Image: Matt Brown

Want to be part of a Guinness World Record? Beam down to the Science Museum on 8 September.

This month's adults-only Lates event at the museum is entirely themed around Star Trek. Visitors will get to take part in a Guinness World Record attempt to assemble the most simultaneous Vulcan salutes. You could be among them.

The Vulcan salute, popularised by Mr Spock in the original series, involves making a V-shape between paired fingers. They do it in space for real, apparently:

Image: NASA on The Commons

As well as taking part in the record attempt, visitors can also inspect the Star Trek Warp Trail, which features numerous costumes and models from the shows and movies, including Data's head and a captain's chair. Talks and performances are also planned.

Image: Science Museum Group

The Lates stunt is billed as a Guinness World Record 'attempt'. If we might play Mr Spock for a moment, this is highly illogical. No current Guinness World Record exists for such a feat, and so any significant number of Vulcan salutes will establish the record. It's like saying that I'm going to attempt the World Record for typing the word flobspiffle while humming La Marseillaise... flobspiffle, flobspiffle, flobspiffle, flobspiffle, flobspiffle, flobspiffle, flobspiffle, flobspiffle. There we go, I managed eight. New World Record.

In truth, the record 'attempt' is simply a ruse to generate interest in the museum's Star Trek Lates event. But, hey, it's all good fun, and we can't begrudge the saluting of a franchise that has reached its 60th birthday (even if its future is a little uncertain). Plus, Science Museum Lates are always fun, with beer and wine and zero kids.

The head of Commander Data. Or is it Lore? Or B-4? Image: Science Museum Group

Star Trek Lates is at London Science Museum, 8 September 2026 from 6pm. Entrance is free, but you need to book a space. The Star Trek Warp Trail can be viewed during normal museum opening hours until 13 September (also free).

Image: U.S. Air Force Academy — (U.S. Air Force photo/Trevor Cokley), Creative Commons

Ice hockey in London? Big time.

The Canadian sport has infiltrated the capital (helped in recent times by the popularity of Heated Rivalry), with loads of opportunities to get hooked on this puck-ing good game.

Not familiar with ice hockey? Read on for when, where and who to watch here in London — as well as how to play ice hockey yourself.

London ice hockey teams: who plays?

Image: Cardiff Potter, Creative Commons

Four London-based ice hockey clubs play in the NIHL. Ice hockey in the UK is split into several tiers:

🏒 The Elite Ice Hockey League is a professional league, and is the highest level of hockey played in the UK. 10 teams from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland currently play in this league, but none are based in London.

🏒 The National Ice Hockey League is the second tier of British ice hockey, below the Elite Ice Hockey League, and is further sub-divided into tiers:

🏒 The Planet Ice National League is the top tier of England Ice Hockey’s NIHL leagues, consisting of 11 teams. London team Romford Raiders play in this league.

🏒 Below that, the remaining teams are geographically split into four leagues: North 1, North 2, South 1 and South 2. London team Streatham play in South 1 while the Haringey Huskies and Lee Valley Lions play in South 2.

Players in all four London times are not full-time pros. Throughout the season, each team plays each of the other teams in the league four times — twice at home, twice away. So although there are only four London teams, there are still plenty of matches going on in and around the capital.

Tickets tend to be more affordable than other sports, and most teams offer seasons tickets for dedicated fans.

Here's the lowdown on each of London's ice hockey clubs:

Romford Raiders Ice Hockey Club at Sapphire Ice, Romford

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Romford Raiders are the main men's team playing at Sapphire Ice Rink. The club's been around since 1987, and has moved around a bit in that time before settling at the Sapphire. They were briefly known as the London Raiders. Team colours are white, gold, and blue — with fans known as the Gold and Blue Army.

As of the start of the 2026/7 season, Romford Raiders are objectively London's best ice hockey team, playing in the Planet Ice National League, and coming at #7 in the league standings at the start of the season.

The Romford Buccaneers are the reserve team based out of Romford, and the Romford Ice Hockey Academy trains upcoming players from U10s right up to the Buccaneers. At time of writing, Romford doesn't have a dedicated women's ice hockey team.

Romford Raiders. Match tickets available here (Adult tickets are £20 per home game for the 2026-27 season). Follow them on Instagram, Facebook and X.

Streatham Ice Hockey Club at Streatham Ice Rink

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Streatham Ice Hockey Club are based at Streatham Leisure Centre & Ice Rink. The men's team was established in 1932, under a name deemed pejorative today, and was changed in the 2015/16 season. These days, they're simply known as Streatham Ice Hockey Club (though RedHawks is a common nickname among fans).

In 2014, the team moved to their new location at the rebuilt Streatham Ice Rink after being temporarily ousted to Brixton Ice Rink for a couple of seasons. When the old Streatham ice rink was closed down, there was doubt whether the team — once one of the most successful in Britain — would be able to continue. This fear didn't come to pass, and today Streatham IHC have a solid (and from the matches we've been to, loud) fanbase.

The Streatham Storm Women's Ice Hockey squads are also based at Streatham Ice Rink, with teams in the Women's National Ice Hockey League and several smaller leagues. The Streatham Youth Ice Hockey play here too.

Streatham Ice Hockey Club. Match tickets available here. Follow them on Instagram, Facebook and X.

Haringey Huskies Ice Hockey Club at Alexandra Palace

The Haringey Huskies in action. Image: Alexandra Palace

Known until recently as Haringey Racers (or London Racers), the men's ice hockey team based at Ally Pally are now called the Haringey Huskies.

The timeline of ice hockey at Alexandra Palace is a bit muddled, with teams called the Haringey Racers, the Haringey Greyhounds, the London Racers and the North London Hounds having played here over the years.

All you really need to know is that if you want to watch ice hockey at Alexandra Palace now, Haringey Huskies are the (men's) team to watch, having taken up the mantle in 2017. The Haringey Greyhounds are the women's team, also based out of Ally Pally, while the Haringey Hounds are the junior club, taking players from U10 upwards.

Haringey Huskies. Match tickets available via Alexandra Palace. Follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Lee Valley Lions Ice Hockey Club at Lee Valley Ice Rink

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Originally formed in 1984 and disbanded in 1995, Lee Valley Lions reformed in 2005. Of London's ice hockey teams, the Lions seem to have had the least chop-change past, with just the one name throughout their history. They moved into the new Lee Valley Ice Centre in the 2023-4 season.

The Lee Valley Vampires are the women's team also playing out of Lee Valley Ice Centre. At present, there's no junior team, though it's hoped one will be started in the near future.

Lee Valley Lions. Follow them on Instagram, Facebook and X.

Women's ice hockey in London

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As mentioned above, Streatham, Haringey and Lee Valley all have women's equivalents to their men's teams. Similar to men's ice hockey, the Women's National Ice Hockey League (WNIHL) is split into different leagues here in the UK. Top tier is the WNIHL Elite league, followed by WNIHL 1, a league encompassing national teams, and WNIHL 2 which is split into North and South regions.

Streatham Storm women's ice hockey club

Home to London's only senior league women's ice hockey team, Streatham Storm have a team in the WNIHL Elite league, as well as the WNIHL 2 South league, and a development team. All home matches are FREE to watch, taking place at Streatham Leisure Centre Ice Rink.

Haringey Greyhounds women's ice hockey club

Only formed in 2024, women's team the Haringey Greyhounds are relative newbies on the scene, and play in the WNIHL 1 league.

Lee Valley Vampires women's ice hockey club

Playing in WNIHL 2 South, the Lee Valley Vampires play out of Lee Valley Ice Centre, and often offer pay what you can tickets to home games.

Where to watch ice hockey in London: where is it played?

Image: Cardiff Potter, Creative Commons

All teams play both home and away matches. Home matches for the London ice hockey teams are played at the four venues mentioned above (Sapphire Ice Rink in Romford, Streatham Leisure Centre, Alexandra Palace and Lee Valley Ice Centre ).

As the Romford Raiders are in the Planet Ice National League, they compete against teams all over the country, so their away matches tend to be further afield than London's other three men's teams: they all play in the South leagues, so opponents are other south teams, including Milton Keynes, Guildford and Slough.

Check each team's website for details of upcoming fixtures in the 2026-27 season. Teams often play pre-season warm-up matches too.

When can I watch ice hockey in London?

The UK ice hockey season runs roughly September-March every year (with some pre-season friendlies starting as early as August). Games usually take place on Saturday or Sunday evenings. Check the individual team websites above for specific fixtures.

Where can I play ice hockey in London?

Image: Troy T, Unsplash License

So you've seen the experts at work, and now you want to have a go at ice hockey yourself. You won't be gliding straight into one of the teams mentioned above, as those players have been training for years, and ice hockey can be a dangerous sport (though do check their website/social media for details of upcoming taster events).

But there are other recreational ice hockey clubs and teams around London that will let you have a go. Details of beginners' try-outs and training sessions vary from club to club and season to season, and you may need to become a member of the club before they'll let you on the ice, so get in touch with one of these for details.

🏒 Westminster Statesmen — a recreational men's ice hockey team. Currently accepting new players but you must be 18+, and already able to play to an intermediate recreational hockey standard (Alexandra Palace)

🏒 London Rangers — another recreational team, though not currently accepting new players (Alexandra Palace)

🏒 DX Bunker Boys and Girls — an adults (men and women) recreational team for both beginner and intermediate players (Alexandra Palace)

🏒 Sobell Slappers — another adults (men and women) recreational team (Alexandra Palace)

Note, some clubs state that they are either checking or non-checking clubs. This refers to whether they allow body contact during matches. If you're looking for a gentler introduction to the sport, look for a non-checking team.

Most clubs will require you to have at least basic ice skating skills before they let you anywhere near a puck, so get practising at one of London's year-round ice rinks.

The rules of ice hockey: a beginner's guide

Image: Gera Cejas, Pexels License

Although we've dipped our toes in to the (icy) waters of ice hockey, we're no experts. Back in 2014, we spoke to John Scott — then CEO at London Raiders, now Romford Raiders — who gave us a quick starter guide.

Ice hockey can be tricky for newbies to follow, due to the fast — often bloodthirsty — nature of the game. The principle is similar to football in that each team aims to score as many goals as possible — except these goals are significantly smaller. The 'ball' in this case is not a ball, but a rubber puck, which, being kept at 0°c, is basically a compact disc of pain for anyone who comes into contact with it.

🏒 Each match is split into three periods of 20 minutes, with 15 minute breaks in between, allowing the ice to be wiped clean.

🏒 Six players from each team are on the ice at once, including a net minder (goalkeeper) — although up to 20 players from each team could be on the bench at any one time, allowing for plenty of rest breaks and tactical substitutions throughout.

🏒 If the whistle blows — for example, for an injury — the clock is stopped until play restarts.

🏒 A goal is scored when the puck crosses the goal line.

🏒 If a player commits an infraction, they will be sent to spend two, five or 10 minutes in the penalty box, depending on the severity of the offence. Their team plays a man down for this time. Each team must have a minimum of three players on the ice at all times, so if multiple players are sent to the penalty box, their times will be staggered.

🏒 The offside rule in football can be confusing. In ice hockey, being offside is simply when an attacking team member crosses the line into the defensive zone before the puck.

Each pearly jacket is covered in thousands of buttons, and is properly heavy to wear. Image: iStock/Casarsa

Dust off your best button-smothered jacket — the London Pearly Kings and Queens Costermongers Harvest Festival is back.

Pearly kings and queens have been a fixture of London since road sweeper Henry Croft decided to pimp up his threads in the 1870s for a charitable cause. The fundraising annual harvest festival — held on a Sunday in late September — is the most famous pearly fixture on the calendar.

From 1.30pm on Sunday 20 September 2026, pearly kings and queens from across London and beyond — wearing their iconic hand-sewn pearl-embroidered costumes — will assemble in Guildhall Yard, in the City of London.

Frivolities such as maypole and morris dancing unfold, alongside hearty renditions of cockney standards like The Lambeth Walk and Knees Up Mother Brown.

Your chance to rub shoulders with royalty — LOTS of royalty. Image: Adrian Murphy

At 2.30pm, the pearlies — accompanied by various mayors/Scouts/Chelsea Pensioners — process to St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside, home of the famous Bow Bells. Here, a special harvest festival service takes place from 3pm, in which the pearlies present a large harvest plait of seasoned bread. Members of the public can attend the service, although be warned: it gets packed.

There's another chance to catch the pearlies when they file out of the church around 4pm. Pearly kings and queens are renowned for their charitable work, so while the entire event is free, have some cash handy to drop into a pearly cap or two.

2026 sees the 151st edition of the event. Image: Anthony March

Says Clive Bennett, Pearly King of Woolwich, "This event is a testament to the enduring spirit of our city and the diverse communities that make London so vibrant. We invite everyone to join us for a day of entertainment, cultural heritage, and unity."

Here's a lovely write up of 2019's event by the Gentle Author.

Another harvest festival celebration — this one organised by the Original Pearly Kings and Queens Association — takes place at St Martin-in-the-Fields on Sunday 4 October 2026.

London Pearly Kings and Queens Costermongers Harvest Festival, starts 1.30pm in Guildhall Yard on Sunday 20 September 2026. It's free to attend.

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We look ahead and pick the best exhibitions to see in London's galleries and museums, opening this September.

It's coming home: The Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum

© La Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie, Antoine Cazin.

Arguably the most anticipated exhibition of the year is the return of the Bayeux Tapestry, more than 1,000 years after it was most likely woven in what's now the UK. Here is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the 70-metre-long tapestry — setting out the story of how William the Conqueror defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings — before it returns to France. We're hyped for this one, although be warned: getting tickets will be a battle in its own right.

The Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum. 10 September 2026-11 July 2027, £33.

On a mission: Tschabalala Self - Lady in Blue at the Fourth Plinth

A maquette of the Lady in Blue sculpture. Photo: James O Jenkins

A woman in a blue dress strides purposefully; no time for chuggers or slow walkers. This is the latest fourth plinth commission by Tschabalala Self, and while it's designed to symbolise the busy 'everywoman', the big, 'can't stop' gait will resonate with any Londoner who has places to be. So all of us, then.

Tschabalala Self: Lady in Blue at the Fourth Plinth. 10 September 2026-summer 2028.

Humanity's history: Nature & Us Gallery at the Natural History Museum

A flashback to what the galleries used to look like. © of the trustees of the Natural History Museum.

The Nature & Us gallery isn't technically new, though it's unlikely you've visited; it's been closed to the public since 1943. But no more: we're now invited to touch a replica of one of Britain's first domesticated dogs, and gaze at a 400,000-year-old hand-axe. There's a miniature model of a Crystal Palace dinosaur — showing how early scientists imagined prehistoric life — and a bryozoan-encrusted Star Wars toy from the 1980s, illustrating the changeful impact of nature and time.

Nature & Us Gallery at the Natural History Museum. Opens 16 September 2026, free.

Art in the park: Frieze Sculpture at Regents’ Park

Image courtesy of Ivana Basic and Albion Jeune.

London's biggest art fair, Frieze London, rolls into town in October, but the invariably enjoyable warm-up is Frieze Sculpture, where contemporary sculptures pop up in the south-east corner of Regent's Park. This year features 11 international artists who've created works on the theme of hybridity: we get a doorway descending beneath the grass, intricate stainless-steel screens depicting utopian scenes, a nod to brutalism, and a dual-faced vibrant idol. Just as enjoyable is watching the public interact with/puzzle over these al fresco artworks.

Frieze Sculpture at Regent's Park. 16 September-1 November 2026, free.

Double the art: Modern Painting from the Courtauld and Reuben Collections at the Courtauld

© All rights reserved, DACS © Reuben Collection

Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Cezanne and René Magritte star, as two collections combine to highlight some of the most radical artists of the first half of the 20th century. This period was a turning point for art, as artists moved away from representation towards movements such as Cubism and Surrealism, testing the limits of what painting could be. It's the age that much of today's art can trace its roots back to — including Magritte's floating baguette, Picasso's angles and Modigliani's shocking nudes.

Modern Painting from the Courtauld and Reuben Collections at The Courtauld. Opens 18 September 2026, £14.

Otherworldly: Astronomy Photographer of the Year at National Maritime Museum

Aurora Over Causey Reservoir © Samuel Morse

Nothing makes us feel so small and insignificant as this annual exhibition. Standing in front of images of nebulae, galaxies and planets — as captured in extraordinary ways by photographers — makes us realise how insignificant our concerns are. Whether it's a deep-space image, the moon over a cityscape, or star trails captured with long-exposure, it's always a treat to visit, if utterly humbling.

ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year at National Maritime Museum. 18 September 2026-31 July 2027, £12.

An iconic coat: The Burberry Trench at V&A

Image courtesy of the V&A

With its trademark beige outer and tartan lining, the Burberry trench is an unmistakable fashion item. But how did it come to be so? That's what this free display uncovers, from the invention of the coat's water-resistant gabardine fabric in 1879, through its many iterations, to its continuing popularity. We learn how the Burberry trench initially served as functional military attire, how the lining came to be — and how it grew into a global celebration of the British aesthetic.

The Burberry Trench: Crafting an Icon at V&A, Prince Consort Gallery. 21 September 2026-3 January 2027, free.

Korean art: The Unclassified at Korean Cultural Centre

Mind-blowing that this is made of soap. © Meekyoung Shin.

Four artists are brought together to examine how museums shape the presentation of culture. Meekyoung Shin has created museum-style busts made of soap, which will travel the country, be handled and displayed, so they will show the same wear we may see on marble sculptures exposed to the elements. Siren Eun Young Jung takes an archival look back at yeoseong gukgeuk, an all-female theatre genre that flourished in South Korea in the 1950s. Ayoung Kim's work focuses on how the imperial powers divided up the Korean peninsula. Gala Porras-Kim's installation imagines the view from inside a grave, asking us to reflect on gaps that remain in the history of cultural heritage.

The Unclassified at Korean Cultural Centre. 25 September-31 December 2026, free.

Short run exhibitions and events

Sir Peter Blake at a previous incarnation of the Art Car Boot Fair. Image: Art Car Boot Fair

There are plenty of smaller exhibitions this month where you can see and buy art. The 13th edition of Flux is hosted at the Bomb Factory in Marylebone (4-6 September 2026, free), bringing together 70 emerging and established artists from the UK and internationally. It spans painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media, installation and digital art — and most of the works are up for sale. The Art Car Boot Fair (5 September 2026, £5-10) returns to Lewis Cubitt Square in King's Cross, with artists selling works out of car boots. There are great bargains to be had, including those by established artists.

Most graduate shows happened over the summer, but one of the best comes this month: the post-graduate artists of City & Guilds London Art School* showcasing the works they've made for their MA show (8-12 September 2026, free). It's always top drawer. More emerging talent can be found at the ACS Prize at Gurr Johns (20-22 September 2026, free), where the shortlisted artists are included in an exhibition and one winner receives £6,000 towards their studio costs. If you'd rather see where the creative process happens, head to the Cumberland Road Open Studios in Wood Green (19-20 September 2026, free). It's an insider's view of the creative process, where you get to meet the artists.

Image: British Art Fair.

If you prefer the art fair environment, plump for the British Art Fair at Saatchi Gallery (24-27 September 2026, £23), where the best of modern and contemporary art is on show. For shinier purchases, the Goldsmiths' Fair is at Goldsmiths’ Hall (22 September-4 October 2026, £35), with no shortage of bling, including designs and jewellery made from precious metals.

Sticking with design, it's also the month of the London Design Festival (12-20 September 2026), which includes major projects at the V&A and a projection onto St. Paul's, alongside workshops, talks and a programme set across multiple districts of London, from South Kensington to Shoreditch. If you want to explore one area, then Manufactory (11-12 September 2026) will focus on Park Royal in north-west London, with exhibitions, installations, site-specific interventions, performances, food, open studios, talks, workshops and participatory events within this industrial area.

Creative Intelligence at the Southbank Centre (11-13 September 2026) is a three-day takeover packed with art, performance, music, demos, debate and experimentation, exploring how artists, digital innovation, and AI are reshaping the world we live in. Over at Barbican, another takeover is under way by Turner Prize-winning artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan, titled Repercussions (23-26 September 2026). It's on the theme of sonic justice, and how crimes and human rights abuses can be captured through sound. Over four days, Repercussions brings together an installation, performances, screenings, panel discussions and live music.  

Exhibitions outside London

Image: © Victoria Sills

In Southend-on-Sea, three artists with very different styles are showing in Between:Us at Beecroft Art Gallery (5 September-29 November 2026, free), including Victoria Sills, whose powerful portraits capture both the person's emotions and also explore the idea of masks and whether they conceal or reveal elements of our personalities.  Alongside her works are ghostly interiors by Peter Haugh and the digital works of Jonathan Rust.

Image: Copyright of The Fitzwilliam Museum

The Fitzwilliam Museum, in Cambridge hosts 'A Mughal Songbook: Art, Music and Empire' (8 September 2026-7 March 2027, free), centring on the story of Sophia Elizabeth Plowden and her illustrated book of lyrics and musical notation, created in Lucknow in the late 18th century. Plowden documented the music she encountered in North Indian courtly gatherings during a period of transition between the Mughal and British Empires. It contains 77 songs written in Persian, Urdu, Classical Hindi and Punjabi, and is at the centre of a display that also includes objects, paintings, and music.

© Raqib Shaw. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2026. Photo © White Cube (Ollie Hammick)

We've always been fans of Raqib Shaw's highly detailed paintings, inspired by Indian miniature-style paintings. They are works you can stare at for hours and still not spot all their elements. His latest paintings and tapestries — all focusing on night-time scenes — are on show in his exhibition Night Sonnets at Compton Verney (19 September 2026-21 February 2027, £22.50), a stately home just south of Birmingham. Fire, damaged cities, smoke, melting ice and threatened knowledge recur across the exhibition, while behind them lies Shaw’s interest in the confidence with which every civilisation imagines its own permanence, against all the evidence of history.

* The author of this piece is a trustee of City & Guilds London Art School.

Get planning to make the most out of autumn 2026 in London. Image: Shutterstock

Between the joys of summer's outdoor cinemas and bars, and the excitement of Christmas, there's a little thing called autumn. We've pulled together some of the best events happening in London in September, October and November 2026 to keep you going as the nights grow darker and the days get chillier.

Cultural events in London: Autumn 2026

TOTALLY THAMES: Totally Thames comprises a whole month of events celebrating our waterways. Talks, walks, live performances, boat trips and workshops feature, with 2026 highlights including beginners' kayaking sessions, a riverside performance by a super-choir and an art installation on the disused Blackfriars railway bridge columns. And these are a mere drop in the ocean/river, in a programme that's flooded with things to dive into. 1-30 September 2026

LONDON PODCAST FESTIVAL: Headphones at the ready for London Podcast Festival at Kings Place, which sees both mainstream and more niche podcasts recorded in front of a live audience, with some streamed online too. No Such Thing As A Fish, and Beef and Dairy Network are among the participants this year. 3-13 September 2026

SAMUEL PEPYS DAY: City of London Guides mark the anniversary of the Great Fire of London — and celebrate the man who recorded it in detail — with their third annual Samuel Pepys Day, offering Pepys-themed tours around the City. 4 September 2026

BLACK ON THE SQUARE: Celebrate London's Black cultural and creative talent at the fourth edition of Black On The Square, a free festival in Trafalgar Square offering live music and performances, activities for children, games, stalls — and a wealth of Black-owned food stalls. FREE, 5 September 2026

Tschabalala Self's Lady in Blue is installed on the Fourth Plinth in September.

QUEEN'S PARK BOOK FESTIVAL: This year's Queen's Park Book Festival is the final edition of the literary event, and it's going out with a bang: authors Philip Pullman, Sebastian Barry and Jacqueline Wilson are among the big names making an appearance, along with British Museum curator Michael Lewis celebrating the Bayeux Tapestry's return to the UK. 5-6 September 2026

LONDON TRANSPORT: See a tiny version of London's transport system, as the King's Cross Model Railway Club opens a one-day London's Transport in Miniature exhibition, in collaboration with the London Underground Railway Society. See various layouts including the fictional/semi-fictional Waddesdon Manor, Carlton Vale and Lammas Lane. 6 September 2026

CHISWICK BOOK FESTIVAL: Adele Parks, Iain Dale, Jacqueline Wilson, Kate Mosse, Mary Portas and Sophie Hannah are just some of the names on the schedule at Chiswick Book Festival, taking place at a variety of venues including Chiswick Cinema, Chiswick Library and Hogarth's House. 9-14 September 2026

FOURTH PLINTH INSTALLATION: It's all change on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth, as current installation Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant) by Teresa Margolles is replaced with Tschabalala Self's Lady in Blue. 10 September 2026

MARKFIELD ROAD FESTIVAL: Taking place in South Tottenham for the last two years, Markfield Road Festival is a free arts and music get-together for all ages. 2026's programme is TBA, but last year it included open arts studios, short films screenings, live music performances, workshops including life drawing — and a carnival procession featuring local school children. Keep an eye on the website for 2026 updates. 11-13 September 2026

CELEBRASIA: South East Asian culture is celebrated at Battersea Power Station's CelebrASIa festival. Browse themed market and food stalls, try your hand at crafts including basket weaving, and watch panel discussions on topics ranging from food and literature, to fashion and culture. 11-13 September 2026

Which celebrity will do the honours at this year's London Sheep Drive?

HERITAGE OPEN DAYS: Not only do we get Open House (below) in September, but Heritage Open Days too. This nationwide programme of events — including several in London — invites you inside hidden places, to celebrate history and culture. In London that includes walks, behind-the-scenes tours and a chance to visit the place we once suggested might be the best shed museum anywhere, Dulwich's British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum. FREE, 11-20 September 2026

OPEN HOUSE LONDON: It's the most wonderful time of year, when all manner of London buildings and structures — many of them usually off-limits to the public — fling open their doors.  Our previous personal Open House London highlights include going inside the St Pancras clock tower, and up on the roof of 55 Broadway. 12-20 September 2026

LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL: The 24th edition of London Design Festival showcases London as the design capital of the world. We're expecting the usual blend of displays and exhibitions, talks and more. 12-20 September 2026

LETTERS TO THE FUTURE: Amelia Dimoldenberg, Ash Sarkar and Olly Alexander lead Letters to the Future, a Southbank Centre event tackling some of the biggest issues of our time. Creators, writers, activists and thinkers curate a programme of panel discussions, interspersed with talks, performances, free gigs, DJs sets and spoken word. Topics including housing, the future of digital media, and the climate crisis. 18-20 September 2026

CAMDEN INSPIRE: Community festival Camden Inspire doubles up as the Camden Climate Festival, with a theme of Gathering For The Future. Enjoy a low-carbon community feast, take part in gardening and fermenting sessions, pick up ideas at panel discussions and round tables, and get stuck into evening entertainment including a climate-themed pub quiz. 26 September 2026

Bloomsbury Festival has a packed programme. Image: Arts & Kuchipudi Dance Charity (AKDC)

SHEEP DRIVE: One of London's wackiest annual events is the London Bridge Sheep Drive and Livery Fair. Each year, a chosen celebrity has the honour of herding sheep over Southwark Bridge while the public watch, followed by a livery fair at the north end of the bridge. Keep an eye on the website for this year's announcement. FREE, 27 September 2026

THE LAMBETH FRINGE: Now in its 11th year, the Lambeth Fringe (previously known as Clapham Fringe) has announced an impressive 200 shows for its 2026 programme, spread across 28 venues. Among an overwhelming selection of shows, you can see NHS doctors perform in the comedic GP Receptionist Appreciation Society, and take part in interactive '70s game show parody, Cornershop Showdown. 24 September-25 October 2026

MONTH OF THE DEAD: Ghoulishly good festival of death Month of the Dead takes place throughout October, leading up to Halloween with talks on the macabre, cemetery tours, film screenings, and a necrocopia of other events taking a cerebral look at death and the afterlife. Tickets are selling scarily fast. 1 October-1 November 2026

CHELSEA HISTORY FESTIVAL: The National Army Museum, the Royal Hospital Chelsea and Chelsea Physic Garden team up again for Chelsea History Festival, which covers local, national and global history through walks, talks and other events. 1-4 October 2026

London goes big for Bonfire Night. Photo: Alexandra Palace

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: October is Black History Month, honouring the often unheralded accomplishments of Black Britons in all fields throughout history. It's national, with events running all year, but things happening in London this month can be found on the Black History Month site. Throughout October

BLOOMSBURY FESTIVAL: After a truncated, three-day version of Bloomsbury Festival took place last year, it's back to full strength for 2026, taking place throughout the month of October to celebrate its 20th anniversary. 1-31 October 2026

BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL: The full programme for the 70th BFI London Film Festival is due to be announced in September, but it's usually full of gala nights and UK and world premiere screenings — and is probably the biggest event of the year for the London film industry. 7-18 October 2026

ART FAIRS: Two of London's biggest art fairs take place in October, bringing members of the art industry from all over the globe back to the capital. Frieze London (14-18 October 2026) sets up shop in Regent's Park, with galleries showcasing work by contemporary artists in a variety of media. Over in east London, The Other Art Fair (8-11 October 2026) takes over the Old Truman Brewery, with a focus on artworks available for all budgets, from over 100 artists.

Get costumed up for MCM Comic Con. Image: ASV Photography Ltd

LONDON LITERATURE FESTIVAL: Dua Lipa curates this year's London Literature Festival at Southbank Centre, overseeing a packed programme featuring names including Zadie Smith, Malorie Blackman and Patti Smith. 21 October-1 November 2026

MCM COMIC CON: Halloween isn't the only reason to dig out your fancy dress costume at the end of October. MCM Comic Con returns to Excel for three days of celebrity guests, panel discussions, cosplay, tabletop and video games and more. 23-25 October 2026

HALLOWEEN: Things get spooky in London towards the end of October as Halloween looms. Check back nearer the time for our guide to the best Halloween events for both kids and adults, as well as scary film screenings around town. In the meantime, why not start planning a trip to one of these charming pumpkin patches near London. 31 October 2026

DIWALI: Diwali falls on 8 November this year, and London's official celebrations in Trafalgar Square are due to take place a couple of weeks before (25 October 2026), with live music, dancing and more. Keep an eye on our event listings for details of other Diwali celebrations around town. FREE, late October-early November 2026

Pomp and pageantry aplenty at the Lord/Lady Mayor's Show. Photo: City of London

FIREWORKS: Keep an eye on our Bonfire Night guide, which we'll update with details of this year's fireworks events as and when they're announced. Around 5 November

LORD MAYOR'S SHOW: If you're a sucker for pomp and pageantry, don't miss the Lord Mayor's Show. The event marks the outgoing Lord Mayor (actually the Lady Mayor this year) being replaced by the new one, and takes the form of a grand procession. Full details will be confirmed closer to the time, once the new Lord Mayor is announced. FREE, 14 November 2026

REMEMBRANCE: There are always special events in London around 11 November, to mark Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day. We'll bring you details closer to the time. 11 November 2026

EFG LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL: Get down with the trumpets at the EFG London Jazz Festival, which offers 10 days of live performances at venues including Barbican, Southbank Centre and the Royal Albert Hall. Norwegian-Brazilian musician Charlotte Dos Santos, the experimental Robocobra Quartet, and Parisian group Caravan Palace are among this year's headliners. 13-22 November 2026

New exhibitions in London: Autumn 2026

A rare chance to see the Bayeux Tapestry outside of France. Image: public domain

BAYEUX TAPESTRY: Probably London's — if not the UK's — most anticipated exhibition of the year is the British Museum's temporary custodianship of the Bayeux Tapestry, leaving France for the first time (or at least the first time since it was most likely transported over from England almost 1,000 years ago). Tickets for visits until 31 December have sold out, with slots for dates later than that going on sale soon. Sign up to the mailing list for alerts, as it's going to be veeery popular. 10 September 2026-July 2027

ES DEVLIN: Artist and designer Es Devlin is the subject of an autumn exhibition at the Design Museum. Look back on her 30-year career in the first museum show in the UK dedicated to her work, which has featured in collaborations in theatre and opera as well as Olympic ceremonies, Superbowl half-time shows and monumental stadium sculptures. 18 September 2026-11 April 2027

OSSIE CLARK: The Fashion and Textile Museum's newest exhibition Ossie Clack/Celia Birtwell spotlights the life and work of legendary rock and roll fashion designer Ossie Clark and his collaborator and wife Celia Birtwell. 2 October 2026-April 2027

TIM WALKER'S FAIRYLAND: British photographer Tim Walker has spent five years photographing LGBTQ+ trailblazers for major National Portrait Gallery exhibition, Tim Walker's Fairyland: Love and Legends. Dozens of activists, performers, artists and writers feature in the photos, alongside a book with contributions written by Travis Alabanza, Russell T Davies, Shon Faye, Lisa Power and Joelle Taylor. 8 October 2026-31 January 2027

THE 90S: Former British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful OBE guest curates Tate Britain's exhibition The 90s spanning photography, fashion, art and design in a decade of optimism, freedom and rebellion. 8 October 2026-14 February 2027

The Design Museum looks at the career of Es Devlin. Image: Cian Oba-Smith

LIGHT AND MAGIC: Tate Britain celebrates the birth of art photography in Light and Magic, an exhibition about pictorialism, the first international art photography movement, developed across the world from the 1880s to the 1960s. 14 October 2026-21 February 2027

HOKUSAI: Experience Mount Fuji as Japanese printmaker Katsushika Hokusai saw it 200 years ago. Dulwich Picture Gallery brings together the complete set of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Hokusai's depictions of the mountain in different lights and seasons. 20 October 2026-17 January 2027

BECOMING AMERICA: The Science Museum marks 250 years of America's independence with free display Becoming America, which displays maps, paintings, instruments and artefacts relating to scientific breakthroughs between the 1760s-90s. FREE, 23 October 2026-25 April 2028

AGATHA CHRISTIE: 50 years since the death of novelist Agatha Christie, the British Library opens a major exhibition on her life and work. View notebooks, personal letters, early manuscript drafts, dictaphone recordings and personal objects belonging to Christie — and find out how her work shaped the entire crime writing genre. 30 October 2026-20 June 2027

CHARLIE MACKESY: Author and illustrator Charlie Mackesy — creator of The Boy, The Fox, The Mole and The Horse — is the subject of a new Dulwich Picture Gallery exhibition. View never-before-seen early sketches, unpublished studies and original works from across Mackesy's career. 3 November 2026-7 February 2027

Dulwich Picture Gallery celebrates the work of Charlie Mackesy

THROUGH OUR EYES: The first group exhibition in the UK to hone in on the vibrant art and culture of the Sámi people, Through our Eyes: Sámi Art and Culture opens at Somerset House. View works by 19 artists from Europe's only recognised indigenous people, whose traditional land spans the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. 6 November 2026-February 2027

NUE BLACK AESTHETIC: The Design Museum celebrates contemporary Black designers who are reshaping the British design landscape in furniture, architecture, fashion, and installation — exploring identity, culture, community and more. 6 November 2026-8 August 2027

BLOOMSBURY DUO: Vanessa Bell — sister of Virginia Woolf — and her husband Duncan Grant were the most famous artistic duo of the Bloomsbury Group. View their works and learn about their relationship at Tate Britain. 12 November 2026-11 April 2027

VAN EYCK: One of our art critic's pick of the top exhibitions to see in London in 2026, Van Eyck: The Portraits at The National Gallery brings all of the Flemish painter's portraits together for the first time in history. 21 November 2026-11 April 2027

New theatre shows in London: Autumn 2026

Thelma & Louise musical opens at the Young Vic. Image: Thelma & Louise

BLOODSPORT: Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey) stars in Ava Pickett's new play, Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy, at Theatre Royal Stratford East. The story follows Helen's return after a war fought in her name, and explores family ruptures and the cost of leaving. 3 September-10 October 2026

THELMA & LOUISE: As we reported earlier this year, a Thelma & Louise musical opens at the Young Vic. Amy Lennox and Rachel Tucker star as the inseparable friends who throw off the shackles of male-dominated life for the weekend, going on the run in a 1966 Thunderbird convertible. 3 September-24 October 2026

STANDARD OF LIVING: Rory Kinnear and Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova star in The Standard of Living, a new play by James Graham (writer of Dear England, and Punch). Telling the astonishing story of rebel economist and member of the Bloomsbury Group, John Maynard Keynes, it gets its world premiere at Theatre Royal Haymarket. 21 September-12 December 2026

STING: Legendary musician Sting performs in a new production of his musical, The Last Ship, at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Watch the moving story of a community of shipbuilders faced with the closure of their shipyard, rooted in Sting's own childhood, and soundtracked with some of his songs. 22 September-12 October 2026

Image: Heated Rivalry - The Unauthorised Parody

RENT THE MUSICAL: Legendary musical RENT dances its way back into the West End, taking up residency at Duke of York's Theatre. Inspired by Puccini's La Bohème, it's the story of a group of young artists trying to make their way in New York City. From 26 September 2026

HEATED RIVALRY: An unofficial parody musical of smash hit TV series Heated Rivalry lands at Underbelly Boulevard Soho, with a lively score accompanying gentle ribbing of the steamy hockey drama. 7 October-1 November 2026

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: Disney's High School Musical cheerleads its way into the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, marking 20 years since the film first introduced us to Troy, Gabriella and the students of East High. 12 October 2026-3 January 2027

SURINDERELLA: Stratford East Theatre offers a Bollywood take on traditional panto in the form of Surinderella. The family-friendly show features Surinder, a sweet young woman stuck in a never-ending chore list thanks to her two selfie-obsessed, Insta-vlogging stepsisters, Lovely and Bubbly. 20-31 October 2026

RADIOHEAD + SHAKESPEARE: What do you get if you combine the greatest English writer with the greatest living English band? Shakespeare's Hamlet accompanied by reworked songs from Radiohead's Hail to the Thief is the unlikely flavour of a new crossover show at Barbican. 31 October 2026- January 2027

Family-friendly events in London: Autumn 2026

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland opens for the season in November. Image: Joshua Atkins

OCTOBER HALF TERM: October half term usually falls the final week of the month. We'll bring you our guide to family-friendly half term events and activities closer to the time.

CHRISTMAS AT KEW: Too early for the 'C' word? Probably, but in our opinion, one of the season's highlights is Christmas at Kew, and it always sells out way in advance, so you'll want to book sharpish. The botanical gardens come alive after dark with twinkling fairy lights, photogenic light trails, laser shows and a fire garden — all executed to perfection if previous years are anything to go by. 13 November 2026-3 January 2027. Plenty of other winter lights trails open around this time too.

WINTER WONDERLAND 2026: Winter Wonderland pitches up in Hyde Park in mid-November. You can still expect rides, an ice rink, circus shows, a Christmas market and food and drink stalls. But like last year, you'll need to prebook to enter the site. 19 November 2026- 3 January 2027

ICE SKATING: London's Christmas ice rinks start opening from October/November. We'll update our complete guide to where you can take to the ice this autumn and winter, as details are announced.

Food and drink events in London: Autumn 2026

Fire up the pit! Image: Meatopia

MEATOPIA: Carnivorous foodie festival Meatopia brings up to 75 live-fire chefs to Tobacco Dock, each serving one carefully curated dish cooked over wood or charcoal, with bars, bands and DJs woven into the mix. 3-6 September 2026

BARNET FOOD FESTIVAL: Eat your way around an airfield, as Barnet Food Festival takes place at the RAF Museum. Enjoy global street food alongside live music and a kids' zone. 12-13 September 2026

THE BIG BRINE: If you find yourself in a pickle this month, make your way over to Hackney Bridge for The Big Brine, a foodie festival celebrating all things fermented, pickled and brined. Taste, sip, crunch and explore various dishes, alongside live music, chef demos and other entertainment. 12-13 September 2026

CURRY FESTIVAL: The Brick Lane Curry Festival is back, celebrating the food and culture of the East End's Bangladeshi and South Asian community. It begins with a parade, followed by street entertainment and various foodie stalls offering regional and specialty dishes. It's free to attend, and if you register in advance for a ticket you can save 20% at participating restaurants on the day. 20 September 2026

HALAL FOOD FESTIVAL: The World Halal Food Festival brings dozens of food stalls to the London Stadium in Stratford, offering you a chance to sample halal food from around the world, from burgers and hot dogs to cakes and pastries. Watch celebrity chefs whipping up their own dishes and — if you like what you see — stock up on ingredients at the stalls. 26-27 September 2026

THANKSGIVING: As always, Thanksgiving falls on the last Thursday in November. Plenty of London restaurants usually serve up traditional feasts for American expats, and anyone else who fancies getting in on the action. We'll update our guide to Thanksgiving in London closer to the time. 26 November 2026

Free things to do in London this autumn

Permission to step aboard at the Classic Boat Festival. Image: St Katharine Docks

GDIF: Greenwich + Docklands International Festival continues for the first week in September, offering free open-air theatre, circus and dance performances in east London. Highlights of the final week include Nature Speaks, an immersive storytelling experience in Thamesmead, and Dancing City, which brings performances to a variety of outdoor spaces in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. FREE, 21 August-6 September 2026

DOGGETT'S COAT AND BADGE: The historic Doggett's Coat and Badge Thames race sees apprentice watermen scull the 7.3km stretch from London Bridge to Cadogan Pier. The event, first held in 1715 and named after actor Thomas Doggett, starts at London Bridge, and anyone can watch along the river side. FREE, 2 September 2026

ART ON YOUR DOORSTEP: After treating Croydonites to free art earlier this year, the National Gallery's Art On Your Doorstep scheme pops up in Brentford with a free outdoor exhibition of the nation's favourite artworks. While the real deals are safely stashed away in galleries, life-sized replicas have been created in fine detail, and go on display around the west London neighbourhood. FREE, 4 September 2026-February 2027

GREAT RIVER RACE: Sort of like the London Marathon on water, the Great River Race is a 21.6 mile dash along the Thames between Millwall and Richmond, with all manner of rowing boats taking part. It's free to watch from the river banks and bridges on the day — full details and timings here. FREE, 12 September 2026

CLASSIC BOAT FESTIVAL: Vintage vessels moor up at St Katharine Docks (next to the Tower of London) for the Classic Boat Festival. Even if you don't know your port from your starboard, it's a fascinating spectacle, with around 50 preserved vessels on display, including Dunkirk Little Ships. FREE, 12-13 September 2026

FRIEZE SCULPTURE: If Frieze Art Fair (mentioned above) is out of your price range, there's art to be ogled for free. For several weeks, sculptures by 11 international artists are dotted around Regent's Park for Frieze Sculpture, a trail that's open to everyone. Plus, the park looks fantastic as the leaves begin to turn. FREE, 16 September-1 November 2026

THE BURBERRY TRENCH: After a barnstorming run of incredibly popular (though admittedly pricey) fashion exhibitions, the V&A South Kensington opens a free display tracing the history of the Burberry trench coat. Find out how the fashion icon went from practical outerwear to coveted item. FREE, from 21 September 2026

AUTUMN WALKS: London's parks and open spaces look fantastic as the leaves change. We've picked some of our favourite places to walk in autumn, to catch the trees in their orange, red and gold finery.

Sports events in London: Autumn 2026

Cheer on participants in the Shoreditch Half. Image: Shoreditch Half

ICE HOCKEY: September sees the restart of the ice hockey season, with four teams to watch here in London. Here's everything you need to know before your first match.

RICHMOND RUNFEST: Lace up your trainers and do some laps around Kew Gardens for Richmond Runfest. The 10k route stays entirely within the gardens, while the half and full marathons start at Kew and finish in Richmond. 12 September 2026

LONDON CYCLING FESTIVAL: Get on yer bike for the London Cycling Festival, with rides and wheeled events happening all over the capital. Find festival hubs at locations including Victoria Park and St Paul's Cathedral, and take part in group rides, including some designed with families in mind. FREE, 20 September 2026

SHOREDITCH HALF: London's newest running event is the Shoreditch Half, a closed-loop half marathon route by the team behind the Hackney Half Marathon. It takes place on closed roads, beginning and ending in Shoreditch Park, and though places to run have sold out, you can still turn up to cheer on the runners. 20 September 2026

ULTIMATE SEVENS: Brand new rugby championship Ultimate Sevens has its inaugural edition this month, with the grand final taking place at Brentford Stadium. Following matches in Spain, Wales and France — featuring elite men’s and women’s players in a fast, knockout format across six clubs — the winners are crowned in London. 24 September 2026

NFL IN LONDON: Across three Sundays in October, four American Football teams play at two different stadiums here in London. Tottenham Hotspur and Wembley both host NFL in London games this season, though tickets sold out quite quickly so are hard (but not impossible) to come by now. 4, 11, 18 October 2026

ROYAL PARKS HALF: The Royal Parks Half Marathon takes runners on a route through four of the eight Royal Parks (Hyde Park, Green Park, St James's Park, Kensington Gardens), and other closed roads around central London. Get yourself a place via a charity, or turn up on the day to support the runners. 11 October 2026

This is a sponsored article on behalf of Emerge East.

Head down to the river on Saturday 12 September for a huge festival spanning music, art, wellness experiences, food and drink. Entry is FREE!

Emerge East is back at Barking Riverside for its biggest programme yet, and everyone's welcome. The neighbourhood comes alive with art, music, creativity, nature and community spirit, through a vast line-up of events and activities.

At the heart of the festival is the Barking Riverside Block Party, an open-air stage that remixes renowned artists from London's music scene, alongside emerging talent from within the Borough. Headlining 2026 is DJ AG, who has collaborated with Skepta, Ed Sheeran and JME, among others, and was named Time Out's Londoner of the Year 2024. His high-energy headline set promises to be one of the biggest moments of the festival, so don't miss it.

Joining DJ AG is a line-up that celebrates the breadth of London's music scene. Mak 10 brings his genre-blending sound, moving between grime, UK garage, Afro House, Tribal House and soulful electronic music, alongside Glade Marie, RAIDAA and Donnie Sunshine. In short, expect a packed day of music and a taste of the sounds shaping London right now.

Another highlight of the programme is Pollenarium, a new large-scale interactive installation by renowned artist Luke Jerram and US-based Pneuhaus. It premieres at Emerge East, meaning you can be among the first to see it — it's free to visit, and on display for one day only.

Jerram — best known for his large-scale sculptures of the Moon, the Sun, Earth and Mars — has scaled up a microscopic grain of pollen into a six-metre immersive dome for this new installation. Behind a curtained doorway, more than 100 lenses, each one a camera obscura, reveal an upside-down mosaic of the local landscape, showing how bees see the world.

Pollenarium is commissioned by Creative Barking and Dagenham in partnership with Barking Riverside Limited, with co-commissioning support from the Royal Horticultural Society and the University of Bristol.

Prefer to immerse yourself in nature? Head for the Riverside Sauna & Wellness Zone, and unwind in an outdoor sauna, alongside refreshing cold-water dips. Tickets for the Riverside Sauna & Wellness Zone are £12 and can be prebooked on Eventbrite.

When you've worked up an appetite, swing by Home Cooks: A Taste of Barking Riverside. Here, local residents become street food chefs for the day, cooking up a storm, serving family recipes and showcasing the diverse flavours of the neighbourhood.

The Emerging Makers' Market gives you a chance to support independent artists, designers and local businesses, while also offering creative workshops, family activities and plenty of spaces to relax.

All the fun takes place at Barking Riverside, east London's largest new neighbourhood on the banks of the Thames, easily accessible by London Overground and Uber Boat by Thames Clippers. Emerge East gives you a great reason to explore the area, while enjoying the live entertainment. In short: a fantastic free day out for all the family.

Emerge East takes place on 12 September 2026, 11am-9pm outside Barking Riverside Overground Station, and is free to attend. Visit the website to view the 2026 programme and follow @barking_riverside for more information and updates.

Emerge East is a collaboration between Barking Riverside Limited – the Master Developer behind Barking Riverside – and Hemingway Design, in partnership with Creative Barking & Dagenham. Emerge East is supported by a range of partners, including Bellway, L&Q, Envac UK, Mackley’s, Acre Landscapes and Stantec.

American football comes to London again in autumn 2026. Image: NFL UK

What is NFL in London?

NFL is America's National Football League... except, as we all know, football in America isn't the football we're familiar with. Find out more about what American Football actually involves and get up to date on the rules here.

NFL London Games (previously known as NFL International Series, and then NFL in London) is what it says; the American game, transferred to London. Of the 32 teams in the league, four will each play a match here in London in autumn 2026 (as well as one game each in Madrid and Paris), while one team plays two matches here.

Games played in Europe are part of the regular season, and count towards the league as such.

History of NFL in London

A previous NFL International Series match, at Wembley Stadium. Image: Thomas via creative commons

NFL in London is part of a tour previously known as the NFL International Series, which saw matches played in countries all over the world. In addition to the London matches, France and Spain each host a match this year.

Wembley has been hosting NFL games since 2007, and Twickenham has also hosted NFL games in the past. But Tottenham Hotspur's stadium has been the main London host of NFL games since 2019.

There was talk of the NFL becoming the main tenant of the Olympic Stadium, before West Ham moved in. There have also been discussions about having an NFL team stationed in London permanently, but the logistics and complications of that mean there are no firm plans as yet.

When are NFL London 2026 games? What time is kick-off?

An NFL match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2021. Image: Tony Hisgett

Three NFL London Games take place in October. The full 2026 schedule is as follows:

🏈 Indianapolis Colts Vs Washington Commanders: Sunday 4 October at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

🏈 Philadelphia Eagles vs Jacksonville Jaguars: Sunday 11 October at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

🏈 Houston Texans Vs Jacksonville Jaguars: Sunday 18 October at Wembley Stadium

All kick off at 2.30pm UK time.

Which teams are playing in NFL in London 2026?

The Indianapolis Colts, Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and Houston Texans will each play in one international game in London during the 2026 regular season. The Jacksonville Jaguars play in two London games.

Which stadiums are hosting NFL London Games?

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium hosts the first two NFL in London 2026 games, while the final game is played at Wembley Stadium on 18 October.

How to get tickets for 2026 NFL in London matches

Image: Shutterstock

Tickets for the NFL London matches went on sale a few months ago. Check for regular tickets here and hospitality packages here for the games at Spurs. For the game at Wembley, ticketing is managed directly by the Jacksonville Jaguars, so check here for availability.

NFL London 2026 events: where to watch NFL in London

A few places that may well be screening NFL games (though do check ahead for specific ties):

🏈  Sport London: their coterie of central London sports bars generously peppered with TVs often has American on.

🏈 Passyunk Avenue: this leading chain of American-style dive bars regularly screens NFL action, and is the closest you'll get to feeling like you're watching in Philly.

🏈 BLOODsports, Covent Garden: horror movies are shown alongside lives sports (inc. plenty of stuff from across the Pond), and somehow it works.

The newest Superloop route is nigh! Image: TfL

The latest Superloop bus route launches in September.

The SL12 — running between Gants Hill and Rainham — becomes part of London's network of express bus routes on Saturday 5 September, marking the Superloop's expansion into the borough of Havering.

The full SL12 route is:

🚌 Gants Hill
🚌 Newbury Park
🚌 King George Hospital
🚌 East Road
🚌 Romford
🚌 Queen's Hospital
🚌 Elm Park
🚌 Rainham Ferry Lane

Currently, the journey time on a bus between Gants Hill and Rainham is slightly over an hour. On the SL12, this will be shaved down to around 40-45 minutes. The route also takes in two hospitals; Central, District, Overground and Elizabeth line stations; and links up with the SL2 Superloop at Gants Hills. (Gants Hill itself, of course, is home to a resplendent Tube station).

The SL12 will operate between 5.30am and 12.30am daily — every 12 minutes during the day on Mondays to Saturdays, and every 15 minutes every evening and all day on Sundays.

As an added bonus for passengers, the first week of travel will be on the house. Image: TfL

SL12 buses are brand-new electric, zero-emission vehicles with air con and device-charging points. As an added bonus for passengers, the first week of travel on the SL12 is free (you'll still need to touch in).

Since launching in July 2023, the Superloop bus has accommodated some 81 million trips — although many of the routes are tweaked versions of existing ones.

Freddie Mercury in the Made in Heaven music video. Photography by Simon Fowler © Mercury Songs Ltd

It's a kind of magic: Eight outfits worn by musician and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury go on show in a free display at the V&A South Kensington this autumn.

Freddie Mercury | Splendid Things marks what would have been the singer's 80th birthday by showcasing some of his looks from the 1970s-80s, spanning both his time in Queen and his solo career.

Freddie Mercury, Magic Tour 1986. Photograph by Denis O’Regan

Similar to the museum's 2024 Taylor Swift | Songbook Trail, the display is spread throughout the building. The trail has six stops, each showcasing a different high of Mercury's career within a dramatic setting in the museum's galleries — specially-placed mannequins posed to channel Mercury's stage presence.

Freddie Mercury in the Made in Heaven music video. Photography by Simon Fowler © Mercury Songs Ltd

The outfits on display — seven of which have been loaned by Mary Austin, Mercury's former fiancée and confidante of 20 years — include:

👑 A monochrome outfit which Queen fans may recognise from the cover of the band's 1973 debut album. Mercury also wore it at an early Queen gig at Imperial College here in London.

👑 The Mercury Wing catsuit, designed by Wendy de Smet, made famous in the Bohemian Rhapsody video, also worn by Mercury during the 1975-6 Night At The Opera tour.

👑 The crown and cloak designed by Diana Moseley, worn on the Magic tour, including Mercury's last appearance with Queen, on stage at Knebworth in 1986.

👑 The costume worn by Mercury in the Made in Heaven music video during his solo career away from Queen.

Accessories and items from Mercury's personal wardrobe are also on display, offering an insight into the man he was off stage, and away from the spotlight.

Designer Tom Piper — who worked on the Taylor Swift | Songbook Trail, as well as the Tower of London poppies — is the creative force behind the display.

Freddie Mercury | Splendid Things is at the V&A South Kensington, 24 October 2026-17 January 2027.

Live fire cooking is the order of the day at Tobacco Dock. Image: Meatopia

GDIF: Greenwich + Docklands International Festival continues for the first week in September, offering free open-air theatre, circus and dance performances in east London. Highlights of the final week include Nature Speaks, an immersive storytelling experience in Thamesmead, and Dancing City, which brings performances to a variety of outdoor spaces in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. FREE, 21 August-6 September 2026

BBC PROMS: Classical music festival the BBC Proms continues until mid-September, culminating in the famous Last Night of the Proms. Until 12 September 2026

WIESENTHAL: One‑person play Wiesenthal follows the Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter on his final day in his Vienna office in 2003, exploring memory and the pursuit of justice at close quarters. See it at Wilton's Music Hall. 1-5 September 2026

FRINGE FIX: Missed the Edinburgh Fringe? Underbelly Boulevard Soho brings some of the best shows to London for Fringe Fix, a post-Fringe festival/party running for almost a month. Michael Kinnan's unauthorised retelling of Titanic, and Australian singing comedian Conk, are among shows on the schedule. 1-26 September 2026

Free festival GDIF continues into September. Image: GDIF

TWELFTH NIGHT: This production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at the Drayton Arms Theatre (Brompton) is a disco-flavoured retelling with music, fashion and dancing woven into the story of mistaken identity, love and deception. 1-26 September 2026

TOTALLY THAMES 2026: An annual celebration of London's rivers, Totally Thames Festival returns for a month of tours and river cruises, music performances, talks, art installations, theatre shows and guided walks — including a super-choir performance, and an art installation on the former Blackfriars Bridge pillars. 1-30 September 2026

DOGGETT'S COAT AND BADGE: The historic Doggett's Coat and Badge Thames race sees apprentice watermen scull the 7.3km stretch from London Bridge to Cadogan Pier. The event, first held in 1715 and named after actor Thomas Doggett, starts at London Bridge, and anyone can watch along the river side. FREE, 2 September 2026

MEATOPIA: Carnivorous foodie festival Meatopia brings up to 75 live-fire chefs to Tobacco Dock, each serving one carefully curated dish cooked over wood or charcoal, with bars, bands and DJs woven into the mix.3-6 September 2026

Michelle Dockery and Laura Aikman start in Bloodsport. Image: Photo by Rebecca Need-Menear, design by Steph Pyne.

LONDON PODCAST FESTIVAL: Headphones at the ready for London Podcast Festival at Kings Place, which sees both mainstream and more niche podcasts recorded in front of a live audience, with some streamed online too. No Such Thing As A Fish and the Empire Film Podcast are some of the big name shows, along with offerings on comedy, history and wrestling. 3-13 September 2026

BLOODSPORT: Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey) stars in Ava Pickett's new play, Bloodsport: After Helen of Troy, at Theatre Royal Stratford East. The story follows Helen's return after a war fought in her name, and explores family ruptures and the cost of leaving. 3 September-10 October 2026

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A bumper month for Judy's Vintage Fair

Shoppers are in for a treat this September, with a whopping nine vintage markets curated by the expert team at Judy's Vintage Fair — happening at some rather special venues across the city…

Vintage Furniture Fleas pitch up at Hyde Park (5 September), Mile End (6 September), Marylebone (12 September), Chelsea (13 September), Battersea (20 September), Kensington (26 September) and Leadenhall (27 September). Each event offers an expertly-curated line-up of traders, all of whom are constantly sourcing new stock, so no two markets are the same. Ready your home for autumn with unique pieces, from the perfect vintage lamp for those darkening evenings, to a statement chair for cosying up with a good book... Also on offer: ceramics, glassware, art, textiles, fashion and unusual homewares.

Judy's also blooms with a Botanical Market in Kensington (5 September) where plant lovers can stock up on greenery — and for the dedicated followers of fashion, there's another very special Judy's Vintage event in Kensington on 19 September, during London Fashion Week.

Browse the Judy's Vintage Fair website for the latest on all their events, and start planning your September shopping.

THELMA & LOUISE: As we reported earlier this year, a Thelma & Louise musical opens at the Young Vic. Amy Lennox and Rachel Tucker star as the inseparable friends who throw off the shackles of male-dominated life for the weekend, going on the run in a 1966 Thunderbird convertible. 3 September-24 October 2026

SAMUEL PEPYS DAY: City of London Guides mark the anniversary of the Great Fire of London — and celebrate the man who recorded it in detail — with their third annual Samuel Pepys Day, offering Pepys-themed tours around the City. 4 September 2026

Thelma & Louise gets the musical treatment. Image: Thelma & Louise

ART ON YOUR DOORSTEP: After treating Croydonites to free art earlier this year, the National Gallery's Art On Your Doorstep scheme pops up in Brentford with a free outdoor exhibition of the nation's favourite artworks. While the real deals are safely stashed away in galleries, life-sized replicas have been created in fine detail, and go on display around the west London neighbourhood. FREE, 4 September 2026-February 2027

BLACK ON THE SQUARE: Celebrate London's Black cultural and creative talent at the fourth edition of Black On The Square, a free festival in Trafalgar Square offering live music and performances, activities for children, games, stalls, and a wealth of Black-owned food stalls. FREE, 5 September 2026

ART CAR BOOT FAIR: Play Free is the theme of this autumn's Art Car Boot Sale, which sees almost 120 artists selling their artworks out of car boots at Granary Square in King's Cross, with plenty of comedy entertainment to enjoy while you browse. 5 September 2026

It's the final edition of the Queen's Park Book Festival. Image: Ella Gradwell

BROMPTON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Cycling event Brompton World Championships takes place at Lee Valley VeloPark featuring The Main Event — a Le Mans‑style start and five laps of a 900m urban circuit with 650 participants — and the new 4‑Fold Relay for teams of up to four. Spectator tickets are available. 5 September 2026

DENMARK STREET SESSIONS: Musical thoroughfare Denmark Street brings its history back to life with a one-day free music festival. Denmark Street Sessions takes place at venues in and around the Soho street, offering gigs, talks and an afterparty. FREE, 5 September 2026

QUEEN'S PARK BOOK FESTIVAL: This year's Queen's Park Book Festival is the final edition of the literary event, and it's going out with a bang: authors Philip Pullman, Sebastian Barry and Jacqueline Wilson are among the big names making an appearance, along with British Museum curator Michael Lewis celebrating the Bayeux Tapestry's return to the UK (more on which below). 5-6 September 2026

WANSTEAD FRINGE: Plays, kids' shows, outdoor cinema screenings and a street festival are just a few of things happening for the Wanstead Fringe 2026, which opens with an eve-of-fringe charivari, and closes with a huge finale party. 4-26 September 2026

BROMPTON CEMETERY DAY: Though you can visit Brompton Cemetery any day of the year, the renowned burial site holds a special open day in early September, offering tours of the cemetery and its catacombs, local stalls, children's activities and birds of prey displays. 6 September 2026

PALMERS GREEN FESTIVAL: Broomfield Park is the venue for the 2026 Palmers Green Festival, a fete-style celebration with funfair rides, an art show, a model boat display on the boating lake, a dog show and other entertainment for all ages. FREE ENTRY, 6 September 2026

Watch a VR concert by pianist Yuja Wang. Image: 3Dsketch © Graphics with AI / Clément Deneux

LONDON TRANSPORT: See a tiny version of London's transport system as the King's Cross Model Railway Club opens a one-day London's Transport in Miniature exhibition, in collaboration with the London Underground Railway Society. See various layouts including the fictional/semi-fictional Waddesdon Manor, Carlton Vale and Lammas Lane. 6 September 2026

WILDLIFE ART EXHIBITION: Annual art exhibition David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation - Wildlife Artist of the Year pops up at Mall Galleries, showcasing wildlife-themed artworks from around the world, from recycled plastic sculptures and intricate pencil drawings to vast colourful oil paintings. All artworks are for sale, with 50% of proceeds going to the charity's conservation work in Asia and Africa. FREE, 8-12 September 2026

CHISWICK BOOK FESTIVAL: Adele Parks, Iain Dale, Jacqueline Wilson, Kate Mosse, Mary Portas and Sophie Hannah are just some of the famous names on the schedule at Chiswick Book Festival, taking place at a variety of venues including Chiswick Cinema, Chiswick Library and Hogarth's House. 9-14 September 2026

YUJA WANG: Experience a virtual recital in which an avatar of world-renowned pianist Yuja Wang performs on a Steinway Spirio piano inside a roaming, animated dreamscape at the Royal Festival Hall. Choose whether to move around the space or sit to watch the 45-minute presentation. 9 September 2026-January 2027

FOURTH PLINTH UNVEILING: Trafalgar Square gets a glow-up this month as the latest Fourth Plinth installation is unveiled. Lady in Blue by Tschabalala Self is made of bronze and patinated with lapis lazuli blue and represents "a young, metropolitan woman of colour". It replaces the current installation, Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant) by Teresa Margolles which has been in situ since 2024. From 10 September 2026

Ari Eldjarn is on the Taste Of Iceland programme. Image: Parker OHalloran

TASTE OF ICELAND: Get stuck into three days of Icelandic food, music, literature and culture across multiple venues at Taste Of Iceland festival. Headliners and highlights include comedian Ari Eldjárn, an Iceland Noir crime fiction session with authors Ragnar Jónasson and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, and an Icelandic tasting menu at Darby's. 10-12 September 2026

FLOWER FESTIVAL: A flower festival at Strawberry Hill House turns the beautiful gothic building into a floral masterpiece. Wander through the house and gardens viewing special displays created by floral designers from all over the UK, with a focus on sustainability. 10-13 September 2026

BAYEUX TAPESTRY: The good news: Arguably the biggest exhibition in London this year — possibly for several years — opens this month. The bad news: it's currently sold out. The Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum puts the 70-metre long textile piece on display, the first time it's been in the UK since it was created nearly 1,000 years ago. Tickets for visits until 31 December have sold out, with tickets for dates later than that going on sale soon. Sign up to the mailing list for alerts, as it's going to be extremely popular. 10 September 2-26-11 July 2027

CELEBRASIA: South East Asian culture is celebrated at Battersea Power Station's CelebrASIa festival. Browse themed market and food stalls, try your hand at crafts including basket weaving, and watch panel discussions on topics ranging from food and literature to fashion and culture. 11-13 September 2026

MARKFIELD ROAD FESTIVAL: Taking place in South Tottenham, Markfield Road Festival is a free arts festival for all ages. Check the website closer to the time for the 2026 programme. 11-13 September 2026

CelebrASIA returns to Battersea Power Station. Image: Brendan Bell

CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE: Explore how artists, digital innovation and AI are reshaping the world we live in at Southbank Centre's Creative Intelligence festival. Find out about the intricate web of resources, labour and data that go into a single Amazon Echo speaker, or play an interactive game set in a post-apocalyptic world, among several other events and activities. 11-13 September 2026

HERITAGE OPEN DAYS: Not only do we get Open House (below) in September, but Heritage Open Days too. This nationwide programme of events — including 40+ in London — invites you inside hidden places to celebrate history and culture. It includes walks, behind-the-scenes tours and a chance to visit the place we once suggested might be the best shed museum anywhere, Dulwich's British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum. FREE, 11-20 September 2026

RICHMOND RUNFEST: Lace up your trainers and do some laps around Kew Gardens for Richmond Runfest. The 10k route stays entirely within the gardens, while the half and full marathons start at Kew and finish in Richmond. 12 September 2026

GREAT RIVER RACE: Sort of like the London Marathon on water, the Great River Race is a 21.6 mile dash along the Thames between Millwall and Richmond, with all manner of rowing boats taking part. It's free to watch from the river banks and bridges on the day — full details and timings here. FREE, 12 September 2026

THE BIG BRINE: If you find yourself in a pickle this month, make your way over to Hackney Bridge for The Big Brine, a foodie festival celebrating all things fermented, pickled and brined. Taste, sip, crunch and explore various dishes, alongside live music, chef demos and other entertainment. 12-13 September 2026

Waterworks Festival takes place across two days this year. Image: Daisy Denham

CLASSIC BOAT FESTIVAL: Vintage vessels moor up at St Katharine Docks (next to the Tower of London) for the Classic Boat Festival. Even if you don't know your port from your starboard, it's a fascinating spectacle, with around 50 preserved vessels on display, including Dunkirk Little Ships. FREE, 12-13 September 2026

WATERWORKS EXTENDED: Independent music event Waterworks Festival returns to Gunnersbury Park, extending into two days for the first time in its history. It spotlights progressive club culture across house, techno, bass, breaks and soundsystem music, with a focus on community-driven curation and UK nightlife. 12-13 September 2026

OPEN HOUSE LONDON: It's the most wonderful time of year, when a host of London buildings and structures — many usually off-limits to the public — fling open their doors. Highlights announced at time of writing include livery halls and City churches, along with a solid programme of guided walks. Our previous Open House London highlights include going inside the St Pancras clock tower, and up on the roof of 55 Broadway. 12-20 September 2026

MOON CELEBRATION WEEK: Go lunar loopy as the Royal Observatory holds Moon Celebration Week, a chance to learn more about our closest celestial neighbour through observation sessions, talks and workshops. 12-20 September 2026

LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL: The 24th edition of London Design Festival continues showcasing London as the design capital of the world. We're expecting the usual blend of displays and exhibitions, talks and more. Highlights announced so far include The Pangolin Shield, a large-scale artwork inspired by the endangered species to be installed on the pedestrianised part of Strand, and L-Acoustics, an immersive sound experience at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station. 12-20 September 2026

Head west for Big Gay Beaver Day. Image: Citizen Zoo

CHELSEA ARTS FESTIVAL: We're rather impressed by the line-up at Chelsea Arts Festival, a four-day programme of talks, performances and other entertainment. Author Bernardine Evaristo, actors Sir Derek Jacob, Celia Imrie and Tamsin Greig, and comedian Sarah Keyworth are among those appearing. 16-20 September 2026

TABLE 17: Two exes. One dinner. What could go wrong? Comedy play Table 17 makes its UK premiere at Kilburn's Kiln Theatre, bringing a former couple back together for dinner after seven years apart. 17 September-24 October 2026

LETTERS TO THE FUTURE: Amelia Dimoldenberg, Ash Sarkar and Olly Alexander lead Letters to the Future, a Southbank Centre programme tackling some of the biggest issues of our time. Cultural figures including creators, writers, activists and thinkers curate a programme of panel discussions, interspersed with talks, performances, free gigs, DJs sets and spoken word. Topics including housing, the future of digital media, and the climate crisis. 18-20 September 2026

BIG GAY BEAVER DAY: "A fundraiser celebrating beavers and the queer community, featuring drag performances, DJs and lesbian arm wrestling" — that's Big Gay Beaver Day. Head to Paradise Fields in Ealing for guided tours of the beaver enclosure, followed by an evening of entertainment at nearby Horsenden Hill Farm, all raising money to support Citizen Zoo's ongoing work to restore beavers to London's waterways. 19 September 2026

CURRY FESTIVAL: After a long-awaited return last year, the Brick Lane Curry Festival is back for 2026, celebrating the food and culture of the East End's Bangladeshi and South Asian community. It begins with a parade, followed by street entertainment and various foodie stalls offering regional and specialty dishes. It's free to attend, and if you register in advance for a ticket you can save 20% at participating restaurants on the day. 20 September 2026

LONDON CYCLING FESTIVAL: Get on yer bike for the London Cycling Festival, with rides and wheeled events happening all over the capital. Find festival hubs at locations including Victoria Park and St Paul's Cathedral, and take part in group rides, including some designed with families in mind. FREE, 20 September 2026

Have a chuckle for a good cause. Image: Laughter to the Rafters

LAUGHTER TO THE RAFTERS: Comedians Dara Ó Briain, Ed Byrne, Sara Pascoe, Sarah Keyworth, Kerry Godliman and Janine Harouni join forces for Laughter To The Rafters, a charity comedy night at Hackney Empire, raising money for homelessness charity The Passage. 21 September 2026

THE BURBERRY TRENCH: After a barnstorming run of incredibly popular (though admittedly pricey) fashion exhibitions, the V&A South Kensington opens a free display tracing the history of the Burberry trench coat. Find out how the fashion icon went from practical outerwear to coveted item. FREE, from 21 September 2026

STANDARD OF LIVING: Rory Kinnear and Royal Ballet principal Natalia Osipova star in The Standard of Living, a new play by James Graham (writer of Dear England, and Punch). Telling the astonishing story of rebel economist and member of the Bloomsbury Group, John Maynard Keynes, it gets its world premiere at Theatre Royal Haymarket. 21 September-12 December 2026

VIRGINIA WOOLF: From one member of the Bloomsbury group (above) to another, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opens at Soho Place, about a couple whose 20-year marriage has its flaws exposed by a younger couple they befriend. 21 September-19 December 2026

STING: Legendary musician Sting performs in a new production of his musical, The Last Ship, at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Watch the moving story of a community of shipbuilders faced with the closure of their shipyard, rooted in Sting's own childhood, and soundtracked with some of his songs. 22 September-12 October 2026

The Burberry trench coat is in the spotlight. Image: V&A

HAY FEVER: Noël Coward’s comedy play Hay Fever returns to the West End, with the story of an eccentric wealthy family and their various weekend guests playing out at Wyndham's Theatre. 22 September-12 December 2026

AMAR KANWAR: Serpentine North boasts a solo exhibition by New Delhi-based artist and filmmaker Amar Kanwar, in the form of a site-specific installation. Immerse yourself in lyrical films and multi-video installations that move between documentary, travelogue and visual essay which tell the enduring legacies of decolonisation and the 1947 Partition, which led to the creation of India, Pakistan and eventually Bangladesh. FREE, 23 September-31 January 2027

ULTIMATE SEVENS: Brand new rugby championship Ultimate Sevens has its inaugural edition this month, with the grand final taking place at Brentford Stadium. Following matches in Spain, Wales and France — featuring elite men’s and women’s players in a fast, knockout format across six clubs — the winners are crowned in London. 24 September 2026

FRONT ROW FASHION: Spinal cord injury charity Back Up hosts a fashion show fundraising event at Battersea Arts Centre. Front Row specifically showcases adaptive fashion brands including Unhidden, Intotum, May Marigold and Recondition, alongside fundraising games and other entertainment. 24 September 2026

BRITISH ART FAIR: The British Art Fair takes place at Chelsea's Saatchi Gallery, showcasing modern and contemporary British art, with 70+ exhibitors selling. In previous years, works by artists including David Hockney, Bridget Riley, Frank Auerbach, Alan Davie, Paul Nash, L.S. Lowry, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Grayson Perry, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Banksy have been available to buy. 24-27 September 2026

Adaptive fashion brands are showcased at Front Row. Image: Back Up

FRENCH FESTIVAL: Ooh la la! Cancan your way over to Hounslow for Bell Square Calling: France, a performing arts festival showcasing French performers. The programme includes circus, dance and music with artists from Montpellier, Marseilles, La Rochelle and elsewhere. Some shows are followed by a Q&A with the audience. 24-27 September 2026

THE LAMBETH FRINGE: Now in its 11th year, the Lambeth Fringe (previously known as Clapham Fringe) has announced an impressive 200 shows for its 2026 programme, spread across 28 venues. Among an overwhelming selection of shows, you can see NHS doctors perform in the comedic GP Receptionist Appreciation Society, and take part in interactive '70s game show parody, Cornershop Showdown. 24 September-25 October 2026

LONDON NIGHT HIKE: Do a good deed and raise money for Maggie's Cancer Charity this month, in the form of the London Night Hike. Sign up to walk an eight- or 15-mile route alongside the Thames overnight, passing London landmarks as you go. Both routes start at Maggie's Hammersmith Centre and end at the Barts Centre near St Paul's. 25-26 September 2026

CAMDEN INSPIRE: Community festival Camden Inspire doubles up as the Camden Climate Festival, with a theme of Gathering for the Future. Enjoy a low-carbon community feast, take part in gardening and fermenting sessions, pick up ideas at panel discussions and round tables, and get stuck into evening entertainment including a climate-themed pub quiz. 26 September 2026

CLASSIC CAR BOOT SALE: Vintage vehicles park up at King's Cross for the autumn edition of the Classic Car Boot Sale. Ogle the wheels, while buying vintage fashion from their boots. Other entertainment includes clothing repair workshops, live DJs and motorcycle and scooter ride-ins. 26-27 September 2026

Focus is on climate change at Camden Inspire. Image: Ben Sage

HALAL FOOD FESTIVAL: The World Halal Food Festival brings dozens of food stalls to the London Stadium in Stratford, offering you a chance to sample halal food from around the world, from burgers and hot dogs to cakes and pastries. Watch celebrity chefs whip up their own dishes and, if you like what you see, stock up on ingredients before you leave. 26-27 September 2026

RENT THE MUSICAL: Legendary musical RENT dances its way back into the West End, taking up residency at Duke of York's Theatre. Inspired by Puccini's La Bohème, it's the story of a group of young artists trying to make their way in New York City. From 26 September 2026

SHEEP DRIVE: One of London's wackiest annual events is the London Bridge Sheep Drive and Livery Fair. Each year, a chosen celebrity has the honour of herding sheep over Southwark Bridge while the public watch, followed by a livery fair at the north end of the bridge — keep an eye on the website for this year's celeb announcement. FREE, 27 September 2026

LONDON'S MYTHICAL MONSTERS: Steel your nerves, and spend an evening delving into the history of London's mythical monsters and human villains. Guide Pete Smith gives a talk at the London Archives, telling some dark stories from around the capital, both supernatural and human. 30 September 2026

AUTUMN WALKS: Some leaves have already started turning (prematurely) autumnal hues, so there should be plenty by the end of September. Try one of our favourite autumnal walks in London, where you can see the reds, oranges and golds in all their glory.

London exhibitions and shows closing in September 2026

Last chance to see Hercules the musical. Image: Johan Persson ©Disney

A few things are closing this month too. September 2026 is your last chance to see:

CYRANO DE BERGERAC: Adrian Lester stars as the title character in a West End transfer of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac at the Noël Coward Theatre. It's about a soldier who believes himself too ugly to be loved, but helps a handsome soldier win the heart of Roxane, who he himself also loves. Until 5 September 2026

DISNEY'S HERCULES: It's something of a Greek tragedy that Disney musical Hercules is leaving the West End, ending its run of just over a year at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Until 5 September 2026

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR: Eurovision star Sam Ryder assumes the role of Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Palladium. Tyrone Huntley, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Simon Russell Beale, Richard Armitage, and Layton Williams are also among the cast. Until 5 September 2026

MARILYN MONROE: Portraits and photographs of Marilyn Monroe by renowned artists and photographers are on display at the National Portrait Gallery, along with personal belongings such as books, scripts and clothes. Until 6 September 2026

THE GRUFFALO: Tall Stories’ stage adaptation of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's picture book returns The Gruffalo to the West End for its 25th anniversary at the Lyric Theatre. Catch a family-friendly production with music and playful staging at the Lyric Theatre. Until 6 September 2026

Sam Ryder stars in Jesus Christ Superstar. Image: Jesus Christ Superstar

CECILY BROWN: Serpentine South Gallery hosts a free exhibition of work by artist Cecily Brown, inspired by the gallery's location within Kensington Gardens, a space which holds personal significance for Brown. These new works are shown alongside other key paintings from her career. Until 6 September 2026

JEEVES TAKE CHARGE: One-man show Jeeves Takes Charge sees actor Sam Harrison impressively playing 22 different PG Wodehouse characters including Jeeves, Wooster, Florence Craye, Bingo Little, Uncle Willoughby and Aunt Dahlia. Until 6 September 2026

HEPWORTH IN COLOUR: Barbara Hepworth's experiments with colour across sculpture and drawing are brought together in a research-led exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery. Around 20 sculptures and 30 drawings — including early painted wood and stone carvings from the 1940s and later works from the 1950s and 1960s — are on show. Until 6 September 2026

EXTRA/ORDINARY WOMEN: The real lives of a whole range of women who supported and inspired author Charles Dickens are revealed in Extra/Ordinary Women at the Charles Dickens Museum. Find out about the clues left in Dickens' work which helps us to connect his fictional characters to their real-life counterparts, and view a portrait of the Dickens daughters, Katey and Mamie, on display for the very first time. Until 6 September 2026

DEATH NOTE THE MUSICAL: Based on the manga by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, Death Note The Musical is on at the Barbican. The plot follows student Light Yagami after he discovers a notebook that can decide who lives and who dies, and the detective L who becomes determined to stop him. Until 12 September 2026

Immerse yourself in the world of Rydell High. Image: Danny Kaan

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Aaron Sorkin's stage adaptation of Harper Lee's novel To Kill A Mockingbird at Wyndham's Theatre stars Richard Coyle as Atticus Finch. Until 12 September 2026

THE TRUTH: Florian Zeller's marital comedy The Truth is at the Apollo Theatre, starring Stephen Mangan, Ardal O'Hanlon, Sarah Hadland and Janie Dee as two couples tangled in secrets. Until 12 September 2026

PAINT! PATTERN! PRINT!: The Fashion & Textile Museum explores the painterly patterns of design pioneers Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell, from first sketches and studio photographs to printed cloth, fashion and homeware. The sisters worked together for 50 years, creating vibrant patterns and collaborating with brands such as Liberty's, Heal's and Jaeger. Until 13 September 2026

IMMERSIVE GREASE: Don your best 1950s attire for an immersive staging of the 1978 musical Grease. Battersea Park transforms into Rydell High, as a 30-strong cast perform across multiple screens and sets. Until 13 September 2026

THE PRODUCERS: This West End revival of Mel Brooks' The Producers is at the Garrick Theatre, starring Andy Nyman, Marc Antolin, Trevor Ashley, Raj Ghatak, Harry Morrison and Joanna Woodward. The musical is based on the film that inspired the record‑breaking Broadway production. Until 19 September 2026

View large-scale paintings of the Tube. Image: Jock McFadyen/Guildhall Art Gallery

CATS: A production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's CATS plays at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. The show features familiar numbers such as Memory, Old Deuteronomy and Macavity, as the strays and rebels of London gather under the Jellicle moon in the hope they’ll be the chosen one. Until 19 September 2026

ABIGAIL'S PARTY: Tamzin Outhwaite leads Mike Leigh’s black comedy Abigail’s Party, set in suburban 1977 Essex, at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Until 19 September 2026

WALDMULLER LANDSCAPES: The National Gallery presents the first UK exhibition devoted to Austrian painter Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller's landscape paintings. The show gathers views of Vienna's Prater Park, the lakes and mountains of the Salzkammergut and scenes from Sicily — highlighting Waldmüller's use of colour, light and detailed brushwork. FREE, until 20 September 2026

JOCK MCFADYEN: Large-scale paintings of sections of the Tube by Jock McFadyen are on display at Guildhall Art Gallery, accompanied by sound effects recorded by Pogues musician Jem Finer. Underground (And Surface) combines familiar, yet uneasy, tableaux of London with the mechanical-but-melodic sounds we hear every day. Until 20 September 2026

View Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller's landscape paintings © Belvedere, Vienna

EARLY NETHERLANDISH DRAWINGS: Early Netherlandish drawings at the British Museum is a focused display of works on paper by artists active in the Low Countries in the 15th and early 16th centuries. The exhibition examines drawing techniques, material practices and workshop processes, and brings together sheets from the museum's own collection with short-term loans. FREE, until 20 September 2026

JAPANESE WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS: The Photographers' Gallery's summer exhibition displays the work of 27 Japanese women photographers, from the 1950s to the present. More than 200 photographs, videos, installations and rare photobooks are on show, in a bid to rebalance a history too often told through a single, male-dominated lens. Until 27 September 2026

I'M EVERY WOMAN: A stage telling of Chaka Khan’s life and songs, I'm Every Woman is at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre starring Alexandra Burke as the woman behind the music. Songs include I Feel for You, Ain't Nobody and Through The Fire. Until 27 September 2026

Planning on watching a Premier League tie, FA Cup clash or nail-biting England match? Score salubrious surroundings with a decent pint (and often delish food too), by heading to one of these football-friendly pubs and bars. Back of the net!

Football is screened everywhere you turn in London. Image: Flat Iron Square

The best bars and pubs for watching football in central London

Bat & Ball, Covent Garden
With 22 HD screens, you'll hardly know where to look, at this all-singing, all-dancing brick-lined basement bar, which also peddles shuffleboard, ping pong and the like. Sound-wise, it's "stadium-like quality". There's another Bat & Ball in Stratford. Bat & Ball, 50 Earlham Street WC2H 9LJ

BOX Piccadilly: Brash, big screen venue with American vibes, hearty food menu (kebabs, steak sandwiches, loaded fries) — plus lots of welcome distractions in the form of darts, shuffleboard, etc, should your team be acting up. BOX Piccadilly, 21, 23 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7EF

BLOODsports, Covent Garden
Both stabby stabby and sporty sporty. Horror flicks play on some screens, live sports from across the globe (inc. plenty of football) on others. A weird double-hander, but it somehow works. Plus the drink/food menu (including plenty of bloody mary variations, natch) is by the MeatLiquor team so it's banging. BLOODsports, 27-29 Endell Street, WC2H 9BA

Brigadiers, City
Yes, it's a restaurant, but that doesn't stop this Indian BBQ joint from screening the sport, and at the weekend there's a special Saturday Sports Feast. You can also book a private room, screening the game of your choice. Brigadiers, 1-5 Bloomberg Arcade, EC4N 8AR

Looks like a serious match. Image: Bat & Ball

Cafe Kick, Exmouth Market
Continental style cafe with foosball and cocktails. Arrive early to get a seat, and enjoy the match in style with a martini — you will not be judged. Cafe Kick, 43 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QL

De Hems, Chinatown
Bustling multi-level pub with Dutch heritage. Cram in on match day to cheer on van Dijk, Jurriën Timber, or whoever your Dutch hero happens to be. De Hems, 11 Macclesfield Street, W1D 5BW

Dugout at Belushi's Sports Bar, London Bridge
Student-styled joint with lashings of large screens, plus filling burgers and bar snacks. They're strict with IDs, so bring one. Other Belushi's can be found sprinkled around London. Dugout at Belushi's Sports Bar, 161-165, Borough High Street, SE1 1HR

Greenwood, Victoria
Huge venue with 20 screens, which gets fearsomely busy on big match days, and rightly so. Greenwood is part of a chain of Sport London boozers with similar vibes, scattered hither and thither across London. Greenwood, 170 Victoria Street, SW1E 5LB

When is it not a Big Football Day in London? Image: Tom Webb

Nordic Bar, Fitzrovia
Scandinavian-themed party bar with ping pong, retro arcade tables and — most importantly — four large screens for the football. Nordic Bar, 25 Newman Street W1T 1PN

Pavilion End, City of London
The name's a cricket reference, but Pavilion End also screens a lot of football — not just the Prem but also Bundesliga and Ligue 1. Sehr gut/Tres bon. Pavilion End, 23 Watling Street, EC4M 9BR. Note: they're closed till 11 September 2026

Porterhouse, Covent Garden
Towering Irish boozer, screens all over the place — plus its own beers on tap (try the oyster stout). As well as internationals and Premier League, it screens hurling. Porterhouse, 21-22 Maiden Lane, WC2E 7NA

The best bars and pubs for watching football in north London

Watch in the shadow of England's national stadium. Image: Grant Walker

Beehive, Tottenham
The shirts on the wall set out the Beehive's stall as a Spurs' fans' pub, but how could any football lover resist its many TVs showing games, especially out in the courtyard. Beehive, Stoneleigh Road, N17 9BQ

Boxpark Wembley
If you didn't manage to score tickets for the big match at Wembley, second best is watching it a few hundred feet away. Atmosphere guaranteed. Boxpark Wembley, Wembley Park, HA9 0JT

Clissold Park Tavern, Stoke Newington
Sizeable screens indoor and out (in the summer), accompanied by seriously good antipasti and pizza. There's table football as well. Clissold Park Tavern, 177 Green Lanes, N16 9DB

Yes, it's a Spurs pub, no you don't need to be a Spurs fan. Image: The Beehive

Faltering Fullback, Finsbury Park
Classic Irish pub cluttered with gimcrack and TVs showing footie (and rugby if you're so inclined). Get a Guinness and Thai food to go with. At half/full time, seek solace in the magnificent beer garden. Faltering Fullback, 19 Perth Road, N4 3HB

Hemingford Arms, Barnsbury
All the big league games screened in this ivy-ensconced, Chesterfield-stuffed class act of a pub. Hemingford Arms, 158 Hemingford Road, N1 1DF

World's End, Finsbury Park
Sky Sports and BT Sports on the big screen, plus a foosball table on which to reenact your team's latest victory/defeat. Nice pub grub too. World's End, 21-23 Stroud Green Road, N4 3EF

The best bars and pubs for watching football in south London

The Clubhouse at Dulwich Hamlet is a class act. Image: Dulwich Hamlet

Actress, East Dulwich
Neighbourhood pub that's serious about its football, screening Premier League, Championship, Serie A and lots more. Lots of good food. Actress, 90 Crystal Palace Road SE22 9EY

Alexandra, Clapham
Spacious gastro pub with a few screens/projectors. One of the gardens shows football when it's warm enough. Apparently this is a Liverpool supporters pub, but all comers are welcome. Alexandra, 14 Clapham Common South Side, SW4 7AA

Boxpark Croydon
Home to that insta-iconic video of hundreds of England fans recklessly wasting their pints, Boxpark Croydon screens big matches on its huge screen (especially Crystal Palace ones, given the locality), with offshoot bars elsewhere in the venue showing other games. Boxpark Croydon, 99 George Street, CR0 1LD

Clubhouse at Dulwich Hamlet, East Dulwich
Community Bar at Dulwich Hamlet's ground, with plenty of craft beer, pie deals... and on-screen footie. You'll see some neat footwork outside on the pitch too. Clubhouse at Dulwich Hamlet, Champion Hill Stadium, Edgar Kail Way, SE22 8BD

The Pilgrim: Sometimes even Frank turns up for the game. Image: The Pilgrim

Duke of Edinburgh, Brixton
Perennially-bustling backstreet boozer with multiple screens, and sometimes a biggie in the mahoosive beer garden for good measure. Duke of Edinburgh, 204 Ferndale Road, SW9 8AG

Feed the Yak!, Elephant and Castle
Football-themed craft beer bar (think lots of old posters, footie stickers on the walls) with a few screens dotted about, plus one massive one. Used to be The Tap In, which made more sense as a name for a footie bar, but still — this place is good. There's one in Wembley Park now too. Feed the Yak! 2 Sayer Street, SE17 1FG

Flat Iron Square, London Bridge
All games on Sky Sports and TNT Sports are screened on 19 screens, inside and outside this archway/rambling beer garden setup. No dearth of street food options either — from flame-grilled souvlaki to New York style pizza slices. Flat Iron Square, 45 Southwark Street, SE1 9HP

Pilgrim, Kennington
In the balmy days of the early/late season, watch the game on the Pilgrim's screens, nestled away in its little beer garden. As the chills sets in, move inside, where big screen and sofas await. Pilgrim, 247 Kennington Lane SE11 5QU

The best bars and pubs for watching football in east London

Standard expression for England (Men's) fans. Image: Bar Kick

Bar Kick, Shoreditch
Spacious, trendy, exposed brick kind of place with table football, and plenty of screens dangling from the ceiling. Championship played as well as Prem. Bar Kick, 127 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JE

Big Penny Social, Walthamstow
Premier League matches are often shown on one or more of this cavernous venue's big screens. There are also, we're told, 100 beer taps in action, so you won't go thirsty. Big Penny Social, 1 Priestley Way, E17 6AL

Chequers, Walthamstow
The projector's rolled out for plenty of footie games at this brilliant Walthamstow boozer, which does a very decent line in local beer and sharing plates. Chequers, 145 High Street, E17 7BX

They're cheering the fact there are over 100 beer taps. Image: Big Penny Social

Leyton Star, Leyton
Big projector and a few smaller (but not that small) screens to watch on. Outdoor screens in the spring/summer. Nosh on some extremely loaded fries while you watch. Leyton Star, 116 High Road, E15 2BX

Moretown Belle, St Katherine Docks
Modern pub with an American diner vibe and 31 (!) screens showing sport. The beer menu is 100% uninspiring, but there are plenty of cocktails/wines you can be getting on with instead. Moretown Belle, 5 Thomas More Street, E1W 1YY

Looking for a good footie pub near Old Street? The Volley is a tap in.

Pub on the Park, Hackney
True to its name, you can pretty much watch the footie in the park — the gardens here are furnished with TVs and heaters. Admirable range of beers for a sports establishment. Pub on the Park, 19 Martello Street E8 3PE

Three Compasses, Dalston
Craft beer, award-winning Angus beef burgers and footie projected into the wall. Hip crowd. Good times. Three Compasses, 99 Dalston Lane, E8 1NH

TOCA Social in North Greenwich doesn't do things by halves.

TOCA Social, North Greenwich
This Greenwich funhouse eats football and sleeps football (you can probably drink Coca-Cola here too, if that 90s reference means anything to you). TOCA screens major footie matches, and you can play various interactive footie games before/after. There's another at White City. TOCA Social, Peninsula Square, SE10 0DX

Volley, Old Street
Football scarves dangle from the ceiling of this lively, staggered level football pub, where 14 screens show not only top tier English teams, but also the likes of EFL League one. The beer's good, as is the nosh from pop-up vendors. Volley, 211 Old Street, EC1V 9NR

The best bars and pubs for watching football in west London

Easily one of the best football pubs in west London. Image: Famous Three Kings

Elgin, Notting Hill
A gorgeous Victorian boozer doing quality pub food, the Elgin also screens Premier League games. You can book a private room, should you wish to get your mates together for a big clash. Elgin, 96 Ladbroke Grove, W11 1PY

Famous Three Kings, Hammersmith
Winner of various sports pub awards. Screens everywhere you look, and a healthy measure of roistering: a solid shout for Super Sunday in this neck of the woods. Famous Three Kings, 171 North End Road, W14 9NL

Frankie's Sports Bar and Grill, Fulham
A spit from Stamford Bridge, this screen-slathered bar/eatery invites you to watch the match while stuffing your face with smokey chicken wings and fish tacos. Frankie's Sports Bar and Grill, Fulham Road, SW6 1HS

Life's a beach at Fulham Pier. Image: Fulham Pier

Fulham Pier, Fulham
You needn't be a Fulham FC fan to enjoy the football at this relatively new enterprise: a big indoor screen shows major Premier League clashes (alongside other footie competitions and sporting events). Fulham Pier, SW6 6HH

Jolly Gardeners, Putney
Shows pretty much all of the top-flight football it can. In the summer, they put screens in the garden. Jolly Gardeners, 61-63 Lacy Road, SW15 1NT

Sporting Page, Chelsea
Classy gastro offering with an unabashedly English menu (roasts, wellingtons, sticky toffee pud), and an all-important scattering of TVs screening the football. Sporting Page, 6 Camera Place, SW10 0BH

That was that summer sorted. Image: Jolly Gardeners

Temperance, Putney Bridge
Very much NOT a teetotal pub, the Temperance screens all the big football matches on its many TVs. Temperance, 90 Fulham High Street, SW6 3LF

Wandle, Earlsfield
Like a pie with your football? Order the ham hock & chicken truffle pie at this Earlsfield gastro, screening all the major Premier/Champions League action. The Wandle, 332 Garratt Lane, SW18 4EJ

Westwood Sports Pub & Kitchen, Wood Lane
Ditch the shopping basket and spend the afternoon at Westfield watching the footie at this in-mall sports bar. Giant HD screens show major clashes, plus oodles more sport. Westwood Sports Pub & Kitchen, Ariel Way, W12 7HB

Got a suggestion? Tell us in the comments. Note: There are also some establishments which focus on football from other countries e.g. Stockwell's Portuguese restaurants. We've not listed these here, excellent though some are.

All weekend

Notting Hill Carnival takes place over the August bank holiday. Image: David Sedlecký, Creative Commons

BANK HOLIDAY: This weekend is a bank holiday weekend. If you're lucky enough to have three days off work and you're looking for something to keep you out of mischief, our guide to bank holiday things to do in London has a plethora of ideas.

NOTTING HILL CARNIVAL: Notting Hill Carnival is back on the streets of west London for three days of Caribbean-style entertainment. Expect the usual heady mix of Caribbean culture, samba, mas, soca and calypso, dazzling costumes... and lots and lots of people. Here's everything you need to know about this year's event, including what's happening on each day. 29-31 August 2026

ANIME & GAMING CON: What claims to be the UK's largest anime convention comes to Hammersmith from Friday, with merch, gaming, comics and cosplay. Expect appearances from anime rapper Shao Dow, as well as a chance to meet voice actors from anime productions. 28-30 August 2026

YIDDISH CULTURE WEEKEND: Yiddish language and culture is celebrated in a weekend of events organised by the Jewish Music Institute. The programme includes a beginner-friendly Yiddish sing-along celebrating women's and gender-diverse voices, and an exploration of contemporary Yiddish poetry, with events at Bloomsbury's Horse Hospital, and at SOAS. 28-31 August 2026

Kick back on a rooftop beach in south London. Image: Costa Del Croydon

FOOD FESTIVAL: Feast your eyes on the surroundings of Hampton Court Palace, and your stomach on goodies from the Hampton Court Palace Food Festival, which is held in the palace gardens. Tuck into street food, browse and buy artisan products including wine, rum, cakes, pastries, coffee and cheese. There's also live music at the bandstand and vintage garden games for kids. 29-31 August 2026

COSTA DEL CROYDON: Catch the final few days of rooftop pop-up beach Costa Del Croydon, which brings sand and splash zones to Centrale’s rooftop car park. Expect a giant sandpit, baby splash area, family workshops, giant chess, fairground rides, and street food. FREE, until 31 August 2026

THE ENGLISH CATHEDRAL: Photographer Peter Marlow captured photos of all 42 cathedrals of the Church of England using only natural light. See the results in a free Southwark Cathedral exhibition, closing this weekend. FREE, until 31 August 2026

Last chance to visit Future of Food. Image: © Science Museum Group

HORRIBLE HISTORIES: Treat the kids to a history lesson they'll actually enjoy: Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain at the Apollo Theatre tackles the nasty side of Boudica, King John, Guy Fawkes and other figures who shaped this country — you've only got until Monday to see it. Until 31 August 2026

FUTURE OF FOOD: Time's also running out to see the Science Museum's free Future of Food exhibition, which examines how science and ecology are reshaping what we grow, make and eat — from a 3,500‑year‑old loaf of bread to the first beef steak grown outside a cow. As it's the school holidays, the museum will be very busy so so book a (free) entry ticket in advance to avoid queuing. FREE, until 1 September 2026

GDIF: The free Greenwich + Docklands International Festival (GDIF) is still going on in east London. Highlights this weekend include Efectos Especiales, which allows visitors to step into the world of a live action film shoot. FREE, until 6 September 2026

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Experience the BBC Proms this bank holiday weekend

Make the most of the bank holiday in London, with two powerful BBC Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall this weekend.

This Saturday (29 August), the Oslo Philharmonic and powerhouse conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla are joined by violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja for an evening of Stravinsky and Prokofiev. Hear Stravinsky's virtuosic Violin Concerto alongside excerpts from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, bringing Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers and warring families vividly to life.

Then on Sunday (30 August), experience Berlioz's epic The Damnation of Faust, a dramatic musical journey through heaven, hell, demons and angels, performed by Les Siècles with an international cast of soloists.

Seats for both concerts start from £19.34 in advance. Feeling spontaneous? £8 standing tickets will be available to buy on the day.

The BBC Proms run until 12 September 2026.

Saturday 29 August

Dance in the streets at the Speaker Box Street Party. Image: Wembley Park

DISCO BRUNCH: Relive the '70s and '80s at the bank holiday special Disco Brunch, taking place at Electric Shuffle Canary Wharf on both Saturday and Sunday. Don your best flares or sequins and enjoy a '70s-inspired cocktail on arrival, followed by prosecco or beers, bottomless pizza, one hour of shuffleboard, and DJs spinning '70s and '80s classics. 29 and 30 August 2026

VICTORIAN SURGERY: Step into the oldest surviving surgical theatre in Europe for a vivid demonstration of 19th-century medical life.  Experts at The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret delve into the grim realities of procedures performed before anaesthesia and antiseptics. Located in the original attic of an 18th-century church, the session explores the history of Old St Thomas’ Hospital and the training of the 150 medical students who once crowded these wooden stands. 10am-11am

SPEAKER BOX STREET PARTY: Samovar Space in Wembley Park transforms into an open-air dance floor for a multicultural celebration of music and movement. The Speaker Box Street Party features five hours of live DJs and workshops, ranging from Latin social dancing at midday to Bollywood grooves and a Michael Jackson birthday tribute later in the afternoon. Dip in and out, with a summer market selling handmade crafts and street food located right next door in Market Square. FREE, 12pm-5pm

COWGIRLS & COCKTAILS: Dust off your chaps and head to the Star in Shoreditch for Cowgirls & Cocktails Bottomless Brunch at the rootin’ tootin’ Star Saloon. It features 90 minutes of unlimited drinks paired with Neapolitan pizza from local partners 081 Pizza. Expect a wild programme of country-themed entertainment, including line dancing lessons, musical bingo, and "country-oke" hosted by a live DJ. 2pm-4pm

SOUTH LONDON SOUL TRAIN: The outside space at The Fox and Firkin in Lewisham hosts the first ever all-dayer for South London Soul Train. Legendary DJ Cash Money and MC The Chill One join host Jazzheadchronic for a marathon of funk, soul, and disco. Deep funk specialists Mati Baz and George Aresti round out the line-up, slinging vinyl in the garden from mid-afternoon. 2pm-9pm

Embrace the '70s at Disco Brunch. Image: Electric Shuffle

BI PRIDE: An event where people who experience attraction beyond gender can be freely visible and celebrate themselves and their identities, Bi Pride UK takes place at Kings Place in King's Cross, offering talks, stalls from LGBTQ+ organisations and live performances. FREE, 2pm-10pm

MANORFEST 2026: The car park behind New River Studios in Manor House transforms into a multi-disciplinary festival hub for the August bank holiday weekend. Manorfest 2026 features a packed bill of live music from acts including Eel Men, Morreadoras, and EZ8, alongside DJs, art installations, and theatrical performances. Food stalls and a licensed bar will be on site to keep the energy up throughout the open-air sessions. 2pm-11pm

THE ELEPHANT MAN: Clerkenwell’s independent cinema and bar, The Nickel, screens David Lynch’s moving 1980 biopic The Elephant Man. Shot in luminous black and white, the film stars John Hurt as Joseph Merrick and Anthony Hopkins as the surgeon who discovers him being exploited in a Victorian sideshow. 3.45pm

CHINEKE! JUNIORS: The majority Black and ethnically diverse musicians of the Chineke! Junior Orchestra return to Croydon for a summer performance at Fairfield Halls. Comprising performers aged 11-22, the ensemble presents the results of an intensive week-long residential course where they are mentored by professionals from the senior Chineke! Orchestra. The programme features Arturo Márquez’s rhythmic Conga del fuego alongside Florence Price's The Oak and Respighi's evocative Roman tone poems. 7pm

Sunday 30 August

See professional wrestling in action at Wembley. Image: All Elite Wrestling

AUGUST FAMILY FESTIVAL: Dulwich Picture Gallery invites families to its August Family Festival, a day of hands-on art adventures and nature-led discoveries across its historic site and gardens. The packed programme includes flip-book animation workshops with illustrator Robert Sae-Heng, a garden trail by Lucy Grainge, and an interactive ArtPlay Pavilion that reimagines classic paintings as sculptural forms. FREE entry with some paid sessions, 10am-4pm

RIVER CLEAN UP: Help keep the River Thames healthy by joining a community foreshore session at Newcastle Draw Dock on the Isle of Dogs. Explore the riverside at low tide while removing litter from the water's edge. Organisers Thames21 provide all necessary equipment, including wellies to borrow, plus light refreshments to keep volunteers energised. FREE, 10am-12pm

THE KRAYS' LONDON: Explore the dark side of the Swinging Sixties on a guided walk through the East End manor of Ronnie and Reggie Kray. The Krays In London Walking Tour visits notorious landmarks including the Blind Beggar pub — site of the George Cornell shooting — and the twins' favourite haunt, Pellicci's Cafe. The two-hour route weaves between gangland legend and social history, stopping at various filming locations from the 2015 movie Legend along the way. 10.45am-12.45pm

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND EMPIRE: Historian Subhadra Das visits The Landor Pub in Clapham to re-examine the exploits of the world’s most famous detective through the lens of imperial history. The talk, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the British Empire, explores how Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories were inextricably linked to the global reach of the Victorian metropole, from the North American continent to the British Raj, and is followed by a Q&A. 12pm-1.45pm

FAMILY SUMMER FESTIVAL: Take the whole gang to Walthamstow for Big Penny Social's family summer festival. The beer hall venue offers both a pop-up beach and a beer garden, packed with entertainment including a market, a family pub quiz, and a chance to help create a Ghanaian-inspired community rug. 12pm-6pm

BODY MOVEMENTS: Body Movements is a one‑day dance and queer‑led festival at Southwark Park. The bill includes Horse Meat Disco, Eris Drew & Octo Octa, Roza Terenzi, Romy (DJ), Samantha Togni and many more DJs, live acts, crews and dancers such as Little Gay Brother. 12pm-10.30pm

Body Movements takes place in Southwark Park. Image: Sienna Lorraine Gray

WALTHAMSTOW HIGH STREET: Join guide Joanna Moncrieff for a walking tour of Walthamstow’s historic Marsh Street, exploring the evolution of what became one of Europe’s longest street markets. The route uncovers the area's theatrical past at the site of the former Palace Theatre and traces the local connections of Samuel Pepys and John Keats. 2pm-3.30pm

PUNK BBQ: Bank Holiday Sunday sees the return of the annual South London Punk Collective BBQ at The Windmill in Brixton. Eight bands including Sick on the Bus, PollyPikPocketz, and Scandal perform throughout the day, with a free BBQ served from 5pm on a first-come, first-served basis. The event also includes a raffle. 2.30pm

ALL ELITE WRESTLING: Wembley Stadium hosts a sporting showcase as All Elite Wrestling takes over the venue, showcasing top names from the wrestling world, in a bill headed by Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay. There's also a pre-show fan experience with photo ops with the AEW World Championship belt, meet-and-greets, and early access to merch. 4.30pm

CRICK CRACK CLUB: Ben Haggarty and Steph Brittain of Crick Crack Club present an evening of storytelling with live music from composer Narotam Horn and musicians Anjana Suta, Laurence Harrison and Nicholas Hann. The show, at The Master Shipwright's House in Deptford, draws on myth, epic and fairy tale to explore different kinds of love, initiation and alchemy. 6pm

CHESS CLUB: Head to the Tea House Theatre in Vauxhall for a social evening of strategy and loose-leaf brews. The Chess Club welcomes everyone from seasoned grandmasters to the merely curious for friendly matches in a converted Victorian pub on the site of the historic Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. FREE, 6pm-8pm

VINTAGE JAZZ: The elegant gardens of Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham provide the setting for an open-air performance by the Pasadena Roof Orchestra. Expect a journey back to the roaring 1920s and 1930s with a programme of swing and dance band classics, accompanied by refreshments from the Garden Café. Bring your own picnic blankets, chairs, and drinks to enjoy on the lawn. 7pm-9pm

MUSIC FOR MADRE: Dalston’s Shacklewell Arms hosts a fundraising gig for MADRE, an international charity defending the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. The evening features a live lineup including headliner Candar, supported by SEY.MOUR. and Plastersun. All proceeds from the 18+ event go toward supporting activists on the ground in a country where girls are currently excluded from secondary and higher education. 7pm

Bank holiday Monday 31 August

Peruse a vintage market in south-east London. Image: Alan Old

VINTAGE MARKET: More than 50 vintage traders fill Beckenham Place Mansion and the surrounding lawns with furniture, lighting, ceramics, posters, maps, records and seasonal clothing for the So Last Century vintage fair. Expect street food, a coffee van and the Mansion Bar and Cafe, plus live busking from The Alvar Treefrogs. Resident artists including Sophia Lyons have studios open too. 10am-5pm

LORD OF THE RINGS: Director Peter Jackson's extended cuts of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King play back-to-back at the Prince Charles Cinema, starring Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom and Cate Blanchett. The full marathon runs 688 minutes, taking you right through until Monday evening. 10.30am

PIE PARTY: Islington's Quince Bakery holds its third annual bank holiday pie party, opening its ovens to a guest line-up of the city's best independent bakers including Bake Street, Decatur, Lucky Yu Bakery and Hamblin Bread. They each make their own signature pie, resulting in a celebration of lattice-topped, fruit-stuffed goodness, available to buy until they sell out. 12pm until sold out

Did somebody say... pie party? Image: Quince Bakery

LGBT SPORTS DAY: Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens fills with hundreds of members of the LGBTQ+ community for the annual RVT Sports Day, a fundraiser for health charity LGBT HERO. The afternoon features a riotous programme of competitive events including a sack race, a 50m mince, a drag race relay, and the crowd-favourite rhythmic gymnastics. It is free to watch the action unfold behind the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, with donations encouraged to support vital mental health and wellbeing services. FREE to watch, 1pm-5pm

SUMMER SCREENS: Canada Square Park hosts an open-air screening of the National Theatre’s production of The Playboy of the Western World. John Millington Synge’s classic play stars Nicola Coughlan, Éanna Hardwicke, and Siobhán McSweeney in a darkly funny tale of youth and self-discovery set in a remote Irish pub. The story follows a young man who becomes an unlikely local hero after claiming to have killed his father, only for his secrets to be threatened by an unexpected arrival. FREE, 2pm

GREENWICH HIGHLIGHTS: Explore the maritime history and royal heritage of south-east London on a walking tour. Footprints of London guide Vivienne Lloyd leads the stroll from Greenwich station, passing the Cutty Sark and the Royal Naval College before heading into Greenwich Park to discuss the Meridian Line and Tudor royal history. The route showcases architecture by Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren, concluding with panoramic views across the Thames. 2pm-4pm

Free things to do in London this week.

Last chance to view Future of Food. Image: © Science Museum Group

The Power of Honey

Bees and the Bank of England aren't an obvious combination. But the on-site museum's temporary exhibition (which closes this Friday) centres around the Bee-nomics Inspection Hive, a custom-built observation hive, using their way of life to show how trust is built, protected and deceived.

Until 28 August 2026

Costa del Croydon

This is the final week of this year's Costa del Croydon, a free-entry pop-up beach. Make for the top of the Centrale car park for a giant sandpit and giant chess, plus chill-out areas and splash zones suitable for all ages.

Until 31 August.

Last chance to visit London's free-entry rooftop beach. Image: Costa del Croydon

Future of Food

Also closing soon is Science Museum's free Future of Food display, which explores how food production must change in order to protect the planet for future generations. Find out how food gets to our plates today, how that's changed from food production in the past, and how biotechnology could change this in the future.

As it's the school holidays, the museum will be very busy this week, so book a (free) ticket in advance to avoid queuing.

Until 1 September.

All Points East: In The Neighbourhood

While All Points East festival takes place in Victoria Park across two weekends, this week in the middle sees the festival site used for free events programme In The Neighbourhood. Everyone's welcome, regardless of whether you have a ticket for the main festival, so head here for free activities for all ages including yoga, boxing and dance sessions, bike maintenance workshops, theatre performances, music showcases and more.

24-27 August.

Karate Kid

The Karate Kid is shown at London Bridge City Pier, as part of Summer by the River. The classic 1984 movie is about a 12-year-old boy who learns martial arts from a sagacious janitor, after becoming the target of a bully at his new school.

25 August.

Lower Marsh Lates

Another chance to watch a film in the open air for free! On Thursday evening Waterloo's Lower Marsh screens the last in its '90s film series: watch Mrs Doubtfire on a large screen in the traffic-free street. Deckchairs are available on a first come, first served basis, poppets.

27 August.

Market music

Head to Old Spitalfields Market between 5.30pm-7pm on Friday, and be treated to live jazz and blues to accompany your street food/Friday sips. It's courtesy of the Spitz; once a music venue at the market, and now a charity bringing performances to hospitals, care homes and community spaces. The musicians in question are Mussinghi Brian Edwards, Miles Danso and Pete Wareham — all regulars from the original Spitz venue.

28 August.

Speaker Box Street Party

Image: Wembley Park

Samovar Space in Wembley Park transforms into an open-air dance floor for a multicultural celebration of music and movement on Saturday. The free-entry Speaker Box Street Party features five hours of live DJs and workshops, ranging from Latin social dancing at midday to Bollywood grooves, and a Michael Jackson birthday tribute later in the afternoon. Dip in and out, with a summer market selling handmade crafts and street food located next door in Market Square.

29 August.

Efectos Especiales at GDIF

Image: GDIF

The free Greenwich + Docklands International Festival (GDIF) continues offering free open-air performances and events this week, including Efectos Especiales at Greenwich Peninsula this weekend. The experience gives you the chance to be part of a live action film shoot, with an everyday street transformed into a film set complete with thunder, wind and snow.

29-30 August.

Notting Hill Carnival 2026

Image: Shutterstock

This weekend is the August bank holiday, which means... CARNIVAL! Notting Hill Carnival takes over the streets of west London — including Notting Hill, Westbourne Park and Ladbroke Grove — for its 60th anniversary edition. It's free to attend, though be aware that it gets VERY busy. Then again, that's all part of the fun.

Whether you're a seasoned carnival-goer, or this is your first time, our Notting Hill Carnival guide contains everything you need to know.

29-31 August.

Jack Jewers, author of Seething Lane, takes us on a trip down the historic thoroughfare.

A bust of Pepys surveys Seething Lane Gardens. Image: Dave Bonta, Creative Commons

Seething Lane is an unassuming little thoroughfare.

Barely 160 metres from end to end, it's tucked away among the warren of narrow byways that connect the Tower of London in the south with bustling Fenchurch Street to the north. But Seething Lane holds an essential place in the literary heritage of London, as the home of Samuel Pepys — the man who kept the most famous diary in English history.

Pepys lived and worked on Seething Lane from 1660 until 1673. For nine years of these years, he recorded his daily life in extraordinary detail. His writing can be funny and it can be tender. It is also racy, at times shocking, and utterly indiscreet. His diaries are frank and honest, whether or not they paint him in a good light — and frequently they don't.

Luckily for Pepys, the Great Fire didn't quite reach Seething Lane. Image: Philip James de Loutherbourg, Creative Commons

"Pepys frequently complained about the quality of the sermons... which may be why he spent several of them lusting after the female parishioners"

These diaries have become a staple of school history lessons, thanks to his powerful eyewitness account of the Great Fire of London. It’s hard to read Pepys' descriptions of people clambering onto boats with the flames at their heels, or pigeons falling to the ground with singed wings, and not feel a shiver down the spine. Fearing that his home was about to be engulfed by the blaze, Pepys took the precaution of burying some of his most valued possessions in his garden — including, famously, a Parmesan cheese.

In the event, the fire didn't reach Seething Lane, but the street was not so lucky during the Blitz. On 17 April 1941, the medieval St Olave's Church, which sits on the corner of Seething Lane and Hart Street, was gutted by a bomb. The tombs of Samuel Pepys and his wife, Elisabeth, were spared from destruction by mere inches. The church still stands there today, painstakingly reconstructed, and is the only building on Seething Lane that survives from Pepys' time.

There are numerous references to St Olave's in the diaries, beginning on 19 August 1660, when Pepys and some colleagues went to demand they be given a pew (when told there were none available, Pepys resolved to have one built). He was a regular, though not always very devout, churchgoer. He frequently complained about the quality of the sermons, which may be one reason why he spent several of them lusting after the female parishioners. Today, St Olave's is a peaceful spot that makes much of its Pepysian heritage, with special services held in his honour, and an annual Pepys-related lecture in November.

St Olave's is the only building on Seething Lane that survives from Pepys' time. Image: Matt From London, Creative Commons

"He drunkenly showed his lodgings to a boorish friend privately nicknamed 'Monsieur l'Impertinent"

We don't know precisely where Pepys' house was located, but it was no more than a few doors down from the church, on the west side of the street. It came as a perk of his job at the Navy Office, for which he was paid £350 per year. (Historical exchange rates are notoriously difficult to calculate, but that's somewhere around £100,000 in today's money). The first mention of their lodgings came on 14 July 1660, when he drunkenly showed them to a rather boorish friend called Mr. Butler — privately nicknamed 'Monsieur l'Impertinent.' Their moving day was set for 16 July, but had to be put off until the next day due to heavy rain.

The house consisted of around 10 rooms, with a small garden out back. We know it was large enough to sleep 16 on the night of 2nd March 1669, when the Pepys threw a grand house party — albeit with several guests sharing (Samuel and Elisabeth gave their room to three friends and slept in the maid's bed instead, noting with a certain surprise that it was "very good.")

Pepys' violent behaviour towards his pets was one of his more unsavoury characteristics. Image: Laura Alessia, Pexels License

"Pepys recorded beating the creature 'till she was almost dead,' as punishment for escaping her cage"

The diaries contain scant description of how the house actually looked, but as a grace-and-favour residence, it was likely smart, without being overly grand. Pepys certainly saw room for improvement and set about redecorating the place straight away, paying for new carpentry, plastering and a fresh paint job by the end of their first year as residents. We know that the dining room was finished in green with a fine, gold pattern.

Pepys continued to make improvements throughout the time they lived there, for example, adding a small balcony to their bedroom, completed only months before the Great Fire of London.

The site of the Navy Office is now marked by the Seething Lane Gardens. This idyllic enclave is criss-crossed by footpaths, converging on a bust of Samuel Pepys himself. The paths are inset with a series of carved stones. Designed by sculptor Alan Lamb in 2017, the carvings reference different events from Pepys' life. There are stones depicting the Great Fire, for example, and his beloved cheese. A pair of forceps represents an operation Pepys had to remove bladder stones (an ordeal he faced without anaesthetic), while carvings of a monkey and a lion refer to two exotic pets he kept at the Navy Office — the latter being a somewhat pointed gift, from a man whose wife he had been sleeping with for several years. Though the lion stayed in the office until it grew too large and was sent to live in the menagerie at the Tower of London, the monkey divided her time between the office and Pepys' home. It was here when, on 18 January 1661 — shockingly to modern eyes — Pepys recorded beating the creature "till she was almost dead," as punishment for escaping her cage.

"My contribution to Samuel Pepys lore has been to turn him into a reluctant detective". Image: John Riley, Creative Commons

"My contribution to Samuel Pepys lore has been to turn him into a reluctant detective"

In the winter of 1670, when my book, Seething Lane, takes place, not only was the city still recovering from the Great Fire — the rubble of its ancient, timber-framed buildings slowly replaced by brick and stone — but the capital itself was in the grip of a cultural resurgence. At the forefront of this was the bawdy, exhilarating world of Restoration theatre. Just a decade earlier, theatres had reopened in England after a ban that lasted nearly 20 years. And, most exciting of all, for the first time ever, women were allowed on the stage. London had a new cultural phenomenon: the celebrity actress. This new world in which Samuel Pepys found himself must have felt radically different to the one in which he'd grown up.

My contribution to Samuel Pepys lore has been to turn him into a reluctant detective, working on clandestine missions for the Crown. In Seething Lane, I send him into the glamorous world of Covent Garden theatres, where he is tasked with solving a brutal double murder. And Seething Lane itself sits at the centre of the action, a shadowy corner of historic London, where the very old sits alongside the very new. A place of sanctuary — and a place of danger. Because sometimes, the greatest threats lie closest to home…

Seething Lane by Jack Jewers, published in hardback, eBook and audio on 3 September 2026 by Moonflower.

Jack is also giving the annual Pepys lecture on 10 November 2026, at St Olave's.

We featured this book because we know it's the kind of thing our readers will enjoy. By buying it via links in this article, Londonist may earn a commission from Bookshop.org — which also helps support independent bookshops.

Your weekly roundup of Londonist news and features.

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St Pancras: London's gateeay to Europe. Image: Daniela Paola Alchapar, Unsplash License

Eurostar trains have been running between London St Pancras and mainland Europe since 2007 (and before that, from Waterloo to the continent since 1994). But there could be plenty of changes to those services in the next few years...

When is Eurostar getting double-decker trains?

Image: ©ALSTOM SA ©SPEEDINNOV SAS 2025. Advanced & Creative Design | Avelia Horizon™.

Aside from new routes (details below), the biggest change coming to Eurostar in the next few years is the addition of double-decker trains.

It was announced in autumn 2025 that Eurostar had ordered 30 of the new trains, known as 'Celestia', with the potential for a further 20 to be added to its fleet at a later date. Each all-electric train is 200 metres long with 540 seats, which means that in its usual 400-metre formation, each Eurostar service will have around 1,080 seats — around a 20% increase on the capacity of current Eurostar services.

They'll be the first double-decker trains to operate through the Channel Tunnel  — though not the first on UK rails: double-decker trains were in operation between Charing Cross and Dartford from 1949.

Expect to see the double-decker trains in service from May 2031 — though as we've seen with the new Piccadilly line and DLR trains, and other transport infrastructure projects, these things have a habit of being delayed. Once in service, they're expected to serve all Eurorstar destinations, bringing the company's total fleet up to 67 trains.

Which new Eurostar routes are opening, and when?

Paris is one of Eurostar's destinations direct from London. Image: Alejandro Aznar, Pexels License

At time of writing, Eurostar operates direct trains from London St Pancras to Paris, Lille, Brussels, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, with connecting Eurostar services available to Antwerp, Dusseldorf and Dortmund. Previous direct routes to Lyon, Marseille and Avignon have been dropped due to a lack of demand in recent years.

Of course, once you've reached any of these stations in mainland Europe, connections to train services operated by other carriers are available, to destinations including Strasbourg, Zurich and Nice. An additional Eurostar ski service to certain mountain resorts runs in the winter months, though it's been pared back in recent years. See the Eurostar route map for current available routes.

More direct routes from London St Pancras will soon be added to Eurostar's offerings:

Eurostar services from London to Antwerp: From December 2026

Starting from 13 December 2026, direct Eurostar trains will run between London and Antwerp, taking around two hours 41 minutes: compared with the 3.5 hours the journey currently takes when involving a change of train at Brussels.

There's a big caveat here: Though trains from London-Antwerp will run direct, services in the opposite direction are not able to run direct, due to a border quirk. Antwerpen-Centraal station has no UK border service, so passengers travelling to London from Antwerp have to change at Brussels to go through border checks there instead. There are no plans for this to change in the near future.

Tickets for this route in both directions are now available on the Eurostar website.

Eurostar services from London to Frankfurt: early 2030s

In summer 2025, Eurostar announced a new direct route between London and Frankfurt, the first time it has offered a direct route to Germany.  No further details have been confirmed yet, so we don't know if these services will stop anywhere else along the route, though the journey is expected to take around five hours. A projected launch date of the early-2030s has been given, coinciding with new Celestia trains (above) joining the network.

Eurostar services from London to Switzerland (Geneva and Zurich): 2030s

London-Geneva by direct train? Yes please! Image: christine roy, Pexels License

At the same time as the Frankfurt route was announced, Eurostar dangled plans for a direct route between London and Geneva in Switzerland too. Direct links between London and Zurich, and London and Basel, have also been touted as future possibilities. London-Basel is expected to have a journey time of about five hours; London-Geneva around five and a half hours; and London-Zurich around six hours, though nothing has yet been confirmed.

As of May 2026, SBB, the Swiss national railway operator, SNCF Voyageurs, the French passenger rail operator, and Eurostar are all working together to make the London-Switzerland link happen. Eurostar said of these routes: "Implementation would be feasible at the earliest sometime in the course of the 2030s."

Will the closed Eurostar stations reopen?

International in name only. Image: Richard Humphrey, Creative Commons

St Pancras (and Waterloo before that) wasn't always the only option for getting a train from the UK to mainland Europe. Eurostar used to operate from Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International stations in Kent too, though they closed in 2020 due to the pandemic. There was talk of them reopening in 2022, but as of summer 2026, no moves to do so have been made (though both stations still offer a domestic train service). The cost of reinstating international border checks at these stations has been cited as a reason for keeping them closed.

Then there's Stratford International which, despite its name, has never had an international train service. Initially, Eurostar trains were due to stop there when the Eurostar terminus moved from Waterloo to St Pancras in 2007, but it never happened, and to this day, trains on the St Pancras route simply whizz straight through its platforms.

When will Virgin Trains start running between London and Europe?

Previously a UK train operator, Virgin Trains looks set to go international. Image: The Carlisle Kid, Creative Commons

In August 2026, Virgin Trains made headlines when it was granted access to use the UK tracks to start operating rival routes to Eurostar between London and mainland Europe.

However, at the moment Virgin Trains has only got approval for routes running from St Pancras to the entrance to the Channel Tunnel — it still needs the appropriate permissions to run in mainland Europe, as well as to use the Tunnel itself. If all goes to plan, we should see Virgin Trains plying the route by 2030: the agreement which allows it to use existing UK rail infrastructure is valid for the period between 1 October 2030 and 31 December 2040.

Where will Virgin Trains' channel routes go?

Virgin Trains proposes to operate 20 daily return services between London St Pancras and Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam to begin with. Could it expand if all goes well? No further plans have been revealed yet, but who knows.

Will Virgin Trains replace Eurostar?

Eurostar's monopoly will soon be over. Image: willnoble13, All Rights Reserved

No, Virgin Trains will be a competitor to Eurostar — an interesting twist in the story of cross-channel train services, as Eurostar has held the monopoly on passenger services from London since the Channel Tunnel opened in 1994.

What exactly that means for passengers remains to be seen, but we can only hope that the competition leads to lower fares as the different operators vie for passengers. And Richard Branson isn't the only one hoping to muscle in on the route...

Why are these changes happening now?

Eurostar trains at Temple Mills depot. Image: Robert Lamb, Creative Commons

After 30 years with Eurostar as the sole operator, why are other companies suddenly talking about running passenger services through the Channel Tunnel?

It all centres around the Temple Mills depot, a train maintenance depot in Leyton which is the only one in Britain able to handle cross-channel trains (specifically, it's the only one able to accommodate trains with the larger continental European loading gauge). Capacity at the depot is limited, and with Eurostar looking to expand its own fleet significantly, there isn't all that much space for other operators to base their trains there.

In March 2025, the ORR (Office of Rail and Road — the UK rail regulator) agreed that extra capacity at the depot could be made available. In October 2025, it granted Virgin Trains the appropriate permissions to access Temple Mills. This was a huge step forward in Virgin Trains' attempts at running cross-channel services, but it's still not a done deal.

Will any other operators run train services to mainland Europe?

Image: Christian Lue, Unsplash License

With Virgin Trains looking increasingly likely to get a share in the route, could other operators get involved too?

Currently, around 400 trains — both Eurostar passenger trains and Le Shuttle vehicle trains operating from Folkestone — use the Channel Tunnel each day, though it has capacity for around 1000 trains daily, so the potential for expansion is there. The capacity issues don't lie on the route itself, but with the Temple Mills depot, as mentioned above. So while it's not a hard 'no' to other operators plying the cross-channel route, it's logistically complex. That hasn't stopped a few companies from putting plans forward.

Trenitalia France — a subsidiary of Italy's state-run transport operator — said in April 2025 that it wants to run a high-speed service between London and Paris, and hopes to begin operating 10 daily return journeys on the route in 2029. In August 2026 it ordered 19 new high-speed trains, some of which it intends to use on the cross-channel route. It appears to be circumventing the capacity issue with plans to build its own depot near Paris, removing the need for it to use Temple Mills.

Image: train_photos, Creative Commons

In August 2026, Transport Scotland announced that it's looking into the possibility of running direct Caledonian Sleeper services between Scotland (most likely either Glasgow or Edinburgh) and mainland Europe, via the Channel Tunnel. Further details, such as the specific route, haven't yet been announced, but a feasibility study is being undertaken — though a similar idea, the Nightstar, failed in the 1990s. Presumably such services would be based in Scotland so wouldn't need to trouble the Temple Mills depot.

Dutch company Heuro and Spanish operator Evolyn have also expressed an interest in running services on the St Pancras route. When the ORR approved plans by Virgin Trains to use the Temple Mills depot in October 2025, it rejected applications from Evolyn, Gemini and Trenitalia. While Trenitalia is persevering with plans, it's all gone quiet from Evolyn and Heuro.

Image: Dan Wright, Pexels License

Gemini Trains, a new potential train operator, was created solely with the intention of offering cross-channel services, initially between the UK, France and Belgium, with the potential to expand to other destinations at a later date. Interestingly, Gemini proposes to use Stratford International rather than St Pancras, and may end up building its own train depot in Ashford (Kent), potentially bringing Ashford International back into use, and bypassing the need to use the Temple Mills depot.

TL;DR: the possibility of other operators running cross-channel routes in future hasn't been ruled out, but they'd likely have to provide their own alternative to basing their fleet at Temple Mills, as there isn't space for them there. Additionally, if any operator wanted to run trains from the mothballed Stratford International, Ebbsfleet International or Ashford International stations, they'd likely to have to come up with the funding for the border infrastructure themselves.

As recent Eurostar passengers, we'd also argue that the departures lounge at St Pancras could do with a bit of expansion before any more services depart from there, but given the station's footprint, there's not anywhere for it to expand to without removing some of the shops from St Pancras station.

Drawing on 25 years of insider knowledge at Kew Gardens, Jonathan S. Farley has gathered chilling firsthand accounts of ghostly goings on from staff, visitors and the archive collection, to write his book Ghosts, Myths and Oddities of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Here, we share five spine-chilling tales.

Kew Gardens. Or should that be Boo! Gardens. Image: a.canvas.of.light via creative commons

The Runaway Carriage

In the mid-1800s, an unsettling haunting was a frequent occurrence at Kew, captivating locals and staff alike. A phantom carriage was seen and heard on several occasions, a spectral replay of a long-ago tragedy. The vehicle was a 'High Flyer Phaeton', a notoriously unstable and lightweight carriage popular during the Regency era. Witnesses described the terrifying scene with consistent detail. The ghostly vehicle would appear, thundering down the path with a terrifying speed, seemingly out of control. The horse appeared to have bolted, its spectral form galloping furiously, while the driver desperately struggled to regain command. A female passenger could be heard screaming for assistance, her cries of panic echoing across the grounds. At a certain point, near the area of what is now the Wilderness, the entire scene would simply vanish, and the sound of the carriage, the horse's hooves and the woman’s desperate screams would fade away into silence.The haunting came to an abrupt end in the late 19th century. According to local folklore, during the laying out of the Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Course in the 1890s, a team of workers reportedly discovered a broken carriage wheel buried in the ground. Since that time, the phantom carriage has never been seen or heard again. It is believed that the discovery of the lost wheel allowed the trapped spirits of the driver and passenger to finally find peace, ending their perpetual reenactment of the fatal accident.

The Foggy Day Ghost

When a thick, still fog settles over Kew Gardens, visitors walking the Broad Walk may experience a peculiar and unsettling sound. From within the dense, grey silence, the unmistakable drone of a single-engine aeroplane with a rough-sounding motor can be heard. The sound seems to come from very low, as if the plane is just above the treetops. However, as the noise reaches its peak and the engine appears to be directly overhead, it abruptly cuts out, and silence returns. This eerie phenomenon is believed to be the phantom echo of a tragic aviation accident. While historical records are sparse, several small planes crashed in the area during the early days of aviation when the airspace around London was less regulated. The ghost plane's appearance is always tied to the conditions of a dense fog, a detail that hints at a pilot being disoriented by the weather. The sudden silence is the most chilling part, representing the final, fatal moment before impact.

The Phantom Hound

Image: The History Press

A ghostly black dog is occasionally seen running along Holly Walk. This apparition is considered to be a classic 'shuck' or 'wisht-hound', a spectral canine from British folklore. Aggressive, and sometimes accompanied by a low growl, its eyes are often described as glowing a fiery red. This behaviour, common to shucks across the UK, is explained by the belief that these animals are guard dogs that do not know they have died. Their loyalty is so profound that their spirits continue their earthly duties, defending a master, a home or a piece of land that is now long gone or fundamentally changed. The Holly Walk dog's ceaseless patrol is a poignant and rather sad reminder of a bygone era, a loyal servant forever on duty in a world that has long forgotten the need for its protection.

These Boots Are Made For Haunting

A phenomenon has been reported over a period of several decades. It involves a pair of men's leather boots, unmistakably Elizabethan in style, reaching just below the knee and weathered as if from years of use. These boots, by all accounts, walk entirely on their own. Witnesses describe the scene with remarkable consistency: the boots appear suddenly at dusk, always walking in the same direction and pacing steadily as if worn by an invisible figure. They don't shuffle or drag but move with the confident rhythm of someone walking with purpose. Their gait is too natural, too precise, to be the result of wind or mechanical trickery. And yet, no body, no shadow, no outline accompanies them, only the boots themselves, striding silently forward before vanishing just as abruptly as they appeared.

The most recent sighting occurred in 2008. The gardens had just closed to the public and two members of staff were walking back to the Herbarium from Museum No. 1, where they had been attending in-house training. As they made their way along the path, they noticed two shapes approaching in the distance. At first, they assumed it was a pair of foxes but as the forms drew closer, they were stunned to see a pair of knee-length boots walking upright, entirely on their own. The boots passed within touching distance, moving with the steady stride of an unseen wearer. When the staff turned to watch them continue down the path, the boots had completely vanished.

The Fairy Mimosa

Image: John Cardamone/Unsplash

One of the more enchanting tales of Kew Gardens involves a benevolent spirit known as the Fairy Mimosa. The story dates back to at least the 1910s, when a child, whose family were not unknown to the director, reportedly became separated from their parents and was lost for several hours, instigating a massive search by Kew's Constabulary. The child was eventually found asleep on a bench near the main gates. When questioned, they recounted a magical story: after crying in distress, they were comforted by the Fairy Mimosa, who lived in a secret home within the Pagoda. The child claimed the fairy served them tea and cakes before they fell asleep, only to wake up on the bench. When taken back to the Pagoda, the child pointed to where the fairy's door had been but it was nowhere to be found. The myth was seemingly reinforced in the 1920s, when the father of the first child (a local vicar) was informed by the director that an almost identical incident had occurred again. A second lost child, with no knowledge of the previous story, was found asleep in the same spot. They too told of being entertained with tea and cakes by the Fairy Mimosa, who lived in a hidden cave under the Pagoda. These charming, parallel accounts have become a cherished part of Kew’s folklore, suggesting a protective, magical presence watching over the gardens' youngest visitors.

Ghosts, Myths and Oddities of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew by Jonathan S. Farley, published by the History Press

Click or tap for larger version.

Rent. It keeps going up, doesn't it? Well, not always.

Over the past year, the average rental price has increased in 28 of London's 32 boroughs. Camden, Kensington & Chelsea, Kingston, and Westminster have all got cheaper for renters (on average) since we last looked at the figures in June 2025.

Across the whole of London, rents have gone up 2.2% in one year, and now stand at an average of £2,302 per month (up from £2,252 last year). Looking back to 2016 (a ten year span), this is up from £1,679 per month.

The figures, from the July 2026 release by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), reinforce what everyone already knows: London is an expensive place to live. The most spendy borough of all is, unsurprisingly, the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, where renters must find an average £3,596 per month (down from £3,616 last year). This is the most expensive place to rent in the UK. Westminster is not far behind, on £3,168 per month.

The cheapest borough, meanwhile, remains Bexley, where the average rent is less than half that of K&C's at £1,528. This is still greater than the national (English) average, which stands at £1,446.

Signs that the market may be cooling in Brent. Image: Matt Brown

It should be noted that these prices are averaged across all property types, from the smallest studio flat to a multi-roomed town house. In K&C, for example, a one-bed flat costs a 'mere' £2,572 a month. Shift over to Bexley, and you can enjoy a one-bed rental at an average price of £1,531 per month.

Now the good news. While rents are continuing to go up in almost all boroughs, the rate is slowing down. The ONS has now recorded drops over seven successive months. Rent is still going up, but not as fast as it was last year.

We'll update this article annually with fresh data.

Below, we've pasted in last-year's picture, using June 2025 data

Click/tap for larger version

The free one-day festival is described as "part street party, part open house, and a series of intimate live shows".

It's the street where the NME was founded, Charlie Chaplin co-write 'Smile' and the Sex Pistols lived.

Denmark Street — aka Tin Pan Alley — is swamped in musical history, although of late it's been in the headlines more thanks to rampant redevelopment, and a perceived sterilisation of its former pulsing self.

Denmark Street Sessions is a tonic to all this; the one-day festival on Saturday 5 September 2026 is billed as "part street party, part open house, and a series of intimate live shows" — hosted at instrument stores, bars and venues in and around the central London thoroughfare.

An amuse bouche of this year's line-up:

🎤 A talk from Crispin Weir, owner of Regent Sounds Studios, on why and how Denmark Street became the home of British music.

🎤 Live music sets in various venues, including singer/songwriter Esme White at Regent Sounds; Moon Music Orchestra at Wunjo Guitars; the Roland Store hosting Henri Herbert playing the bones(!); and a closing party at Thirteen LDN from Pink Juice.

🎤 The Pink Juice gig is followed by an afterparty at Thirteen LDN with special guests.

Free music blowouts in this neck of the woods are becoming a bit of a thing: jazz club Ronnie Scott's recently brought back its annual street party on Soho's Frith Street.

Denmark Street Sessions, Saturday 5 September 2026, free

Adapted from a feature that first appeared in August 2025 on Londonist: Time Machine, our much-praised history newsletter. To be the first to read new history features like this, sign up for free here.

Image: Matt Brown

One does not simply walk into the Bank of England.

This titanic treasury is built like a fortress. It stands guard over more than £200 billion worth of gold — enough to run the entire NHS for more than a year. The Bank has other secrets to protect. It oversees payment systems, monitors financial stability, decides interest rates and guards any number of fiscal sensitivities. Its inner sanctums are very much not all over TikTok.

Happily, I’ve been invited in. The Bank’s museum is currently running an exhibition about the building’s architecture, and the curator Jenni Adam is keen to show off the real thing. Even with her generous welcome, I still have to satisfy three different gatekeepers, an ID check and a bag search before I’m allowed past the security gate-line.

I’m in for a treat. The building’s innards are rarely seen by the public. They are an essay in magnificence and embellished solidity — not dissimilar to Gringotts from Harry Potter, though without the ludicrous mine-car ride.

The architectural splendour could, and probably does, fill a book. When faced with such overwhelming riches, it often helps to zoom in on one detail. Five steps beyond the security gates brings me to the perfect candidate:

Image: Bank of England Museum

This spectacular floor mosaic is the work of Boris Anrep (1883-1969), whose handiwork you might have seen inside the entrance to the National Gallery. Anrep laid down this mosaic in the 1930s during the Bank’s reconstruction, along with dozens of other ornamentations.

One might easily stride over the mosaic without giving it a second thought. But it holds a world of symbolism. The two lions and classical column are modelled on those of the Lion Gate in Mycenae, Greece, which also guarded a treasure house.

Beneath the stone plinth, the white trace represents the south coast of England. The single red tessera, easily missed, indicates the location of Cobham in Kent, home of the modern Bank’s architect Sir Herbert Baker. Meanwhile, the top of the mosaic features two constellations: The Plough (Big Dipper) and the Southern Cross. If you use the constellations as a navigator would, then they point not to north and south but directly towards the office of the Governor of the Bank of England. I find that enchanting.

Boris Anrep wasn’t the only mosaicist to leave his mark on the Bank. Someone got there 1900 years before him. Three Roman mosaics have been discovered across the site during various phases of expansion. One of these was removed to the British Museum in the early 19th century where it’s been on permanent display ever since. One is in the Bank’s museum. But the third now forms a focal point at the base of a precipitous stairwell:

The Roman mosaic at the bottom of the stairwell. Image: Matt Brown (one of the few things I *was* allowed to photograph).

These mosaics once adorned a Roman villa on the banks of the now-buried River Walbrook. Those early Londoners could scarcely have imagined that their floor covering would, two millennia later, decorate the foundations of the world’s most famous Bank. Where will your carpet be in AD 4000?

The Bank’s physical evolution is a complicated tale. It was established in 1694, mostly because the government needed a stable source of loans to finance yet another war with France. These were humble beginnings. The early Bank operated out of rented rooms and only got its own site 40 years later when it moved into a purpose-built home on Threadneedle Street in 1734. From this nucleus, the bank expanded to eventually fill the whole block, with additions from architects like George Sampson, Robert Taylor, and especially Sir John Soane. The latter’s plan took decades to reach fruition, and we can get a sense of its scale by looking at its Minotaur-conjuring floor plan:

Note, the image is drawn with north to the left. Image: public domain

Soane was mightily proud of his financial fortress. He even had it depicted as a future ruin, as though to suggest it deserved the same reverence as the great buildings of Roman antiquity.

The Bank of England in imagined ruins, by JF Gandy, 1830.

In a prescient twist, artist JF Gandy depicted the ruined Bank on a rise, with a steep gradient to the lower left. This is exactly the spot where Bank Tube station would be hollowed out many decades later (and itself turned into a crater when a high-explosive bomb scored a direct hit in 1941).

Soane’s Bank was much celebrated, with its soaring halls and walls. Unfortunately, it would only last a century. Despite its gigantic footprint, the Bank was running out of space. Modern, taller offices were needed. And so, from 1925 to 1939, Sir Herbert Baker demolished the bewildering congeries and replaced them with the taller, more rational blocks we see today. In so doing, Soane and Gandy’s vision of the Bank of England lying in ruins was realised:

The Bank of England undergoing demolition in the late 1920s. Soane’s Rotunda can be seen centre-left. Image: Bank of England Museum.

Most of Soane’s work was undone. One exception was the mighty curtain wall, which Baker retained. The Bank of England, then, was a pioneer of ‘facadism’ — the practice of demolishing an interior but keeping the outer walls — which people do so enjoy moaning about today.

Sir Herbert Baker’s rebuild was widely slagged off by the cognoscenti. It still is. Undisputed God of Describing Buildings Sir Nikolaus Pevsner reckoned it “the greatest architectural crime to befall the City of London in the 20th century”. Ian Nairn, the equally lionised if more raffish commentator of the built environment, decried Baker’s “evil superstructure”, and thought its architect should be “indicted".

Bit harsh. A radical redesign had to happen if the Bank were to take on the challenges of the 20th century. Soane’s oldie just didn’t have the floorspace the modern Bank needed. Besides, is the replacement really that bad? I mean, look:

Image: Eluveitie, creative commons licence.

You can pompously argue about proportions and harmony and stuff, but I reckon nine out of every 10 people who look at the building will find it impressive. I still do, and I’ve passed it a thousand times. It can’t be all that bad because Historic England have given the modern Bank a Grade I listing, on par with St Paul’s and the Palace of Westminster.

The real architectural crime which, to be fair, the critics also called out, is not so much the external appearance but what was lost within. Soane’s banking halls and Rotunda were genuine marvels, all chopped down in the name of progress.

Soane’s lost rotunda. Image: public domain

Even then, all was not lost. Some of the banking halls were rebuilt in facsimile, albeit with steel frame. What’s more, you can go see them. The Bank of England Museum, along the site’s eastern edge, nestles within these replica spaces. Though not the original Soaneian articles, these are still eye-popping chambers, and almost a century old themselves.

Inside the Bank of England Museum. That lamp stand isn’t really bent. I used the panorama setting for some reason. Image: Matt Brown

But what of the rest of the Bank — the bits the public can’t normally view? These, too, have a magnificence to them. A series of grand corridors wrap around the inner perimeter, all richly marbled and embellished. Anrep’s mosaics are a constant companion as we make a clockwise circuit. They offer a monetary migration back through the ages. Each successive floor-picture depicts a coin of the realm from a different reign. Henry VIII, I learn, was the first to allow a date in Arabic numerals rather than Roman.

(I’m not allowed to take photographs of these details. Strict rules. Even the official photographer, whose images follow below, operates under restrictions.)

The corridor leads to a grand staircase up to first-floor level. Here, I’m introduced to a sequence of rooms that can only be described as ‘palatial’. These are the famous Parlours, the ornate rooms where the Bank’s most high-profile work takes place. Grandest of all is the Court Room. It’s actually a glorified meeting room where the Court of Directors hold their elevated chinwags.

The Court Room: The Bank of England's governing body, the Court of Directors meets in this room. The original design is by Sir Robert Taylor and dates from 1774. Image: Monica A. Walker Vadillo.

The Court Room is one of the oldest spaces in this temporal gallimaufry. It was originally constructed in 1774 and would look very familiar to banking bigwigs of the Georgian era. During Herbert Baker’s rebuilding in the 1920s-30s, the room was carefully disassembled, then rebuilt a floor higher.

The columns, swags and chandeliers are impressive, but nothing unusual for an 18th century grand room. What is unique is the wind dial (centre top in the image above, and zoomed-in below), connected to a weather vane on the roof:

Image: Monica A. Walker Vadillo (cropped from above)

This feature was installed in 1805 to show the Bank’s Directors which way the wind was blowing. This was no metaphor. In the early 19th century, London was the busiest port in the world, and every ship was powered by the wind. The Bank factored the weather into its monetary policy. If the wind was blowing from the east, then more ships would be making their way along the Thames into London. The docks would soon be flooded with imports, and so the Bank released more money into the economy to take advantage. A westerly wind betokened the opposite course of action. The dial has no practical function today, other than to wear out the wallpaper, but its preservation is a joy for the historically minded.

Behind the dial wall stands the First Floor Committee Room. It’s a beauty:

The First Floor Committee Room. Image: Monica A. Walker Vadillo.

This is the space where the Monetary Policy Committee, chaired by the Governor, make decisions that affect every one of us, not least the setting of interest rates. Discussions in this room are top secret. The entrance is via two sets of doors, which dissuade eavesdroppers. Note also the panelled ‘cabinet’ on the left of the photo. It’s actually a concealed fire escape.

North of the Committee Room stands something more snug. This anteroom is yet another survival from before the 20th century rebuild.

Image: Monica A. Walker Vadillo

Here, my eye is drawn to the paintings of historical London scenes. The one you can see above the fireplace shows the old Stocks Market, on the site of what is now the Mansion House across the road. It’s an image of which I’ve long been fond, and I’ll probably make it the subject of a future ‘Anatomy of a Painting’ article. Wonderful to encounter the original.

Having seen the Parlours, my tour ends. It’s been an unforgettable experience to admire these chambers of fiscal brawn. I’ve only seen a fraction of the building, however. We didn’t pop into the Governor’s office. I was not allowed to set foot in the Garden Court, an old churchyard once connected to St Christopher-le-stocks, which was demolished during one of the Bank’s extensions. Nor could I see the fabled bullion rooms, where all that auric treasure is stored.

There is one final stop on the itinerary, however. Down we go into the bowels; not to see gold bars, but bold guards. We’d been allowed to take photographs in just two locations, and these had to be checked by security. Meanwhile, clocking-off bankers walk past in lycra, for London’s most secure bicycle store is also in the basement.

It’s one of two basements, actually, beneath seven floors of office, ranging over a full block. My final question to my guide is: do you still need all this space?

The answer is yes. The Bank employs over 5,000 people and remains central to the British and world economy. None of this vast building is in mothballs. It will not end up as a Soaneian ruin anytime soon. In an age of digital currencies and virtual meetings, it’s reassuring to see that the Bank of England is as solid as ever. These walls were built to last. (Twice.)

VISIT: The Bank is normally closed to the public (other than a counter for exchanging old banknotes just inside the doors). However, very occasional tours are arranged usually as part of Open House weekend.

MUSEUM: The public can, however, get a splendid taster of the wider banquet by visiting the Bank of England Museum along Bartholomew Lane. (Free, Mon-Fri)

EXHIBITION: Visit the museum in the next few months and you can view the Building the Bank exhibition. This explores the demolition of Soane’s bank and construction of Baker’s replacement. You’ll also be able to see Roman artefacts discovered on site.