Experience the London culture from the comfort of your home
In this uncertain time that we are confined to our home, we are missing a lot of our favourite things. For all of the culture lovers out there, the experience of a live performance and the museum tours are certainly and terribly missed. Going into quarantine means that we have to deal with a lot of boredom, a lot of Netflix, and a lot of meaningless browsing and scrolling-down on social media. We may be unable to control the situation, but what we can control is how we spend our extra free time. And thankfully, there are ways to get a little culture and education from the comfort of our home. Below, we are presenting 10 online cultural activities and experiences that you can enjoy from your couch.
British Museum Virtual Tour
The British Museum offers a virtual tour to its Great Court allowing virtual visitors to discover the ancient Rosetta Stone, the Egyptian mummies and hundreds of artifacts.
Natural History Museum Interactive Experience
With many online exhibitions and collections covering a wide range of topics from dinosaurs to butterflies, the Natural History Museum Interactive Experience will keep you engaged for hours. Dive into the museum’s 80 million specimens with unique, new features, wonder around the galleries in 360 degrees tour, discover the pioneering Museum research in a short film voiced by Museum researchers and curators and many more.
Royal Opera House free online content
The Royal Opera House is offering a free programme of online broadcasts, musical masterclasses, cultural insights and productions on demand at Facebook and YouTube. They also invite us to sign up for a free 30-day trial on an international multi-genre performing arts streaming service where they will share world-class performances like La Traviata. Royal Opera House content is also available on radio, TV and online through the ROH ongoing partnership with the BBC.
National Theatre At Home
From 2 April, National Theatre At Home is streaming NT Live productions for free. Each production is screened live on Thursday at 7PM GMT, and then is available online for seven days. Besides the productions, there are also post-stream talks about the plays and Q&A sessions with cast and crew members.
English National Ballet At Home
English National Ballet is sharing free content online including dance classes and interviews. You can watch their content at Facebook, Instagram, YouTube.
Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage
Sadler’s Wells has launched a programme with dance performances and workshops online. The first online screening of Deluxe by BalletBoyz will be available on the Sadler's Wells Facebook page for 7 days. This is the first of Sadler's Wells Facebook Premieres that will follow a weekly schedule.
Artwork online
Art UK is an online library of almost 250,000 artworks, including paintings from the National Gallery (which you can separately explore online here). You can search the library by theme or by the name of the artwork or the artist. You will also find a selection of stories about artists, artistic movements, collections and themes.
King's Head Theatre live interviews
King’s Head Theatre is keeping us engaged with a series of online live interviews every weekday at 1pm. The interviews are available for free on their Facebook and Instagram. Mondays bring us some of the theatre's favourite artists online. Tuesdays are Q&As with Head staff members, while Wednesdays are “Ask Us Anything” days. Thursdays offer us skills sessions with a leading industry professional and Fridays feature a book club for theatrical plays.
West end performers at live-streaming concerts
The West End may be closed, but the show must and will go on! Leave a Light On is a series of piano vocal concerts streamed live from The Theatre Café in partnership with Lambert Jackson Productions. From Monday 23rd, you can enjoy from your house 45-minute concerts with big names and rising stars at three different hours per day. It is a great opportunity to have a different experience at the time of social-distancing and at the same time, support the art world in this hour of need with a small contribution of just £7.50 per concert.
Hampstead Theatre Plays
Hampstead Theatre is streaming one production a week on demand, in partnership with The Guardian. Each production is available from 10AM on a Monday until 10PM on the following Sunday. We can view them on demand on The Guardian web site and on Hampstead Theatre's YouTube channel.
