Nick Jones
I started Soho House in 1995, with Café Bohème and 40 Greek Street. It grew into something I’m proud of, members’ clubs, hotels and restaurants around the world, but I’ve stepped back from the day-to-day now.
In my opinion, London is the best city in the world in the summer; the city loosens up. People are outside, lunches run long, and there’s a good energy to it.
I’ve always been drawn to places that feel full of character and genuinely lived in, and a good pub is exactly that. The Devonshire and The Hart in Marylebone are both fantastic. River Café is simply the best for a long summer lunch. And Chiltern Firehouse, before the fire, had a liveliness that was hard to match.
My hot tip this June is the hotel I’ve been working on, St Clement, on the riverside opposite Temple. It’s my first project since leaving Soho House. Within the 180 Quarter development, there are 90 bedrooms, 15 river lofts (suites), two restaurants and a bar. Café Clement is open all day from 7am, led by Danny Bohan, previously of River Café running his own kitchen for the first time. Lunette, by Florence Knight (formerly of Sessions Arts Club) opens in early autumn.
St Clement is a very personal project to me. Smaller, independent, and with all the kerfuffle that annoys me about staying in a hotel, removed. Instead, it’s built around the things I care most about; design, food, drink and people having a great time.
- Nick Jones
Food: Olympia’s Canopy
Credit: Olympia in partnership with Heatherwick
London has an entire new neighbourhood. The reimagined Olympia opens its doors this June and the transformation of this 140-year-old West London landmark into a full-scale cultural, dining and entertainment district is nothing short of extraordinary. Designed by Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC, the £1.3 billion redevelopment brings together a world-class live music venue, a new 1,575-seat theatre (the largest purpose-built theatre in London in 50 years), two international hotels, a boutique fitness venue, 550,000 sq ft of premium office space and over 30 restaurants and bars, all surrounding 2.5 acres of newly created public realm. Wow. On the 15th June, three dazzling new venues burst open beneath The Canopy, Olympia's stunning new rooftop: Wolves of Tokyo, an 8,000 sq ft Japanese restaurant and 200-capacity cocktail bar inspired by Tokyo noir cinema and led by former ROKA chef Sharon Patriciello; Lillie's, a 100-cover wine bar serving seasonal British plates alongside English sparkling wines from producers including Rathfinny and Nyetimber; and Bar Arriba, a Mexican-inspired hangout built for small bites and inventive cocktails. The following evening, the British Airways ARC opens its 3,800-capacity doors as one of London's most anticipated new live music venues, operated by AEG Presents, with Self Esteem headlining the launch night, followed by McFly, Van Morrison, Zac Brown Band and Khalid in the months ahead. This is a full-blown cultural arrival and we are here for it.
Bar: Forza Wine Soho (new opening0
Credit: @catalyst_roasters / @forzawine
If there's one opening that's had London's food crowd buzzing, it's Forza Wine Soho and the good news is you can walk in tonight. The beloved independent brand was born from a Peckham rooftop and has grown into a South Bank institution at the National Theatre, and now its debut central London outpost. It takes over a prominent corner site on Manette Street, just off Charing Cross Road. With 100 covers inside and a 70-seat outdoor terrace, it's the largest Forza yet and in a neighbourhood as relentlessly busy as Soho, having that much outdoor space feels like a genuine luxury. Designed with an inherited mirrored ceiling, deep green and stainless steel accents, floor-to-ceiling windows and custom signage by South East London studio Commission, it still hums with Soho energy, but with that distinctly Forza touch. The formula that made the other sites cult favourites is all here: an ever-changing 12-dish menu of "Italian-ish" food such as mussel agretti with smoked chilli cream, pork tenderloin with cabbage and mustard, or warm parmesan-laden brioche, all designed to be grazed through lightly or turned into a generous feast. Drinks are refreshingly well-priced, with vermouth over ice from £5, natural wines by the glass from £6 and the signature Forza Fiver, an English white vermouth cocktail on the rocks, arriving the moment you sit down, solving that impatient few minutes between sitting down and ordering. A subterranean circular bar downstairs will open for private events later this year, so there's even more to come. Walk-ins are welcome, but book ahead for the terrace on a sunny evening because this one fills up fast.
Wellness: The Longevity Show
Credit: The Longevity Show
There are wellness events, and then there are weekends that make you rethink how you’re living altogether. The Longevity Show, arriving at Tobacco Dock on 26th and 27th June feels very much like the latter. Set inside one of East London’s most atmospheric warehouse spaces, it brings together the biggest names in health, science and modern wellbeing for two days dedicated to feeling better, thinking sharper and living longer. Expect everything from yoga, Pilates and cutting-edge diagnostics to IV drips, expert panels and immersive experiences designed to leave you genuinely inspired rather than simply informed. The speaker line-up alone is worth clearing your calendar for. Davina McCall, Fearne Cotton, Joe Wicks, Grace Beverley and Dr Rangan Chatterjee are all set to appear, alongside leading voices from the worlds of performance, nutrition and longevity science. Wana know the best bit? You can use code HOTLIST20 for 20% off all ticket types. Boom!
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Exhibition: Fria Kahlo: The Making of an Icon
Credit: Diego Rivera - The Tate
Frida: The Making of an Icon, opening at Tate Modern on 25th June and running until 3rd January 2027, is the first major retrospective of Frida Kahlo's work in the UK in over twenty years…and the anticipation is palpable. Organised with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, it brings together more than 130 works including paintings, photographs, clothing, jewellery and personal archives, alongside over 80 works by artists who engaged with her legacy, from Judy Chicago to Ana Mendieta, building a portrait of a woman who painted from pain and radical self-belief and became one of the most recognisable cultural forces of the 20th century. The experience extends beyond the galleries: Michelin-starred chef Santiago Lastra of KOL has created a Kahlo-inspired menu at the Tate Modern Restaurant priced at £41 for two courses or £66 including exhibition entry and there's a Tate Modern Late on 31st July with music, workshops and performances. Tickets are £25 for adults, free for Tate Members and just £5 for 16–25 year olds via Tate Collective. 100% this will sell out so what are you waiting for?
Music: SXSw London
Credit: SXSW London
If there's one event in June that proves London has cemented its place as the cultural capital of the world, it's SXSW London, returning to Shoreditch for its second year from the 1st to 6th of this month. The 2026 edition integrates conference, music, screen and visual arts programming across East London's grassroots venues, clustered around the Truman Brewery, with over 800 speakers, 200 music artists, 100 film screenings and more than 700 companies attending from over 50 countries. The speaker lineup is staggering: former First Lady Michelle Obama records a live episode of her podcast alongside her brother Craig Robinson, London Mayor Sadiq Khan takes the stage, Claire Foy delivers a keynote, and Piers Morgan is grilled on fame and media…all in the same week. The House of the Dragon team discuss season three, while Ant and Dec, Misan Harriman and Olympic gymnast Max Whitlock round out a lineup that lurches brilliantly between pop culture and substance. On the music side, artists including Tiwa Savage, Earl Sweatshirt, K-Pop idol YUNJIN, Afrobeats star Oxlade and Croydon grime artist Jords take over East London's intimate venues. This is exactly the kind of discovery moment SXSW built its reputation on. Music day tickets start from around £25, with full six-day festival passes from £1,000 and all-access platinum passes at £1,300. It's loud, unpredictable and utterly unmissable.
food: Cloth Cornhill
Credit: Cloth Restaurants
Few restaurant openings carry the weight of history that this one does. Simpson's Tavern in Ball Court, off Cornhill, dates back to 1757, making it London's oldest chophouse and a favourite haunt of Charles Dickens and William Thackeray no less. It has been a beloved institution of the City of London for an extraordinary 265 years before a pandemic-era rent dispute forced its closure in 2022. Now, finally, it's coming back. Hurrah! The team behind Smithfield's acclaimed Cloth restaurant, Joe Haynes, Ben Butterworth and chef Tom Hurst, have taken on the Grade II-listed building and are mid-restoration, with a relaunch date still TBC but SOON. Due to legal complications the Simpson's Tavern name can't be carried forward, so the new restaurant will be called Cloth Cornhill, but walk down that narrow alley off Cornhill and you'll feel the old magic immediately. The wood-panelled walls, bow windows, brass rails, fireplaces and high-backed booths are all being carefully restored and the menu will be produce-led and modern British while paying clear homage to the Simpson's chophouse tradition, complemented by a generous wine list featuring bottles from the team's own portfolio. For anyone who mourned the closure of one of London's most irreplaceable dining rooms, this is the reopening of the year. Head to the website now to get onto the waitlist for one of the first table reservations.
exhibition: quentin blake centre for illustration
Credit: Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration
Twenty-five years in the making, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration is one of the most quietly extraordinary new cultural institutions to open in London in years. Set in the grounds of an 18th-century waterworks in Clerkenwell which is accessible to the public for the first time, the world's largest dedicated space for illustration opens on the 5th June. With three galleries, a café, shop, free public gardens and an illustration library, the £12.5 million project was funded in part by a £3.75 million National Lottery Heritage Fund grant and represents the realisation of a vision Blake first held in 2002. The opening programme is exceptional. One ticket gets you into all three exhibitions: Quentin Blake: Performance, featuring over 100 original and rarely-seen drawings exploring the theatrical influences that have shaped his almost 80-year career; MURUGIAH: Ever Feel Like…, the artist's first solo show, delving into a kaleidoscopic world of identity, mental health, Hollywood, sci-fi and 2000s pop-punk; and Queer as Comics, the first major UK exhibition on LGBTQ+ comic-making, spanning the 1940s to the present day. That last show alone features original artwork from over 60 artists including Tove Jansson, Alison Bechdel and Tom of Finland, many of the works never previously displayed publicly. Tickets are £16.50 for adults and £6.60 for children, with annual memberships also available. A bargain for what promises to be a mind blowing cultural experience. The opening is all timed perfectly for Pride Month, and is genuinely unlike anywhere else in the city.
Art: Anish kapoor
Credit: Dave Morgan - Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor returns to the Hayward Gallery on the 16th June which marks his first show there since 1998. He is taking over the entire Brutalist building on the Southbank, walls, terraces and all, until the 18th October. Three new monumental works anchor the show: a colossal inflated PVC membrane that fills a six-metre-high space to breaking point; a dark mountainous form looming over a sprawling red landscape; and Mount Moriah at the Gate of the Ghetto (2022), descending from the ceiling to hover inches above the gallery floor. Alongside them, Vantablack sculptures all coated in the light-absorbing nanotechnology so extreme it renders three-dimensional forms entirely flat, sit beside mirror works on the outdoor terraces that bend reflections of sky, architecture and viewer into unstable new shapes, and recent paintings made with silicone, resin and pigment that conjure exposed flesh and internal organs. The exhibition is curated by Ralph Rugoff, and also marks his final show as Director of the Hayward Gallery after 20 years in the role, giving the whole thing an added weight of occasion. Tickets are from £19, with Southbank Centre Members getting unlimited entry from £60 a year and the Under-30s scheme offering half-price access. Disorientating, sublime and completely unmissable.
theatre: The Truth
Credit: The Apollo Theatre
If you need a night of pure, unapologetic fun in the West End this summer, look no further. The Truth is Florian Zeller's wickedly entertaining comedy about extramarital affairs, weaponised friendship and the explosive cost of honesty and the production opens at the Apollo Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue on the 9th June for a strictly limited 14-week run. The premise is delicious: Michel is having a secret affair with Alice, the wife of his best friend Paul and has convinced himself that lying is an act of kindness, until his carefully constructed alibis begin to collapse in a series of rapid-fire scenes of luring, dodging and mutual manipulation. The cast alone is reason enough to book: Tony-nominated Stephen Mangan leads as Michel, alongside comedy icon Ardal O'Hanlon, Olivier winner Janie Dee and Miranda's Sarah Hadland, all directed by Olivier winner Lindsay Posner and translated by Christopher Hampton. It marks the play's first major West End revival in a decade, having last been staged in 2016 at the Wyndham's following a record-breaking run at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Running time is a tight 90 minutes with no interval, and tickets are priced from £20 to £55. Sharp, fast and very funny, it’s exactly what a summer evening in London should be.
CHARITY OF THE MONTH: comedy night at the pembury tavern
Credit: The Lady Garden Foundation
Not every great night in London requires a headline act or a booking months in advance. The Pembury Tavern is Hackney's legendary community pub and home of the Five Points Brewing Company and on the 24th June they have their long running ‘Stand Up for Mental Health’ comedy night. 100% of ticket sales go to Mind in the City, Hackney and Waltham Forest, the charity supporting people in need of mental health services across East London. The Pembury has been committed to its local community since 1856, and each year works with Hackney-based charities through fundraising events including these comedy and games nights. This June edition is exactly the kind of evening London does brilliantly: a raffle runs on the night with prizes including brewery tours and beer vouchers, the Five Points taps are flowing, ACE Pizza is on hand, and the laughs are entirely guilt-free. In fact you're actively doing good just by showing up. Tickets have previously been priced at around £10 and include a pint of Five Points beer on arrival. In a month packed with blockbuster exhibitions and major openings, sometimes the best thing you can do is pull up a stool in a Hackney pub, drink something local, and laugh for a cause.