London events in October 2026

Celebrating its 70th year in 2026, this October’s edition of the London Film Festival promises 11 days and nights of movies, big and small, at cinemas and venues across London. Very much not a festival for the critics and VIPs, LFF offers ordinary Londoners the chance to score seats to a packed line-up of movies and special events. 

This year’s edition gets underway with the eagerly-awaited Elsinore, starring Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman, sharing the moving real-life story of Scottish actor Ian Charleson as he prepared for the role of his life: Hamlet at the National Theatre in 1989, while dying of AIDS. It wraps up 11 days later with Jesse Eisenberg’s comedy-drama The Debut, starring Julianne Moore, but not before packing in dozens of premieres, new movies, restored works from the BFI archives, short films, virtual reality experiences, screen talks, panels and parties. 

The full festival programme is announced on September 2, with tickets on sale from September 17. Mark your calendars!

If Tate’s 2025 programme was big on the 80s – thanks to Photographing Britain and Leigh Bowery! – then 2026 is all about The 90s! Following on from a major Tracey Emin retrospective at Tate Modern, its sister gallery Tate Britain will host a blockbuster autumn show about British art, fashion, photography and pop culture in the final decade of the last millenium.

And if that isn’t already a tasty enough prospect, it’s being curated by none other than former British Vogue editor Edward Enninful OBE. Expect flashy photography from the likes of Juergen Teller, Nick Knight, David Sims and Corrine Day, iconic looks from Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, and era-defining artworks by Damien Hirst, Gillian Wearing, and Yinka Shonibare.

The opening party will no doubt give the Met Gala a run for its money.

Each year, London Literature Festival aims to bring together readers of all ages to ‘celebrate the power of the written and spoken word’, with a big name celebrity curator leading the charge. And excitingly, the 2026 edition will have popstar and Service95 Book Club founder Dua Lipa in the hot seat. Dua Lipa has proven that she's a massive advocate for books from around the world with her monthly fiction podcast, where she interviews a different author each month, and she's also spoken up for marginalised readers facing incarceration or book bans. So she'll curate a fest with a global feel, with plenty to pull in her young fanbase. 

Sunday lunch. There’s nothing quite like it. An elemental meal, one that Londoners take incredibly seriously. Debates about what constitutes the ‘perfect’ Sunday roast have been known to last for hours. There is no shortage of top roasts in London.

We’ve rounded up the city’s best Sunday meals from a host of pubs, restaurants and breweries all around town. What makes a good roast? For us, it’s simple; a welcoming room is a good start, maybe in a pub with an open fire. Then it comes to the plate – we need perfect roast potatoes, well-cooked lamb, beef or pork and a decent plant-based option too. A Sunday roast is more than just lunch - it’s self-care. 

From snug neighbourhood staples to more bijou gastropubs, and even a heavy metal boozer in Camden, we’ve got something for every taste (if that taste is for comforting mounds of roast meat/plant based goodness, lashings of gravy and carbs for days). A lot of these places get quite busy, so you’re always advised to book ahead to avoid disappointment. 

The first major West End revival of Edward Albee’s classic play in a decade has a cast to die for, as Billy Crudup and Gillian Anderson play the iconically awful George and Martha, an acidic middle aged couple who invite George’s young colleague Nick and his wife Honey over for a bizarre evening of weird and problematic game playing. And @sohoplace is a wonderfully intimate venue to watch the horrors unfold. The catch is that the show is heavily sold out, though at time of writing there were a decent number of more expensive tickets available across the run. The great Marianne Elliott will direct a cast that’s rounded out by Josh Dylan as Nick, and Phoebe Horn as Honey.

London’s art lovers go mad for a bit of French Impressionism, so it’s a little surprising that the capital hasn’t hosted an exhibition on one of its leading figures, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, since the National Gallery’s 2007 show on his landscapes nearly 20 years ago. It’s excellent news, then, that the Trafalgar Square institution will once again be hosting a major exhibition dedicated to the master painter next autumn. Created in partnership with Paris’s Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Renoir and Love will focus on the most significant and prolific years of the artist’s career, from the mid-1860s to the mid-1880s. Opening in October 2026, it will feature several of Renoir’s most iconic works, including  the 1876 painting Bal au Moulin de la Galette, exhibited for the first time ever in the UK. 

London Month Of The Dead’s annual programme returns this spooky season to get you in the mood for Halloween with a programme of more than 60 fascinatingly macabre events investigating our city’s relationship with death. 

Alongside the usual line-up of ghostly tours, highlights of this year’s programme include a bat skeleton mounting workshop, a magic shadow show in West Norwood Cemetery, a five hour immersive forensics workshop, a screening of eerie classic The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari with live piano accompaniment by Stephen Horne, and creepy Halloween festival A Danse Macabre. It doesn’t get more gothic than that! Check out the full programme here. 

Doc’n Roll Film Festival shines a spotlight on some of the movers and shakers who’ve lit up the music world with intriguing and eclectic sounds. The lineup of films for the 13th edition of the festival is yet to be announced but you can expect a programme that covers a wealth of genres and scenes, and takes over the capital’s cinema staples like the Barbican, BFI Southbank, Dalston's Rio and more. Some screenings come accompanied by Q&As with the artists documented and/or filmmakers, or live performances. 

The American painter Robert Ryman (1930-2019) was a master of minimalism, even though he was reluctant to apply the term to his own work. For decades, he painted his signature white-on-white paintings, urging the viewer to look closely at his brushstrokes in all their tactile glory, and to enjoy the subtlety and nuance of the varied effects he achieved. His work isn’t often shown in the UK, and this Barbican exhibition will be his first major airing here for over 30 years. There’ll be 60 paintings on display spanning his sixty year career, in a contemplative tribute to this influential artist. 

Is that the saccharine scent of pumpkin spice in the air? Surprised to see lots of orange orbs taking over your local supermarket? It can only mean one thing: autumn is upon us in all its crispy-leafed, russet splendour. 

From glowing sunsets, to bracing walks and cosy pubs, there are lots of things that make up the ultimate autumnal day trip and London has them in spadefuls. Whether it’s nestling up in an old-school whisky tavern with a wee dram, collecting up armfuls of pumpkins from the city’s premier markets or exploring Gothic cemeteries. 

Marking 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the United States, the Science Museum’s new free exhibition is casting an eye on how science and technology shaped the development of the US of A.

Across the exhibition, you’ll find stories of how Anglo-American colonists, enslaved and free people of African descent, and Indigenous Americans used their knowledge, skills and tools to live, cultivate the land and exert power. Look out for a rare surviving copy of the Declaration, notable items used by King George III and George Washington, and a pioneering map made by Benjamin Franklin, which will be among over a hundred objects on display in an exhibition created with the support of the Library of Congress.

When the camera was first invented, it was a wonder of science, able to capture images with an accuracy that had never been seen before. But soon, instead of being seen as a rival to painters and sculptors, photographers began to join them as artists, interested in all the creative possibilities of this new method of image making. Tate Modern’s new group exhibition explores how art photography emerged as a discipline between the 1880s and 1960s, taking an international approach that spans places from Shanghai to Sydney, New York to Cape Town, and Brazil to Singapore.

It's a whopping 15 years since Keira Knightley acted on stage, and she's chosen a pretty exciting comeback show. Brit auteur Rob Icke is adapting the Oscar-winning 2006 German film about a playwright and his mistress (Knightley) being surveilled by Stasi agents in ’80s East Germany. It’s the first time Icke – who has adapted many a classic play – has done the same for a film, but the claustrophobic source material built around a small number of characters feels perfect for adaptation, and Icke is an expert with human emotions. The impressively starry cast will also include Bridgerton man Luke Thompson as playwright Georg Dreyman, and Stephen Dillane as Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler, the agent somewhat reluctantly spying on him. 

In his latest paintings, Pakistan-born, New York-based artist Salman Toor explores the struggle and desire for belonging, both culturally and emotionally. Bringing together 19 of the artist’s paintings, some of which have never been seen in Britain before, this is Toor’s first solo exhibition in Europe and will be full of work deeply rooted in his personal experiences, as well as inspired by an admiration for the Old Masters, especially in Baroque and 18th-century painting. 

For one glorious weekend, Chelsea Physic Garden is waiving its usual admission fees for a special get-together for plant-lovers of all ages. Part of Chelsea History Festival, this open weekend is full of chances to learn how apothecaries and herbalists used plants in centuries gone by. Historical characters will share tales of how they've used leafy ingredients in ointments and healing tinctures. There'll also be lots of opportunities to get hands on with nature, including pond-dipping, storytelling and craft activities throughout the day.

Korean pop culture has won our hearts over the last decade or so, but how much do you know about the country’s history? The British Museum’s new exhibition dedicated to the east Asian country includes sculpture, painting and decorative arts spanning over two millennia from around 300 BC to the present day. The show is a deep dive into Korean creativity, and according to the museum, ‘presents the most comprehensive chronological survey of Korean visual and material culture seen in Europe for over 40 years’.

Look out for national treasures including ancient gold body ornaments and Buddhist icons, as well as 12th- and 13th-century celadon-glazed stoneware, evocative ink landscapes and contemporary works responding to the turbulence of the 20th century. It’s a collection that’s never been seen in the UK before.

Painters have been being dazzled by the glorious natural light and sparkling azure sea of the French Riviera for centuries. This autumn, you’ll be able to feel like you’re taking in the sea air on the Côte d’Azur from London, as the Royal Academy brings together artworks depicting the French southern coast from greats including Monet, Braque, Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir and Klein. Spanning the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists and Modernists, Painting the French Riviera will not only transport you to the SAD-beating coastline, but explore how the riviera was inextricably linked to the rise of modern art. 

Sure, they're cheaper in the supermarket. But if you want to truly embrace the joys of pumpkin season, get down to an actual field and pick one straight out of the mud (wellies advised). Here are some of the best spots to snag a squash, ready for carving, soup-making, or simply marvelling at in all its amber glory. 

Poly Styrene, Chrissy Hynde, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Debbie Harry.; this autumn, as part of the city-wide Up Yours! Festival, the Museum of Youth Culture will celebrate the women behind the punk movement with a landmark exhibition. God Save The Queens 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. 

The Cherry Orchard is, of course, one of Chekhov’s great plays, and follows an ailing aristocratic family as they contemplate the end of their beloved country estate and the sale of its beloved orchard. It was last seen in London a couple of years back in an absolutely bonkers production at the Donmar. Expect something less eccentric but powerfully poignant from the great director Ian Rickson, who turned in a fine Uncle Vanya on the cusp of the pandemic. This production will reunite him with Kristin Scott Thomas, who almost 20 years ago starred in his Royal Court production of The Seagull. She’ll play big hearted but finanically irresponsible aristocract Lyubov Ranevskaya.

The so-called ‘king of coloured photography’, William Eggleston made his name photographing roadside diners, suburban streets and domestic spaces across the USA, using dye transfer to bring the images to life. Through his striking, pioneering work, it’s easy to get a sense of the alienation, loneliness and desire that perforated the American Dream of the mid-twentieth century. This major exhibition will mark 50 years since his landmark book William Eggleston’s Guide was published, displaying some of his most iconic imagery alongside lesser-known deepcuts, including some taken pre-colour. 

As usual, beloved central London repertory cinema The Prince Charles will be showing more frightening films than Dracula has had bloody dinners during a wildly eclectic, month-long season of spooky cinema featuring more than 80 titles. Highlights include live-scored screenings of the original 1922 Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Oct 4), an all-night marathon of the first six Halloween films on All Hallow’s Eve itself (Oct 31) and, of course, its famous Sing-A-Long-A Rocky Horror Picture Show (Oct 30 and 31). 

There’ll also be re-runs of recent horror hits Weapons (Oct 15), Backrooms (Oct 22) and Sinners (Oct 29), or if you’re keen to swerve the obvious picks for something a little more niche, take your pick from the likes of ’70s blacksploitation hit Blacula (Oct 6 and 29), 1940s horror comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Oct 19) or B-movie classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Oct 12). Check out the full programme here.

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Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami’s seminal works of magical realism are essentially unstageable but have – nonetheless – been staged occasionally, with adaptations of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles and Kafka on the Shore having made it to the UK in relatively recent times. The latter had a run at the Barbican, and it’s there that this adaptation of Murakami’s early work Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World will run as part of an international tour. Adapted by Ako Takahashi, directed by Philippe Decouflé, and with Japanese movie star Tatsuya Fujiwara in the lead, the original story is set in two distinct worlds: one a dystopian future, the other mystical town populated by fantastical beasts. The book alternated chapters set in each, but one wonders if the reversal of the story’s name for this stage outing indicates that the dystopian End of the World will here be followed by the mystical Hard-Boiled Wonderland. Either way, it should be a thing of rare imagination.

Bloomsbury has got a formidable reputation for artsy goings on, with bohemian artists and writers having made it their stamping ground for decades. But this neighbourhood’s relationship with creativity isn’t just in the past – it’s right here in the present too, as is more than evident with the Bloomsbury Festival, a haven of music, theatre, talks, walks and much more. The festival celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2026, with a month-long edition featuring 150+ events at more than 40 venues around WC1, under the theme of ‘Create and Celebrate’. 

It’s a hugely eclectic programme that will make you see this historic neighbourhood in a whole new light. Check out the full details here. 

Following its annual summertime horror bonanza in August, London’s primo horror film festival – dubbed ‘the Woodstock of Gore’ by no less an authority than Guillermo del Toro – is once again resurfacing, Kraken-like, for a spooktacular weekend of Halloween screenings at the Odeon Luxe West End. Horror afficionados can expect a line-up of terrifying indie movies, typically including one or two UK premieres, each of which is screened twice. Bedwetters need not apply, and, needless to say, the festival has an 18 rating.

Best known for his eye-popping, fantastical fashion photography for titles including British Vogue, i-D, W, Vanity Fair and Another Man, British photographer Tim Walker has spent the past five years photographing the nation’s LGBTQ+ trailblazers in preparation for this major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. His first show in London since the V&A’s acclaimed exhibition in 2019, it will be accompanied by a book featuring contributions from Travis Alabanza, Russell T Davies, Shon Faye, Lisa Power and Joelle Taylor.

Landmark though it is, Ntozake Shange’s 1975 emotive, darkly comic choreopoem of vignettes about life as a Black woman has scarcely been revived in the UK. Perhaps it’s simply the case that its concern with the African-American experience has inevitably meant that the US is where it’s most frequently revived: in terms of straight up box-office, Ryan Calais Cameron’s recent answer play For Black Boys… about the Black British male experience has been for more successful, even if it’ll probably never have quite the cultural impact.

Whatever the case, we finally get to see how Shange’s great work stands up in modern Britain as the recently upgraded Yard Theatre drops its first premiere since it reopened with a new production by Diane Page, with original music by Jammz. Tatenda Naomi Matsvai, Nadine Higgin, Cherrelle Skeete, Alex Thomas-Smith and Ibilola Rossi co-star.

Battersea Arts Centre has a major part to play in the history of immersive theatre, having been the home of Punchdrunk’s breakthrough show The Masque of the Red Death way back in 2007. Room 13 will be a very different beast, but it’s a return to the immersive medium for BAC, as award-winning Secret Cinema director Tom Maller helms a supernatural adventure that will play up until Halloween.

It’s built around the premise that during the restoration work for the fire that ripped through BAC in 2015, builders found a mysterious stone chamber that they unsealed, discovering something so horrifying the work ground to a halt. Now 11 years on, the chamber will be unsealed again… Note the short runtime (there are multiple entry slots per night), but presumably it’s going to be pretty intense.

The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most extraordinary examples of medieval craft that we can still see today. It’s 70 metres of cloth that has been intricately hand-stitched with dyed wool yarn to recreate the infamous Battle of Hastings and experts reckon it took a team of skilled embroiders anything from several months to a few years. So, don’t expect to be able to recreate it at the British Museum’s Bayeux-focused ‘Medieval Making’ evening. However, you can expect to pick lots of new crafty knowledge. There’ll be workshops to help you with knitted or crocheted pieces you’re already working on, a chance to create your own extravagent medieval inspired headwear, an opportunity to add embroidery to add to collaborative textile collage inspired by the tapestry’s trees and, when you’re all crafted out, a medieval pub quiz with the Weird Medieval Guys. 

If you love the cinematic brilliance of the sea, the Ocean Film Festival is for you. The touring festival arrives at Union Chapel this autumn and will showcase hours of sublime footage taken above and below the water’s surface, spotlighting marine creatures, ocean-related sports, and all sorts of coastal cultures.

It’s a chance to meet surfers, paddlers, divers and oceanographers who have dedicated their lives to exploring the wildest and most unknown corners of the planet. This year’s pick of films (which range from six minutes to 48 minutes) includes The Raftsmen, a 1973 documentary about the 12 people who attempted to cross the Pacific Ocean on three handmade wooden rafts; Granny Grommets, a heartwarming short film about OAPs taking on the surf every week and The Kelp Collector, which follows algae enthusiast Sandy Webb on her underwater expeditions.