Morning, London! Happy Thursday. The World Cup starts today. We'll give you a moment. 48 teams. 104 matches. One month of football. Every pub suddenly needs a booking (not that you can bring the kids anyway...).

So step aside Pokémon cards. Panini stickers take over for a few weeks. School playgrounds turning into tiny trading floors. And if you ever need a quick measure of global inflation, just compare today's sticker prices to the ones you remember.

Anyway, four weeks until the summer holidays. The next month is basically one long countdown. Sports days. Summer fairs. End-of-year everything. Nobody is fully focused anymore. Understandable.

Also, the World Naked Bike Ride is on Sunday. Plan your routes and conversations accordingly.

🚇 The Piccadilly Line Is Getting a Futuristic Upgrade. London’s Piccadilly line is preparing to welcome some of the world’s most advanced trains, complete with air conditioning, bigger carriages and all sorts of clever tech. The real headline? Proper air conditioning on the Tube. Londoners have waited long enough. Full story

🚖 Uber Wants to Know if You’d Ride in a Driverless Taxi. Uber is asking Londoners whether they’d be happy hopping into a self-driving minicab, as plans move forward for the first UK rollout. The vehicles could hit the streets as early as this summer, though a human driver will still be sitting up front for now. Full story

🏆 Women’s Sport Brought £55m to London Last Year. From a record-breaking Rugby World Cup final at Twickenham to the return of women’s tennis at Queen’s, major women’s sporting events generated nearly £55 million for London’s economy in 2025. Full story

By now most London Scoop readers will already know The Strings Club. Their award-winning holiday camps are back for another summer of proper music, friendship and screen-free fun.

Mornings are spent learning guitar, violin or ukulele with professional musicians, while afternoons are packed with drama, dance, sport and creative workshops. Every week has its own theme too, from Mysterious Magic to Disney Pixar favourites.

Also, the practical bits: Ofsted-registered venues, small groups with a 1:8 adult-to-child ratio, and more than 500 five-star reviews from families. A proper one to get booked before the end-of-term chaos begins!

📍 Locations across London, including Wimbledon, Richmond, Fulham, Balham, Greenwich, Ealing, Clapton and more!

🎟️ Little something for our readers too: 10% off with code LSCOOP10.

👉 More info

🎸 The Strings Club Holiday Camps @ various locations
Date & Loc: Summer 2026, across London
The team at Strings Club run some brilliant five-star rated holiday camps. Music, games, crafts and plenty of screen-free fun to keep the kids busy while school’s out. Use code LSCOOP10 for a little help.
Age: 4–11yo | Info

🦊 Natural History Pop-up @ Horniman Museum
Date & Loc: Jun 11-30, Forest Hill SE23
A chance to get up close to some of the Horniman’s natural history favourites while the main gallery gets a refresh. Fossils, foxes, koalas, kiwis and plenty of curious specimens to spark questions from small explorers.
Age: All ages | Price: No cost | Info

🦁 Disney’s The Lion King Exhibition @ London Zoo
Date & Loc: Jun 11–Aug 31, Regent’s Park NW1
The masks, puppets and costumes from Disney’s The Lion King have taken over London Zoo for the summer. Get a close-up look at the craftsmanship behind the West End hit and spot iconic characters.
Age: All | Price: incl. w. adm. | Info

🎵 Luke Jerram: Stepping Out @ Southbank Centre
Date & Loc: Jun 11-Sep 30, South Bank SE1
Turn a walk into a musical adventure at this interactive artwork where your footsteps trigger changing sounds and melodies.
Age: All | Price: No cost | Info

🎨 Julio Le Parc: Light. Colour. Action. @ Tate Modern
Date & Loc: Jun 11, 2026 onwards, Bankside SE1
Step into a world of dazzling light, movement and optical illusions in this major exhibition by Argentine artist Julio Le Parc.
Age: All | Price: from £5 | Info

🎈 International Day of Play @ Young V&A
Date & Loc: Jun 11 (Thu), Bethnal Green E2
A full day dedicated to the serious business of having fun. Young V&A's Play Champions are taking over the museum with free creative activities, games and hands-on experiences celebrating the UN's International Day of Play.
Age: Various | Price: No cost | Info

🍔 Clissold Park FEASTival @ Clissold Park
Date & Loc: Jun 12–14, Stoke Newington N16
Three days of food, drink and family fun in one of north London's favourite parks. Street food, live music, a mini funfair, a land train, etc.
Age: All | Price: free entry | Info

🏺 Young Explorer’s Day: Exploring Ancient Egypt for Children @ Egypt Exploration Society
Date & Loc: Jun 13 (Sat), Bloomsbury WC1N
A full afternoon of hands-on Ancient Egypt fun with storytelling, games, crafts, replica artefacts and even Egyptian-themed henna. Kids can handle objects, make things and immerse themselves in a world of pharaohs, pyramids and gods with animal heads.
Age: Everyone | Price: £5.25 adults, children free | Info

🎤 Bearpit Karaoke @ Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens
Date & Loc: Jun 13 (Sat), Vauxhall SE11
London's legendary outdoor karaoke returns for an afternoon of big voices, questionable song choices and maximum crowd participation.
Age: All | Price: No cost | Info

🌿 Family Wild Walk @ Newington Green
Date & Loc: Jun 13 (Sat), Newington Green N16
A mile-long family nature walk through North East Hackney, with microscopes, wildlife spotting and playground adventures along the way.
Age: All ages | Price: No cost | Info

🎻 Boppin' Bunnies @ Woolwich Works
Date & Loc: Jun 13 (Sat), Woolwich SE18
An interactive music show for babies, toddlers and their grown-ups, featuring live folk musicians, violins, cello and even a 12-string Celtic harp.
Age: 0-5 | Price: from £12 | Info

🎥 Discovery Festival: Shorts for Wee Ones @ Barbican Centre
Date & Loc: Jun 13 (Sat), Barbican EC2
A colourful collection of short films from around the world, specially chosen for younger viewers.
Age: 3+ | Price: TBC | Info

🎨 Art Workshop: Design the New Mural at the Library! @ Swiss Cottage Library
Date & Loc: Jun 13 (Sat), Swiss Cottage NW3
Young artists can help shape a brand-new mural for the children's library in this creative workshop led by artist Rachel.
Age: 7–10 | Price: No cost | Info

🎭 Hansel and Gretel Family Puppetry & Opera Workshop @ Opera Holland Park
Date & Loc: Jun 13 (Sat), Holland Park W8
Opera meets puppet theatre in this family workshop inspired by Hansel and Gretel. Children can enjoy magical puppetry, live singing from Opera Holland Park performers, and have a go at singing and conducting themselves.
Age: 4–9 | Price: TBC | Info

🦆 The Duck With No Luck @ Wigmore Hall
Date & Loc: Jun 13 (Sat), Marylebone W1
A musical retelling of the much-loved picture book about a duck who just can't seem to catch a break. Storytelling, live music and audience participation.
Age: 3–7 | Price: from £10 | Info

🌿 Family Wild Walk @ St Jude’s Street Garden
Date & Loc: Jun 13 (Sat), Dalston E8
A guided family walk through some of Hackney’s green corners, from St Jude’s Street Garden to the award-winning Shakespeare Walk Adventure Playground.
Age: All | Price: No cost | Info

🕺 Dad Dancing @ Southbank Centre
Date & Loc: Jun 13 (Sat), Southbank SE1
A playful workshop where dads, grandads and carers hit the dance floor with the kids. Games, music, movement and just enough dad dancing to cause mild embarrassment.
Age: 5-11 | Price: No cost | Info

🤹 Norman's Big Day Out @ Jacksons Lane
Date & Loc: Jun 13 (Sat), Highgate N6
One man, one oversized delivery bag and a lot of wonderfully ridiculous problems.
Age: 4+ | Price: £10 | Info

🎉 Wanna Play? Festival @ Alexandra Palace Park
Date & Loc: Jun 13 (Sat), Alexandra Palace N22
A free family festival packed with music, food, skating, dance, creative workshops and performances as part of the London Festival of Architecture.
Age: All | Price: No cost | Info

🎵 BASSTONE PLAYGROUND @ Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Date & Loc: Jun 13-14, Stratford E20
Part playground, part art installation, part giant musical experiment. Kids can explore interactive sound and light artworks.
Age: All | Price: No cost | Info

🫧 The Bubble Show @ Woolwich Works
Date & Loc: Jun 14 (Sun), Woolwich SE18
Mr Bubbles brings giant bubbles, bubble volcanoes, bubble tornadoes and enough soap-powered wizardry to keep jaws firmly on the floor.
Age: 3+ | Price: from £16.50 | Info

🛹 Skate 50 @ Southbank Centre
Date & Loc: until Jun 21, Southbank SE1
A celebration of London’s legendary skate scene with photography, video and stories from the Undercroft over the last 50 years. Cool enough that even non-skaters will suddenly want Vans.
Age: All | Price: Pay What You Can | Info

🐴 Shire Horse Carriage Rides @ Hampton Court Palace
Date & Loc: Jun 13-28 (weekends), Hampton Court KT8
Clip-clop through the palace gardens behind a team of magnificent Shire horses on a 20-minute carriage ride through 500 years of history.
Age: All | Price: £5 per ride (under 2s free) | Info

🖐️ Hopeful Monsters @ Half Moon Theatre
Date & Loc: Jun 19-20, Limehouse E14
A mesmerising non-verbal show where hands transform into strange creatures, giant beasts and everything in between. Part puppetry, part visual theatre.
Age: 5+ | Price: £9 | Info

🌟 West End Live @ Trafalgar Square
Date & Loc: Jun 20–21, Westminster WC2N
Outdoor performances from the biggest West End shows at Trafalgar Square. Two days of casts performing live in the open air, no tickets needed.
Age: Everyone | Price: No cost | Info

🐻 Outdoor Theatre: The Jungle Book @ Fulham Palace
Date & Loc: Jun 20 (Sat), Fulham SW6
Mowgli, Baloo and friends swing into Fulham Palace's walled garden for an outdoor theatre adventure packed with music, audience participation and jungle-sized fun.
Age: All | Price: from £14 child | Info

🎬 Encanto Outdoor Cinema Sing-A-Long @ Kew Gardens
Date & Loc: Jun 20 (Sat), Kew TW9
Pack a picnic blanket and warm up those vocal cords for an outdoor screening of Disney's Encanto in the beautiful surroundings of Kew Gardens.
Age: 4+ | Price: From £10.50 | Info

🎪 Baby Sensory Circus @ Story Centre
Date & Loc: Jun 24 (Wed), Stratford E15
A colourful mini circus adventure for little ones, featuring a 10-minute clown performance followed by hands-on sensory play.
Age: 0-4 | Price: £10 | Info

📚 London Children's Literature Festival @ Barnes
Date & Loc: Jun 27-28, Barnes SW13
Barnes turns into a giant playground for book-loving kids with more than 100 events, workshops and performances. Authors, illustrators, comedians, LEGO, chess, live music and enough stories to keep even the most reluctant reader entertained.
Age: All ages | Price: Various (some free) | Info

🎪 Greenwich Village Summer Fair @ St Alfege Church Community Hall
Date & Loc: Jun 27 (Sat), Greenwich SE10
A community summer fair packed with free fun, including a bouncy castle, face painting, balloons, crafts, music, a fire truck and even Boppin' Bunnies.
Age: 0-8 | Price: No cost | Info

🎻 Mozart’s Jupiter by Heart @ Southbank Centre
Date & Loc: Jun 28 (Sun), South Bank SE1
Sit among the musicians as Aurora Orchestra performs Mozart's Jupiter Symphony entirely from memory. A family-friendly concert that puts you right in the middle of the action. Selling out fast!
Age: 7+ | Price: from £22 | Info

🫧 Bubble Explorers @ Science Museum
Date & Loc: until Jul 12, South Kensington SW7
A live bubble show for younger kids at the Science Museum, featuring experiments and giant bubbles.
Age: 7 and under | Price: £4.50 | Info

🛁 The Flying Bath @ Little Angel Theatre
Date & Loc: until Jul 12, Islington N1
Julia Donaldson and David Roberts' story about a bath that flies off into the night, with catchy songs, rubber ducks and everyday heroes.
Age: 2–5 | Price: £13.50 | Info

🐕 Dog Man: The Musical @ Southbank Centre
Date & Loc: Jul 30–Aug 16, Southbank SE1
Based on Dav Pilkey's bestselling books, hilarious and heartfelt in equal measure, with a dog for a hero. Tickets on sale now for the summer holidays.
Age: 5+ | Price: £27 | Info

🧚 Fairy Tales @ British Library
Date & Loc: until Aug 23, King's Cross N1C
The British Library opens a fairy tales exhibition with books, original illustrations, theatre costumes, puppets and pop-ups.
Age: 3-10yo | Price: £11.50 | Info

🦕 Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep @ Natural History Museum
Date & Loc: ongoing, South Kensington SW7
New exhibition at the Natural History Museum. Giant prehistoric sea monsters, huge fossils and the sort of creatures that make sharks look quite manageable.
Age: 5+ | Price: from £7.50 | Info

🎨 Allen Jones: Taking Shape @ Camden Arts Projects
Date & Loc: until Aug 30, Camden NW1
Six decades of work by one of Britain's most influential Pop Artists come together in this free exhibition of paintings, sculptures and a major new piece created especially for the show.
Age: Older kids & teens | Price: No cost | Info

🍦 The Ice Cream Project @ Anya Hindmarch
Date & Loc: until Aug 16, Belgravia SW1
The cult summer pop-up returns with a fresh batch of ice creams inspired by everyday cupboard staples.
Age: All | Price: TBC | Info

🙏 If this makes your week a bit easier, pls think of two parents who'd love it, or drop it in a WhatsApp group. Takes 20 seconds. Please don’t ignore me 😂.
Appreciated, kind Londoner!

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