Summer in the Courtyard takes over the open space in Somerset House throughout the month of August for family and community fun and events (until August 31)

You know it's summer when Between the Bridges takes over the Queen's Walk, Southbank, with club nights, DJs, drag artists, food, fun and free entry to the main area every night (until Sept 1)

Westminster's outdoor arts festival Inside Out runs all August, with events at Westminster Abbey, the National Gallery and a summer stage at St Martin's in the Fields, among others (ends 31st)

Take your swimmers and head for the Costa del Croydon in Centrale car park, where a rooftop beach has taken over until August 28th.

That perennial summer favourite (take a sweater) The Regent's Park Open Air Theatre presents 'Twelfth Night' to start the season and will end with 'Fiddler on the Roof' (ends Sept 30)

Moco, the contemporary, modern and street art gallery, opens its London show at 1 Marble Arch from August 10.

'Light into Life' is a show by Marc Quinn, with 17 extraordinary steel and bronze sculptures dotting Kew Gardens alongside his exhibition in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery (until Sep 29).

The BFI opens a free exhibition called LAIKA: Frame x Frame, showing the incredible puppetry, sets and costumes used in its five critically acclaimed movies (August 12 to October 1)

The Summer Exhibition, the Royal Academy of Art's annual megashow of art by professionals and amateurs, runs until 18 August

Hark! The Summer Sounds Music Festival takes over Coal Drop's Yard at King's Cross, with free gigs every weekday at 6.30 pm and on Sunday afternoons (August 15-26)

Hot! The V&A's exhibition on post-colonial West African and Indian architecture, Tropical Modernism, runs throughout the London summer (until September)

The Barbican Outdoor Cinema sets up its screen in the Barbican's Sculpture Court, showing classic, cult and contemporary films (August 21 to September 1)

Va-voom! The F1 Exhibition opens at ExCel in Royal Docks on August 23.

The Greenwich+Docklands International Festival is hugely popular as London's largest festival of outdoor and performing arts - many shows are free (August 23 to September 8)

The Yoko Ono show at Tate Modern sheds light on the amazing career of a woman often overshadowed by her famous husband (until September 1)

Kensington Palace turns the spotlight on itself and its staff over the past 300 years in a show called 'Untold Lives' (until October 27)

The Tete a Tete festival stages operas of every stripe across London August 24 to September 29

Mudlarkers ahoy! London's famous grubbers in the Thames beaches show off their extraordinary finds at the Meet the Mudlarks at Southwark Cathedral (August 30-31)