Welcome

Morning, Finchley!

With warm August evenings still here, this week we are heading outdoors for open-air theatre and summer concerts near you.

There's also a lovely new community garden, big Green Belt news near your local stations, and North Finchley's artsdepot as our Finchleyite.

Enjoy!

🎭 Finchley Al Fresco: Open-Air Theatre and Summer Music

There is nothing quite like a show under open skies on a warm August evening. Before summer slips away, we have rounded up the best open-air theatre and live music within easy reach of Finchley. Pack a rug, a picnic and a light jumper for later.

1. Stephens House & Gardens, Finchley.

​The Bothy Garden on East End Road is our local home of open-air theatre, with touring companies staging family-friendly plays among the trees through the summer.

A magical, right-on-your-doorstep night out in N3.

2. Music by Jack's Lake, Monken Hadley Common.

Up at New Barnet, the Jack's Lake series brings live classical and world music to a beautiful lakeside setting on the Common.

Bring a chair and settle in as the sun goes down.

3. Lauderdale House Open-Air Thursdays, Highgate.

About a mile and a half south, Waterlow Park hosts a run of open-air Thursday evening concerts, from klezmer to jazz.

One of the loveliest ways to spend a summer evening nearby.

4. Parliament Hill Bandstand, Hampstead Heath.

A little further out (around two and a half miles), the Heath's bandstand puts on free Sunday-afternoon concerts all summer.

Rock, brass and everything in between, with the whole city laid out below.

Check each venue's page for line-ups and tickets, and grab your spot before the nights draw in. Enjoy the show, Finchley. 🎭

Events

ARTS

Monday 10th August

​Graffiti | Mon, Aug. 10 | 2:30 pm to 3:45 pm | Tarling Road Community Hub, 20 Fallows Close, N2 8LG | Free | A fun introductory graffiti session for young artists. Experiment with colour, lettering and design while building confidence and artistic skills.

COMMUNITY

Friday 7th August

​1,000 Years of Jewish History | Fri, Aug. 07 | 11:00 am | Tower Hill Underground Station | £20 | Discover a thousand years of Jewish life in London, from the arrival of England's first medieval Jewish community under William the Conqueror to the vibrant East End of the 19th and 20th centuries. Beginning at the Tower of London, the walk follows the route taken by generations of new arrivals from the docks into the East End.

KIDS

Monday 3rd August

​Dreamcatcher Film Camp | Mon, Aug. 03 | 9:00 am to 2:00 pm | Mill Hill Senior Private School, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill Village, NW7 1QS | £285 | Mill Hill Camps run Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, for boys and girls. Students take a story from initial idea, through treatment and step outline, to a finished script for their final film, exploring structure, plot, character and tension along the way.

MUSIC

Tuesday 4th August

​Bags of Musical Mystery at Golders Green Library | Tue, Aug. 04 | 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm | Golders Green Library, 156 Golders Green Road, NW11 8HE | Free | Pick three items from the mystery bags, then create a story that moves with rhythm and beat. Let music inspire your scenes, illustrate your favourite moment and add a wild card twist for extra fun.

Saturday 8th August

​Flute Recital With Andrew Palmer On Piano | Sat, Aug. 08 | 5:30 pm | 26 Hendon Lane, N3 1TR | Free | An intimate summer concert in Finchley's oldest building, performed by flautist Helen Skelton and pianist Andrew Palmer, with music by Mozart, Piazzolla and Mel Bonis, plus the world premiere of a brand-new Flute Sonata by Ken Paige.

​Music on Monken Hadley Common | Sat, Aug. 08 | 6:00 pm | Jack's Lake, Monken Hadley Common, Bakers Hill, New Barnet, EN4 0NQ | Free | An evening of live music celebrating the rich cultural diversity of North London as part of the Music by Jack's Lake series, featuring Alistair Scahill (harpsichord), Miwa Rosso (cello), Charles Mutter (violin, viola and piano) and Ilona Domnich (soprano).

​HGO Summer Concert 2026 | Sat, Aug. 08 | 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm | St. Michael's Church Highgate, N6 6BJ | £30 | Four of HGO's most gifted singers from recent productions perform an evening of unforgettable operatic joy, including arias by Mozart, Puccini and Verdi.

NATURE

Tuesday 4th August

​Plant Identification Course, 10 Evenings | Tue, Aug. 04 | 7:00 pm | Watling Chase Timberland Trail, Kissing Gate by Train Bridge, Borehamwood | £10 | A ten-part series of plant identification walks covering medicinals, foods, colours, trees, lichens, soils, roots, seeds and berries.

SHOPPING

Monday 3rd August

​Family Foodbank Takeover: Supermarket Sweep | Mon, Aug. 03 | 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm | O2 Shopping Centre, 255 Finchley Rd, NW3 6LU | £3.50 | Join everyone at JW3 for a supermarket sweep to buy essential Foodbank items and experience what happens behind the scenes at the Foodbank.

THEATRE

Wednesday 5th August

​Magic and Marvels at Queen's Park | Wed, Aug. 05 | 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm | 25 Kingswood Avenue, NW6 6LL | Free | Free children's magic shows at Queen's Park, packed with tricks, comedy and audience participation. Perfect for families and children of all ages. The first session is Gordon's Magic with Bunny.

Events - Book Ahead

Friday 25th September

​An Evening with Ricky Tomlinson - Retirement My Ar*e!! | Fri, Sep. 25 | 7:30 pm | Rayne Theatre, Chickenshed, Chase Side, Southgate, N14 4PE | £20 | Ricky Tomlinson takes to the stage for an intimate, funny and revealing conversation about his extraordinary life and career.

Friday 16th October

​The Funny Club at Brent Cross Town | Fri, Oct. 16 | 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm | Pavilion, 145 Claremont Rd, NW2 1FE | TBA | This October, The Funny Club brings four nights of live comedy to Brent Cross Town. Expect five acts a night, from big-name headliners to rising North London talent, with a compere keeping the punchlines coming.

Wednesday 4th November

​Jewish Playwrights Programme | Wed, Nov. 04 | 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm | Venue TBA | Free | The Jewish Literary Foundation's development initiative for early-career and emerging playwrights, aiming to strengthen the presence of Jewish artists, culture and storytelling within UK theatre in all its diversity.

Local Lowdown

Growing

• Spare land is sprouting something lovely. A patch beside the East Barnet Valley Bowls Club has become a community garden, created by St James Church and the club on under-used space. Volunteers tend raised beds of tomatoes, runner beans and sweet corn, sharing the produce with local residents.

Defending

• Finchley's leafy edges have a new champion. Barnet Council has pushed back on Sadiq Khan's power to redraw the borough's Green Belt, after the mayor's draft London Plan flagged land near seven local stations, including Finchley Central, West Finchley and Woodside Park, as possible sites for new homes.

Rebuilding

• One of Barnet's biggest regeneration schemes is back on track. After a three-year delay, the Dollis Valley estate redevelopment will restart in September, backed by a £58 million Greater London Authority grant. The revised plan delivers 208 affordable homes, most for social rent, in a garden-suburb-style development.

Rising

• West Hendon's skyline is set to climb higher. Barnet's planning committee has approved 227 extra homes at the Silk Stream development, taking the total to 1,564. The update adds 74 more affordable flats, lifts social-rent homes from 114 to 286, and includes a redesigned green space known as Silk Gardens.

Charging

• Charging an electric car without a driveway could get easier. Neighbouring Brent Council is trialling pavement channels that let residents run a charging cable safely across the footway, funded by a £169,000 government grant. It focuses first on blue-badge holders, with wider rollout possible if results prove safe and practical.

Finchleyite: artsdepot

This week's Finchleyite is North Finchley's own cultural powerhouse: artsdepot.

Sitting right by Tally Ho Corner, this friendly arts centre has been the beating heart of the local scene since 2004, with a main theatre, a studio, gallery spaces and a buzzing cafe.

Across the year it hosts everything from children's shows and pantomimes to comedy previews, dance, live music and community classes for all ages.

It is the kind of place where a toddler's first theatre trip and a grandparent's art class happen under one roof.

With a packed autumn programme on the way, comedy try-outs and family shows included, it is well worth keeping on your radar.

Long may it keep the curtain up.

Editors' Note - From Tessa

The Davis family loved the new Heartstopper movie. If you haven't read the books - do it. Then watch the TV show.

You will not regret it.

Also, let us know about local events or local news. We curate our content to keep it a 5-minute read, so can't include everything we're sent.

You can now get a guaranteed (paid) listing for local events or local lowdown/news items.

​And email us with any projects or ideas you'd like us to write about.

Tessa Davis Sasha Frieze