August 2024's Must-Sees

A graveyard might sound like an eccentric destination for a summer outing, but Brompton Cemetery combines the beauty of a nature reserve with many fascinating memorials. Opened in 1840, it was carefully landscaped, with a grand colonnade, and today its 40 acres offer a popular, tree-shaded escape from the summer sun. Its long-term residents include Sir Henry Cole, founder of the V&A and inventor of the Christmas card, and Emmeline Pankhurst, who helped women win the right to vote.

Following their critically acclaimed production of Follies at the National Theatre, director Dominic Cook and theatre legend Imelda Staunton reunite for a brand-new, limited-run production of the classic comedy musical, Hello Dolly. Staunton stars as a socialite matchmaker who decides she needs a match of her own, and with music and lyrics by Jerry (La Cage aux Folles) Herman it has plenty of great tunes to keep you humming along. From 6 July to 21 September at the London Palladium.

One of London's most charming smaller venues, the Garden Museum, next door to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lambeth Palace, hosts imaginative exhibitions and has a fine café. Its current show, Gardening Bohemia, focuses on four remarkable women and their gardens: writer Virginia Woolf in Sussex; her sister, artist Vanessa Bell, whose garden was at nearby Charleston; patroness and photographer Lady Ottoline Morrell, at Garsington Manor; and garden designer and writer Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst in Kent. Until 29 September.

Opened in 1907, Mayfair's Down Street underground station was located between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner. It closed in 1932, but had a second life during the Second World War as the bomb-proof headquarters of the Railway Executive Committee, coordinating Britain's railways. At the height of the Blitz it offered refuge to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and today visitors over the age of 14 can visit its maze of tunnels on special tours organised by the London Transport Museum.