8 Things That Inspired Me This Week

Nine days, thirty-three boroughs, and several hundred buildings that are usually locked. This year the Lloyd's Building turns forty and joins the programme, and there are neighbourhood trails through Bankside, Fitzrovia and Piccadilly if you'd rather stay in one place than sprint across town. Most of it you simply turn up to. The ticketed things opened in August, so check before you build a day around one. 12th to 20th September.

One room - 104, in the Theatre and Performance galleries - and about fifty venues that no longer exist. More than 150 objects, a good number handed in by the public: membership cards, flyers, a Rainbow Theatre ticket for Blondie at £2.50, the sign from the London Astoria, the metal doors off The End. Free, and it runs into next year.

Four nights, ten stages, and Soho behaving like a village again - Ronnie Scott's, Alfie's, Jack Solomons, Archer Street, the Piano Bar, Café Bohème. The festival started in 1986 and was picked up again ten years ago, so it's marking two anniversaries at once and not being quiet about either. Passes from £55. 16th to 19th September.

Seven days, thousands of bars, one drink and its increasingly unhinged variations, with money going to Slow Food. Run by Imbibe with Campari. The genuinely useful bit is the map of participating venues, which is a reasonable excuse to end up somewhere you'd never otherwise book. 21st to 27th September.

Amsterdam-based, born in Russia, moved to the Netherlands as a child. Control Refresh took three years and follows teenagers in small towns across Russia and Eastern Europe - bedrooms, boredom, phones, and the war arriving halfway through. She also makes animated reels, which is how most people find her, and her work has shown at the Stedelijk and Paris Photo.

A silk chess board that folds into a scarf or a bag, complete with wooden handles and a set of chess pieces. Wear it, unfold it on the table, or take it to the park. One to keep in the wardrobe and the games cupboard.

A pair of wooden swans for hanging your clothes on. The raised details are sanded by hand, then each one is painted and finished by an artist, so the markings are slightly different. A good reason to make the wardrobe a little less sensible.

Valeur built a house in the pines behind Tisvildeleje in the early sixties and became known in Denmark as the bathing-hut painter: the huts, the coast, the sea, in flat strong colour. He came out of the Bornholm school, so it's all red, green and blue and nothing is fussy. His son still opens the house occasionally. Worth knowing about before you're next in North Zealand.