6 Unmissable Fun Palaces, All FREE This Weekend: 3-4 October
Fun Palaces proves (if proof were needed) that London is full of astounding local culture on your doorstep, FREE to discover this weekend!
Take a walk and uncover the true vision of Joan Littlewood’s Fun Palaces: ‘everyone an artist, everyone a scientist’. It’s happening closer than you think this weekend, 3-4 October 2015.
Search the map for your local Fun Palaces here
We’ve extracted some highlights like we’re playing a game of Operation – including a mystic psychic dog, synchronised swimming mermaids & pom poms galore!
The Albany, Deptford – Meet Me at the Fun Palace: Unruliversity
On Sunday head to Deptford for a grassroots community learning event where anyone can be a professor or student to learn something interesting from our neighbours.
artsdepot Fun Palace, North Finchley
A host of activities await at the North London venue on Saturday 3 October including:
- Make pom poms to be part of an intriguing new installation The Consciousness Field, in which artist Maria Lopes joins the dots within our brain.
- Join art-impresarios Hunt & Darton for ‘The Punch, The Sandwich, The Cake‘, a human chain to make yummy recipes.
Brockwell Lido Fun Palace
This was on our list last year and for good reason. In London’s loveliest lido on Sunday 4 Oct you can:
- Meet a mermaid whilst synchronised swimming (on land),
- Stroke a horsey from the Ebony Horse club.
- Experience Marvellous Mary and her Wandering Violin
Lambeth Libraries Fun Palaces
Lambeth is alive with the sound of libraries, and all 11 from Brixton to West Norwood are taking part in this extravaganza.
Hot tip:
Become a true cockney on this ultimate Lambeth walk, and discover all the libraries in the borough on Saturday 3 October. Join Fun Palaces’ co-director and writer, Stella Duffy on the library crawl, which includes a stop-off at Joan Littlewood’s birthplace in Stockwell.
A Fun Palace for Grown Ups – Various venues near Euston Road
The awesome culture quarter that includes Camden People’s Theatre, New Diorama, Birkbeck, Wellcome Collection, and the Fitzrovia Centre presents its own mini-fest on Sunday 4 Oct to celebrate growing up.
Highlights include:
- A free workshop in conflict resolution at Camden People’s Theatre on Sunday 4 Oct.
- Talk freely about politics without the faux-pas with the help of a new game from interactive theatre visionaries Coney at New Diorama Theatre on Sunday.
- Dauber of silly pictures and comedian Phil O’Shea doesn’t want to grow up but his 30th is looming. Join him for a delightfully childish free show at 8pm on Sunday.
Watermans Fun Palace
If you haven’t discovered Watermans’ yet, it’s a truly magical west London cultural gem on Saturday 3 October.
Top picks:
- The Compliment and Complaints Quartet turn the great British pastime, moaning, into song.
- Special guest Mystic Sid the Fortune-Telling Dog will reveal your destiny.
- We’re a sucker for the luminous so the Glow in the Dark Paper Theatre workshop seems like an illuminating way to enjoy Watermans’ Fun Palace.
Download Watermans’ Fun Palace programme here
Find a Fun Palace near you!
I am Joint Editor at To Do List. I like free, cheap & offbeat London, especially: cabaret, art, theatre, pop-ups, eating out, quirky films, museums, day trips, social enterprise & much more.
