Unmissable things to do and events in London in November 2026

We’ll give you three goes at guessing what the London Museum will be dedicated to when it finally opens its doors on 28 November. 

Joking, obvs – the hotly anticipated cultural centre, home to a 7-million-item-strong collection, will, of course, be a treasure-trove of artifacts, historical objects and exhibitions celebrating the Big Smoke in all her glory. 

The London Museum is the shiny new (and somewhat hard to Google) rebrand of the former Museum of London, which waved goodbye to its OG site at London Wall in 2022. Work on its glitzy new digs in Smithfield Market has been underway in the years since, and the museum has now finally announced its official opening day.

Relaunching in time for the museum’s 50th anniversary, The London Museum’s new free permanent galleries will open in Smithfield on November 28 2026. 

The £437m revamp project, a partnership between the City of London Corporation and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, marks the culmination of a decade-long transformation of Smithfield’s historic General Market, which is returning to public use for the first time in over 30 years. 

As for what we can expect from the new cultural centre, well, the London Museum will be made up of three interconnected spaces.

Visitors will enter via Real Time, a covered former street that acts as the museum’s main entrance. From there, the space will shift into Our Time, a central space in the Linbury Hall with 13 installations, a restaurant, shop and show area, all set beneath the General Market’s newly restored dome. 

This section of the museum has been designed as a hub for events and activities, and the schedule is already choc-a-block with fun things to do. Each week, the museum will be running Tuesday Tea Club, featuring free hot brews from Syd’s Coffee Stall, which joined the museum’s collection in 2019 after 100 years of trading in Shoreditch. We can also expect after hours DJ sets on Friday and Saturday nights, a House Party event hosted on the first Saturday of each month in partnership with nightclub Fabric, and a monthly themed Dinner Club featuring food from some of the city’s best chefs. 

The London Museum’s third space, Past Time, will be located below ground. Its cavernous subterranean galleries will feature permanent thematic and chronological displays giving an overview of London’s storied history. Among the artifacts you’ll be able to come face-to-face with Banksy’s Piranhas artwork, Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst’s hunger strike medal and even a chunk of the famed Whitechapel Fatberg. For the first six months, the vest believed to have been worn by King Charles I at his execution will also be on display. 

Exhibition and events programmes will be designed in collaboration with a rotating roster of guest editors. The inaugural programme - London Tastes – will be co-curated by British baker and former Great British Bake Off contestant Ruby Tandoh with writer Jonathan Nunn. Running until August 2027, the foodie-focused show will tuck into London’s ever-evolving food scene, from trad pie and mash cafes and chicken shops to the history of iconic culinary hubs like Covent Garden and Brick Lane. 

Following the London Museum’s reopening in 2026, the adjacent Poultry Market will open in 2028, expanding the museum with two temporary exhibition spaces, a dedicated learning centre and a collections store.

Did you see that six Frida Kahlo-inspired murals have popped up around London’s South Bank?

Plus: take a look inside the world’s first Museum of Youth Culture in London.

Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel.

Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.

Boston indie-rockers Horse Jumper of Love, electronic producer Actress, Aussie electronic group The Avalanches and Chicago rapper Noname are some of the eclectic headline acts performing at the 2026 edition of Pitchfork London, the festival of choice for anyone who’s ever complained that music criticisim just isn’t what it used to be. The week-long bonanza 

features a genre-hopping line-up encompassing 80 artists promising everything from avant-rock and post-punk to UK rap and deconstructed dance music, and playing across a plethora of London’s best venues, including Colour Factory, Union Chapel, Village Underground, Earth Theatre, Royal Festival Hall and 93 Feet East. 

Check out the full line-up here for a whole bunch of emerging talents you’ve likely never heard of but will no doubt feature on your Spotify Wrapped come December 2027. It’s basically the place to be if you consider yourself a music fan with a finger on the pulse.

A lavish family friendly adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s India-set story cycle, the National Theatre’s big Christmas 2026 show is adapted by Indian playwright Anupama Chandrasekhar (of the excellent The Father and the Assassin fame).

While Disney’s movie plot was cobbled together from selected bits of Kipling’s collection of stories, Chandrasekhar has plenty more material to work with in crafting her version. We’d expect to be distinctly postcolonial spin on the classic, with the action being relocated to the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans in the country’s east. 

Still, don’t imagine it will be radically different from the Disney classic: it’ll focus on Mowgli the Man-Cub – played by NT stalwart Hiran Abeysekera – and feature spectacular puppet renderings of his various animal friends and enemies. NT boss Indhu Rubasingham will direct, with puppets by Finn Caldwell and Nick Barnes.

Reconcile yourself to shorter, darker evenings by seeing spectacular lights explode across the night sky. London erupts in bonfire night displays each year, and they're getting ever more elaborate: in 2026, you'll find an intricate drone show at Alexandra Palace, and a full-on festival with live acts on Blackheath. Here's our pick of the best places to brighten up your evening.

London’s photography fans might have been dismayed that the major Nan Goldin retrospective that has been touring around Europe over the last few years never made it across the channel, but this brand new show at the Hayward Gallery should soften the blow. The American photographer and activist’s first institutional exhibition in the UK since 2022, its main focus is You Never Did Anything Wrong Part I (2024) and Part II (2026), a pair of abstract films scored by the composer Mica Levi and screened in bespoke spaces designed with architect Hala Wardé. Also shown will be Stendhal Syndrome (2024), which contrasts photographs of Goldin’s friends and lovers with classical art from museums around the world, and Memory Lost (2019–2021), exploring Goldin’s personal addiction history, plus a selection of photographic prints.

Although Top Girls and A Number pop up relatively frequently, most of the great Caryl Churchill’s other works are simply too out there to revive with any regularity, and despite its renown her breakthrough play Cloud 9 hasn’t actually had a major London production in 30 years.

This autumn, however, is the time, as the National Theatre’s leisurely series of Lyttelton revivals (Top Girls and A Light Shining in Buckinghamshire have both happened recently-ish) continues with Dominic Cooke’s take on Cloud 9. Set in both colonial Africa and ’70s England – with its characters only aging 25 years in a 125-year jump – the play is anything but straightforward, but basically draws a line between sexual and colonial repression via its dizzying array of characters.

From Bruges to Inisherin to Easter Island. Not your typical Tripadvisor itinerary, but the thematic leyline that connects Martin McDonagh’s loose triptych of Beckettian buddy movies. His latest could be the best yet: a bittersweet hangout film about lonely, crumpled men facing up to mortality, dealing with the consequences of violence and chewing the fat to outlandishly funny effect. 

Following John Malkovich’s Chris is a wolfish but ageing and increasingly forgetful CIA agent, and his younger, only slightly less jaded partne, Sam Rockwell’s Lee, it’s essentially an alt-western about an ageing gunslinger reaching the end of the line. It’ll definitely make you laugh, but you might also shed a tear for these morally repugnant people. Regime change shouldn’t be this entertaining.

It wouldn’t take a genius to conclude that 87-year-old Sir Ian McKellen was done with the stage. After an incredibly prolific start to his eighties, he fell off the Noël Coward Theatre stage during a performance of Robert Icke’s 2024 Henry IV mash-up Player Kings, and seemed thereafter to be focussing on screen work.

And you’ll be able to catch him in Avengers: Doomsday this winte, right about the same time he returns to the stage to lend his star power to the reopening season of Hackney Wick’s Yard Theatre. Lear is a new adaptation of King Lear, but also – it seems – McKellen’s life and thoughts, by playwright Simon Stephens and Yard boss Jay Miller, with contributions (naturally) from McKellen himself. 

You’d be a fool to miss out; watch this space for ticket announcements. 

If you haven’t yet set foot in the Institut Français, housed in an ornate red-brick building in South Kensington, then its annual film bonanza is a great excuse to visit. The venue’s newly spruced up Ciné Lumière is hosting another feast of French cinema this November, with a line-up spanning buzzy UK premieres, restored classics, fascinating documentaries and special events, with 40 Gallic cinematic treats being screened across the 2-week bonanza. 

Highlights of this year’s edition including Cristian Mungiu’s Palme d’Orr winner Fjord, the UK premiere of The Birthday Party (Histoires de la Nuit) starring Monica Bellucci, Anat Even’s Collapse, which is a personal account of the destruction of Gaza. Browse the full programme here for details. 

Tate Britain ends the year with an examination of the 50-year-long creative (and sometime romantic) relationship between Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. Featuring over 300 works, as well as a faithful restaging of Grant’s studio, relocated from the pair’s home in Sussex, it will explore the duo’s legacy as core members of the Bloomsbury Set, their commitment to freedom and self-expression, and the influence this had on British art, literature and society. 

Autumn is a busy time for London’s cinephiles, with a slew of film festivals arriving in the capital But be sure to save some room in your schedule for the inaugural London edition of MUBI Fest. The art-house lover’s streaming service of choice is hosting its very own mini film festival at Hackney’s Picturehouse over three days this November, offering you the chance to catch some of the distributor’s buzziest upcoming titles on the big screen ahead of their theatrical release.

Highlights of the programme include Sandra Hüller’s stellar new period drama Rose, with director Markus Schleinzer in attendance for a Q&A (Fri Nov 13), World War I queer romance Coward (Sat Nov 14), whose leads will be answering questions afterwards, Andrew Haigh’s adaptation of a Colm Tóibín short story, A Long Winter (Sun Nov 15), and Paul Thomas Anderson’s concert doc capturing Cameron Winter’s 2025 solo show at Carnegie Hall (Sun Nov 15).

Every year, the EFG London Jazz Festival brings together the best and brightest of the genre in venues across the city, from the capital’s major arts venues like Southbank Centre and Barbican, to atmospheric gig spots like Village Underground, EartH Theatre and Union Chapel.

The 2026 line-up promises a bounty of bops, encompassing both emerging talents (Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet, Sun Nov 15 at King’s Place) and legendary names (Yasuaku Shimizu, Sun Nov 15 at Milton Court). There’ll be a series of special gigs dedicated to the greats, including a star-studded night celebrating the centenary of John Coltrane (Coltrane 100, Fri Nov 13 at the Barbican).And it’s not just jazz on offer; there’s also Portuguese fado, electroswing, trip-hop and drum and bass, as well as film screenings, masterclasses and more.

Check out the full programme here.

If you’ve ever had impure thoughts about a basket, then the wonderful Wicker should get you hot and bothered. This fantasyland comedy-drama might be the first film to meld a bawdy 1970s sex comedy with Lord of the Rings.

Olivia Colman is resplendent as a fisherwoman who commissions a basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) to weave her a husband. Played by Alexander Skarsgård in a full-body wicker suit, he’s a gentle, helpful hunk who immediately outshines the local menfolk.

More Monty Python’s Holy Grail than Robert Eggers-style historical torpor, Wicker is a gloriously grubby romp, full of surreal smut and bizarre sex scenes. But beneath the slapstick and sylvan sauciness lies a sharp feminist satire, and a looming folk horror promise.

Poly Styrene, Chrissy Hynde, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Debbie Harry. This autumn the Museum of Youth Culture will celebrate the women behind the punk movement with a landmark exhibition. Up Yours! is dedicated to the legacy of Poly Styrene, the visionary frontwoman of X-Ray Spex. It will bring together rare and previously unseen artwork, photography, fashion and personal archival material, with highlights including the Poly Styrene Archive, original artworks by radical feminist photographer Linder, previously unseen artwork from X-Ray Spex saxophonist Lora Logic, and archival fashion pieces from the inconic pink-haired designed Dame Zandra Rhodes. 

Ryan Calais Cameron looks set to further gild his reputation as Black British theatre’s brightest and most versatile commercial prospect with his latest play The Afronauts, which offers a look at a fascinating and – in the West at least – little remembered chapter in the Space Race of the 1960s.

This quixotic endeavour wasn’t a state initiative but rather that of private citizen Edward Nkoloso. Was it a serious endeavour? Or a sort of satirical prank? History seems divided on the matter, but you can bet Cameron will get into it in this follow-up to his West End smashes For Black Boys… and Retrograde. In a tremendous piece of casting the great Lucian Msamati will play Edward.

There's something undeniably festive about outdoor ice skating: ice, twinkly lights, all those cosy hats and scarfs. But why save it until December, when you'll be stressed about Christmas shopping, juggling a packed diary, and weighed down by excessive mince pie consumption? Here's our pick of the best places to hit the rink this November, whether you're after a bass-soundtracked Skate Late at Courtauld, or a historic glide at Hampton Court Palace.

The late, great Victoria Wood only wrote one musical proper – Acorn Antiques – but she left behind an enviable collection of sublimely funny songs and they’ve been stitched together to form this new show. The plot of Fourteen Again is… quite a lot like Big, by the sounds of it, as middle-aged pals Peggy and Lou reminisce over life’s disappointments, after which Peggy wakes up to discover she is indeed 14 again.

It debuted in the Lake District earlier this year, where Jonathan O’Boyle’s production won praise for a strong book from Tom MacRae and fine lead performances from Ria Jones and Sally Ann Triplett, who’ll be reprising them for this Christmas transfer to the Menier. Expect all your fave Wood bangers, including – of course – ‘The Ballad of Barry & Freda’.

Agatha Christie is widely regarded as the greatest ever crime novelist, and the Queen of Crime will be under investigation herself during the British Library’s 2026 season.

Coinciding with the centenary of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, one of the prolific writer’s most important and influential novels, the autumn exhibition will delve into the origins of iconic characters Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, while also exploring the the eclectic range of interests that inspired the English author’s works, from archaeology to pharmacology, and illustrating the profound impact her ouevre continues to have on the whodunnit genre. 

Adolescence and Top Boy actor Ashley Walters’ startlingly assured feature debut tells the story of Troy (Tut Nyuot), a good, if waylaid, kid caught up in a furious world he’s vastly unprepared for. Thrust into a brutal youth detention centre, he finds an unlikely bond with gentle fellow inmate Krystian (Vladyslav Baliuk), but a menacing dealer has other ideas.

Writer Nick Love layers enough unspoken history into each character to ensure this prison drama breaks free from expectations. Nyuot is astonishing in a terrific ensemble that includes Stephen Graham, while Love and Walters’ keen eye for the lads’ wounded, shame-laden teenage masculinity is exhilarating. This brilliant British film cares deeply about its characters, carrying Animol to an intriguingly queer place thrumming with pent-up promise.

Got a thirst for adventure and winter-themed beverages? Up at The O2 – the dare-devil tour that lets you climb up the outside of the Greenwich venue’s famous white dome – has been given a festive makeover. After being strapped into a harness and ascending to the top of the 52 metre-high dome, climbers will get to retreat into an immersive snow globe featuring falling snow, the sweet smell of cookies and a ‘whimsical winter set-up’ from which they’ll be able to enjoy breathtaking views of the city from. There’ll also be gingerbread cookies to snack on and glasses of bubbly, mulled wine and hot chocolates to purchase. 

To celebrate 75 years since the Festival of Britain, an era-defining cultural event designed to boost national morale post-WW2, legendary illustrator Quentin Blake has created a joyful new installation in Southbank Centre. 30 life-size characters will be dotted around around the venue between now and November. Look out for dancers, skaters, parkour athletes, opera singers, a violinist and more. 

Head to Doc’n Roll Film Festival and you've got an instant backstage pass into the worlds of some of the most exciting bands and musicians around. The 2026 edition takes over the capital’s cinema staples like the Barbican, BFI Southbank, Dalston's Rio and more with an exciting array of new films, telling the stories of Patrick Wolf, rock pioneers The Fugs, Malian duo Amadou & Mariam, and more. 

Christian Kracht’s autofiction novel about a bizarre road trip through the Swiss Alps that he and his mother undertake in order to give away their shamefully acquired family fortune was a big literary hit a couple of years back.

A pitch-black comedy examining generational trauma, familial relationships and historical accountability, the International Booker-nominated work now it makes it to the stage in a very enticing looking adaptation by Colin Teevan, directed by Walter Meierjohann, with a terrific cast of Ben Whishaw and Kathryn Hunter.

Jasmine Jobson’s terrific depiction of British-Somali boxer Ramla Ali brings to life the struggle, resilience and determination of those who have crossed oceans and started over. Director Anthony Wonke’s dramatisation, written by Ursula Rani Sarma, captures the patriarchal barriers and unhealed traumas she must overcome on her path to Olympic glory in 2021.

As refugee Muslims from Somalia, Ramla’s family considers the honour and safety of its women non-negotiable, making her boxing ambitions haram. Forced to train in secret after work, she must also contend with her mother’s (Hodan Yusuf) persistent matchmaking attempts.

A fairly traditional sports biopic, the film nevertheless adds another dimension to the genre, exploring the weight of racial and cultural expectations alongside sexism. The story will engender a sense of hope, especially among young women of colour.

David Nicholls’ heartbreaking love story has already been made into a film and massively popular TV series. Now, we're getting a musical too, written by playwright David Greig with songs by Abner and Amanda Ramirez. West End theatre heavyweights – Jamie Muscato and Sharon Rose are onboard as central couple Dex and Em for this run, which originally premiered in Edinburgh, where the story is partly set. 

Peggy Guggenheim arrived in London in the 1930s after fleeing the Nazi occupation of mainland Europe. And it was here that she laid the foundations for her magnificent career as an art patron. Nearly 90 years after Guggenheim Jeune opened its doors, the RA is bringing key pieces from its displays back together, alongside other works from the artists that Guggenheim championed. Expect to see the likes of Eileen Agar, Salvador Dalí, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Vasily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian and more. 

Jan van Eyck basically invented portraiture as we know it today. Before he came along in the 1430s, depictions of people were mostly (but not always) rigid, flat and unrealistic, representing general religious archetypes rather than real-life figures. Van Eyck’s paintings, on the other hand, capture all the intimate details, from subtle stubble to bloodshot eyes. At the time, it was a truly radical approach. This National Gallery exhibition will mark the first time that all ten of the artist’s surviving portraits are on display together: consider this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. 

A month-long feast of contemporary Czech cinema, the Made in Prague Festival is back for its 30th edition with a thrilling selection of high-calibre dramas, comedies, docs and family films. This year’s programme brings together two distinct strands: the first celebrating the legacy of the Czechoslovak New Wave, and the second showcasing a selection of acclaimed new Czech films, all accompanied by live introductions and post-screening discussions.

Highlights include award-winning documentary Better Go Mad in the Wild, which follows 60-year-old twin brothers as they ‘booze, banter and bicker’ in their remote home in the Šumava mountains; the Oscar-nominated Father, which tackles a phenomenon known as ‘Forgotten Child Syndrome’; and Changes, the latest film from acclaimed director David Ondříček, bringing together seven characters navigating life in modern-day Prague.

Nero will sadly be forever known as the final musical by the late, great Duncan Sheikh – the Spring Awakening and American Psycho composer who passed away in September 2026. His last musical Nero had been through various workshop iterations over two decades, and is finally set to premiere at Southwark Playhouse in a production from venerable Brit Lindsay Posner.

Written with Sheik’s longterm collaborator Steven Sater, Nero does, of course concern Emperor Nero. Largely remembered by history for being evil, and possibly appointing his horse to the Roman senate, Sheikh and Sater’s long-gestating musical drills into his early years as ‘an artist, a performer, and a reluctant heir thrust into unimaginable power’. Rising US stage star Andrew Barth Feldman plays the emperor in question. 

Sometimes, it’s worth waiting until the last minute to pick up your Christmas gifts. In the winter months running up to Crimbo, the capital becomes home to tons of wintry fairs. Markets pop-up all over the city, stacked with stalls selling unique pressies from small businesses and independent designers that you’d never find in the big shops online or off. They’re perfect for browsing as the big day looms and a good excuse to treat yourself to Christmas snacks and mulled wine as you tick gifts off your list. Be sure to bookmark this page, because we’ll be adding more markets around the city as they’re announced. 

The V&A is full of mindblowing works of craftsmanship, but this major exhibition will take things up a notch with its lavish displays of treasures from one of the world’s great cities. Once called Constantinople, and now called Istanbul, it was at the heart of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. Spanning  AD 330 to 1922, this exhibition will bring together remarkable works of art, design and architecture. Expect rarely seen objects dating back to 4th century, including fine silks and textiles, ceramic tiles, mosaics, manuscripts and paintings. 

Korean film is way more than just Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, supreme though they are. In fact, Korea arguably has one of the world’s most exciting and mercurial film cultures, as proved by this splashy annual festival. Showcased at the BFI Southbank, Ciné Lumière, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and various other prestigious London picture houses, the line-up features 22 films screened across a fortnight.

It kicks off with Kim Mi-jo’s star-studded crime drama The Journey to Gyeong-ju (2025), a, ends with the UK premiere of Park Hoon-jung’s Tristes Tropiques (2025), a bloodbath of an action drama, set off by the death of a kill-squad leader. Have a butchers at the full programme here. 

It’s almost time for Christmas and it’s certainly time for Giftmas, as this special pop-up LEGO workshop allows you to whip up a bespoke brick-based present for that special someone (who can be yourself but it is a great free way of having a fun trip out that also ticks somebody off your present list). The free pop-up is styled like a gift-making factory and will see you answer questions about the person you’re getting the gift for before receiving a personalised build recommendation. Collect you bricks, build the build, wrap it, boom! While we’d assume that the gift is on the smaller side and you’re unlikely to be offered a 10,000-brick behemoth that would cost £200 in the shops, but it sounds like good fun nonetheless.

Beloved Drag Race UK and Celebrity Masterchef winner (and Time Out cover star) Ginger Johnson is approaching national treasure status at this point.

After her smash-hit 2024 tour, the beloved northern drag queen returns to Soho Theatre with a new night of comedy that we’re told ‘harks back to the psychedelic creativity of the 1970s which flourished during political unrest’. Psychedelic drag comedy? Sounds good!

Take a whimsical adventure back to your childhood at this celebration of Tove Jansson. In 1945, the Finnish author and artist created the lovable, hippo-like Moomins. Since then, more than 30 million copies of Moomins books have been sold around the world. Now, unseen drawings and over 100 other rarely seen pieces of work by Jansson are going on display at the new Quentin Blake Centre of Illustration. Tove Jansson and her Families will spotlight the people who shaped her life and work, from her sculptor father to her queer friendship circles to her life partner Tuulikki Pietilä.