Top 5 Things to Do in London This Week: 10–16 August 2026

The sky is doing some of the programming this week, which feels like a useful corrective to London’s habit of making every good plan depend on a booking platform. Between Monday 10 and Sunday 16 August, the city gets a near-total partial solar eclipse, a sharply priced late opening at the Hayward Gallery, a one-day Caribbean food festival and two very different reasons to head east or south for a large-scale finale.

These are brief, particular occasions rather than permanent attractions in seasonal clothing. Three land at the weekend, but the two midweek choices are too good to compress this into a Friday-to-Sunday guide.

1. Watch London’s deepest partial solar eclipse in decades

When and where: Wednesday 12 August from Primrose Hill. The partial eclipse begins at about 6.17pm, reaches maximum coverage at 7.13pm and ends at 8.06pm. London should see roughly 91% of the Sun obscured. The hill is free and open 24 hours on weekdays. Check the viewpoint details and read UKHSA’s safety guidance before setting out.

London will not enter totality, but 91% coverage is enough to turn an ordinary early evening strange: the light thins, shadows sharpen and the familiar skyline becomes the foreground to a celestial event. Primrose Hill’s protected panorama and open western aspect make it an unusually sensible central-London place to watch the Sun drop towards the horizon. Arrive early, expect company and check the weather before travelling.

The important practical detail is non-negotiable. Ordinary sunglasses are not safe, and cloud does not make direct viewing safe either. Use genuine eclipse glasses or a handheld viewer marked ISO 12312-2:2015(E), or watch indirectly with a pinhole projector, a colander or the gaps between leaves. The most memorable plan in this guide is also the only one that can permanently injure your eyes if treated casually.

2. See Anish Kapoor after dark for seven pounds

When and where: Thursday 13 August at 6.30pm, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1. Tickets start at £7; the event is for ages 16 and over. See availability and book through the Southbank Centre.

Kapoor’s return to the Hayward nearly three decades after his first major UK survey is built for this building. New and landmark works occupy the whole gallery and its terraces: mirrored steel distorts the brutalist architecture, dark cavities seem to remove pieces of the floor, and recent sculptures made with silicone, resin and pigment push the show from optical pleasure towards something more bodily and unsettling.

The late is the canny way in. Standard exhibition admission is £22, while this after-hours session begins at a third of that price and promises complementary performances and interventions around the galleries. The details of that cross-artform programme remain deliberately light, so book for the chance to encounter the work in the evening rather than for an imaginary festival bill. At this price, the uncertainty is part of the appeal rather than a warning.

3. Eat across the Caribbean at Ravenscourt Park

When and where: Saturday 15 August, 10am–8pm, Ravenscourt Park, Paddenswick Road, W6 0UA. Standard entry is £15 and VIP is £35; children under 14 enter free with a paying adult. Food is not included in the ticket and there is no event parking. Book on the official Taste of the Caribbean page.

A good food festival should create an appetite for comparison, not funnel everyone towards the same photogenic plate. Taste of the Caribbean’s outdoor format brings cooking from different islands into one long park day, with live music, a funfair and enough time to work methodically rather than panic-order lunch. The useful warning on the ticket page—that admission does not include food—also makes the economics clearer before you arrive.

Go with a small group, buy from more than one trader and share. That is the best way to notice how inadequate “Caribbean food” is as a single category: spice blends, starches, smoke, sweetness and sauces shift markedly across islands and diasporas. The event is broad and family-friendly without pretending to be free once you pass the gate. Public transport is the practical choice; Ravenscourt Park station is close, while organisers explicitly discourage driving.

4. Watch Formula E decide its season indoors and out

When and where: Saturday 15 August, 9am–6pm, and Sunday 16 August, 10am–6pm, at Excel London, Royal Victoria Dock, E16. Tickets start at £20. Use Custom House station and the west entrance. Check ticket options through Excel London.

The London E-Prix is the Season 12 finale and Formula E says the championship is going to the wire. Its real distinction is physical rather than promotional: Excel contains the world’s only indoor-outdoor Formula E circuit, so the cars move between the enclosed exhibition hall and the Royal Docks air during the same lap. The change in light, surface and acoustics makes the venue legible even to somebody who has not memorised the standings.

Read the ticket description carefully. Grandstand seats provide a direct track view and include the Fan Village; Fan Village-only tickets cover the music stages, gaming, food court and podium ceremony but follow the racing on large screens. That cheaper option can still make a lively day, but it is not a bargain grandstand in disguise. Pick one race day unless you are invested in the championship arc, and allow time for the security queues and the walk through Excel.

5. Hear Jimmy Eat World play Bleed American in full

When and where: Sunday 16 August at Crystal Palace Bowl. Doors open at 2pm and the curfew is 10.30pm. General admission was £81.30 at the time of checking. Rise Against, The Get Up Kids and Jay Som support; under-16s must be accompanied by an adult, and children aged 12 and under enter free with an adult ticket holder. Use the official event page for current tickets and access details.

Anniversary shows can feel like expensive museum duty, but Bleed American is unusually suited to the format. Jimmy Eat World will play the 2001 album from end to end, returning the giant singles to the same sequence as the tauter songs around them. The band has promised rarities and material from across its catalogue too, which should keep the day from becoming a single-record recitation.

The supporting bill gives the occasion more shape than a nostalgia package: Rise Against bring political punk scale, The Get Up Kids connect the day to an earlier Midwestern emo lineage, and Jay Som offers a quieter, more exploratory counterweight. Crystal Palace Bowl is also an excellent piece of London concert geography, with the sculptural stage facing a natural amphitheatre. It is the expensive choice here, but also the most specific: a full-album performance, a coherent bill and a venue made for a summer closing set.

Five plans, five different kinds of attention: look up safely, look closely, taste widely, follow the race and sing the whole record. Book where required, recheck live organiser and travel information before leaving, and keep Wednesday’s weather forecast under particularly close observation.