Top Picks
We check the usual frankly silly number of local websites, then look for events that feel rainy-day friendly: cinemas, theatres, talks, workshops, galleries, concerts, cosy venues, and anything less likely to involve standing in a muddy field making brave weather noises.
1'An organist in Norway' Occurring for 2 hours Venue St Mary's Ware Address Church Street Ware, SG12 9EH, United Kingdom An illustrated talk with Norwegian 'afternoon tea' given by Malcolm Pentelow who spent 20 year working as an organist and district musician in two districts of Norway. Entry by donation 'Celebrating the Organ' event
2Free! (worth double-checking)at St Peter
Concert of Summer Songs & Music Occurring for 1 hour Venue St Peter's, Buntingford Address Chapel End Buntingford, SG9 9AL, United Kingdom You are welcome to come along to a special concert of Summer Songs and Music by the Priory Singers and Wild About Recorders. There is no charge for entry, donations will be gratefully received for St Peter's Church. Saturday July 11 at 3 pm. Concert
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3A tour of the SJT taking you behind the scenes and into the hidden nooks and crannies of our historic building.
4A tour of the SJT taking you behind the scenes and into the hidden nooks and crannies of our historic building.
5at The Hypnobirthing Midwife - group classes in Leyton
July Sat 11 & Sun 12 July 2:30pm to 7pm (in person both days) Pause Leyton London E10 6NQ + 15 July 7:30-9:30pm (Zoom) 22 July 7:30-9:30pm (Zoom) 29 July 7:30-9:30pm (Zoom) 3 Aug 6:30pm (in person) Check availability Sept Sat 26 & Sun 27 Sept 2:30pm to 7pm (in person both days) Pause Leyton London E10 6NQ + 30 Sept 7:30-9:30pm (Zoom) 7 Oct 7:30-9:30pm (Zoom) 14 Oct 7:30-9:30pm (Zoom) 19 Oct 6:30pm (in person) Check availability Nov Sat 14 & Sun 15 Nov 2:30pm to 7pm (in person both days) Pause Leyton London E10 6NQ + 18 Nov 7:30-9:30pm (Zoom) 25 Nov 7:30-9:30pm (Zoom) 2 Dec 7:30-9:30pm (Zoom) 7 Dec 6:30pm (in person) check availability
6This workshop series is for keen experienced students, yoga teachers and teachers-in-training. We will work through a series of postures and analyse how each student might find more space and alignment in each posture. Mouse will then show how to assist each of the poses and then you’ll have a chance to practice the assists on each other. This will help you to start developing an analytical and anatomical approach to asana. Hands on assists are a wonderful and useful part of the yoga practice and can be both therapeutic and educational. Mouse will share her systematic approach to all assistants so you can apply these skills to any asana and build your confidence.
7Free! (worth double-checking)Rhythms of London explores the city through contrast, movement, and close observation. The exhibition brings together two interconnected bodies of work that reflect different layers of urban experience. The first focuses on trees, abstract foliage, and museum interiors. These works capture quieter moments within the city, where natural forms and architectural spaces create a sense of pause. Branches, leaves, and structural elements are observed and reinterpreted through line, colour, and composition, revealing underlying rhythms that often go unnoticed. In contrast, the second body of work turns towards people and movement. Figures appear fragmented and fluid, dissolving into colour and gesture. These works respond to the pace and density of city life — the constant flow of bodies, overlapping trajectories, and fleeting interactions. Rather than depicting individuals, they evoke the collective energy of London as a shared, ever-changing environment. Together, the two series present London as a space shaped by opposing forces: stillness and motion, clarity and ambiguity, solitude and collective presence. The shift between quiet observation and dynamic movement reflects the way the city is experienced — not as a fixed image, but as a sequence of changing impressions.
8Mandy Panos Cosmatos , 2018, 121 min Mandy “is a midnight-movie festival unto itself, over two gonzo hours, it combines giallo, Clive Barker , Death Wish , prog rock, heavy metal, Heavy Metal, Guy Maddin , Mad Max , the dueling-chainsaw climax of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 , Nicolas Roeg , and Nicolas Cage at his most bugging-out unhinged. Were scientists to engineer an uncut, 100-proof cult sensation, it would probably look, sound, and kick like this. Of course, like a lot of synthetic drugs, Mandy could also cause its fair share of overdoses, at least for those with a less-than sky-high tolerance for nonstop ‘trippy’ lunacy.” – A. A. Dowd Screening as part of our Histoire(s) du cinéma series
9I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone Tsai Ming-liang, 2006, 115 min “Kuala Lumpur replaces Taipei as Tsai’s metropolis of choice in I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone , but the return to his country of birth certainly doesn’t yield any fondness or nostalgia – a sense only strengthened by the Malaysian Censorship Board’s outlawing of the film. Oppressively grimy, littered with half-built corporate structures and neglected shantytowns, and eventually draped in the smoke of a nearby wildfire, the Malaysian capital is portrayed as an eerie labyrinth of alienation, where vagrants and loners of various cultural backgrounds scrape by on low-paying construction and service jobs. Lee Kang-sheng embodies a pair of such figures, both unnamed in the film: one a battered immigrant labourer found on the street by a nurturing young man named Rawang (Norman Atun), the other a paralyzed figure who is taken in by a tender coffee shop waitress (Chen Shiang-chyi). As ever, Tsai makes breathtaking use of space, juxtaposing the cramped and tangled interiors of apartment buildings with the cavernous gorges of multi-story construction sites. A peaceful night’s sleep with a warm body proves to be the elusive objective of the uniformly taciturn ensemble, and, as such, mattresses join Tsai’s rotating set of pet motifs, ultimately featuring prominently in a closing image of exquisite serenity.” – Harvard Film Archive Screening as part of our Histoire(s) du cinéma series
10The Marriage of Maria Braun Rainer Werner Fassbinder , 1978, 120 min "A parable of post-World War II Germany, Fassbinder's film recounts the transformation of an impoverished war bride into a mercenary business woman. The best known of Fassbinder's trilogy of historical films about the Federal Republic's "economic miracle" of the 1950s and one of the major productions of the New German Cinema , The Marriage of Maria Braun is equally a melodrama of the highest order – Fassbinder's successful realization of his desire to create for Germany the equivalent of a classic Hollywood movie. Maria's failures at fidelity become a metaphor for the false optimism of the society that surrounds her: we hear Adenauer in the background succumb to weakness as his pledge never to rearm the nation falls victim to the irresistible allure of power." – Harvard Film Archive Screening as part of our Histoire(s) du cinéma series
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