{"id":469787,"date":"2025-10-03T00:51:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T00:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/469787\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T00:51:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T00:51:29","slug":"the-6-best-free-things-to-do-in-london-this-weekend-october-3-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/469787\/","title":{"rendered":"The 6 Best Free Things to Do in London This Weekend, October 3-5"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the first weekend of October<\/a>, and London is looking properly autumnal, but while the\u00a0leaves are turning brown and the Regent\u2019s Park hedgehogs prepare for hibernation, the capital\u2019s cultural scene is bursting into life.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s arguably no better month of the year for culture in London, with the London Film Festival<\/a>, London Literature Festival<\/a> and Frieze London<\/a> all arriving in the next couple of weeks, not to mention the plethora of major theatre<\/a> and gallery<\/a> openings happening in the coming days. But if all those hot tickets are burning a hole in your wallet, there\u2019s plenty of free fun to be had too.<\/p>\n

From a harvest festival at the UK\u2019s biggest beer hall to a makers market in honour of Black History Month<\/a>, here are the best free activities around London this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED:\u00a0The best things to do in London this weekend<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best free things to do in London this weekend,\u00a0October 3-5<\/p>\n

If your memories of Harvest Festival involve bringing a tin of baked beans into primary school for a special assembly, it’s time to update them. Walthamstow\u2019s Blackhorse Beer Mile is celebrating the bounties of the season with all manner of country-style entertainment. The main venue is the cavernous Big Penny Social, which is hosting\u00a0morris dancing and a barn dance with live music, but you can also enjoy\u00a0tours and tastings, live country and bluegrass music, seasonal drinks specials and a hog roast\u00a0the\u00a0area\u2019s taprooms and distilleries, including\u00a0Renegade Urban Winery, Burnt Faith Brandy House, Borough Wines, Pretty Decent Beer Co, Signature Brew, Exale and 40FT Brewery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Big Penny Social, E17 6AL. Sat Oct 4. Free.<\/p>\n

After two packed weekends of free events across London\u2019s industrial riverside district, the inaugural edition of Royal Docks Originals closes this weekend with an epic celebration of\u00a0Newham\u2019s\u00a0new culture centre, Compressor House. After a \u00a31.7 million investment from the GLA, the historic\u00a0warehouse has been transformed into a\u00a0major new community space, which opens weekend\u00a0with a programme of public activities including film screenings, community craft projects, history talks and art installations, including \u2018Arrivals + Departures\u2019, an interactive artwork that has toured the world over the last five years and will now be permanently installed inside the exciting new venue.\u00a0Check out the full programme and book your free\u00a0tickets here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Compressor House, E16 2QU. Until Sat Oct 4. Free.<\/p>\n

\"Arrivals
\nPhotograph: Arrivals & Departures by YARA + DAVINA \u00a9 Paolina Varbichkova <\/p>\n

Photography fans will want to train their lenses east this October for Photomonth, an annual celebration of the printed image taking place across a whole bunch of east London venues.The festival\u2019s hub is at Art Pavilion in Mile End, which will display a group exhibition called \u2018Longing\u2019.\u00a0There\u2019ll also be a new exhibition from Zed Nelson called \u2018The Anthropocene Illusion\u2019, which interrogates the troubled relationship between humans and the environment. There’ll also be around 50 pop-up exhibitions at locations across east London: download the fest\u2019s interactive map to find them all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Various east London venues. Until Nov 3. Free.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Londoners of all ages will be gathering on Parliament Hill this weekend for the return of this smashing annual event. Arrive by 12.30pm for registration if you\u2019re serious about competing: there are separate categories for under-eights, 8-12s, 13-17s, and adults. Conkers are provided and rules and adjudication provided by the Grand Conker Meister (so you can stop all that vinegar-soaking for starters).There\u2019ll also be live music in the bandstand, and hands on nature activities led by local conservation groups.<\/p>\n

Parliament Hill Bandstand, NW5 1QR. Sun Oct 5. Free.<\/p>\n

\"Inside
\nImage: \u00a9 Chris Lensz, 2. Tate Modern\u2019s Tanks, 2016 \u00a9 Tate Photography <\/p>\n

As part of the Tate Modern\u2019s 25th birthday celebrations back in May, the South Bank gallery announced that it would be extending its opening times on Fridays and Saturdays, welcoming visitors until 9pm twice a week for\u00a0some evening art viewing. The new hours begin this week, and to celebrate, the Tate\u2019s Corner Bar is collaborating with King\u2019s Cross-based community station Voices Radio and natural wine fair Pour Choices for an evening of boardgames, natural wine, vinyl DJ sets and improv jazz from a roster of London jazz scene heavyweights. The bar stays open until 11pm, so there\u2019ll be plenty of time to catch an exhibition\u00a0and\u00a0stop by for a nightcap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tate Modern, SE1 9TG. Every Friday and Saturday. Free.<\/p>\n

Brixton\u2019s Black Culture Market returns over two days with a\u00a0Black History Month edition of its regular pop-up. It\u2019s free to enter, but book a ticket online in advance so you\u2019re guaranteed to get in. Once you\u2019re through the doors, you\u2019ll find more than 40 Black-owned small businesses traders selling everything from jewellery and homeware to books, to African art, natural cosmetics, toys and educational tools.<\/p>\n

The Department Store, SW9 8FR. Sat Oct 4-Sun Oct 5. Free.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018People are calling us the Prince Charles Cinema of the east\u2019: inside the only UK cinema that pays its members<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The British Museum will host a glitzy ball to rival the Met Gala this October<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke \u2013 from news and reviews to events and trends. Just\u00a0<\/strong>follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stay in the loop: sign up for our\u00a0<\/strong>free Time Out London newsletter<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the first weekend of October, and London is looking properly autumnal, but while the\u00a0leaves are turning brown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,6419,393,4884,257,6420,6417,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-469787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-categories-things-to-do","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-news-city-life","14":"tag-things-to-do","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115307497897985822","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}