London City Guide - Culture

London's cultural scene combines the assurance of long-standing tradition with the verve of regained creativity. The sheer breadth of cultural activities on offer in the capital is breathtaking, with over 150 theatres and 300 art galleries.

The hulking concrete mass of the South Bank Centre, South Bank, SE1 (tel: 0871 663 2500; website: www.sbc.org.uk), is one of the city's cultural meccas. It houses the Hayward Gallery (website: www.hayward.org.uk) and three concert halls. Next door is the flagship Royal National Theatre, South Bank, SE1 (tel: (020) 7452 3400 (information) or 3000 (box office); website: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk). Flying the cultural flag north of the river, the labyrinthine Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2 (tel: (020) 7638 4141; website: www.barbican.org.uk), is an all-inclusive performing and visual arts venue with a varied all-year programme of events.

The weekly Time Out magazine (website: www.timeout.com) provides details of the week's entertainment. So does the website of Visit London, www.visitlondon.com. Ticket agencies include Ticket Switch (tel: 0870 840 1111; website: www.ticketswitch.com) and Ticketmaster UK (tel: 0870 534 4444; website: www.ticketmaster.co.uk).

Music: The world-famous Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, WC2 (tel: (020) 7304 4000; website: www.royalopera.org), is home to the excellent Royal Opera. However, despite some attempts to cut the price, ballet and opera tickets are still often fairly expensive. More accessible are performances by the English National Opera (tel: (020) 7632 8300; website: www.eno.org) at the London Coliseum, St Martin's Lane, WC2.

Large-scale concerts are staged at the Royal Festival Hall (see above), home of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (tel: (020) 7840 4200 or 4242 (box office); website: www.lpo.co.uk), or the Barbican (see above), home of the London Symphony Orchestra (tel: (020) 7588 1116 or 7638 8891 (box office); website: www.lso.co.uk). The Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, SW7 (tel: (020) 7589 8212 (box office); website: www.royalalberthall.com), can also stage huge concerts, including London's annual musical highlight, the summer series of the Proms (see Special Events).

Music connoisseurs should head for the traditional but friendly surroundings of the Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, W1 (tel: (020) 7935 2141; website: www.wigmore-hall.org.uk), to hear impeccable chamber music and solo recitals. More informal concerts take place in halls and churches all over the capital, including St Martin-in-the-Fields (off Trafalgar Square - see Key Attractions), St John's, Smith Square, SW1, and St James's, Piccadilly, W1.

Theatre: Within the extraordinary diversity of London's theatre scene (there are over 100 theatres in the capital, including 50 in the West End), the Royal National Theatre (see above) and the Royal Shakespeare Company (tel: (01789) 403 404; website: www.rsc.org.uk) compete for audiences with commercial West End theatres, repertory companies, 'off-West End' productions and fringe theatres. The National Theatre's three auditoria allow productions of different scale, from classics to new writing. The Royal Shakespeare Company, performing primarily Shakespeare and based out of Stratford-upon-Avon, performs in a range of venues including the Barbican.

The Old Vic, The Cut, Waterloo, SE1 (tel: 0870 060 6628; website: www.oldvictheatre.com), offers inspired traditional drama. Meanwhile, down the road, at 66 The Cut, the Young Vic (tel: (020) 7922 2922; website: www.youngvic.org) presents modern productions of contemporary and classic plays. The Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1 (tel: (020) 7565 5000; website: www.royalcourttheatre.com), continues to foster excellent new writing.

Quality innovative productions can also be expected from 'off-West End' theatres, such as the Donmar Warehouse, Earlham Street, WC2 (tel: 0870 060 6624; website: www.donmar-warehouse.com) and the Almeida, Almeida Street, N1 (tel: (020) 7359 4404; website: www.almeida.co.uk). Fringe theatre, ranging from the inspired to the insane, is performed in dozens of local venues, including the King's Head, 115 Upper Street, N1 (tel: 0844 412 2953; website: www.kingsheadtheatre.org), which is the oldest pub-theatre in London, and the Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, SW10 (tel: 0844 847 1652; website: www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk).

From May to September, the Globe Theatre, New Globe Walk, SE1 (tel: (020) 7902 1400; website: www.shakespeares-globe.org), stages open-air productions of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. There are also outdoor summer performances at the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park, NW1 (tel: 0844 826 4242; website: www.openairtheatre.org).

You can buy West End theatre tickets in advance from the theatre box office. Alternatively, for tickets on the day of the performance, there is a booth on the south side of Leicester Square, called tkts (website: www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk). It is open Monday to Saturday 1000-1900 and Sunday 1200-1500. This is the official Society of London Theatre's booth; visitors should avoid touts and other outlets in the area. The booth sells mainly half-price tickets, although some tickets at 25% discount and some full-price tickets. Because of the booking fee, when only full-price tickets are available for that night's performance, visitors are advised to go to the actual theatre box office. There is another tkts outlet in Canary Wharf DLR Station.

Dance: Touring dance companies perform mostly contemporary dance at the Sadler's Wells Theatre, Rosebery Avenue, EC1 (tel: (020) 7863 8198 or 0870 737 7737 for tickets; website: www.sadlers-wells.com). Ticket prices are usually more reasonable than at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, WC2 (tel: (020) 7304 4000), which is home to the Royal Ballet (website: http://info.royaloperahouse.org/ballet). The Roundhouse on Chalk Farm Road, Camden (tel: 0844 482 8008; website: www.roundhouse.org.uk), has reopened after a £30 million refurbishment and will be showcasing new talent in various cutting edge productions, many of which will be dance.

Film: Local cinemas are less expensive than those in the West End, where tickets can cost over £10. Two main cinema chains are Odeon (tel: 0871 224 4007; website: www.odeon.co.uk) and Vue (formerly Warner) (tel: 0871 224 0240; website: www.myvue.com), with venues all over London, their biggest in Leicester Square, WC2. Barbican Screen, Silk Street, EC2 (tel: (020) 7638 8891; website: www.barbican.org.uk/film), is London's leading independent cinema showing independent, art house and blockbuster movies, along with the National Film Theatre, on the South Bank, SE1 (tel: (020) 7633 0274; website: www.bfi.org.uk/nft). For more art house films try the Curzon, which has several branches including at Shaftesbury Avenue, W1 (tel: 0871 7033 988; website: www.curzoncinemas.com) or the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts), Carlton House Terrace, SW1Y (tel: (020) 7930 3667; www.ica.org.uk). You can experience IMAX magic at the largest cinema screen in the UK, the BFI London IMAX Cinema, South Bank, SE1 (tel: 0870 787 2525; website: www.bfi.org.uk/imax). For cheaper seats, try the Prince Charles off Leicester Square on Leicester Place (tel: (020) 7494 3654; website: www.princecharlescinema.com); it shows mainstream movies later than the bigger cinemas, but you can catch a film for under £5.

The Ealing Studios in west London presented English eccentricity and black humour in a distinctive London setting in the 'Ealing Comedies', such as Passport to Pimlico (1949) and The Ladykillers (1955). Before the war, Alfred Hitchcock established his reputation at Elstree Film Studios, with London-based thrillers such as The 39 Steps (1935), featuring Richard Hannay (Robert Donat) hanging precariously from the clock face of Big Ben. More recently, Sliding Doors (1997), Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Notting Hill (1998) have achieved huge success by combining a London setting with the box-office draw of Hollywood stars. The compelling gangster face of East End London has also been portrayed in Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000). London has also been portrayed in Blow Up (1966), Mona Lisa (1986) and Wonderland (1999). Recent movies shot in the capital include Bridget Jones' Diary (2001), Dirty Pretty Things (2002), About a Boy (2002), 28 Days Later (2002) and its sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Love Actually (2003), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), Closer (2004), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005), Match Point (2005), Breaking and Entering (2006) and Happy-Go-Lucky (2008).

Literary Notes: London has sheltered and inspired writers for centuries. Bunhill Fields' graveyard has monuments to John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe and William Blake. Bloomsbury gave its name to a literary set that included Virginia Woolf, while the leafy suburb of Hampstead was once home to John Keats, H G Wells and D H Lawrence. Some of the country's most famous writers are commemorated in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

The seething mass of 19th-century London life (and its legendary fog) is vividly recreated in the novels of Charles Dickens. Sinister goings-on in the capital surface in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stephenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and The Secret Agent (1923) by Joseph Conrad. Graham Greene captured the unique atmosphere of wartime London in The Ministry of Fear (1943).

More recently, Martin Amis' London Fields (1989), a depressing portrait of a London in pre-millennial decline, Chris Petit's Robinson (1993), which delves deep into Soho life, Tobias Hill's Underground (1999), a poetic murder mystery woven around the Tube, Jake Arnott's The Long Firm (1999), set in the London underworld of the 1960s, and Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000) a tale of life in multicultural London, have added their names to the rich London literary canon.

A lively and impressively detailed history of London that captures the essence of the city's spirit is Peter Akroyd's London: A Biography (2000). If you are into travel writing with a twist, try Tim Moore's Do Not Pass Go (2002), a travelogue of one man's journey around the Monopoly board and an epic history of London's progress since the launch of this very popular game. Also worth mentioning is Brick Lane, by Monica Ali (2003), a moving account of a young woman's journey from her native Bangladesh to the East End of London and Saturday by Ian McEwan (2006).