What to Do in London This May?

There’s always plenty going on in London, and in May that’s truer than ever. There are sporting occasions to look forward to, brilliant shows and special events, and, to top it all off, even a royal wedding – which you’ll be able to celebrate in all sorts of ways.

Let’s take a look at what’s going on in London in spring 2018:

The Royal Wedding

The big event of the spring is without question the royal wedding, which will see Prince Harry wed American actor Meghan Markle on Saturday, 19th May. The wedding itself will be predictably enormous – £25million of spending in order to get it all just right (thousands of pounds’ worth of wedding cake, a wedding dress at something like a cool half a million pounds, hundreds of the world’s most famous celebrities, politicians and sports stars as guests, not to mention the billions of people tuning in to watch it at home) – and there are lots of places for people go in London and soak up the atmosphere in public, too. Here are some ideas:

• There are special wedding brunches in London’s iconic Spitalfields Market. Having had breakfast, pop over to Brick Lane for a stroll, a shop and a salt beef bagel.
• There’s a celebratory afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason, famously the Queen’s department store of choice.
• Many hotels are organising especially designed breakfasts, teas and lunches.
• There will also be street parties aplenty, so be sure to pick up your party pack, including the obligatory mini Union Jack, celebrity face mask and royal wedding blow-up balloons.

London Craft Week

This fantastic annual festival returns to London from mid-May for one week, and is your opportunity to get up close to skilled craftsmen and craftswomen alike, checking out what they make, how they make it and where they make it. Some of the many highlights include visits to the workshops of some of London’s finest contemporary Jewellery Gift Boxes UK, furniture makers and ceramicists. You’ll be able to watch gilders at work, as well as fashion designers, glass blowers and metal workers.

The Chelsea Flower Show

The Chelsea Flower Show is a veritable institution, as English as strawberries and cream, pie and mash, fish n’ chips. Go along to enjoy the live jazz, delicious pastries and other tasty bites, not to mention some excellent wine, tea and traditional British ales. Then there are the gardens themselves. Among these, don’t miss out on: the health and wellbeing gardens, which consider plant power and benefits to the environment; the Great Pavilion, which is where you’ll find dozens of separate nurseries and a gathering of many of the world’s most admired florists; and the Artisan Gardens, which offer a modern take on traditional gardens, combining the rustic with the contemporary.

The Royal Parks

Finally, never fail to enjoy London’s royal parks. For many, its parks are London’s finest quality, and there is no better time to enjoy the flower gardens of Regent’s Park, the Serpentine boating lake of Hyde Park, the pelicans of St James’s Park or the stunning vistas over the River Thames of Greenwich Park.