Gather your pocket change and hold your head high. There's some place to be every day of the week, no matter how skint you think you are. London provides.
Friday: Victoria & Albert are outdoing themselves with this month's V&A Friday Late, dubbed Home Sweet Home. It's a celebration of the domestic with a laundry list of activities, from a museum-wide detective hunt to a lecture on hoovering carpets.Saturday: It's a Literary Weekend at the LSE and the New Academic Building is abuzz with free talks. Of course, we're most interested in a panel of London writers including Iain Sinclair discussing his new book on Hackney. Keep an eye out for the book swap to take away a little something for the ride home.Sunday: London's newest cultural festival goes to the Russians, who stretch Pancake Day into a whole week and call it Maslenitsa. The Mayor is launching a Sunday abridgement close at hand, in Potters Fields Park beside City Hall.Monday: The New Cross Inn is set to be the proud home of what looks like a sophisticated new free comedy night: Daft, Red-Hot Sperm. We reckon it might involve an irreverent attitude.Tuesday: The Royal College of Surgeons is all about fixing things, but today's lunch lecture is a new one: how to fix a horse race for fun and money laundering. Using maths, no less.Wednesday: Catch up with the latest findings beneath the Olympic site with a briefing and display of archaeological findings. From prehistoric to 20th century, there's someone for everyone in this slice of Hackney.Thursday: Time to start camping out in E2 as the East Festival kicks off today. Too many free happenings to name, but the under-appreciated Geffrye Museum wins a mention with a subject close to our hearts: thrift through the ages.
