Instead of hopping on a bus and being whisked around Big Ben, the Eye and Buckingham Palace with a chipper guide in tow, get to know London like a local by sampling the best of its boozers. Alternative London offers a jam-packed jaunt around the city’s East End pubs, showcasing beer through the ages (ideal if you don’t know your ale from lager) and Brick Lane’s thriving street art scene. With four stops along the way and free drinks a flowing, it’s guaranteed to get you in the mood for a boogie and midnight bagel.  

Tickets: £20. For more information and to book tickets, visit alternativeldn.com or email info@alternativeldn.com.

You might also like...

London's top 10 unusual museums
Gorgeous gardens to visit in London
Tickets please! Head for a transport museum

Londoners aren’t content to stew in a darkened auditorium and steadily munch popcorn on movie night. No, we want to turn up at a clandestine location, don our finest fancy dress and be immersed in the performance, thanks very much. The Secret Cinema ticks all the above boxes, usually only releasing the film around which its ‘experience’ is based on the day so attendees can hurriedly track down the appropriate attire (the current theme is ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’, think eyeliner moustaches, Cadbury-purple uniforms and all manner of 30s accoutrements). Sign up on the Secret Cinema’s website to receive updates about the date and location of its next extravaganza.  

For more information and to register, visit www.secretcinema.org.

You might also like...

London's top 10 unusual museums
Gorgeous gardens to visit in London
Tickets please! Head for a transport museum

If you’re a bit of a carnivore and don’t baulk at the sight of blood, step behind the butcher’s block for a hands-on workshop. The Ginger Pig offers butchery classes from its Marylebone branch, teaching small groups how to buy and handle meat to get the most out each cut. In pork butchery, for example, you’ll watch butchers hewing a pig carcass, nose-to-tail-style, before boning and rolling a prize loin yourself to take home and roast. Sausage-making is apparently the most practical. You’ll flavour your pork in preparation for the mincer, get to grips with the filling machine and finally link your bangers. Each workshop ends by participants hunkering down to a meaty meal and well-deserved glass of wine.

Classes cost £135 and last 3.5 hours. For more information or to book a class, visit www.thegingerpig.co.uk, email butcheryclasses@thegingerpig.co.uk or call 01751 460802.

You might also like...
See all of our delicious pork recipes
Top 20 one-day cookery schools
London's more unusual museums

Yes we all know summer’s marvellous, but with our capital’s pathetic attempts to keep its inhabitants air conditioned, it’s imperative to know where you can strip off and cool down. Luckily, there are several lidos – oases in the desert, if you will – scattered around the city. We recommend the Serpentine’s – 110yds of open lake water that’s not chlorinated or heated – which has a paddling pool for kids, a café bar for parents and is open for weekends throughout May and seven days a week from 1 June – 12 September. Just don’t forget your SPF30; its terrace is something of a suntrap!

Opening times: 10am-6pm. Tickets: adult, £4.50; child, £1.50; family (two adults and up to four children), £10. For more information, visit www.royalparks.org.uk or call 020 7706 3422.

You might also like...

London's top 10 unusual museums
Gorgeous gardens to visit in London
Tickets please! Head for a transport museum

If you're a fan of all things rustic, head to Spitalfields City Farm, which hosts plenty of whimsical activities (its latest was the ingeniously named ‘goat race’ between ‘Oxford’ and ‘Cambridge’), and welcomes helpers. Gardening volunteers will learn about companion planting, how to keep pesky insects at bay while encouraging butterflies and bees, and the best way to cultivate a fruitful vegetable patch. Sessions are held twice a week (11am-2pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays), but you must register before attending. The farm also runs free ‘pick and cook’ sessions, where enthusiasts are taken back to basics – picking produce from the veg garden and turning their spoils into a nutritious meal. Email gardens@spitalfieldscityfarm.org to find out more.  

For more information on volunteering, visit www.spitalfieldscityfarm.org or call 0207 247 8762.

You might also like...
Grow your own fruit and veg
Gorgeous gardens to visit in London
Practical advice on sowing seed and growing plants

Venice may be sinking but London’s version is very much afloat and utterly delightful come summer. Hop on one of the London Waterbus Company’s traditional barges and float along Regent’s Canal for a lazy afternoon of gawping at Maida Vale mansions, catching some shade in the damp coolness of Maida Hill tunnel and sailing through the market stall hubbub of Camden Lock. There’s a daily service during the sunny months (April-September) and tickets are sold on board.

Tickets between Camden Lock and Little Venice: adult single, £8; child/senior single, £6.60; adult return, £11.30; child/senior return, £9.20. For more information, visit www.londonwaterbus.com or call 020 7482 2660.

You might also like...

London's top 10 unusual museums
Gorgeous gardens to visit in London
Tickets please! Head for a transport museum

Supper clubs and pop-up eateries (restaurants that are there one minute, gone the next) are now an integral part of London’s food culture. Ranging from intimate gatherings in a foodie’s front room to temporary installations at cafes after closing, warehouses or disused Tube carriages, they’re an excellent for eating experimentally and meeting fellow food obsessives. James Ramsden’s The Secret Larder (a weekly gathering in Holloway Road’s hip Vagabond café) is always a safe bet. We also recommend checking out The Grub Club’s website, where you can find comprehensive listings of supper clubs around the city (running the gamut from a hangover brunch to confit duck feast), salivate over menus and book tickets. 

You might also like...
London's top 10 unusual museums
Gorgeous gardens to visit in London
Tickets please! Head for a transport museum

Don’t battle every man and his dog to queue outside the V&A or Tate Britain (left) by day. Both keep their doors open late on selected Fridays for exclusive talks, live performances, film installations, debates and the opportunity to see current exhibitions without being elbowed out the way. The V&A’s next evening is entitled ‘Synesthetic Aesthetics’ (25 April) and asks artists and scientists the question: who will emerge as the designers of the future?  

For more information, visit www.vam.ac.uk and www.tate.org.uk.

You might also like...

London's top 10 unusual museums
Gorgeous gardens to visit in London
Tickets please! Head for a transport museum

Dealing with a serious case of the evening munchies? Head to Kingsland Road, Dalston’s edgy thoroughfare, and proceed to graze your way along it. Start at Arancini Brothers for plump balls of deep-fried risotto and ragù deliciousness, swing by Voodoo Ray’s (left) for lip-smacking pizza by the slice, squeeze into Mangal 1 – a Turkish joint that serves some of the city’s best sis kebab, spicy kofte and yoghurt chicken, although request a table away from their sweltering grill – and finally pick up a box of freshly baked baklava from one of its many Middle Eastern pastry shops.

You might also like...
London's top 10 unusual museums
Gorgeous gardens to visit in London
Tickets please! Head for a transport museum

Ray Stitch is a craft-lover’s mecca on Essex Road, combining haberdashery wares and a basement workshop space. After picking through candy-coloured puffs of netting, designer cotton prints, buttons of all descriptions and ribbon reels, book its ‘Recreate Your Favourite Garment’ class. The idea is to bring a beloved garment you wish to replicate so you can learn how to make pattern pieces from scratch. You’ll never have to comb Oxford Street again looking for that elusive pair of jeans – result.  

The workshop costs £55 and lasts 3 hours. You should be a competent sewer. Dates: 26 April, 24 May, 21 June and 19 July. For more information and to book, visit www.raystitch.co.uk or call 020 7704 1060.

You might also like...
Join London's craft café culture
London's top 10 unusual museums
Gorgeous gardens to visit in London