Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

One of London’s most popular outdoor entertainment venues is the enchanting Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. This amphitheatre is completely exposed to the elements, and there are few more atmospheric places to watch theatre than in the dusky confines of the Regent’s Park, with London’s bright lights seemingly a world away. Productions this year include To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice and The Sound of Music, and pre-theatre dining options include pre-packed picnics and a barbecue. Until 8 Sep

The Scoop at More London

Situated just by London Mayor Boris Johnson’s office by Tower Bridge, this sunken theatre is host to a plethora of free entertainment during the summer. From Wednesday to Sunday you can see free open air theatre here in the evenings, and this year there will two short productions based on the ancient Greek city of Thebes. A family production of the Prince of Thebes takes place at 6pm, followed by a more adult staging of Oedipus and Antigone at 8pm. 7 Aug-1 Sep 

Opera Holland Park

Every summer a marquee is erected in front of the glorious Holland House, allowing visitors the chance to watch wonderful operas in the grounds of Holland Park without getting wet! As well as seeing productions such as Madam Butterfly, the Pearl Fishers and new family opera Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, you can also enjoy a pre-prepared picnic in their alfresco dining areas beforehand. 4 Jun -3 Aug

Fitzroy Square Opera

For one night a year, Fitzroy Square Opera brings the magic of traditional country house opera to London. This year, on 27 June, you can sit in this luscious square in Fitzrovia and enjoy a production of Bizet’s Carmen. You can also order a pre-prepared picnic (£22), enjoy freshly cooked paella in the interval or simply avail yourself of the cash bar.

Shakespeare’s Globe, Southbank

At this incredible reconstruction of the original Globe Theatre you can choose whether you have a fully outdoor or partially indoor theatrical experience! The stage is situated under the sky, but there are seats available within the covered theatre section if you don’t feel like standing in the exposed middle with the ‘groundlings’. Scheduled for 2013 are favourites such as King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest, and you can buy standing tickets for just £5. Until 28 Sep

Theatre in the Square with Lyric Hammersmith

Watch live outdoor theatre for free in the Lyric Square, Hammersmith, thanks to a festival staged by five of the country’s most exciting theatre companies. A collaboration between HammersmithLondon, Lyric Hammersmith, Latitude festival, Greenwich+Docklands International Festival and Watford Palace Theatre, this festival is sure to offer innovative, enjoyable and eccentric entertainment. Keep an eye on the theatre’s What’s On section for more details. 12 Jun-5 Jul

BP Summer Screens

The BP Summer Screens bring one of London’s most exclusive indoor venues – Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House – to the great outdoors. Better still – screenings are free! You can see the ballet Mayerling (13 June) or operas La Rondine (11 July) and Tosca (18 July) in outdoor spaces such as Trafalgar Square, Canary Wharf and Woolwich.

Chiswick House and Gardens

You can watch both opera and theatre alfresco at the beautiful Chiswick House and Gardens, which stages a range of both as part of its excellent events programme. During July you can catch productions of Carmen, Gulliver’s Travels and A Little of What You Fancy! on the rear lawn of the House. Tickets are £30 and full details are available on the venue website.

Fulham Palace

On 7 July take the whole family to Fulham Palace for a theatre production of Babe: the Sheep Pig which is sure to delight both adults and children alike. Taking place in the Walled Garden, the production starts at 2pm and tickets cost £8 for children or £12 for adults.

Greenwich+Docklands International Festival

London’s biggest festival of outdoor theatre runs from 21 to 29 June and brings performers to the parks and streets of Greenwich and the surrounding area. You can see everything from street dance to aerial theatre at the Greenwich+Docklands International Festival – take a look at our pick of the highlights here.

More London theatre

On Saturday I made the most of the glorious autumn sunshine and attended the Lordship Recreation Ground Community Festival. This year’s festival celebrated the near-completion of extensive regeneration works, funded by a £4m Heritage Lottery Grant that had been campaigned for long and hard by local community group Friends of Lordship Rec.

Lordship Rec is a huge-but-tucked-away park in Tottenham, North London. The renovations include a new bike track and regenerated Model Traffic Area. The playground’s been updated with fantastic equipment for kids of all ages, including a flying fox, and a paddling pool that will open in time for next summer.

There’s also a brand new “eco building” that will house a café and be the venue for parent and baby meetups and be used by other community groups too. As someone who’s walked past a neglected-seeming, fenced off old creek for the past year, the most striking change for me is the regeneration of the River Moselle, with three new pedestrian bridges and its riverbank now a mass of wildflowers.

The festival was large and sprawling with live performances in the Shell Theatre (which has also been upgraded), a dance zone, pedal-powered music stage, a bouncy castle, pony rides, the Tottenham Horticulture, Produce and Green Show, a dog show, various sports and stalls from loads of local organisations (such as Tottenham NCT).

The park, which adjoins the Broadwater Farm Estate, has a rich history. The land was purchased by Tottenham Council in 1926 and was officially opened as a park in 1936 with Tottenham Lido opening in 1937 (the lido was demolished in 1984 to make way for housing). The Rec was used as allotments in WWII’s Dig For Victory campaign but was bombed during the blitz – today a commemorative woodland marks the place where 40 locals lost their lives in a direct hit on their air raid shelter.

The park fell into disuse in the 80s but in 2001 The Friends of Lordship Rec was formed and has since  helped clean up the lake, as well as secure the lottery funding.  It’s a great tale of local commitment winning through but, perhaps more importantly, it’s turning a good park into a fantastic resource for everyone in the area for now and for years to come.

This summer in the city photo by just1snap is just lovely. Traditional holiday pleasures like fairground rides and relaxing in the park can be found right in the centre of London.

If you’re having fun in London over the long weekend, don’t forget to share your photos with the Visit London Flickr group.

Founded by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries to help train apprentices in identifying plants, the garden and its collection of around 5,000 useful, exotic and medicinal plants form one of the world’s oldest botanic gardens.

Expansions and additions from successive head gardeners mirror discoveries in botany and horticultural fashion. Two examples are a fascinating pharmaceutical garden, and the UK’s oldest rockery – compete with giant clam shells brought to London by Captain Cook on HMS Endeavour!

Free guided tours by well-informed volunteers help bring the garden to life for those more interested in the history than the horticulture of the garden. These are usually available two or three times each day (timings vary).

Currently appearing at the garden is “Pertaining to Things Natural“, a series of outdoor sculptures by more than 20 leading artists. Each of these artworks responds in some way to its surroundings, ranging from a beautifully fluid marble screen to a pink metal spiral.

“Pertaining to Things Natural” runs until 31 Oct. The garden is open until 10pm every Wednesday until 5 September. Tickets to the garden are also 2-4-1 until 9 September if you present your Oyster card. Find out more on visitlondon.com.

Are you a fan of London’s gardens and parks? Let us know your favourite in the comments section below.

If you’re bamboozled by the huge quantity of cultural events this summer, then try following one of the weekend Culture Trails for a fantastic cross-section of the Olympic City’s best events.

This Saturday (4 August), the East to West London Trail takes you from Jeremy Deller’s bouncy Stonehenge in the newly re-opened Burgess Park to Portuguese acrobatics at the National Theatre. One the way you can take in the BMW Art Car Collection, Titian at the National Gallery and the penultimate day of the Exhibition Roadshow in South Kensington.

To guide you on your way, download the free London Official City Guide app for Android and iPhone which has details of this Saturday’s events and route. Or you can download and print a PDF at molpresents.com/explore.

Upcoming Culture Trails on the 12 August and 18 August explore East and West London respectively.

Have you followed one of the Culture Trails? Let us know if you made it round the whole route!

The stone inhabitants of London’s Trafalgar Square are sporting new hats created by some of the UK’s best-known milliners.

The headgear is part of “Hatwalk” – which sees 20 statues around London adorned with bespoke hats by British designers including Stephen Jones and Philip Treacy. It’s one of the “surprises” put on by the Mayor of London’s Summer Like No Other programme of events.

For Trafalgar Square’s most famous resident, Admiral Lord Nelson, it’s the first time he’s changed his hat in 200 years. Fittingly, his new look was created by Lock & Co, London’s oldest hatters (est. 1676), which made Nelson’s original bicorn hat. The London 2012 version features a union flag and the Olympic torch.

Nelson’s neighbours are also sporting fancy chapeaux: a Philip Treacy fascinator for British General Sir Henry Havelock and matching bling-encrusted crowns by Stephen Jones for King George IV and his horse, while Sir Charles Napier showcases the emerging talent of Sophie Beale, winner of Grazia magazine’s search to find a breakout new millinery star.

British milliner, Stephen Jones said, “I am thrilled to be able to showcase British millinery during the year of the Olympics in London.

“From a policeman’s helmet to Her Majesty the Queen’s floral fantasies, hats have come to symbolise Britain. It is fantastic that the Mayor’s office has enabled our most modern milliners to bring this legacy up-to-date with the most fantastical creations from our most daring milliners.”

Altogether 20 well-known statues from William Shakespeare to Winston Churchill are participating in Hatwalk, which was commissioned by the Mayor of London, in partnership with BT, Grazia magazine, the British Fashion Council and the London 2012 Festival.

Have you spotted any hats on statues in London?  Check out the hatwalk map at www.molpresents.com/hatwalk and let us know your favourite in the comments below.

Greenwich Park was resplendent yesterday for a day of equestrian competition. As a local, I was very keen to see how this beautiful Royal Park was adapted for the Olympic Games and the results are amazing.

The main grandstand and arena are set against a spectacular backdrop: the world heritage site of Maritime Greenwich. The Queen’s House is perfectly framed and beyond that are the Wren domes of the Old Royal Naval College. Also visible are the National Maritime Museum and 3 masts of the recently reopened Cutty Sark, along with the impressive modern architecture of Canary Wharf - simply breathtaking.

After the Dressage event was over, the crowd was invited to inspect the Cross Country course. It is laid out across the park, overlooked by the home of Greenwich Mean Time: the Royal Observatory.

The course uses the surroundings to brilliant effect for example going through the flower garden, which is in full bloom. There are beautiful and humorous elements such as the jump near the bandstand featuring musical notes and instruments. The water section has a Wind in the Willows theme and uses the boating lake where you can usually hire pedaloes in the summer months.  

Great care has been taken to preserve the park and it will be returned to its former state once the excitement of the Games is over. 

Which is your favourite venue of the London 2012 Games? Will you be visiting Greenwich next time you’re in London?

Last week Burgess Park finally re-opened to the public after an £8m transformation project.

At 46 hectares, Burgess Park is one of the largest parks in South London, and has been undergoing a radical transformation since spring 2011. This has included new walkways, woodland, lawns, BBQ areas and a bridge.

The wow factor comes from several new “hills” which provide panoramic views to the north, as well as two 30ft fountains in the extended lake.

Progress on the redesign is on-going however, with many areas of the park still closed off to the public. The grass seed planted in May and June is very much still settling in, and unfortunately this means the expansive lawns are not as lush as visitors might expect.

Have you visited the new Burgess Park? Let us know what you think, and how it compares to the site before regeneration.

Over the last few nights Southbank strollers have been treated to a series of dazzling light displays on seven of London’s most famous bridges.

To celebrate the 50 nights of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the road and pedestrian crossings have been fitted with thousands of LEDs, lasers, and searchlights that bring the bridges to life like never before.

The lights are on from 9.30pm until 5am each night, with special moments at each bridge every hour on the hour.

From east to west, the bridges taking part are:

• Tower Bridge
• London Bridge
• Southwark Bridge
• Millennium Bridge
• Blackfriars Bridge
• Waterloo Bridge
• Golden Jubilee Footbridge

Dazzle: Bridge Illumination runs until 10 September and is part of the Mayor of London Presents series of events.

Have you seen the bridges lit up? Let us know which is your favourite – Millennium and London Bridges are the frontrunners!

Tourists often ask if they can go on a day trip to Stonehenge from London (the answer is yes). But now this English icon has come to the capital. Well, sort of…

Sacrilege is effectively a massive bouncy castle, the creation of Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller. Unlike the real Stonehenge, visitors are encouraged to interact with the structure and wow, is it fun! Adults and children alike jump and run with expressions of pure joy (and ultimately exhaustion) on their faces. My young family and I loved the experience so much, we went back to North Greenwich the next day for more. It’s free and no ticket is required.

Part of the London 2012 Festival, Sacrilege is touring the UK and is in London between now and the end of the Olympic Games on 12 August. The remaining London stops are:

• King Edward VII Park, Brent (25 Jul)
• Paddington Recreation Ground (28 Jul)
• Cheam Park (29 Jul)
• Ravenscourt Park (31 Jul)
• Hampstead Heath (1 Aug)
• Clapham Common (2 Aug)
• Burgess Park (4 Aug)
• Barra Hall Park (5 Aug)
• East Ham Central Park (7 Aug)
• Crystal Palace Park (9 Aug)
• Alexandra Palace (10 Aug)
• Christchurch Green (11 Aug)
• Waterworks Nature Reserve (12 Aug)

For full details see London 2012 Festival. So, will you be making a date to get in touch with your bouncy inner child? Now the school holidays are here, what’s your favourite London destination for family-friendly fun?