the stage at Omeara and bring it right back. You’ll be singing your lungs out to acts like Aretha Franklin, Beyoncé, Girls Aloud, Diana Ross, Little Mix and, yes, The Spice Girls in a euphoric mass karaoke experience…

Details: 2nd March | OMEARA, 6 O’Meara St, SE1 1TE | £12.94
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One Track Minds

For those of you with one track minds…

…no, this event isn’t about that.

Instead, it’s an uplifting, thought-provoking, life-affirming evening that combines live storytelling with music – resulting in a kind of wild, inspirational mash-up of TED Talks and Desert Island Discs. Returning to the crumbling, Victorian beauty that is Wilton’s Music Hall at the start of the month, it sees a bunch of thoroughly interesting people take to the stage to talk about a song that changed their lives.

Details: 2nd & 3rd March | Wilton’s Music Hall, Graces Alley, E1 8JB | £9-£17
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The Dive at Wax Cave

This sounds like a very different experience to say the least. It’s the debut show from a new immersive outfit called Stormjar so, to be clear, we haven’t tried it ourselves, and frankly it sounds terrifying – but nevertheless, it’s too interesting not to talk about. It’s a VR experience designed to simulate a cave dive that goes horribly wrong in a very supernatural way. You’ll get your dive helmet strapped on (aka your VR headset), and be plunged into the depths of a dark, ominous, underwater cave, with only 8 ‘divers’ per trip. And, it’s less than a tenner…

Details: 3rd & 4th March | Theatre Deli, 107 Leadenhall Street, EC3A 4AF | £8.68
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Maker’s Cabinet Repair Shop

The Maker’s Cabinet Repair Shop is here to fix a) your old, broken stuff, and b) your weekend plans. They’re not only offering up a completely free service for breathing new life into your broken gadgets & heirlooms, but you’ll also get complimentary tea/coffee & biscuits, live music, and a good ol’ fashioned pencil-sharpening competition.

Details: 4th March | Makers Cabinet 4-8 Vyner Street, E2 9DG | Free, but you’ll need to reserve a spot
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’90s Silent Disco at BAC

There’s going to be a ’90s silent disco in Battersea’s pretty stunning, and very appropriately named Grand Hall this month. Everyone will get headphones armed with 3 channels of music – just make sure you Don’t Speak.

Details: 4th March | The Grand Hall Battersea Arts Centre Lavender Hill, SW11 5TN | £27
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Kew Orchid Festival

There are an estimated 28,000 different species of orchid in the world. Which, for a little context, is four times the number of mammal species.

And while you won’t see quite all of them at Kew Gardens’ new floral festival, they’ve done a pretty good job of amassing as many as possible from the rainforests ofCameroon to create a breathtaking miniature rainforest in their Princess of Wales Conservatory…

Details: Until 5th March | Princess of Wales Conservatory, Kew Gardens | £17
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House of Holi

Get ready to paint the town red. And yellow. And blue. And orange. And pink. And green.Because Cinnamon Kitchen are setting up an all-white party pod to help celebrate India’s festival of colours, Holi. It’s basically a huge, all-white play pod in the middle of Devonshire Square, meaning it’s completely weather-proofed too. You’ll be given a set of all-white overalls to put over your regular clothes, then let into the main space with a virtually limitless supply of paint-powder for a 30-min rainbow fight.

Details: 5th & 8th-12th March | 9 Devonshire Square, EC2M 4YL | £10
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WOW Festival

The Women of the World festival is, essentially, attempting to inch society a little further forward into a future where the Women of the World festival doesn’t need to exist.

And while that may seem like a slightly dispiriting foundation stone, the event that’s come out of it is actually incredibly inspiring and uplifting.

Because arriving at the Southbank Centre this month are some of the world’s coolest, funniest, bravest, and most brilliant women – speakers, activists and performers alike – who are gathering together as a celebration, but also to have a frank, and honest discussion about the major, worldwide obstacles that still face women, girls and non-binary people today…

Details: 10th-12th March | Southbank Centre | Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX | Free (some events ticketed)
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Cirque Berserk

The idea behind Cirque Berserk is to take an old school big top circus, and squeeze it all into a live indoor stage show. And considering that they’ve been around for the past ten years, it appears that they’ve succeeded. This month, they’re popping up at Riverside Studios (also home to Sam’s Riverside) where they’ll be cramming 30+ acrobats, stuntmen, daredevils, contortionists, aerialists, and performers onstage alongside the legendary motorcycle Globe of Death.

Details: Until 11th March | Sam’s Riverside, 1 Crisp Walk, W6 9DN | £34.50-£39
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Wildlife Drawing at Carousel

Caution: these models wear fur. The subjects posing for budding artists at Carousel’s life-drawing class this month are indeed going to be wolves. In a restaurant. Although, if we’re going to get technical about it, they’re actually British Lupines (more closely related to dogs) but the point still stands. Either way, there’ll be a drawing expert and an animal wrangler on hand to make sure you’re not on the menu.

Details: 12th March | Carousel, 23 Charlotte St, W1T 1RL | £35
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BFI Flare

BFI Flare is the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ film festival, and this will be the largest BFI Flare yet. Not only will there be 57 feature films and 90 shorts, but you’ll also find the world’s first LGBTQ+ virtual reality museum, in which you can wander through a digital exhibition of artefacts curated exclusively by queer people.

Details: 15th to 26th March | BFI Southbank, Belvedere Rd, SE1 8XT
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DEBUT at the Brunel Museum

DEBUT first debuted back in 2015.

They’re a group of extremely talented classical musicians who decided to band together in order to play accessible, fun concerts in interesting & unusual spaces. Since then, they’ve put on hundreds of shows in places like lighthouses, ancient operating theatres and Victorian merchant ships, becoming magnets for effusively acclamatory reviews along the way. And the Thames Tunnel Shaft at the Brunel Museum is both very interesting and highly unusual…

Details: 16th March | The Brunel Museum | Railway Avenue, SE16 4LF | £28
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St Patrick’s Day

This year, for the first time since 2017, St. Pat’s falls on a Friday. And that means the usual but-it’s-a-school-night fetters will be recklessly tossed aside in favour of stout, whiskey, and fun. Practically the whole city will be turning green for the day, but if you want a few suggestions to whet your appetite, you might want to start the festivities at the official St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Festival, grab a drink or two at The Sun Tavern, maybe head up to the rooftop at Skylight, get a live Irish band at the UK’s biggest beer hall, sip an Irish coffee at a stunning Fitzrovia pub, and dance the night away at The Piano Works…

Details: 17th March | Across London
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Thin Air

Thin Air is making its way into The Beams over in the Royal Docks this month, just across the river from Greenwich. And The Beams – if you don’t know it – is all-caps, underlined, italicised, HUGE. It’s 55,000 square feet of industrial space, so quite understandably, the first art exhibition to go on show there is going to make use of that scale in interesting ways. Interesting ways like algorithmically generated images, massive volumetric laser arrays, and large-scale installations that sync with booming sound & music.

Details: 17th March – 4th June 2023 | The Beams, Factory Rd, E16 2HB | £25
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Souls Grown Deep Like Rivers

Souls Grown Deep Like Rivers is coming to the Royal Academy this month. It’s going to be a showcase of the unique artistic traditions & storytelling methods of African American artists from the southern United States, featuring a great many artists who had no formal training, no access to traditional art materials, and no gallery space to exhibit. Many of them had to show their work in their own yards. Whether the Royal Academy is a step up or a step down for them is up for debate…

Details: 17th March — 18th June 2023 | Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BD | £15
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The Candlelight Club

Returning to its secret home this month, Candlelight Club is a decadent, 1920’s-styled soirée, in a hidden, candle-lit London location with live music from the Hot Strings Review, cabaret with your host Champagne Charlie, Charleston dancing with the Gatsby Girls, tarot readers, absinthe and gramophone DJs.

Details: 18th & 20th March | A Secret Location | £30+
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Vault Festival

Over the past decade VAULT Festival has built up a name for itself as the south’s answer to Edinburgh, attracting headliner comedians sharing their work in progress and supporting independent, emerging theatremakers – particularly giving a platform to POC, queer and neurodiverse performers. And now after a brief, two-year recess (you get one guess why) it’s back with a vengeance, with over 500 shows variously designed to make you laugh, cry, and join an orchestra conducted by Donald Trump…

Details: Until 19th March | The Vaults, Leake Street, SE1 7NN-

Inside Beethoven at the Printworks

Dun-dun duh-duh.

Dun-dun DUH-DUH.

That’s Beethoven’s 5th symphony as played by three letters of the alphabet. Now imagine it played by an extraordinary British chamber orchestra inside an iconically huge clubbing venue, scattered throughout the vast space so that you’re able to wander freely though the different sections of the musicians, guided by light and sound installations, as if you’re walking through the anatomy of the composition itself.

Details: 23rd March | Printworks, Surrey Quays Rd, SE16 7PJ | £29
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Wes Anderson Movie Marathon

A five-film, all-night Wes Anderson movie marathon seems like the kind of thing that would be quite commonplace & normal in the universe of Wes Anderson’s movies. Sadly in our own super-lame, non-symmetrical, real universe they only happen once in a blue moon. And this month is that blue moon. Head to the Prince Charles, and you’ll get to see a quintet of cultish crowd-pleasers, shortly before staggering out to see the sun rising at 7am…

Details: 25th March | 7 Leicester Pl, WC2H 7BY | £22.50
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London Original Print Fair

Looking for some fresh prints? Then head to Somerset House at the end of the month and check out the London original print Fair. If you can believe it, it’s the longest running art fair in London, now celebrating its 38th edition. You’ll get to see (and possibly buy, if you’re feeling flush) prints by everyone from Rembrandt & Picasso to David Hockney & Grayson Perry.

Details: 30th March – 2nd April | Somerset House, The Strand, WC2R 1LA | £18
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The BBC Earth Experience

If you head to Earl’s Court this month, you’ll get to witness the sheer majesty of one of our planet’s most precious resources: David Attenborough.

He’ll be providing his velvety, highly informed, and hypnotically engaging voice to the upcoming BBC Earth Experience, which sounds like an extremely ambitious affair to say the least: it’s all going to be housed in a new, massive, purpose-built venue in West London into which they’re stuffing some vast, 360-degree, multi-angle digital screens for you to submerge yourself into the natural world…

Details: 30th March – 31st July | The Daikin Centre, Earl’s Court, Empress Place, SW6 1TW | £28.50
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Beyond the streets

The writing has been on the wall for some time now.

Graffiti is an art-form.

And it’s an art form that’s long been eschewed by the art gallery crowd, mostly because art galleries tend to be indoors. But now, the most creative form of vandalism has its very own indoor art show, thanks to BEYOND THE STREETS, which is by far the most comprehensive street art exhibition to ever open in the UK…

Details: Until May 9th | Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York’s HQ, SW3 4RY | £15
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David Hockey At The Lightroom

Hot tip! Invest in neck braces. Because people are craning their heads up at frankly unnatural angles in order to take in the entirety of David Hockney’s new, illuminated, four storey tall exhibition. Call it immersive if it makes you happy, but the fact is that this thing is gigantic, and will utterly envelope people in vibrantly hued artworks…

Details: Until 4th June | The Lightroom, 12 Lewis Cubitt Square, N1C 4DY | £25
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Check out an Exhibition

Attributed to Manuel Chili, called Caspicara, The Four Fates of Man: Death, Soul in Hell, Soul in Purgatory, Soul in Heaven, c. 1775.

One of the great advantages of living in London is that you have access to more culture than a librarian face-planting into a petri dish – in fact, over the next month alone, you can step out of your front door, and within mere minutes find yourself immersed in a vast showcase of cutting-edge digital art in a cavernously large gallery space; get a glimpse into London’s grizzly history of public executions; explore some room-sized woollen (yes woollen) sculptures made behind The Iron Curtain; take an interactive deep-dive into the ASMR phenomenon; check out some astonishing African haute couture; and see a 40ft cube of moving art… See the best exhibitions on in London
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Go To The Theatre

You may laugh. You may cry. You may throw up, or potentially do all three. This month at the theatre, you can catch medieval comedy, billion-dollar empires made & lost, and immersive gangsterism…  See The Best Shows On At The Theatre Now
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POP UP RESTAURANTS

Ha’s Đặc Biệt ất Oranj

“When they eventually open their own restaurant, I can only imagine that they’ll help redefine the form, for the better.”

That’s what the New Yorker said about Ha’s Đặc Biệt, a Vietnamese street cart that roved from neighbourhood to neighbourhood delivering their “thrillingly ambitious dishes” to hungry New Yorkers. Well, now they’re skipping across the Pond, and taking up the reins at Oranj for the month. Expect greatness.

Details: Throughout March | Oranj, 14 Bacon Street, E1 6LF
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Cue Point at God’s Garden

No, Cue Point has nothing to do with pool. They’re an Afghan/British fusion BBQ joint, and they’re popping up in God’s Garden to deliver racks of oak smoked lamb ribs with Afghan chutney & soured yoghurt; chicken ‘nacos’ (that’s naan tacos); and deep-fried root veg burgers. And their Sunday Roast menu looks ridiculous.

Details: Until 20th March | God’s Garden, 1 Marylebone Rd, London NW1 4AQ
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King at Carousel

King is the kind of restaurant that most chefs dream about opening. It’s on a corner of a quiet Manhattan street, serving up a daily changing menu of hyper-seasonal French & Italian dishes to a loyal foodie crowd, and it rakes in acclaim like it was going out of fashion. And now, it’s coming to Carousel for a five-day stint to show us all what makes it one of the best restaurants in one of the world’s best restaurant cities…

Details: 7th – 11th March | Carousel, 19-23 Charlotte St., W1T 1RW
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Women of Wine at Peckham Cellars

Peckham Cellars are observing International Women’s Day with a 4-course supperclub feast cooked up by chef Olly Santoro (who, we assure you, is a woman – one who’s worked at places like Lupins and Kiln), with a wine list to match completely dominated by female producers.

Details: 8th March | Peckham Cellars, 125 Queens Road, SE15 2ND | £45
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7 Colours, 7 Chakras Supperclub

The body has seven main chakras. The rainbow has seven colours. Ipso facto, there’s a colour for every chakra – and this supperclub will celebrate that, with a seven course menu spanning red sriracha peppers with beetroot & rhubarb juice; orange sweet potato soup with mango smoothies; violet lavender pan cotta with nettle & fennel tea… you get the idea.

Details: 8th & 24th March | Millfields Coffee, 145 Chatsworth Road, Clapton, E5 0LA | £35
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Ivan Ramen

After having been featured in Netflix’s Chef’s Table, Ivan Ramen has a strong claim to being New York’s hottest ramen joint. And now it’s one of London’s hottest ramen joints too, thanks to a pop up at the Neighbourhood incubator up in Islington. Expect the likes of Triple Chicken Triple Garlic; Cold Sesame Noodles with chilled Szechuan chicken; and soup-less, Nagoya-style Mazemen noodles…

Details: Until 9th March | Neighbourhood, 77 Upper Street, N1 0NU
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esti

If you’ve never had Australian-Greek fusion food before – and we’ll take a wild, stab-in-the-dark guess here and say no, you probably haven’t – then get ready to say an Aegean g’day to the latest popup to hit TT Liquor. It’s called esti (the lower case is intentional), and it’s the work of head chef Sal Galasso, who’s spend the last decade working at some of Oz’s finest restaurants. Now, he’ll be cooking up ‘straight-off-the-coals’ pork souvlaki, twice-cooked lamb ribs with Australian ‘desert dust’ spice mix, and smokey aubergine with brown butter & fried peanuts. It’s due to stick around for six months… but that’s just an esti, mate.

Details: 12th March until September | TT Liquor, 17B Kingsland Rd, E2 8AA
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Crème Du Carême At The Century Club

Marie-Antoine Carême is a man who needs no introduction…

…to anyone who’s recently been to 19th century Paris.

For everyone else, here it is: Carême, born in 1784, is widely considered to be the world’s first ‘celebrity chef’. And for one night only this month you’ll be able to eat some of his most famous dishes on the rooftop of Soho’s bougie private members club, The Century Club…

Details: 18th March | The Century Club, 61-63 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 6LQ | £60
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A Pepper Party

Of the two condiments available on every dining table in the Western world – salt & pepper – one of them is literally necessary to live. The other is there because it’s just so damn good, we can’t live without it. This pop up is a celebration of pepper in all its forms. Half a dozen chefs & food writers will gather around, and create a menu of dishes that each celebrate pepper, and push our understanding of it to delicious new places.

Details: 20th March | Spiritland King’s Cross 9 – 10 Stable Street, N1C 4AB | £55
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Finnjävel

Tommi Tuominen runs two Michelin Starred restaurants in Finland – and for context, there are only four in the entire country – so it must have been tough to pick just one to bring over here for a pop up. In the end, he went with Finnjävel (which produces some colourful results in Google Translate), bringing it to The Halkin hotel in Belgravia for two weeks at the end of the month. Expect dishes like Glassblowers Salmon, Blood Pancakes, and Potato Gruel…

Details: 21st March to 1st April | COMO The Halkin, 5-6 Halkin Street, SW1X 7DJ | £130
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Whole Beast at The Fat Walrus

Whole Beast, as the name somewhat suggests, specialise in nose-to-tail cooking. That means an ever-changing menu of extremely fresh, and frequently inventive dishes, which they’ll be serving up to punters at The Fat Walrus for the foreseeable. Expect the likes of green chorizo tacos, pork chops with apple ketchup, burnt hispi with pork fat, and more…

Details: Throughout March | The Fat Walrus, 44 Lewisham Way, SE14 6NP
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Poon’s Wontoneria At Carousel

Poon’s has been on a wild ride since opening its first restaurant in Covent Garden back in ’73, winning a Michelin Star, opening half a dozen branches, gaining celebrity superfans, shutting down, being resurrected, and surviving lockdown thanks to a wonton delivery service. Well, now they’re launching a series of ever-more permanent supperclubs and popups, the latest of which is a stint at Carousel’s incubator space…

Details: Until 7th May | No.23 at Carousel, 23 Charlotte St, W1T 1RL
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Only Food and Courses

Only Food and Courses is a pop up food concept that takes culinary trends from the ’80s and ’90s and reworks them for the more modern era. Sometimes the menu changes, and sometimes the venue changes, but like Trigger’s Broom, it remains the exact same outfit. And now the venue has changed once more, moving into a long term residency at The Cheshire Cheese pub.

Details: Throughout March | The Cheshire Cheese, 5 Little Essex Street, WC2R 3LD | 6 courses, £75
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All My Friends

“Alexa, play All My Friends by LCD Soundsystem…”

…because that’s the song that this pop up is named after, and frankly listening to it gives you a pretty decent sense of the place’s vibes too. It’s got a strong musical element with DJs & a record store, and the food’s being put together by both Japanese street food outfit Sho Foo Doh (who’re slinging tuna tacos, sesame-panko-crusted cauliflower, and banana spring rolls with miso caramel) and True Craft, a sourdough pizza spot from Seven Sisters.

Details: Throughout March | Unit 1, Hamlet Estate, 96 White Post Ln, E9 5EN
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Mostrador

Argentinian chef Fernando Trocca knocked it out the park when he opened Sucre last year, and now he’s hoping to score another homer with his pop up Mostrador. And the fact that he’s already opened Mostrador pop ups in the US & Uruguay, and already scored such, er home runs… you know what, the analogy breaks down here, but the fact is that it’s a very successful concept. It’s go excellent salads, phenomenal pastries (courtesy of seven pastry chefs), and delicious light suppers. It’ll be at the Hart Shoreditch hotel for the next few months.

Details: Throughout March | 61-67 Great Eastern Street, EC2A 3HU
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