The capital’s biggest free festival celebrates its 10th birthday on Sunday 18th May. Urban Village Fete will once again take over the Gateway Pavilions on Greenwich Peninsula, laying on DJs, street food, indie markets and live performances. Family activities include hat making, clay workshops and live 3D printing. Elsewhere, broadcaster and lifelong Londoner Robert Elms is hosting a series of Creative Conversations spanning fashion to education. 

Peninsula Square, Greenwich Peninsula, SE10 0SQ 

Visit GreenwichPeninsula.co.uk

The dream team behind Town opened its doors in Theatreland this week. Stevie Parle, the long-time ingredients nerd behind Pastaio, has built direct relationships with the kitchen’s suppliers, who all share his commitment to regenerative farming. The payoff for you is a unique chance to try things like Wildfarmed beef from Oxfordshire – look for potato bread with beef dripping as well as steaks. Kevin Armstrong, owner of the great Satan’s Whiskers, has put together a cocktail menu that covers the classics and a few originals alongside some smaller-serve and low-ABV options. Lava stone countertops and a lacquered green kitchen confirm the restaurant’s designer has taken a similarly contemporary approach. Count us excited. 

6-29 Drury Lane, Covent Garden, WC2B 5RL

Visit Town.Restaurant

Gento Torigata, the well-travelled bar manager who’s helped make Mayfair’s Kwant such a destination of interest recently, is going it alone in east London. Inspired by jazz and nature – a couple of hot hobbies you don’t see paired together just anywhere – he’s just opened Waltz in Shoreditch. There are no reservations for now, and to access its cocktail list, you need to grab one of the dozen seats at the bar. Elsewhere in the room, you can order from a wider drinks menu, but you won’t be able to try the matcha old fashioned or the bitter gimlet with which Gento plans to seduce the city once more. 

28 Scrutton Street, Shoreditch, EC2A 4RP

Visit WaltzBar.uk

May is Tom Cruise month at the British Film Institute’s HQ on the Thames. The man himself dropped in for a conversation last weekend, and you can still watch him doing his thing on the big screen. Before this weekend is out, there are chances to see him dealing with the fallout from ’Nam in Born on the Fourth of July, creating bloodsuckers in Interview with the Vampire, fighting for justice in A Few Good Men, grappling with reality in Vanilla Sky, becoming a better person in Rain Man, and being humbled by the universe in Magnolia.

BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, South Bank, SE1 8XT

Visit WhatsOn.BFI.org.uk

The newly minted Fleet Street Quarter – have a guess where it might be – is pushing hard to establish itself as a destination. Its latest scheme is the intriguing Festival of Words, which gets underway today. Highlights from the first edition of this new literary festival include FT editor Roula Khalaf discussing the future of news, Slow Horses author Mick Herron revealing a few trade secrets, and a panel chat about dictators and warnings from history.

Various locations; 14th-17th May

Visit FleetStreetQuarter.co.uk

A trio of modern-classic London labels are coming together for a sample sale at The Box this week. YMC, Folk and Oliver Spencer all started within a few years of each other around the turn of the millennium. Each one has been a key player in the 21st-century reinvigoration of the capital’s menswear scene. With prices starting from £20, The Box is offering a great chance to snag street-influenced pieces from YMC, inject some elegant workwear into your wardrobe courtesy of Folk, or go in a more buttoned-up direction with Oliver Spencer. 

4-6 Ram Place, Hackney, E9 6LT; 15th-18th May

Visit TheBox-London.com

Opening on Friday 16th May, this new exhibition explores a big question that, thanks to a growing body of evidence that we might not be alone in the universe, has become a bit of a hot topic. This is your chance not just to weigh that evidence, but to get up close and personal with it. Pieces of Mars, bits of the Moon and a meteorite that’s older than Earth will all be on display. And we’ve checked, by the way – this one’s definitely the Natural History Museum not the Science Museum. 

Cromwell Road, South Kensington, SW7 5BD

Visit NHM.ac.uk