Sprints headline Sunday, Maruja headline Monday,
both at the door price that 1976’s crowd paid. A Victorian
pumping station in Abbey Wood gets a string quartet playing the
Thames. Brick Lane turns over to a free curry festival, and three
unrelated free things — a Britpop time-capsule, an Austrian
landscape painter, Open House’s last weekend — all close
the same Sunday, so plan that day with care.
A hand-checked shortlist of the week in London culture
· new every Thursday
Fifty years to the day since the Sex Pistols played it, the 100 Club
restages its Punk Special: Sprints on Sunday, Maruja on Monday, £1.50
on the door both nights — exactly what that 1976 crowd paid. Out
at Abbey Wood on Friday, a string quartet plays Dvořák and
the Blue Danube inside a Victorian pumping station’s ironwork,
field recordings from the river itself folded into the programme.
Saturday, Chelsea’s streets fill with free outdoor stages for
its arts festival; Sunday, Brick Lane does the same for a free curry
festival. Three unrelated free things — a Britpop time-capsule,
an Austrian landscape painter, Open House’s last weekend —
all end that same Sunday: worth mapping a route between the three
rather than leaving it to the day.
A fatigue note: Café OTO sits this issue out entirely,
Evan Parker included, after featuring in two of the last three issues;
Vortex takes the Dalston jazz slot instead. Kings Place rests for a
second issue running. Close-Up’s own site has stayed unreachable
six months straight, so its picks here are corroborated via
expcinema.org, not venue-confirmed.
The 100 Club · Oxford Street · Sun 20 Sep (Sprints) & Mon 21 Sep (Maruja) · £1.50
On 20 and 21 September 1976, an unknown Sex Pistols,
the Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Damned and Buzzcocks
played two nights that became shorthand for the start of British
punk. Fifty years to the date, the 100 Club restages it: Sprints
headline Sunday, Maruja headline Monday, and the door charges
exactly what it charged then — £1.50, not a reissue price.
Tickets are named and photo ID is checked at the door, so touts
can’t move them on.
The club that hosted the real thing, charging what it charged in 1976.
Orchestra for the Earth’s string quartet plays a
river-themed programme — Dvořák’s American
Quartet, Handel’s Water Music, Smetana’s Moldau,
Strauss’s Blue Danube — inside a Victorian
sewage-pumping station’s ironwork Beam Engine House, the
Thames’s tides and birdlife looped in between movements.
The ticket includes after-hours access to the engine house, a
heritage Routemaster shuttle from Abbey Wood station and a ride on
the site’s narrow-gauge railway.
The building’s nickname — Cathedral of Sewage — undersells how the ironwork looks lit for an evening concert.
Cadogan Hall & around Sloane Square · Fri 18–Sun 20 Sep · from £15.90 (free outdoor stages)
The festival’s second year pairs George Monbiot
with Ian McEwan on Friday evening at Cadogan Hall, and puts Rupert
Everett in conversation with Hannah MacInnes over lunch the same
day, before King’s Road itself fills with two days of free
outdoor stages — a bandstand at Sloane Square, a food
market and children’s ballet workshops around Duke of York
Square. Talks, comedy, dance and film run throughout, individually
ticketed from £15.90.
Brick Lane turns into a street festival for a day built
around the Bangladeshi food heritage that shaped it: an opening procession
with lion dancers, giant puppets and dance troupes, then stalls from
the restaurants that line the road, chef demonstrations and live
music into the evening. Register free via Eventbrite beforehand for
a 20% discount code at participating restaurants across the
weekend.
Close-Up Film Centre · off Brick Lane, E1 · Thu 17–Sun 20 Sep, evenings
Four nights, four routes into what a film can do with
an ordinary life: the Dardennes’ Rosetta on Thursday,
Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore on Friday,
Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro on Saturday, Hamaguchi’s
Drive My Car closing it Sunday. Close-Up’s own site has stayed
unreachable to a direct check for six months running; these dates
are corroborated via the venue’s expcinema.org listing rather
than confirmed on closeupfilmcentre.com itself — worth a call
to the box office before crossing London for one screening.
Four films about ordinary lives, four different countries, one venue worth ringing ahead to confirm.
A free time-capsule of the year Britpop peaked:
Mel B’s leopard-print BRIT Awards catsuit, Geri
Halliwell’s Union Jack platform boots, previously unseen
Oasis memorabilia and a BRIT Award on loan, alongside items from
DJs Paul Oakenfold, Dave Pearce and Judge Jules. Tucked inside the
Barbican’s Music Library rather than the main galleries
— easy to miss, closes for good on Saturday.
The first UK exhibition of Ferdinand Georg
Waldmüller in close to 170 years, on loan largely from
Vienna’s Belvedere: unfussy, exactingly observed Austrian
landscapes from an artist who insisted on painting outdoors when
almost nobody else did. Featured here as a new opening in July;
this is the last weekend to catch it before it goes back to
Vienna.
Citywide · to Sun 20 Sep · Free (some buildings ticketed)
The architecture-access festival’s final
weekend leans on the buildings that don’t need a ticket at
all: the Guildhall’s Great Hall and Art Gallery both add
extra drop-in tours Saturday and Sunday, the City of
London’s own civic heart open to walk straight into.