Interesting and unusual things to do for a fiver or less this week.
NOUR FESTIVAL: Kensington & Chelsea’s Nour Festival of Arts continues, with free and cheap exhibitions, talks and music taking place all week.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Going on throughout October, Black History Month celebrates African and Caribbean history in the UK with plenty of free and cheap events. Check your local council or take a look at our highlights.
Monday 21 October
CZEGGS: These guys love a good pun. An 'eggshibition' of design talent from the Czech (or Czegg) republic 'hatches' at Frameless Gallery in Clerkenwell today, which apparently you should definitely 'czegg out'. Free, just turn up, until 26 October
LONDON LIBRARIES: Professor Caroline Barron from Royal Holloway, University of London delivers the first in a series of lectures on the history of London, to mark the modern Guildhall Library’s birthday. Free, prebook, 6pm
PECHA KUCHA: UCL Engineering challenges four researchers to show how their work is changing the world, in only 400 seconds. Pecha Kucha is a format originated in Japan, where a speaker is allowed 20 slides, each shown for only 20 seconds. Free, prebook, 6pm
Tuesday 22 October
OLD VIC VOICES: Today is the National Theatre's 50th anniversary. Happy Birthday! There are a whole host of events taking place, but tonight you can hear some of the actors who worked alongside the first Director, Laurence Olivier, talk about those early days at the Old Vic. £4/£3, prebook, 6pm
JAZZ: More free jazz at Charing Cross Foyles' lovely Café. This time, catch Tony Bevan, an improvising bass saxophonist. Free, just turn up, 6-7pm
PEACE: Listen to panellists debate how to make the world a better place, under the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral. Today’s theme is ‘peace’. Free, just turn up (early arrival recommended), 6.30-8pm
SPOKEN NERD: A night of geeky new material from Matt Parker, Steve Mould and Helen Arney, at Pub on the Park. Tonight's show looks at the science of sex and money. £5, prebook, 7.30pm
FILM: Oval Space's Cinema Club puts on a screening of award-winning psychological thriller Berberian Sound Studio, a film about an introverted sound engineer who finds himself lost in shifting reality and psychological mayhem. £5, prebook, 8pm
Wednesday 23 October
SOUTH ASIAN LIT: The South Asian Literature Festival is back for its fourth year. Themes this year include Indo-Caribbean literature, the ‘Other’ in Asian Britain, the legacy of the Indian Partition and the Modernisation of Religious Mythology. Nearly all of the events are £5 or less. Until 1 November
INSPIRING LETTERS: Simon Garfield and Shaun Usher (of Letters of Note) talk about some of the world’s most unusual and inspiring letters at Waterstones Piccadilly. £5/£3, prebook, 6.30pm
MUSIC: A free night of music awaits at Ribeira London in Shoreditch. On the line-up tonight are jazzy-acoustic band More Ice and Honey, alternative folk-rock band Kite Asylum, and the bluesy six-piece band, Café Society. Free, just turn up, 7-11pm
MAG: Matt Haynes and Jude Rogers of Smoke magazine read from their book From the Slopes of Olympus to the Banks of the Lea at Bookseller Crow on the Hill in Crystal Palace. £3, 7.30pm
COMEDY: Get some laughs (or groans) for free at Comedy Cafe's New Act Night, where eight aspiring acts take to the stage for some great, or not so great, comedy. You get to be the judge of that. Free, prebook, 7.45pm
Thursday 24 October
ONE ON ONE: Interactive performance company, non zero one, bring one-on-one performances to the basement of Shoreditch Town Hall. An anonymous interviewer is going to ask you questions, what choices will you make? £5, prebook, until 26 October
MASTERCHEF: Three MasterChef finalists (Natalie, Dale and Larkin for those of you with good memories) are at Foyles Charing Cross to introduce their new cookbook and share their experiences of the competitive BBC cooking show. £5/£3, prebook, 6pm
PEDAL FOR YOUR PICTURE: As part of Green City Week, City University London presents Green City Cycle Cinema - a cinema powered entirely by electric pedals. Sign up for free entry, and take it in turns to ride the bikes powering the cinema's screen and sound. Free, prebook, 6.30pm
BETHNAL GREEN: A series of film screenings at Saint John on Bethnal Green look at how London locations, East London and Bethnal Green specifically, have been cinematically re-imagined by different film-makers. Tonight, It Always Rains on Sunday (a 1947 film by Robert Hamer) is showing. £4.40, prebook, 8pm
Friday 25 October
MUSICAL: Every month, Primo Bar invites different singers from London musicals to take to the stage and perform the much-loved songs. Naaaaaants ingonyamaaa bagithi Babaaaaa etc (bonus points for those of you who know what that is from). Free, just turn up, 8pm
CHEESE AND HUMANITY: Winning the prize for "most oddly aligned topics of the week" (N.B. no actual prize given), artist collective Spork host a cheese tasting and lecture at Kappacasein Dairy, exploring "cheese as an embodiment of the desires and fears that drive the ways we eat and view ourselves". Free, just turn up, 8pm
Saturday 26 October
ART: Hokusai Exposed at The Old Truman Brewery features the work of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, including the full collection of his Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji, manga sketches and shunga (erotic) prints. £5, prebook, until 17 November
Sunday 27 October
NELSON, NAVY, NATION: The National Maritime Museum's latest exhibition Nelson, Navy, Nation, looks at how the Royal Navy shaped every day lives in the tumultuous 19th century. Free, just turn up
Check out our map of free things to do in London for more frugal fun.
