EDITOR'S NOTE
Stoke Park gets its grass back. After three festivals in three days, next week is the quiet last stretch of the school holidays before the bank holiday closes the summer out — and it belongs to the town centre rather than the park. Two things to plan around: Surrey's first Popeyes opens on North Street on Friday, and the trains between Guildford and Waterloo via Cobham stop running on Saturday and Sunday.
FEATURED THIS WEEK
The Cathedral turns into a cinema — Saturday 29 August
Tribute to Hans Zimmer & Film Favourites Illuminated brings 75 minutes of the music from Gladiator, Interstellar, Dune, Bond, Harry Potter and Star Wars to Guildford Cathedral, played live by the Illuminated Orchestra under a full light show in the nave. Two performances: doors 1.30pm for a 2.30pm start, and doors 5.45pm for 6.45pm. The later one is the better bet for the lighting. Tickets →
BEST FOR KIDS
In The Night Garden Live at G Live, Thursday 27 August — three performances, 10am, midday and 3pm. Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy and Makka Pakka in Igglepiggle's Busy Day, with full-size costumes, puppets and the flying Pinky Ponk. Just under an hour, which is exactly right for the under-fives. From £24.20, and good availability at all three shows — which is more than can be said for the rest of the week's line-up. Tickets →
NEW THIS WEEK
Popeyes opens at 35 North Street on Friday 28 August — the Louisiana chicken chain's first Surrey restaurant, in the old JD Sports unit. 63 seats, 30 jobs, self-service kiosks and a breakfast menu. The first three people through the door get free chicken sandwiches for a year; the first 100 get one on the house. Expect a queue well before opening.
HEADS UP
Rail replacement buses over the bank holiday weekend. On Saturday 29 August buses replace trains between Surbiton and Effingham Junction via Cobham, with just one train an hour between Effingham Junction and Guildford. On Sunday 30 August buses replace trains all the way from Surbiton to Guildford. Farnham to Alton is on buses from Saturday through to Monday. If you're heading to the Cathedral concert or into London, leave extra time.
👨👩👧 Things To Do
Kids & Family
Family Fun Day — Guildford Cathedral, Wed 26 August, from 10am. Free, but booking through the box office is essential.
In The Night Garden Live — G Live, Thu 27 August, 10am / midday / 3pm. See Best for Kids above. Tickets →
Community Fun Day — Guildford United Reformed Church, Sat 29 August. Free, and aimed squarely at families.
Summer at Watts — Watts Gallery, Artists' Village, daily to Mon 31 August. The Make Space and Clay Club run as 2.30pm drop-ins; Beyond Strawberry Thief is on in the galleries until September.
Gruffalo Trail & Summer Reading Challenge — Waterstones children's bookshop, to Mon 31 August. Both free, both drop-in, and both quietly excellent for the last week before term.
Pop Up Play — Yvonne Arnaud River Room, Fri 28 August. Free drop-in for pre-schoolers, and the only thing happening in the building this week.
Guildford Lido — open daily, and now running its summer timetable right through to the end of September.
Adults · Date Night
An Evening with Adele Parks — Waterstones, Thu 27 August, 7pm. The bestselling novelist on her new thriller Eyes on You, in conversation with a Q&A and signing after. £5, or £20 with a copy of the book. Tickets →
Guildford Book Club — Waterstones, Wed 26 August, 7–8pm. This month's read is Emmanuel Carrère's The Adversary. Free, informal, and no need to book — just turn up.
Refinement — The Boileroom, Wed 26 August. Tickets →
Two big ones already gone: Royal Blood at G Live on Tue 25 August and Jack Whitehall's work-in-progress show there on Fri 28 are both sold out. Worth knowing the town is pulling names of that size — and worth booking earlier next time.
Weekend Events
Tribute to Hans Zimmer & Film Favourites Illuminated — Guildford Cathedral, Sat 29 August, 2.30pm and 6.45pm. Tickets →
A Celebration of Oasis: 30th Anniversary of Knebworth — The Boileroom, Fri 28 August. Tickets →
Total Stone Roses — The Boileroom, Sat 29 August. Tickets →
Taylor More Swiftly — The Boileroom, Sun 30 August. A pop-punk take on Taylor Swift, which is either exactly your thing or absolutely not. Tickets →
Looking ahead: schools go back, and September arrives fast — Ricky Gervais plays G Live on Tue 1 and Wed 2 September, Starsailor are at The Boileroom on Wed 2, and Guildford Fringe Festival takes over the town centre from Fri 4 September.
🏙️ What's New in Guildford
Popeyes finally opens — for real this time. Friday 28 August, 35 North Street, in the unit JD Sports left behind. Surrey's first branch, 30 jobs, 63 covers, and a Cajun breakfast menu. In fairness we should own this one: we told you in July that it had opened. The banners were up; the doors weren't. Friday is the genuine article.
Halifax is leaving the High Street. The branch closes on 24 September, with Woking's going a day earlier — two of fifteen closures nationally as the Halifax brand is folded into Lloyds through 2027. The bank says both branches were seeing around 400 customers a month. Accounts, sort codes and account numbers stay the same; the counter does not.
The Electric Theatre goes to market. The council approved appointing consultants Blue Horizon Ventures on 12 August to find a new operator for the Onslow Street venue, shut since ACM handed the keys back in August 2025. The brief is deliberately wide: a cultural and community arts venue is on the table, but so are a shop, café, restaurant, gym or office. The building has form for reinvention — it was the town's electricity works from 1913 until the mid-sixties, then sat empty for thirty years before becoming a theatre in 1997.
🚧 Useful Guildford Updates
Trains — the bank holiday weekend is the one to plan around. Engineering work hits the Cobham line and the Alton line from Saturday 29 to Monday 31 August. On Saturday, buses replace trains between Surbiton and Effingham Junction via Cobham, with one train an hour between Effingham Junction and Guildford. On Sunday it's buses all the way from Surbiton to Guildford, plus extra buses between Leatherhead and Guildford via Effingham Junction. Buses replace trains between Farnham and Alton for all three days. Engineers are refurbishing drainage at Effingham Junction, replacing bridge timbers over the River Mole between Bookham and Leatherhead, and tamping ballast on the Alton line. The Portsmouth main line through Guildford is unaffected. Check before you travel →
Roads — two more overnight A3 closures, then a breather. The weekend closure reopens at 6am on Monday 24 August. After that the Dennis Roundabout concrete works take the A3 in both directions overnight on Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 August, between the Dennis and Stoke interchanges. Nothing is scheduled over the bank holiday weekend itself — which is unusually considerate. The standing lane closure on the roundabout's west side stays until December. Scheme page →
Planning. Forty-one applications validated in the week to 14 August, and one of them matters more than the rest: the North Street regeneration site has applied to discharge its piling conditions — consent, noise and method statement all at once. Piling is foundations. The biggest change to the town centre in a generation is about to start making a noise. Elsewhere, two more pieces of paperwork on the Wisley Airfield new settlement, an advertisement consent for a fascia and projecting sign at 130 High Street (usually a tenant's opening move), and an extra water propagation facility at RHS Wisley. The decided list ran to 53 items and was almost entirely householder extensions, tree work and conditions being signed off — nothing of consequence.
COMING UP THIS WEEK
Mon 24 Aug: A3 northbound reopens 6am · A3 overnight closure, both directions
Tue 25 Aug: Royal Blood, G Live (sold out) · A3 overnight closure, both directions
Wed 26 Aug: Family Fun Day, Guildford Cathedral, 10am · Guildford Book Club, Waterstones, 7pm · Refinement, The Boileroom
Thu 27 Aug: In The Night Garden Live, G Live, 10am/12/3pm · An Evening with Adele Parks, Waterstones, 7pm
Fri 28 Aug: Popeyes opens, 35 North Street · Jack Whitehall, G Live (sold out) · Oasis at Knebworth 30th, The Boileroom
Sat 29 Aug: Hans Zimmer Illuminated, Cathedral, 2.30pm & 6.45pm · Community Fun Day, URC · Total Stone Roses, The Boileroom · rail buses Surbiton–Effingham Jn
Sun 30 Aug: Taylor More Swiftly, The Boileroom · rail buses Surbiton–Guildford via Cobham
HIDDEN GEM OF THE WEEK
Guildford House Gallery, 155 High Street. Thousands of people walk past the leaded bay windows every Saturday assuming it's a shop. It is a Grade I listed merchant's house built in 1660, it is free, and the inside is the point: a carved open-well staircase with barley-twist balusters, moulded plaster ceilings, and oak and pine panelling that has been there since Charles II was on the throne. Upstairs there's a proper gallery — Rebecca Holton's People Watching is up until 3 October — and downstairs in the courtyard there's a craft shop and a café. The tourist information centre is at the front, which is why locals never go in. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4.30pm, which makes it the best free thing to do in town on Wednesday, when the forecast turns.
Guildford House, 155 High Street, © Visit Surrey
WEATHER THIS WEEK
A warm, dry start and then it breaks. Monday reaches 24°C with almost no rain until late evening; Tuesday is the pick of the week at 25°C, with only a 20–30% chance of a shower. Wednesday holds 23°C but the rain arrives properly — 60% through the middle of the day, rising to 70% by early evening, which is the day to have an indoor plan. Overnight lows stay muggy at 16–17°C.
Thursday onwards, including the bank holiday weekend and the Cathedral concert, is beyond reliable range at the time of writing. The Met Office's longer outlook has it "becoming more unsettled and changeable from the south" from Tuesday, with heavy bursts and thunderstorms likely at times and rainfall above average for the time of year — temperatures near normal. Translation: don't write off the weekend, but check again on Thursday before you commit to anything outdoors.
👀 WORTH KNOWING
Guildford's Street Angels have won a slice of a national charity grant. Guildford Town Centre Chaplaincy is one of eight Surrey charities to receive funding from the Benefact Group's Movement for Good Awards in the first half of this year. If you've not come across them, the Street Angels are the volunteers in high-vis who spend Friday and Saturday nights in the town centre handing out flip-flops and bottles of water, walking people to taxis and generally making sure nobody ends up in an ambulance who doesn't need to be. It is unglamorous, entirely voluntary, and one of the better things about a Guildford weekend.
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