Best Sporting, Historic and Social Events
- Royal Ascot Race Meeting Tour
- Henley Regatta Tour
- Wimbledon Tennis Club Tour
- Twickenham Rugby Club Tour
- Guards Polo Club Tour
- Golf Club Tour
- Cricket in England 1 full day out
ROYAL ASCOT June
Our EVENTS and VENUES best choice for our clients who visit London.
Wentworth: Golf has one of the most glorious histories of any sport still played.
Golf as we know it emerged in Scotland. The Scots were playing golf in its very basic form - take a club, swing it at a ball, move ball from starting point to finishing hole in as few strokes as possible - by at least the mid-15th Century. The earliest known reference to golf comes from King James II of Scotland, who, in 1457, issued a ban on the playing of golf and football (soccer). Those games, James complained, were keeping his archers from their practice.
June: Queen's Cup Polo at the Guards Club, Windsor. The exclusive Guard’s Polo Club opens its doors to polo’s finest. The Queen’s Cup is played in the surrounds of Windsor Great Park and is the highest handicap league competition in the UK.
June Royal Ascot is the most fantastic sporting and social event of the year. Full of British traditions, style and the horseracing is of the most outstanding quality. The surrounding countryside is spectacular and the fashon is stunning. The only place where elegance and eccentricity reach a feverish climax. The week of the year when popularity rises above language and social barriers. Royal Ascot is the most famous race meeting in the world, steeped in history dating back to 1711. Book now for June ASCOT. Best chance to see and be seen at the new high tech racecourse on Thusday Ladies Day of the Royal Ascot Meeting.
MORE LONDON EVENTS:
Every month: Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, sometimes on alternate days and weather permitting.
November Lord Mayor's Show
November Remembrance Day
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Monthly British Library, from the unique collection of the British Library, with its 150 million printed, recorded documents and manuscripts, an exhibition focuses on thirty of the most celebrated winners of Nobel Prizes in Peace.
British Museum National Archeology Museum Egyptian, Greek, Assyrian and other ancient empires from around the world creating a unified sense of global identity.
Jan - November Design Museum.
Modern Britain. Britain was being "lost in a deep provincial sleep". Design Museum's new exhibition traces the history of Britain's awakening. Translating Nature till October The great mavericks of twentieth century design are represebted here. Art school training supplemented by studies in aerodynamics, artists' own style of boldly sculptured forms that spilled from cars to aircraft, and then into furniture and industrial objects.
May - October' Florence Nightingale Museum. Despite rejection by the authorities in London she travelled independently to the Crimea and the exhibition shows how she helped to improve the sanitary hospital conditions in various parts of the world, helped and set up the British Hotel near Balaclava, not far from the frontline of the fighting.
January - October Handel House Museum. 'Handel stories behind eighteenth century super-opera-stars.
Jan - December Imperial War Museum. The exhibition tells the fascinating story of the part played by animals in twentieth century conflict from the First World War to the present day. Their roles have ranged from carrying vital messages and supplies, to rescuing air raid victims and assisting with reconnaissance.
September - March Institute for Contemporary Arts, celebration of bizarre and debatable British art.
September - December Natural History Museum. Some of the most prestigious and successful events of its kind in the world. It is open to amateur and professionals alike.
September - December National Archives Kew Celebrating Britain’s most famous engineers, inventors and Inventions: Patents, Protest and Power in the Industrial Revolution, 1750-1890. Genius such as: Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859) drove the expansion of domestic and international travel by designing and constructing railways, bridges, tunnels, and ships during the Industrial Revolution. In agriculture: Richard Arkwright’s Specification for the Spinning Frame. Edmund Cartwright and his Specification for Loom for Weaving. James Hargreaves with his Specification for Spinning, Drawing, and Twisting Cotton. Public health and sanitation: Joseph Bramah’s Specification for his Water Closet. Transport: George and Robert Stephenson’s various Specifications for Improvements to Locomotive Engines. for communications: Charles Wheatstone and William Fothergill Cooke with a copy of their ABC Telegraph Transmitter. A working model of the telegraph machine. Eadweard Muybridge with projected images from his Zoopraxiscope machine. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
May - December National Gallery. 70 Impressionists showing painted landscapes exploring composition, paint handling and pictorial structure in innovative new ways.
September - December Dutch Portraits: The Age of Rembrandt and Frans Hals. It will include some 60 works, all painted between 1600 and 1680. Exhibits range from small, individual portraits meant for the private home to the large-scale group portraits of members of charitable institutions and civic guards. Following its independence from Spain in the 17th century, the Dutch Republic experienced an era of unprecedented wealth, the so-called 'Golden Age.'
October - January Renaissance Siena: Art for a City. This section offers the first opportunity in the UK to see Sienese Renaissance works of art in the artistic, cultural and political context of the volatile last century of the Sienese Republic. While the painting of Trecento Siena is universally admired, the art produced during the later 15th and early 16th centuries is much less well known, especially outside Italy. See the bravura techniques and virtuoso inventiveness of two of the greatest Sienese artists of this period, Francesco di Giorgio and Domenico Beccafumi, alongside many of their contemporaries. Around one hundred beautiful paintings, sculptures, drawings, manuscripts and ceramics will be included in the exhibition. Major loans from private and public collections across Europe and America will be displayed alongside the exceptional Sienese paintings in the National Gallery's own collection - works by Matteo di Giovanni, Francesco di Giorgio, Benvenuto di Giovanni, the Master of the Legend of Griselda, Signorelli, Pintoricchio and Beccafumi.
November - February Renaissance Stained Glass. Many of the 15th- and early 16th-century German paintings in the National Gallery have been removed from the ecclesiastical contexts for which they were designed. Frequently these settings also included brilliantly coloured, boldly designed and exquisitely made stained glass windows.
January - December National Portrait Gallery
February - November The Queen's Gallery, images of past generations of members of the Royal Family detailed to a remarkable degree by the organisers.
August Royal Academy.Summer Exhibition - The largest open submission contemporary art exhibition with a tradition of work by unknown and emerging artists and established names. It attracts about 9,000 paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, prints and architectural models. Many of the works are for sale from a limited edition print to many thousands for major oils and sculptures.
November Photo-London, photography exhibition, works from 50 galleries around the world, covering film and videos
July - September Royal Albert Hall. BBC PROMS the most fantastic concerts of the year. To celebrate life, strength and human spirit. Once again the world's greatest classical music festival, returns with an amazing line-up of the leading orchestras from around the world, wonderful conductors and soloists, the Proms this year celebrate the enduring genius of Shakespeare and the composer anniversaries of Elgar and Sibelius. Other highlights include the climax of the Proms' four-year Wagner Ring Cycle and an innovative evening of Indian and Pakistani music led by the multi award-winning artist Nitin Sawhney.
December Science Museum. Display celebrating the legendary Spitfire aircraft. Also a glimpse of imaginary futures at the Wellcome Wing created out of decisions that you make about uses of new discoveries in genetics, psycology, brain science. Also: Antenna the world first - a constantly-updated exhibition devoted exclusively to science and technology news, some in 3D.
February - October Tate Britain. From around the end of the 18th century, a new current in British art and literature. The exhibition shows groups of artists whose work was to define the Gothic throughout the next two centuries, and whose influence can be clearly seen in the successful central exhibits of the tate own collection of William Blake's sinister engravings, and a large group of other political satires.
June - February Dazzling, evocative and sublime, this exhibition provides an opportunity to see some of JMW Turner’s most spectacular works and use of colour. Usually outnumbered by his grand oil paintings, around 150 of Turner’s beautiful watercolours are displayed, giving a comprehensive view of the artist’s astonishing use of watercolour, his techniques and his influences. At the heart of the exhibition another seminal British artist, David Hockney, presents his own selection of techniques. Hockney on Turner Watercolours. The exhibition tracks Turner's watercolour work through time. From architecture to topography, ideal and historic landscape to nature studies, and finished works to private sketches, the selection reveals Turner's extraordinary range as a watercolourist. At the same time, it shows the development of the virtuoso techniques that enabled him first to paint watercolours that could compete with oil paintings, and later to transform all aspects of his art by their example. The exhibition includes The Blue Rigi c1841–2, Turner's magnificent work which was recently acquired by Tate with the help of the most successful public appeal ever organised.
June - September Tate Modern: More than one hundred works including paintings, photographs, drawings and films by Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) and other artists in an unprecedented exploration of the central role of cinema in his work. Revealing the artist’s cinematic vision across all forms of his prodigious and controversial output.
April - August Some of the most interesting and significant British painters of the post-war period. Manu urban and industrial landscapes ason display. This exhibition focuses on the relationships between early and late works.
February - September V & A. New York Fashion: Now focuses on the new wave of talented young designers emerging from New York’s fashion scene. Some of these individuals have quickly established successful careers at a young age; others are up and coming names whose creations are attracting international attention. This display features the work of twenty designers, including Zac Posen, Derek Lam, Proenza Schouler and Mary Ping.
The V&A: Open every Friday until 22.00 for visits of major exhibitions and galleries, enjoying a drink with friends and take part in a range of talks and events. The last Friday of the month will remain Friday Late, the usual themed contemporary event night.
February - December Wallace Collection. New gallery: works of art once owned by or associated with France’s most tragic Queen, Marie-Antoinette. Stunning pieces of furniture, gilt-bronze, paintings and miniatures illustrate and explore the Queen’s taste for elegant furnishings.
February - November Wigmore Hall: Community and Education Events. Exploring many artists literary background, analyse their poems as biographical confessions and discover how many of them form part of novels.
February: Rugby Finals May Guinness Premiership Final
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Tickets for: Eurostar to Paris, events, hotels, airport transfers, tours, travel services, theatres, dinner combined with river cruises and much more...
March - April Ideal Home Show, Earls Court I and II. Everything essential to know about refitting your home.
Sundays Antique and Collectors Fair (pigandwhistlepromotions.com)
Around/before Easter: Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. The Boat Race. Who is the favourite? Chiswick Steps the best place to be in an event which dates back to 1829. World famous sporting event first held in 1829. The 4¼ mile Thames course from Putney to Mortlake is over three times as long as the Olympic course. The two university crews battle it out to the roars of the crowds lining the river banks. The race will start at 4:30pm.
April - Maundy Thursday. This is the last day of Lent and the "maundy" means command and refers to when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper and commanded his disciples to be humble and do likewise. Traditionally English kings and queens have washed the feet of the poor on this day and given out gifts of clothing and food. The Queen nowadays gives out special silver Maundy coins in purses to as many men and women as there are years in her age.
April The Evening Standard Homes & Property Show Business, an important subject for everybody. From London's best-read paper.
April: Easter Day.
Easter Monday London Harness Horse Parade. Horse-drawn carriages in the city centre, huge annual Easter Monday parade of working horses from giant cart horses to sturdy Shetland ponies, all pulling gorgeous old carts, carriages and engines.
April : London Marathon is one of the greatest sporting events of the year. The 26-mile race through the streets of London attracts runners from all over the world, as well as those running for fun or charities
May - October Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Sam Wanamaker's faithful reconstruction of the Globe Theatre was opened by HM the Queen in June 1997. Shakespeare's plays in the round and standing in the open air as it was over 500 years ago.
May Rock'n'Gem Show (rockngem.co.uk) Alexandra Palace Wood Green, London
April - September Lords Cricket Grounds Season
.March St Patrick’s Day
May - Royal Windsor Horse Show
May Dulwich Festival TBC
May Covent Garden May Fayre and Puppetry festival. Samuel Pepys became the first person to describe a Punch and Judy show, many years ago, the Covent Garden May Fayre and Puppetry Show brings together dozens of puppeteers.
May Pure and Organic Show (pureandorganicshow.co.uk)
May The Playtex Charity MoonWalk . Organised by the Daily Telegraph challenges and opportunities to unite against breast cancer and the first step to better health, fitness and making a difference. This amazing event will be taking place at Hyde Park, London at night! Walk the Walk organise this unique power walking challenge, where all the participants not only wear decorated bras but set off at midnight. You will be joining this dynamic group of people to raise money, raise awareness, get fit and have fun! The event begins with thousands of walkers streaming into Playtex City greeted by Stiltwalkers and our fantastic team of volunteers! Everyone find their own patch of grass to make camp and relaxed into the evening of entertainment and energy before starting on the challenge of either a half or full marathon. Music and entertainment for the participants.
May Thames Bridges Bike Ride. Charity event. 32 mile and 14 bridges cycle ride to raise money for The Stroke Association, 240 City Road. Tower Bridge. Riders registration www.stroke.org.uk/get_involved/fundraising_events
May Royal Chelsea Flower Show. This event attracts the world’s most talented garden designers and show gardens are very creative displaying thousands of plants. The smaller gardens are split into three different categories - the stylish and bold chic gardens, courtyard gardens, which are for rural or semi-rural settings and city gardens, for urban spaces. The exhibitors prepare for the show for months in advance, nurturing and preening plants, moving them from hot to cold temperatures and even wrapping blooms in cotton wool, to make sure they are at their very best for the event and the visitor is never disappointed in spite of the relatively small space available.
May Guiness Premiership Final Twickenham, Rugby. The flagship event of the Premiership season attracts a massive crowd. Another Wasps vs Tigers match? The Leicester team is desperate to avenge last years Lawrence Dallaglio inspired thrashing.
May - June The Premier Event for Search Engine Marketing & Optimization, Biz Des Centre, London
June Derby Day Epsom Down Race Course. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II may be present at this calendar racing event. The Derby is one of the oldest and greatest horse races in the world, established by the Earl of Derby in 1779.
June - Beating Retreat is a musical ceremony of interesting sound and colour. On two successive evenings London's famous Horse Guards Parade resounds to the stirring sounds of the Massed Bands of the Household Division as they perform Beating Retreat - one of the most colourful ceremony in the capital's military ceremonial calendar. The event starts at approximately 6.30 p.m. with the salute usually being taken by Her Majesty The Queen or another member of the Royal Family. Hundreds musicians, drummers and pipers perform this age-old ceremony. The Retreat has origins in the early days of chivalry when beating or sounding retreat pulled a halt to the days fighting, a return to camp and the mounting of the guard for the night. A major event in the Army’s ceremonial calendar playing hymns and anthems of special significances to fighting forces everywhere.
June usually 3rd Sat in June: The Queen's Birthday Parade. Usually Saturdays in June: Rehersals. "The Trooping the Colour" this ceremony is a parade of music and pageantry in celebration of the Queens Birthday.
June " The Knollys Red Rose Rent". Feast of John the Baptist, since 1381, one red rose is plucked from Seething Lane and presented to the Lord Mayor on the altar of All Hallows by the Tower. The Rent of one Rose is paid in recognition of Sir Robert Knollys who built an unauthorized foot bridge across Seething Lane.
June : Queen's Official Birthday Gun Salute.
June, - Royal Salutes to mark Coronation Day, the birthday of The Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen's official birthday. A 41 gun royal salute fired by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery in Hyde Park at 12:00 noon and a 62-gun royal salute fired by the Honourable Artillery Company at the Tower of London at 1:00pm.It marks The Queen's official birthday: the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery Fires a 41-gun salute in Green Park and the Honorable Artillery Company fires a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London.
Mo last week June- Sunday 01st week July : Wimbledon International Tennis Championship is the world's most prestigious tennis tournament and one of the greatest sporting and social event in the British calendar. The only remaining Grand Slam Lawn Tennis tournament to be played on grass. It attracts top players from all over the world and they enjoy the glamour as much as the spectators.
01st week July: Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Organised by the RHS in these historically designed gardens and around many acres of Hampton Court Palace parklands. The Palace plays host to this annual Flower Show at the height of summer, for six days in July, thousands of gardening fans can see, smell and touch an abundance of flowers.
July Tour de France. The biggest annual sporting event in the world, the Tour de France, did start in London in 2007 for the first time in its 100 year history. The Grand Départ, the start of the Tour, was spectacular.
July: last Monday "Swan Upping" Since Medieval times 2 Livery Companies and the Crown have the right to keep swans on the River Thames. Every year 6 wooden Skiffs pass along the River Thames, through Marlow Lock, to mark the cygnets.
July Henley on Thames Royal Regatta. Situated near the Old Bridge, one of the most beautiful spots at Henley. An ideal setting to watch the rowing and enjoy the unique atmosphere sipping Pimms and enjoy the green countryside. The riverbanks are lined with clubs and bars and men wear traditional blazers and straw hats.
July - August: The British Motor Show. Back with a NEW look, NEW interactive experiences and more NEW and exciting cars than you'll find anywhere else in the UK. There is only one UK Motor Show: The British International Motor Show is a state-of-the-art Show, the ultimate day out for everyone who drives a car or on the look out for a holiday in London with friends or family at the start of the summer holidays. You will be in the driving seat to see the top new models from the leading car manufacturers. A host of exciting interactive motoring experiences in a glamorous atmosphere.
July - September . Annual public opening of State Rooms at Buckingham Palace, The Queen’s official residence in London. If you are in London at this time, a chance to see these magnificent rooms and the palace gardens is a chance not to be missed.
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tickets for: events, hotels, airport transfers, tours and all other related services you may require, such as: theatres and dinner cruises on the river Thames.End July or 1st August: Doggett's Coat and Badge Race, in 1715 Irish Actor Thomas Dogett held a rowing race from London Bridge upstream to Albert Bridge commemorating the crowning of George I. The prize…A scarlet livery and a silver badge of the Horse of Hanover worn on the left elbow.
July - September . Annual public opening of The Houses of Parliament. Historic building. The Chambers of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Queen's Robing Room, Royal Gallery, Prince's Chamber, Peers' Lobby and Corridor, Central Lobby, Commons Corridor and the NO Lobby, St Stephen's Hall, Westminster Hall, New Palace Yard.
June - September: Cricket at the Oval.
September Hyde Park The Hydro Active Women Challenge, London, UK. Walk the Walk challenge, both kids and grown-ups. Lots of singing and linking arms to cross the finish line in aid of Charity. Picnic in the park.
September : Election of the Lord Mayor selected from the City Corporation Aldermen. Every year since 1546 a new Lord Mayor is selected at the annual Meeting in The Guildhall.
September London Open House. Nearly 600 varied buildings - from government buildings to private houses and apartments - normally barred to the public, are opened on an entirely free basis. This is a wonderful opportunity to see some of the capitals architectural gems normally hidden from public eyes.
Late October : "Quit-Rents" it is said that this Ceremony dates back to Domesdays. The City Solicitor pays one of the Queens Officers a token for the rent of properties leased long ago. For Shropshire two faggots of wood, a bill hook and a hatchet, and for the Forge in the Strand, 61 Nails and six horseshoes. The Queen's Remembrancer presides over two of the oldest legal ceremonies namely the Rendering of the Quit Rents to the Crown (1211) and the Trial of the Pyx (1249).
21st October 2007 (or nearest Sunday): Trafalgar Parade in honor of Admiral Nelson's Victory at Trafalgar in 1805, wreaths are laid at the foot of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.Trafalgar Parade and Service October 21 (or nearest Sunday)
5 November Bonfire Night. Bonfires are lit and there are fireworks displays all over London (and the UK) to commemorate the Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to blow up James I and his Parliament. The plot's most famous conspirator, Guy Fawkes, ("The Guy") is burned as an effigy.
November : Remembrance Day Service and Parade at the Cenotaph.
November (1st Sunday in November) RAC Veteran Car Run (1st Sunday) “Red Flag” laws made it illegal to carry Revolutionary Banners. In 1905 a ceremony, including a procession of vehicles built before 1905, honors the repeal of this “Red Flag” law.
November : "The Lord Mayor's Show" A colorful procession nearly 800 years old, the Lord Mayor must make his way to the Royal courts of justice to pledge his allegiance to the Crown. The inauguration of the new Lord Mayor of the City of London. The first Lord Mayor's Show was held in 1215 when King John's Charter stipulated that the new Lord Mayor must swear an oath of allegiance to the King and also to literally 'show' himself to the people. Since then only major disasters such as the Black Death have stopped the Show. The Lord Mayor's procession winds through nearly 800 years of London's history, marching unscathed through everything from the black death to the blitz. From 1422 and for centuries after, it travelled down the River Thames - hence the term 'floats', and there followed a time when the Lord Mayor rode on horseback. Since 1757 however, Lord Mayors have travelled in the famous ceremonial gold coach. In the 21st century, it's a day out for half a million people, with 3 million more watching on the BBC.
November : The State Opening of Parliament marks the start of the parliamentary session. It occurs when Parliament reassembles after a general election, and each subsequent year it is normally in November. It's the main ceremonial event of the parliamentary year, attracting large crowds, both in person and watching on television. The Queen drives in state from Buckingham Palace to Westminster. Before the State Opening, the cellars of the Palace of Westminster are to this day searched by the Yeomen of the Guard - a precaution dating back to the Gunpowder Plot of November 1605
DECEMBER : FESTIVAL of St. Cecilia on the Last Sunday of the Liturgical year. of Christ the King, St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music, is remembered with organ and choral music at St Sepulchre's Church.
December: TRAFALGAR SQUARE CAROLS sang for charity around the Christmas Tree. Every Christmas the city of Oslo, Norway presents a tree in thanks of Britain’s help in World War II.
DECEMBER The Queen's CHRISTMAS MESSAGE to the Commonwealth, broadcast on television and radio.
14th February A NIGHT WITH YOUR VALENTINE
The most stunning and most romantic views of London from the 7th floor. Tate Modern says: VALENTINE'S NIGHT AT TATE MODERN - Courting couples, whirlwind romancers, sweethearts and heartthrobs, come join us for an evening of music, film, art, food, drink and much much more at Tate Modern. So whether it's raunchy cabaret, amorous art tours or champagne in the bar there's something for everyone at the Valentine's evening with a cultural twist. Invite a friend or lover without breaking your pocket...Compare prices for the same view: Valentine Dinner Cruise 14 February. Special Valentine’s menu in the top floor restaurant with spectacular views of London’s skyline at night (Reservations strongly recommended.)
14th FEBRUARY 2010 ST. VALENTINE NIGHT See a Musical and enjoy a 2-course meal this Valentine's night. Funny, touching and witty, a musical is based on some of the best-love stories of all time. A delicious modern European cuisine is served. Package: £98 per person: theatre ticket, 2-course pre-theatre meal with coffee PLUS A ROSE FOR THE LADY!
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