The best things to do in London in April 2024

Running a marathon is a truly gruelling feat requiring countless hours of training, so the 50,000 brave souls who are taking part London Marathon on Sunday April 21 2024 very much deserve our support. Check out our route guide to find the best spectating spots and track down nearby pubs and bars for when all that whooping and clapping leaves you feeling nearly as thirsty as the runners. Remember: your presence at this monumental sporting occasion makes it absolutely fine to drink lager or rosé in the street at 10am on a Sunday. 

Aussie director Benedict Andrews’s 2012 Young Vic production of Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters’ was a swooningly uninhibited, hugely inventive masterwork, and by all accounts his 2011 Sydney production of ‘The Seagull’ was no slouch. Somewhat over a decade later and he’s finally returning to wistful Russian titan Chekhov with a take on ‘The Cherry Orchard’ that will drop into the bijou confines of the Donmar as part of Michael Longhurst’s final season. Andrews’s take on the story of a Russian landowner who revisits the estate she loves dearly only to sell it off comes with some intriguing initial casting: German star Nina Hoss – a regular in Berlin’s many prestigious theatres until her screen career took off – will make her UK stage debut as Ranevskaya, while acclaimed Brit actor Adeel Akhtar (pictured) will return to theatre for the first time in almost a decade to co-star as Lopakhin.

Cone8 Ceramics invites you to the heart of Hackney Wick for a taster class you do not want to miss. Head to this boutique studio and enter into the world of Nerikomi pottery, an ancient Japanese technique characterized by its intricate patterns and vibrant colours and manipulation of different clays to create stunning designs. Learn the fundamentals of Nerikomi pottery from experienced instructors as they guide you through the process of blending, shaping, and crafting your own unique masterpiece.

Enjoy a session of Nerikomi pottery with cone8 Ceramics for £39, only through Time Out offers.

London has an amazing energy on bank holidays and Easter weekend is particularly blessed, because it’s a rare double bank holiday, meaning we get four whole days of work-free fun from Good Friday on April 7 to Easter Monday on April 10.  

The capital has plenty to keep you occupied over your extra-long weekend. Check out our top picks for Easter weekend 2023 below. 

Caravaggio was the most dramatic of all Renaissance painters, both in his work (darkness! shadow! light!) and life (murder! revenge! syphilis!). In his final years he produced his most dramatic works. This small, free display focuses on what is possibly his last painting, ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula’ on loan from Italy, and it’s full of death, violence, blood and darkness. Genuinely can’t wait. 

Henry VIII’s former gaff is already one of the most splendid-looking buildings in London, but fill it with 10,000 tulips and you’ve got something mighty special to look at. Hampton Court Palace’s Tulip Festival is one of the biggest planted displays of the colouful flowers in the UK and is a good excuse to celebrate the start of spring. See the buds pouring out of the Tudor wine fountain and in floating tulip vases, and spot rare, historic and specialist varieties. There are also expert talks on the flowers and craft activities themed around them.

The palace’s expert gardeners predict the displays will look at their best in mid-April, so don’t wait around to visit. 

Unstoppable acting legend Ian McKellen and revered director Robert Icke join forces for this incredibly exciting new show, Icke’s own adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV’ Parts 1 and 2 starring 84-year-old Sir Ian in the great role of dissolute knight John Falstaff in his sixth play since turning 80. Human precedent suggests he’ll have to reign in the demanding lead roles at some point, and what a high point this would be to go out on if it were his final big stage part. We don’t know a huge amount about the adaptation, but Icke is renowned for mining new meaning out of classic texts, so who knows what route he’s going to take? It ooks like a shoo-in for one of the theatrical events of the year, regardless of whether McKellen retires after or not.

Although it may seem a bit on the nose for Brian Cox to make his long-awaited stage return playing the ailing patriarch of an American family, this is absolutely not ‘Succession’. Eugene O’Neill’s ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ is a strong contender for the greatest American play of all time, a three-hour-plus semi-autobiographical epic that O’Neill refused to share publicly in his own lifetime, and won him a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1957. The story follows a family’s implosion over the course of a single day, as long-held resentments emerge between father James (Cox), his addled wife Mary (award-winning US actor Patricia Clarkson) and their embittered sons Edmund (Laurie Kynaston) and James Jr (Daryl McCormack). Louisa Harland rounding out the cast as their maid Cathleen. Jeremy Herrin directs what may or may not prove Cox’s stage swansong. It should in any case be a monumental night at the theatre.

Spring in London is always a knockout. As we emerge from an extra-severe period of hibernation, the urge to get to the park and gawp at loads of pretty flowers becomes pretty intense and there are tons of amazing green spaces to enjoy the season’s pops of colour. From London's bright pink cherry blossoms to seas of lavender that swell in summer, take a look at our list of the best places to see flowers in London.

The incomparable Polly Jean Harvey – aka PJ Harvey – has been an intriguingly low-key player in the works of director Ian Rickson for some years now, contributing the odd song here and there for well over a decade without it quite becoming a big deal. Thrillingly, ‘London Tide’ sees her assume a more central role, as a topline creative in Ben Power’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s ‘Our Mutual Friend’, rechristened ‘London Tide’. Directed by Rickson, it follows the chain of events set into motion when a body is pulled out of the Thames. The cast includes Bella Maclean, Tom Mothersdale and Ami Tredea.

The capital’s special colourful spectacle that signals warmer days are on the way is here. Cherry blossom season in Japan is a major event, with vistors from around the world flocking over to get a glimpse of the petals in full bloom. If you can’t make it over for this year’s sakura season London has plenty of bloomin’ marvellous places to see the flowers.

‘Minority Report’ is now best known for the action-packed 2002 Spielberg sci-fi movie starring Tom Cruise. That was, in fact, a sexed-up adaptation of Philip K Dick’s dystopian 1958 novella, which played out more like a Cold War thriller than the hovercar-tastic excesses of the film. Nonetheless, its central vision remained the same: a future in which criminals are arrested before they commit a crime thanks to the efforts of seemingly infallible telepaths. David Haig’s adaptation promises to cleave more closely to the book. But it looks like it will still be very much its own thing, with a new setting, characters and possibly even premise. Telepaths are not mentioned in the copy, which raises the distinct possibility that in Haig’s adaptation the Pre-Crime division is actually based on AI – something already being discussed as a possibility IRL. Max Webster directs this eye-catching opener to the Lyric Hammersmith’s 2024 season.