Things To Do In London Today: Monday 29 April 2013


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GIVE BLOOD: Today’s opportunities to donate blood are at St Olave Parish Hall in the City, outside County Hall near Waterloo, and the West End Donor Centre on Margaret Street. Free, just turn up, see site for times and conditions

ART: Base Elements is a new group exhibition at The Gallery, Mayfair, featuring seven artists who hope to demonstrate the versatility of raw materials, by working with a variety of media, forms and methods. Free, just turn up, until 4 May

CHARITY: Pop by Maggie's cancer centre at Charing Cross Hospital for its fifth birthday party, with food and drink, singing, and taster courses of some of the activities Maggie's runs. Free, just turn up, 10am-4pm

POETRY: A free evening of poetry, storytelling, spoken word and short film awaits you at Switch, which takes place at Rich Mix tonight. Free, just turn up, 6pm

SHAKESPEARE: Peter Brook talks to Mark Lawson about his new collection of essays on Shakespeare, at the National Theatre. £4/£3, prebok, 6pm

SCIENCE AND PREDICTION: Meet the man who successfully predicted the results of all 50 states in the 2012 US Presidential election. Nate Silver speaks at London School of Economics on the science of prediction. Free, just turn up, #LSE538, 6.30pm

ART IN THE DIGITAL AGE: An Royal Academy forum — at its neighbour, the Geological Society — considers whether art and imagery can still be poetical in an age when work is so easily reproduced and disseminated. £12, prebook, 6.30pm

SHORT FILMS: Script Shoot Slice Screen, or S4 to its friends, is an evening dedicated to short films at the Genesis Cinema, Stepney. As well as a screening, there'll be a Q&A with the film-makers and a filmic chinwag in the bar afterwards. Free, just turn up, 7pm

MUSIC: Check out London Gigs for a pretty comprehensive listing of the best gigs in town tonight.

ARTIST TALK: Sara Shamsavari‘s London Veil series, which documents London’s young Muslim women and their self-styled hijabs, recently exhibited at the Royal Festival Hall and today she talks at Regent Street’s Apple Store about her journey and recent work. Free, just turn up, 7pm

FREE B-MOVIE: Watch seminal 50's sci-fi B-movie Them!, about a city terrorised by giant, radioactive ants (may not be based on actual events), at the King of Hearts Tattoo Parlour in New Cross, as part of south London's ongoing Free Film Festival. There are only 30 spaces, so turn up early. Free, just turn up, 7.30pm

COMEDY: Ruth Bratt, Pippa Evans, Cariad Lloyd and Lucy Trodd’s regular try-out night, New Born Comedy, is back with sketches, character comedy and guests at Leicester Square Theatre. £8, prebook, 8.30pm

Random London Fact of the Day
Camden Lock might be considered something of a misnomer. Of the three locks that make up Camden Town's watery staircase, not one is officially named Camden Lock. The names, west to east, are Hampstead Road Lock (a twin lock), Hawley Lock and Kentish Town Lock. The name 'Camden Lock' is sometimes applied to the highest of these, sometimes to all three, and more generally to the area surrounding the locks, including Camden Lock Market. The famous markets, by the way, are a relatively recent phenomenon, with their origins in the mid-1970s. No one expected them to last — a major motorway scheme was all set to cut through the area, as improbable as that now seems. When this scheme was cancelled, the markets flourished, and today they're reckoned to be the fourth biggest tourist attraction in London.

Good Cause of the Day

National volunteering charity TimeBank wants to hear from any professionals who can spare a few hours to help young people in Tower Hamlets develop new skills and confidence. The charity has launched a new mentoring project, Engage, to support 16-20 year olds who are not in education, employment or training. The 10-week programme will provide the young people with a basic knowledge of business skills – and they’ll have the chance to put them into action by delivering a community project of their own in Tower Hamlets. If you're 16-20 and fit the profile, or if you think you can help as a mentor, check out the website for more details. At the very least, follow them on Twitter via @Timebank.

London Weather

Today's forecast is supplied via our breakfast. A cloudy day with intermittent sun (fried egg) hangs over a dry London (fried bread) that is rapidly greening (peas and mushrooms...sort of a bit like trees and foliage). We're not sure what the fried tomato is doing, but we kind of fancied a fried tomato. Fried peas, by the way, turn out to be nasty buggers. Don't ever try them, unless you're preparing a culinary weather forecast for a daily newsletter, or are seeking a novel way to test your smoke alarm. BBC weather has a less palatable forecast.

Shall we make it a week of food-based forecasts? Yes? Yum. If you'd like to contribute, please send in photos to matt@londonist.com