Summer music in Knightsbridge

Summer comes to London in a burst of fragrance and gaiety; the pavements warm, the evenings long, the sense of possibility spread out before us. In Knightsbridge, the season’s easy pleasures of rooftop drinking and alfresco dining, are joined by a host of live music happenings, from brass bands to pop stars, across the neighbourhood’s venues. 

There are the grand events, of course. BST Hyde Park, now in its 11th year, will bring an array of stars, including Shania Twain, SZA, Kings of Leon, Stevie Nicks and Kylie to the Royal Park from late June. These are big shows, a little giddy with their own enormity, but incomparable for their bonhomie and spirit; it’s rare that a show can make a field of 65,000 people seem like close friends, and yet somehow BST works its yearly magic. 

Rest assured, there are more intimate offerings in the neighbourhood. London’s thriving jazz scene finds a home at Nolita Social, the seductive late-night bar tucked beneath the Bulgari Hotel’s Sette restaurant. Regular performers include the lithe-voiced Hetty Loxston, the soul-stirring Faithfuls, and an impressive lineup of live DJs. Expect the kind of low-lit, well-cocktailed revelry one only really finds after dark and underground.

Over at The Wellesley, the walls of what is now the hotel’s Jazz Lounge are steeped in legendary sets by artists such as Amy Winehouse, George Melly and Mica Paris, from back in the days when this space stood as Pizza on the Park. Today, the tradition continues with weekly live sessions in the lounge’s sumptuous pink-and-gold setting. Music spills out elsewhere, too. At Harrods’ newly revamped Dining Hall and nearby Caffè Concerto, guests can enjoy soul, R&B, pop and Motown as they savour their monkfish skewers and mille-feuille slices. And there are unexpected performances, too: in late summer, Hyde Park Bandstand stages a run of shows for the sunseekers and picnickers, and there’s even a regular Silent Disco night at the Natural History Museum.

Cadogan Hall, built in the Byzantine Revival style in 1907, has been home to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra since 2001, but is famed for its diverse programming, bringing everyone from bagpipers to TV talent show stars via the Chelsea Opera Group to this former church. Highlights in the summer calendar include the incomparable Bettye LaVette, country star Rosanne Cash and Jimmy Webb, a songwriter of peerless poise and precision, who has scored multiple Grammys and gifted the world both Wichita Lineman and MacArthur Park. In late May, he will present an evening of music and stories on the Hall stage. 

A little further west, the Royal Albert Hall reigns as the musical heart of the city, playing host this summer to artists such as Eric Clapton, the “Empress of Soul” Gladys Knight and heartland rockers The War on Drugs. For those seeking something a little more avant garde, in mid-June, the nearby Great Exhibition Road Festival will see an improvisational performance by students from the Royal College of Music using newly invented instruments developed by Imperial College. Expect the beautifully unexpected. 

Laura Barton is a journalist, author and music columnist. She contributes to The Independent, Uncut and The Guardian