Things to do in London today

Every year, London’s famous river gets a whole festival of art installations, performances, and talks devoted to her watery charms, many of which are free to check out. This year’s Totally Thames Festival has scores of events throughout September, all dotted along riverside locations from Richmond to Barking & Dagenham. This year, look out for The Waterfront Journals, (Sep 6), a promenade performance of New York City artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz’s monologues, Turning the Tide (Sep 17-20), a site-specific film installation by Turner Prize-nominated artist Catherine Yass projected onto the columns of the disused Blackfriars Railway Bridge and Where the River Holds Us (Sep 27-28), a site-responsive opera on Victoria Embankment. There’ll also be a dance performance from ex-Rambert dancers in the atmospheric Brunel Museum Tunnel Shaft (Sep 24) and recitals aboard Victorian steamship the SS Robin (Sep 26). Old favourites will also be making an appearance, including the Great River Race (Sep 12) from Tower Hamlets to Richmond – where 330 crews from across the world spending the morning speeding down the Thames on wooden rowboats, many of them in fancy dress costumes – and the St Katharine Docks Classic Boat Festival (Sep 12-13), where visitors can clamber aboard more than 50 historic vessels. You can also join a river exploration session as part of Mudlarking Weekend (Sep 5-6), take part in paddlesports sessions and a fishing competition as part of Tidefest (Sep 6)...

Ever wanted to have a nosy around some of London’s coolest private buildings? Open House London gives guests free access to architectural wonders that are not normally open to the public – from schools and offices to places of worship. It’s an often rare chance to explore iconic or just interesting buildings that make up the capital’s storied history, while the programme usually includes tons of workshops, exhibitions and more, as well as the usual tours. This year, the full programme will be announced on July 15, with bookings opening on August 19. Get practising your clicking now – these tickets go faster than Glastonbury.  

London is widely recognised as one of the design capitals of the world. Cementing this title is the annual Design Festival, a colourful and thought-provoking celebration of some of the world's best designers, who interrogate the boundaries of design through events, exhibitions and installations. The 2026 programme is packed full of surprising installations and intriguing collaborations. Wander down the Strand in Covent Garden and you'll spot The Pangolin Shield, a pavilion inspired by the endangered scaly beasts, situated opposite India's High Commission as a comment on the movement of people and species across borders, and the legacy of colonialisation.  Head to the Barbican and you'll have the opportunity to lounge on a comfy installation by MADE, as part of an interiors collection inspired by this architectural landscape. Over at the V&A, Craft x Tech will show works made in collaboration between international designers and Japanese craftspeople. There'll also be an immersive sound installation by L-Acoustics at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, a retrospective of Kenzo's designer Nigo at London Design Museum, and Reviving Craft, a group exhibition exploring Chinese craftsmanship in new eras.  The festival's events will be spread between 11 distinct design districts, designed to highlight the places where creative Londoners cluster: Bankside, Brompton, Chelsea, Dalston to Stokey, EC1, Fleet Street Quarter, Mayfair, Park Royal, Shoreditch Design Week, Blackhorse Creates...

Tired of merely listening to your favourite podcast hosts yabbering away? Now you can watch them at it IRL at London Podcast Festival, which is hosting some of the best podcasting talents from the UK and US live at Kings Place over another 11 days this September. This year get a front seat at plenty of big shows in the audio world, including hugely successful British Asian pod Tommy's Brownload, Wrong Turns with Jameela Jamil, family fact show No Such Thing As A Fish, The Empire Film Podcast and The Beef and Dairy Network Podcast (trust us, it’s waaay more fun than it sounds!)

This community festival is back, taking over unusual local indoor and outdoor venues across south east London to screen feature films for kids and adults, artists' film and video and archive footage. This year’s highlights include a screening and film quiz at The Man of Kent (Sep 8), a spooky screening of The Blair Witch Project in Nunhead Cemetery (Sep 5), a short film night at Peckham Plex (Sep 5), and a finale screening of standout 2025 film Sinners at LEX2 Livesey Exchange (Sep 13). Look out also for showings of Blue Velvet, Paddington 2, Moonlight, Human Traffic, Burning an Illusion, and Labyrinth at weird and wonderful venues. 

A hat in the shape of an upside-down shoe; a dress resembling an inside-out human body; embroidered jackets covered with gorgeous pink roses, sparkling zodiac symbols and vibrant vegetables. Elsa Schiaparelli made clothes that were as surprising as they were beautiful. The V&A has plundered the well of ingenuity that is Maison Schiaparelli in its latest landmark fashion exhibition – the first British exhibition dedicated to the Italian designer, who rose to fame in Paris between the World Wars – and there are some real treasures to be found.  With over 400 objects, including 100 ensembles and 50 artworks (by the likes of Salvador Dalí, Picasso and Man Ray), as well as accessories, jewellery, photographs, perfumes and an excellent collection of buttons, Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art presents a deep dive into the fantastical and surreal world of the fashion house. Founded on Paris’ Place Vendôme in 1927, the exhibition spans the 1920s to the present day, showing glorious garments from Creative Director Daniel Roseberry, who has been at the helm since 2019.  Excitingly, many of Schiaparelli’s 20th-century creations appear astoundingly contemporary. Knits from 1927, some of the designer’s first works, are patterned with pretty bows that the TikTok girlies of today would die for. There’s also an incredible gold chainmail headdress which wouldn’t look amiss on Florence Pugh in Dune, or on a ‘medievalcore’ Pinterest board. A shirred form-fitting dress with a visible zip – a...

Following its success over the last two years, CelebrASIA is once again taking over Battersea Power Station with a celebration of South East Asia that shines a light on the cuisines and creativity of the region. Held both inside and outside of the art deco power station, the whole area will get a colourful transformation in the form of lanterns, sculptures and immersive installations, transporting you straight to the continent without actually having to leave London.   As always, there will be comedy sets, cooking classes, craft workshops, film screenings, live music, an artisan market and national dress parades. But for the very first time, on top of all of that, the event will host expert panels exploring South East Asia’s influence on fashion, food, literature and culture across the globe. Those will kick off with a talk between Khairani Barokka (author of Annah, Infinite)and Ivy Ngeow (author of The American Boyfriend). Other panellists will include Helena Lee, features editor at Harper’s Bazaar, Audrey Khew from the British Fashion Council and John Chantarasak from AngloThai. Street food stalls will serve up bites from cult favourite London restos including Farang, Turo Turo, Mambow and Chick’n’Sours. Craft workshops will teach the arts of Batik painting, Sarawak beadwork, and other traditional crafts, and there will be traditional dance and music performances from Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and more throughout the weekend.   

If streetwear is a religion, Nigo is one of its deities. The man behind A Bathing Ape (Bape, for short) is worshipped by hypebeasts the world over, not only for his pioneering approach to streetwear but also for his cultural footprint. Inextricably linked to hip hop – Nigo is besties with Pharell, and everyone from Biggie Smalls to Drake and Lil Wayne have donned his designs – the Japanese designer’s work is characterised by bold camo prints, Warholian pop-culture references and brash graphics.  For the first time, the man behind Bape and Human Made, and the creative director of Kenzo since 2021, has his own London retrospective. The Design Museum’s exhibition features 700 objects – 600 of which come from Nigo’s personal archive – including records, toys, magazines, music videos and a whole lotta clothes, spanning the ‘80s to the present day.  Nigo: From Japan With Love starts with a joyful recreation of the designer’s teenage bedroom – a dream of an ‘80s boudoir displaying Nigo’s own teenage relics: a lava lamp, a Kangol hat, stacks of hip hop records and his very first vintage piece – a shredded Levi’s type II denim jacket. It then moves through a selection of his most treasured objects, which range from Star Wars figurines to a Mr Peanut canvas jacket, and an absolutely amazing 1970s McDonald’s uniform from Hawaii, where the traditional flowers of the Hawaiian shirt are replaced by illustrations of burgers, fries and shakes. His obsession with Americana and vintage...

A Viking longboat’s worth of Icelanders will be invading the capital this September. After two and a half decades of charming its way round more than 20 cities across the US, Canada, Germany and Japan, Taste of Iceland is arriving in London for the first time.  The three-day festival offers loads of opportunities to get better aquainted with the food and culture of the remote country who many Londoners mostly know through Sigur Rós and travel TikTok. Vauxhall brasserie Darby’s is hosting nightly dinners where Iceland’s reigning Chef of the Year, Hinrik Örn Lárusson, joins forces with the restaurant’s own Robin Gill to build a multi-course menu around Icelandic lamb and seafood. There’s also a guided cocktail journey through Iceland’s wildest regions, featuring a mixologist and a storyteller-guide who will walk you through three destinations via three drinks. Comedy fans can catch Iceland’s biggest stand-up Ari Eldjárn breaking down the realities of Icelandic life, fresh from his Netflix special. And don’t miss an Iceland-themed exhibition from the World’s Worst Photographer, chosen from 127,000 entries, whose slightly blurry Iceland shots are somehow still better than anything on your camera roll.  Best bit? Almost all of it’s free. Just bring an appetite and low expectations for your own photography by comparison.

Ahoy! London's annual river marathon sees over 2,500 competitors from around the globe battle to become the UK's Traditional Boat Champions. Participants in The Great River Race range from serious athletes to recreational rowers in fancy dress. It's a spectator's dream watching the motley crew of boats charge down the river, there's gigs, skiffs, Chinese dragon boats, Hawaiian war canoes, Viking longboats, Irish curraghs, shallops, wherries and whalers. For 2026, the race starts at Millwall Slipway, E14 at 12.45am and finishes at Ham House, Richmond, TW10 where food stalls and live music awaits. You can follow the race for free along the route or buy £45 tickets to watch from the Connaught supporters' boat.