Jonathan Thomas (00:21)
Welcome to the Anglotopia Podcast, where we explore British history, culture, and travel. I'm your host, Jonathan Thomas, and today is an experimental episode of the podcast where we'll go through what's happening in London this month. Since it's an experiment, we're releasing this as a bonus episode, and if it's popular, we will do this every month. So let us know what you think in the various comment forums. So it's June in London.

The sun is up before five in the morning, it doesn't set until nearly 10 at night, and the city has well and truly shaken off whatever was left of winter. If you've ever wondered what the best month to visit London is, a lot of people will quietly tell you it's this one. The days are enormously long, the events calendar is absolutely bursting, and the whole place feels like it's operating at full capacity. In recent weeks, the weather has been sunny and beautiful.

with London having a heat wave. And we'll talk about that in a minute, how to how to cope with a heat wave while traveling.

Today I'm walking you through what's actually on this June: the Royal Pageantry, the major museum openings, the theater, the music, all of it, giving you a sense of how to plan around it. Whether you're heading to London this summer or planning ahead, consider this your June guide. So, the feel of June in London. I've been to London in June. It was beautiful every time I went. ⁓ the light is the headline for June.

You get sixteen to seventeen hours of daylight in London during June. Twilight stretches from around eight PM to nearly ten PM. You can have a full day of exploring, sit down for dinner, and still walk home along the Thames and have some daylight.

So let's talk about the weather first. The weather, the most reliable, it gets you all year. Daytime temperatures in the low to mid 60s Fahrenheit, around seven or eight hours of sunshine on average, if it's not cloudy. Rain is possible, but this is it's still London after all. But in June, it's the exception, not the rule. However, June can be very warm. So ⁓ be forewarned that it could be up in the in the 70s or 80s and

Britain has very thick humidity, so it can get really hot really quickly. ⁓ and we'll talk about how to cope with the heat a little a little bit later. ⁓ the trade-off is that because the weather is so beautiful in June, it is peak tourist season, ⁓ especially for Americans. Americans usually take their vacations in the summer. So crowds are up, hotel prices are up, often 20 to 40 percent above May's prices.

And the popular tourist attack attractions will need advanced booking because they will be booked out in advance or they will be crowded or you will wait in long lines. It's not unpleasant, but it's noticeably busier than spring. my my recommendation is that if I our favorite seasons are bumper seasons. So, you know, the the the spring and the fall. But a lot of people can only take their vacations in the summer. So if you but if you so if you have to go.

the summer. June is a great because we'll talk about July next month and we if we do this again, but July will be will be a lot warmer and the weather can be a lot, a lot harsher. So June is kind of that middle ground where the weather's still pleasant. So if you're like me where my kids are already on summer vacation, June is a great time to go to London because everybody everybody's off of school. So the June is a big month for royal events.

and big cultural set pieces. So the the first one to talk about is Trooping the Colour. King Charles's birthday was earlier this year, but he but like his mother before him and the previous monarchs, there's an official birthday. And the official birthday is usually held the second Saturday in June. That means that that's when all the royal pageantry happens. So

⁓ the Trooping the Colour is the monarch's official birthday parade. It's full of British spectacle, thousands of soldiers, mounted cavalry, the bands, the historic regiments. They march from Buckingham Palace down the mall to horse guards parade, and then they they present their colors to the king. ⁓ usually there's a carriage procession, and more often than not, they will they'll ride the carriages back to Buckingham Palace and then they'll appear on the balcony, and usually there's a fly past of the RAF.

Sometimes they do the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, sometimes they do the Red Arrows, sometimes it's a mix of all kinds of planes. And it's but it's usually the cornerstone royal event of the year. And sometimes, like when there's a major royal event, like a Jubilee or a wedding, they'll like met they might time it to the to when trooping the colour is. But in years like this year, when there isn't really any other major royal event, this is kind of the major royal event of the year. So now if you

Want to experience this instead of watching it on the telly like most of us do every year, there's you can experience it in person pretty easily. So you can apply for the ballot for seats at the actual horse guards parade. ⁓ but those are really hard to come by. It's a balloted system. You have to do it through the Ministry of Defense. it's kind of like you have to.

It it's all really kind of all about who you know if you really want to be in the stands. But it doesn't mean that you can't see the public spectacle.

There's the procession from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade is over a mile long. So most of the crowds will either camp out or line that route, and then you can see all the royal pageantry happen. ⁓ you might miss the the the trooping part and the horse guards parade, but you'll at least see the procession and you'll see the flyover and they'll let the crowd in to the to the roundabout in front of Buckingham Palace to see the the balcony appearance where you can wave at the king and the royal family. So

⁓ it's usually it's it's I've ex I've not been in London for the Trooping the Colour, but I've I've done similar royal pageantry experiences ⁓ on the mall and it's it's worth doing. It's the British are the best at this. So I I it's a lot of fun. So if you can if you can manage it, then I would do it. ⁓

Again, honest advice. If you really want to see this, plan your day around it. Get up stupidly early, like you know, three, four, five in the morning, get your spot on the mall and soak up the atmosphere. Cause it'll kind of be like a party atmosphere. And there will be like ⁓ people handing out things. They usually hand out the like the binoculars that let you look above the crowds or get your spot, get your place, hydrate. ⁓ usually there will be public ⁓

porta potties put out for people. ⁓ go as a team so that you can all kind of watch your spot. ⁓ that way you don't lose your spot because it's the it can get pretty ruthless there on the mall or any major royal event. So ⁓ in addition to drooping the colour, the other big royal event ⁓ in June is Royal Ascot, which is the ⁓ big big horse racing weekend. This is when the women will

On their finest dresses and wear fascinators and everything. And ⁓ there's a special Royal Day, ⁓ which can be hard to get tickets for. ⁓ it's technically out near Windsor, which is which is ⁓ west of London. So it's not in the city itself, but culturally, like London experiences this thing. ⁓ Ascot Week is when you start seeing extravagant hats and fascinators on the tube and dresses and whatnot. And it's if you're into horses and British pageantry.

You know, take a look. ⁓ get ticket ticket get tickets if you can. It's very hard to get into the royal enclosure, obviously, but if you can get there on the day where they do the royal procession, where you can see you usually see most of the royal family do their procession. It's a lot of fun and worth doing. and then the other ⁓ big major event coming up is Wimbledon. ⁓ Americans will be very familiar with Wimbledon, the famous Wimbledon tennis match.

the tennis itself usually starts at the end of June and goes into July. But in June, the mood city's mood is already shifting towards it. the famous meal that you have at Wimbledon is strawberries and cream. ⁓ it's really hard to get tickets to Wimbledon. So there's a whole ballot and a resale process. ⁓ go to the Wimbledon I'll link in the show notes, go to the Wimbledon website. You can learn all about it if you want to try and get tickets. But if you can't get tickets, there's also things going on around Wimbledon that you can get involved in.

Or you can watch it on TV. ⁓ you know, I'm not into tennis, so I it's not something that's ever really been on my thing to do. but the next section I'm gonna talk about is all the major exhibitions that are opening in June or have opened in the last few months. ⁓ this is my favorite thing to do when we visit London, is all the museums, especially in the summer, they kind of hold their blockbuster exhibitions for the summer. And so this is the time

Go see those exhibitions. a few travel tips for exhib for special exhibitions. While a lot of London's art museums and cultural museums are free to enter, the exhibitions are usually paid to get into. And so you have to pay to get into the exhibitions. most of the ex major exhibitions kind of sell out in advance. So

You need to decide what exhibitions you really want to see and you need to see if you can get tickets in advance. Cause if you can't get tickets in advance, you're not getting in. ⁓ they don't they don't really have people line up to let people in because it's a timed entry system. They have limited and how many people can come in. So take note of these exhibitions you want to see so that you can book into them. And keep in mind, if you're not going in June and you're still listening to this and you're going later in the summer, if you are interested in any of these exhibitions I mentioned.

As soon as you're done listening to this, go and I'll link in the show notes, but go book your tickets as soon as possible. ⁓ a lot of exhibitions book and sell out. Like for example, the Queen's Fashion retrospective going on at the King's Gallery next to Buckingham Palace, that's sold out for the rest of the year. And I know a lot of people are gonna be really disappointed when they try and get tickets to that and they c they simply can't. The good news is, ⁓ and I'm getting ahead of myself, that exhibition hasn't extended in a whole six months into next year.

So if you're going to Britain anytime in the next year and you want to see that, book the tickets now, even if you don't know for sure when your dates and times are going to be, because that's going to sell out. So I may have my fortitude of tea here.

Yorkshire tea every morning.

So the big blockbuster at Tate Modern is Frida Kahlo. ⁓ it's a major survey exhibition of her life and work. and it's a great opportunity to see the art of one of Mexico's greatest artists. If you've seen the movie Frida, this will appeal to you. She's had some beautiful artworks, some very interesting artworks. ⁓ and her life is super fascinating. So this will be worth seeing at the Tate Modern.

Tate modern is worth seeing, obviously. It's one of my favorite museums. It's ⁓ I'm not I'm not really into modern art, ⁓ per se. ⁓ it depends on the modern art. ⁓ last 50, 60 years of art, not interested. But maybe before that, it depends. So it it depends. Modern Art's very divisive, but we're not gonna get into ⁓ ecclesiastical debate on on the podcast. ⁓

But the Tate Modern's gorgeous. It's in a former power station that was decommissioned and then they stripped it out and then turned it into an art gallery. And it's worth seeing just for the architecture itself. And I'm an architecture nerd. So ⁓ but this this this exhibition is a great reason to go to the Tate Modern. So ⁓ the other big exhibition going on is the Royal Academy is going to be having its summer exhibition, which opens on the 16th of June.

And it is the world's largest open submission art show anyone can enter. The walls are packed from floor to ceiling and everything is for sale. It's chaotic and wonderful. And it's a great way to see up and coming artists and see established artists. And when you go to somewhere like the National Gallery or the Tate Britain and you see ⁓ you see the the the famous, the most famous paintings in British history, a lot of them were exhibited at the Royal Academy at some point. And there's actually a famous painting of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

We're showing all the painting. So it's ⁓ it's worth seeing if you like art and if you and it's this is more art art, if that makes any sense. Less it like the art will be modern with modern takes, but if you want to see some more traditional style art, this is good place to to see it. So ⁓ Anish Kapoor, the famous artist, is having a retrospective at the Hayward gallery. that opens on the sixteenth of June as well. He's the sculptor behind the giant mirrored and pigment pieces, ⁓

Like ⁓ actually we have an Anish Kapor in Chicago, the famous Bean, which is the Cloud Gate, I think is the official name. And so he he does these big public artworks like that, or those the the artworks of the men, the statuesque men standing in famous places. ⁓ so they're gonna do retrospective there. That ⁓ that's at the Hayward Gallery from the 16th. Then the National Portrait Gallery, and this literally just opened, I think, today.

Is having a ⁓ retrospective on Marilyn Monroe. So sh that that's gonna be worth seeing if you're a fan of Marilyn. National Portrait Gallery is actually right behind the the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. It's easy to get to. They've got a new entrance and they've got they've done a gallery rehang, and they also show modern portraits of famous people. So

Worth visiting. I would check it out. ⁓ this Marilyn Monroe thing will be worth seeing too. And I think this will sell out, so I would make sure that you get tickets to that. ⁓ the Courtauld Gallery is doing an expedition at Hepworth that opened on June 1st. That's going to be worth seeing. ⁓ and then if you're at the Courtauld Gallery, take a look around because it's it's one of one of those great great art galleries over at Somerset House. if you

Give you ⁓ an insight into what exhibitions are currently running. ⁓ Skiparelli, Fashion Becomes Art is going on to VA. That's been selling out and that's been really popular. The VA excels at fashion and design exhibitions. So that's that'll be one worth seeing if that's in your wheelhouse. ⁓ the design museum ⁓ is ha is continuing its Wes Anderson exhibition.

Just a retrospective of the films of Wes Anderson, which if you know Wes Anderson films, have a very specific look and feel about them. Well, it's a treat for film fans. ⁓ and then ⁓ Tracy Eamon, one of the more famous modern artists who and very controversial, she did the sculpture that's hanging in the St. Pinker's train station, which is actually one of my favorite public sculptures.

So another ⁓ big exhibition is the James McNeil Whistler that's going on at Tate Britain. ⁓ now he's famously an American, but he also spent some time in Britain and he actually posted some very famous ⁓ paintings of Britain.

Well, all that is going to be on display in a retrospective of his career at the Tate Britain. This is a sellout show, so book your tickets as soon as you can. This will be worth seeing. It's running until the fall. Check it out. the National Gallery has an exhibition on Zuberon, which is going on. if you listen to the Anglotopia

Podcast next week. you'll hear all about this. Winston Churchill the painter is going on at the Wallace Collection. ⁓ many people don't know that Winston Churchill was an accomplished painter. He took up the brush at 40 years old to to give himself a hobby that was away from all the big important affairs of state that he ⁓ that he conducted. And it was a way for him to focus on things that weren't stressful and horrible and everything. And he ended up painting over five hundred canvases in his life.

And ⁓ he was a very talent, he was trained by some of Britain's greatest painters at the time. And I would describe his style as ⁓ pseudo-impressionist. and while you can see his paintings at Chartwell or ⁓ some on display in National Trust properties, I know there's a few on display in museums in America, like at the National Trisha Museum. This is the first real exhibition of his paintings and the biggest one since 1965. And they've got over 50 paintings.

It kind of that covers the whole career of his of his hobby from beginning to end. They should have some interesting church artifacts. this show is gonna sell out well in advance. So book your tickets. ⁓ I I am gonna see this myself in August. I have my tickets already booked. ⁓ I cannot wait to see this. ⁓ the last exhibition of Churchill paintings I saw was in Atlanta about 10 years ago.

And that was I actually flew down to Atlanta for the day just to see the exhibition and then came home that night. It was it was a lot of fun. ⁓ I do love Atlanta. I've actually spent a lot of time in Atlanta over the years, but but we had just had kids and like I could get away for a day and it was a birthday present. So yeah, that's it was a lot of fun. ⁓ and so highly recommend this exhibition if you have any interest in Churchill or World War II or the life of Britain's greatest hero.

⁓ his paintings are beautiful, they're not just you know a guy that that did some canvases. No, he was a genuinely talented painter. He when Churchill famously would not do something unless he could do it well, and he did painting very well. So, check this out. ⁓ you're gonna want the exhibition catalog, it'll be a collector's item. ⁓ highly recommend it. So that's enough about Churchill. At the Natural History Museum, the annual exhibition for wildlife.

photographer of the year is going on. They've got a new exhibition on Jurassic Oceans, Monsters of the Deep. ⁓ and the Natural History Museum is one of the most beautiful museums in London. It's worth going. ⁓

So and then ⁓ for fans of Wallace and Gromit, and I'm a fan, and I hope I think this is gonna still be going on when I go in August. So ⁓ at the Young VA, which is the VNA's other museum, ⁓ they actually they have three museums in London now, depending on how you count it. They've got the the Young VA, which used to be called the Museum of Child of Childhood, and then they've got the VA, and then they now have the VA East out in in the Olympic Park. ⁓ I'm getting off topic.

But they've got a a d a whole exhibition on the inside Ardman, Wallace and Gromet. If you love Wallace and Gromit, this is you can see the actual claymation statues. You can get an insight into how the famous films were made. This is worth seeing. I'm a huge Wallace and Grommet fan, obviously, as an Anglophile. I've named my first dog Gromit. ⁓ he's no longer with us, but

love Wals and Gromet. and then closing this month, ⁓ worth seeing, ⁓ I'm gonna and forgive me if I mispronounce this name. Mikalena Watier at the Royal Academy closes on the 21st of June. So there's just a few weeks left for that one. And ⁓ Hokusai 36 Views of Mount Fuji has been going on to Dolich Picture Gallery. ⁓ and I love

Japanese prints. So this is gonna be worth seeing. it closes June thirtieth. So get if those are on your list or you have any interest in those things, book those tickets and go check them out because they close at the end of the month. So

See

So, theatre. Theater in London. What what better way to spend June and than to experience ⁓ theater in the city that practically invented it? So summer means that there's a lot of open air theaters. ⁓ so mid Midsummer Night's Dream will be at Regents Park Open Air Theater, opens the 20th of June, Shakespeare under the open sky in one of London's loveliest parks on a warm June evening. It's hard to beat.

that's my top theater pick for the month. You can't beat it. It doesn't get dark 'til ten PM anyway, so you enjoy some champagne, enjoy some ⁓ theater out in the green in one of Shakespeare's funnest and most popular plays.

And then ⁓ Much Ado About Nothing is going on at Shakespeare's Globe Theater, which is that famous reconstruction of the famous playhouse on the South Bank. That's from June 11th. So you want to check that out.

We've a few shows opening on the West End this month. To Kill a Mockingbird, a new adaptation opens on the 25th of June. and then Sierno de Bergiac opens on the 13th. those will be worth checking out. I will link in the show notes to where you can buy tickets. many Angletopian listeners might not know that you can actually buy tickets through a link that we provide and we get a commission on that. And that helps support the work that we do here at Anglotopia and London Topia.

So I will put that link in the show notes. Long running shows that are still going on and are great for a great night out. Currently going on in London is The Lion King, which has been going on forever. Hamilton is back in London. Wicked, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, Matilda, Mamma Mia, and Six are all going on right now. And then I believe ⁓ the Harry Potter play is also going on, but that's always sold out. So good luck getting tickets to that. but like I said earlier about the exhibitions, if there's a theater show you want to see it.

Book ahead and be prepared to pay because ⁓ a lot of these shows will sell out or the best seats will sell out, or ⁓ you may be able to score a deal on shows that are underattended by going to the TKTS booth and Leicester Square and getting like half price day tickets. ⁓ also check with the individual theaters on on seat lottery options and if you're watching your budget and see if you can get in for a huge discount. ⁓

The even if the shows are sold out, there's gotta be something you can see. So just do some research ahead and be a little flexible in your schedule and you can see some London theater before you leave London. So ⁓ the next section is about live music.

Now I'm well aware a lot of Americans wouldn't necessarily ⁓ travel to London to see live music, but you never know. So I'll include this in here anyway. And if you if you want to hear more about live music, yell at the comments and I'll do some more scouring and find more people. So Harry Styles is gonna be at Wembley Stadium from the 12th of June. I know he's popular with the kids these days. Olivia Dean is also at is at the O2 from the 12th. Orville Peck is at the roundhouse in Camden.

You like your gigs in a great room? The roundhouse is one of the best in London. It's in an old ⁓ old railway roundhouse where they used to maintain the trains, and it's really cool. ⁓ and then there's also a new musical on the West End that opened recently Sinatra the musical. If you love old blue eyes, you'll want to see that. So ⁓ that's it for exhibitions, theater, and live music. ⁓ I've obviously I've left some things out, but I I wanted this to be quick and I wanted

It to be ⁓ to give you the highlights if you want more granular detail. If we do this again, please just let us know in the content and we'll do a little more digging for you for the next episode for July. practical travel tips for June. ⁓ it could be hot, okay. I know ⁓

They had heat wave a few weeks ago. ⁓ there was a whole debate on social media about why doesn't England and Europe have air conditioning? Well, England in general doesn't really have air conditioning. However, there are always exceptions to that. So let's talk about that. does England have air conditioning? Does London have air conditioning in the summer? ⁓ in newer buildings, yes, there will usually be air conditioning. So if you stay in a newer hotel,

You'll probably have air conditioning. If you stay at an older hotel, air conditioning is a challenge because they can't retrofit air conditioning in a lot of these older buildings. ⁓ if if you're riding, say, the Elizabeth line, it's fully air conditioned. If you're riding, say, one of the older tube lines, Central Line Piccadilly line, your mileage is gonna marry. A lot of the lot of them don't have air conditioning, and ⁓ many people don't know that the X actually the the London clay.

Is a heat sink and it absorbs heat and then it doesn't let it out back out. So the tube gets really hot in the summer when it's in the non-air conditioned bits. ⁓ so if you are prone to heat issues, I would avoid the tube except the Elizabeth line, which is fully air conditioned. but you can get east and west on the Elizabeth line, so

Restaurants probably won't be air conditioned, but ⁓ a lot of restaurants will have outdoor seating now. ⁓ you can sit outside, there'll be a breeze if ⁓ if you want it to be cooled by the water, ⁓ go to Thameside restaurants, there'll be though you're gonna breeze off the Thames. ⁓ but a lot of the older buildings they again they s they suck in the heat and they don't release it in those old stone buildings. And so ⁓ our general advice to stay cool in the summer.

is if you're gonna be in Britain in the summer, the first thing you should do after you've land and checked into your hotel or or got into your Airbnb is you need to go to what the British call an ironmonger, which is a hardware store, which there are hundreds of hardware stores in central London, and you need to buy a fan. ⁓ I this is essential for Americans traveling in Europe and I I get I get so hot.

even home with air conditioning, I I'm I just run hot and I sweat and it's gross and it it's no fun for anybody. So the first thing I do is I just buy a fan. ⁓ and then the fans is only gonna mitigate you're just and sometimes if it's really hot, you're only moving around hot air. But it's better than nothing. And we had these great fans. ⁓ one year I was in in Oxford for summer course. They had these tower fans that

That would blow the air and they would oscillate. And they actually worked really well, even in the hot old stone buildings. So ⁓ get a fan and don't skimp. ⁓ my hack actually, my travel hack for getting stuff like this. If you get if you can't find a good fan at an ironmonger, ⁓ look up on your phone, look for an Argos. and this is gonna be a Midwest deep cut for for any listeners who are from the Midwest. Do you remember Service Merchandise?

That department store where I had a giant catalog and you would go in and you'd write down on a piece of paper what you wanted and then it would come out on a conveyor belt. Well, Argos is exactly like that. The the the soul of service merchandise lives on in Argos in the UK. It's literally you go in and there's a big catalog, or you can do it on the computer now. You pick your thing and it comes out on a conveyor belt. I did this again from the Oxford trip for a fan and for ⁓ a a camp chair, and it it's great.

So and it usually will be very affordable. So if it if you're gonna I don't don't even look at the weather forecast. Just get a fan. Just trust me, you're gonna need a fan. ⁓ even if your hotel has air conditioning, get a fan. ⁓ I know there are travel fans now. ⁓ I there's actually there's one I'm gonna test on my trip later this year where it like folds up into a compact little thing. ⁓ I'm gonna try that. they're kind of expensive, so I hope it's not a waste of money.

That's a good segue into the weather in London. So yes, it could be hot, but I should warn you, could also be really cold. So Britain's weather, it's a maritime climate, it can change quickly. A storm can come in off the Atlantic and push all that heat out and

dump a lot ton of rain and bring cold temperatures with it. And ⁓ I didn't really know what this meant until I went to an outdoor concert in July. And the there was rain there was rain in the forecast. ⁓ it was raining on my way to the concert. but the temperature was like in the 40s. And it was in July. It was in the 40s. And I sat there in the rain in the 40s, got soaking wet. And I I not exaggerating I almost got hypothermia. I

When I got back to the hotel that night, I could not warm up. There were the heating wasn't on because it was July, and there were not enough blankets on the bed because it was July. So ⁓ you should pack for all weathers. It will probably be nice and warm and pleasant. It will probably it might be a little hot, but it could also be really cold. So ⁓ always bring a jacket, ⁓ bring layers, watch the weather forecast, bring a waterproof jacket, bring a

Umbrella. and you know, don't just pack shorts, wear it pack some pants, or trousers, because ⁓ it could end up being much colder than you planned, especially at night. That's the thing is ⁓ while the if there's a heat dome sitting over Britain, it's not gonna cool down at night. But if ⁓ it is but most of the time it will warm up during the day and then cool off very quickly at night, and it will be pretty chilly in the evening. So you may even need a jacket ⁓ if it was you know 85 degrees.

⁓ and I and I should talk about this as well, about the heat being different in in Britain. So I I'm from the Midwest, but I live near Lake Michigan. So our heat is very humid. ⁓ so even if it gets to eighty, eighty five, ninety degrees, there's a lot of moisture in the air from the Great Lakes. So ⁓ it's it can be oppressively hot. That's kind of what Britain is like because they're a maritime climate. There's a lot of water around them. So

That water, it makes it very humid. And so you get very hot and sticky and sweaty. ⁓ and ⁓ Americans from the East Coast or the West Coast may not totally not be prepared for it. They're like, they're used to a dry heat, and a dry heat is so much different. It's still hot and oppressive, but you're not it's not as sweltering as as it is when it's super humid. So just be prepared. ⁓ if you have strategies for staying cool in American summers.

You need to bring those strategies with you to London. ⁓ and like I said, the first thing you should do when you land is buy a fan. Just buy a fan. ⁓ the corollary to that is the days in Britain in June are long.

As we know, the the longest day of the year is June 21st. use the long days. like you can experience so much in that 17, 16 to 17 hours of sunlight. You know, you can see many tourist attractions, even though most won't open until 10 a.m. But you can do big outdoor things like parks and river walks and rooftop bars in the evening, the daytime crowds have thinned out, and so a lot of a lot of places are less busy.

Some tourist attractions will have special late summer hours, and I forgot to mention that. ⁓ at at the ⁓ earlier in the exhibitions, the National Gallery is experimenting with longer summer evening hours. ⁓ from July first, I think, to the end of August or early September. They're gonna stay open till seven PM ⁓ in the evenings. And then ⁓ on Fridays, I believe it's till nine PM. I'll link in the show notes to the article we have about it, because I may be wrong.

But what a great way to kind of cap your day. You could go to to an early dinner and then go over to the art museum and because it's free and walk around and see the great art while before they close. Like on a Friday night, it doesn't close till nine. Like do dinner at six, walk over to the art museum, see some of the greatest art in human history, and then then like it's great. Like that sounds wonderful. So take advantage of the long days. ⁓ and like I said,

And that's I guess that's a good travel tip too. ⁓ a lot of the museums will be air conditioned. Even even the old museums will be air conditioned because a lot of them have been renovated in recent years or had big investments in their like you can usually stay cool in a museum or a movie theater. Movie theaters will stay cool as well. ⁓ and it's fun to go to movies in Britain. It's so different than going to movies back in the US. ⁓ and then

You know, don't try to pack it in. I I try to pack it in. I don't follow my own advice because I'm in London while like I spend most of my year not in Britain. I'm I'm gonna do everything I can while I'm there. But you know, it is a vacation for a lot of my listeners. So, you know, pick three or four things you actually care about and build your days around those. Leave time to just wander around the city and experience London in the summer. ⁓ you know, leave some time to go to Green Park and sit in the deck chairs and enjoy watch London go by.

London and June as much as about long, slow evenings as it's about headline events. So all you just make sure you stay cool. So that's June in London, Royal Pageantry, once-a-year crop of blockbuster exhibitions, Shakespeare under the stars, stadium gigs.

And the longest, loveliest days of the year. If you want a full rundown with dates and booking links, ⁓ I will put all those in the show notes. And then Londontopia.net, many of you may not know, has a London events calendar that we're doing our best to keep updated so that you can plan your trip around the major events happening in London. Everything I mentioned today is on the events calendar there. We have an article published this week that kind of summarizes most of what I just talked about. And if you liked this special episode,

Please let me know your feedback. If it proves popular, we'll do this every month and hopefully expand to covering events outside of London. So if you enjoyed this episode of the Anglotopia Podcast, please subscribe, leave your review, or share it with someone planning a trip to London. It really does help us grow. And if you'd like to follow along more closely with our coverage of London, Britain, and travel, consider joining the Friends of Anglotopia Club, where you get exclusive early access to the podcast, early articles.

and exclusive content that you can't see anywhere else. So join us next time as we continue exploring the people, places, and stories that make Britain's cultural heritage so endlessly fascinating to discover. Thank you.