Free things to do in London this week

The first museum exhibition dedicated to artist Audrey Amiss brings together drawings, paintings and other exhibition materials to explore the life and work of Amiss who died in 2013. Committed to psychiatric hospitals several times throughout her life, Amiss used her art to advocate for people who were mistreated by the mental health system. The Surviving Exhibitions focuses on works that records suggest Amiss exhibited or intended to make public. 

There’s a painting that hangs in the Pre-Raphaelite room of Tate Britain that Freddy Mercury used to drag his Queen bandmates to see time and again. It’s a fantastical scene from Romeo and Juliet alive with fairies and mythical creatures, including the legendary fairy Queen Mab, who rushes through the night planting dreams in people’s heads. Mercury was so captivated by it that he wrote and named a song after it: ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke’. The painting is the work of the often overlooked Victorian artist named Richard Dadd. The Royal Academy has reunited it with dozens of his other works in Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam, the first major exhibition devoted to the artist in more than 50 years. Dadd spent nearly a decade completing ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke’ while confined to Bethlem Hospital—better known as Bedlam—after killing his father in a severe psychotic episode. In 1864, he was transferred to the newly opened Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, where he remained until his death in 1886. The exhibition, however, doesn’t begin there. Instead, it returns to Dadd’s days as a student at the Royal Academy Schools, just across from where this exhibition hangs today. While there, he became a founding member of one of Britain’s OG artistic cliques (named the ‘Clique’). Formed by a group of fellow students, its members drew inspiration from Shakespeare and Byron, dressing one another as literary and historical figures to practise their painting. Several of these...

Since its inaugural edition in 1980, this long-standing portaiture competition has attracted more than 40,000 entries from over 100 countries and has been seen by more than six million people. The highly competitive award showcases the best of contemporary portrait painters, whose styles range from the abstract to the classic. Last year the top prize was awarded to British painter Moira Cameron for her non-naturalistic self-portrait, ‘A Life Lived’, which depicts the painter slumped in an armchair in vivid colours.   

This free summer pop-up event in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens is a lively way to test your karaoke skills in the fresh air, hosted by Joe Hatchiban and with refreshments available from local vendors. No need to book - just show up and belt out your faves in a crowd of singing, dancing music fans.  

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)...

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. 

Your rare chance to visit the historic catacombs at this 178-year-old cemetery, with guided tours available for £10 a pop. Visitors will also be able to browse craft stalls, listen to storytelling and beat poetry performances, as well as admiring the birds of prey and Brompton bees. It'll keep you perky despite the macabre setting.

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.

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.   

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.