London events in October 2025

This year’s BFI London Film Festival will kick off on Wednesday, October 9 with Steve McQueen’s World War II drama Blitz at the Royal Festival Hall. From there, the UK’s biggest film festival will be pressing play on its 68th edition, featuring 11 days and nights of movies, archive works, short films VR and XR experiences, talks, panels and parties. As in recent years, screenings will take place at Royal Festival Hall, BFI IMAX, BFI Southbank, and Bargehouse for the LFF Expanded XR strand, as well as at five London partner cinemas: Curzon Mayfair, Curzon Soho, the ICA, Prince Charles Cinema and Vue West End. Very much not a festival that’s just for the critics and VIPs, the LFF remains the most accessible of the world’s big film festivals, so you’ve got every chance of scoring seats to its packed line-up of new movies when tickets go on sale in September.

Proving you’re never too old to make your London stage debut, the great Susan Sarandon will do so at the impressive age of 78. She'll share the title role of this acclaimed drama by Tracy Letts with our own Andrea Riseborough. Both brilliant screen actors who have drifted away from the stage, it’s coup for Old Vic artistic director Matthew Warchus to have bagged them for his UK premiere production of Letts’s intriguing sounding play that tells the life story of its title character in willfully jumbled, mosaic-like order. 

Munich’s official Oktoberfest celebration is back this year, but it’s not like you have to travel to Germany for a stein-sloshing good time anyway. There’s plenty of oompah blaring, Bratwurst feasting and lederhosen wearing to be had right here in London town. Just head down to one of these Bavarian beer halls and get the Erdingers in. Prost!

"For those in Peril on the Sea’ makes dying at sea sound like something noble, and patriotic. Whereas their husband, son or father has died for one half of a fish and chip supper…"

February 1975. In freezing weather off the coast of Iceland, the sidewinder Graham Greene ices up, heels over, and sinks in seconds, taking fifteen of her crew with her. Such are the realities of the brutal world of trawler fishing. On impulse, despised trawler-owner Donald Claxton flies to Reykjavik to see the survivors, setting in train an evening of drinking, horseplay, romance and story-telling that will change all their lives forever.

Get £15 tickets, down from £55 to 'Reykjavik' at Hampstead Theatre, only through Time Out Offers.

You probably already know that October is Black History Month. But did you know that you'll find special events in almost every borough of London, covering every base from walking tours to special exhibitions to movie screenings to culinary delights? We're tracking down some of the most exciting events on the line-up of this much-needed festival of Black culture.  

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. 

David Byrne’s Royal Court seasons have proven almost aggressively eclectic so far, with surefire commercial smashes rubbing up against stuff that comes across as genuinely quite mad. Coming a year after West End transfer Giant made its debut, Nick Payne’s The Unbelievers certainly looks like another big hit: the great Marianne Elliott (War Horse, Curious Incident) will make her debut at the venerable new writing theatre, in Payne’s first Court play since his huge hit Constellations, with design by the legendary Bunnie Christie. The cherry on the cake is the marvellous Nicola Walker, who will star as a woman whose son disappeared seven years ago and for whom time has now fractured, causing her to experience every minute of every year gone by simultaneously. Okay, that’s a pretty mad concept, but if anyone can pull it off it’s this A-Team of theatrical talent.

Into books? You've probably already got October's London Literature Festival marked on your calendar with sparkly hearts, because each year this brilliant Southbank Centre festival has a line-up to fall in love with. It aims to bring together readers of all ages to ‘celebrate the power of the written and spoken word’. 2025's line-up is yet to be announced, but previous editions have assembled some of the literary world's biggest celebs and greatest minds, as well as offering spoken words seshes and inclusive events that everyone can get excited about. 

Visit the Southbank Centre's official website for full details. 

When the days are a-darkenin’, London is being over-run with giant arachnids and the supermarkets are filling up with pumpkin-plastered merch, it can only mean one thing: Halloween, Tuesday October 31 2023, is almost upon us. So dust off your cape, comb out your synthetic wig and get searching for a ‘beginner friendly’ face painting tutorial on YouTube. Here are the best Halloween events happening in London this year. 

Some of superstar director Michael Grandage’s first London shows were at the Almeida Theatre. But that was all a long time ago: he’s not been back this century. Until now: as part of Rupert Goold’s final season, Grandage returns to direct a very juicy prospect indeed. The Line of Beauty is rising star playwright Jack Holden’s adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst’s classic novel of Thatcherite Britain, set in 1983 as it follows protagonist Nick as he gets sucked into an alluring, disconcerting world of extreme privilege in a rapidly changing country. There’s no word on casting yet, but you wouldn’t put it past Grandage to land a name – though his own and that of the book are doubtless quite enough to sell out the show. 

London’s cultural institutions are having a love affair with the New Romantics this year. First there was Outlaws, the Fashion and Textile Museum’s exhibition on the subversive fashion trends of 1980s London. Then the Tate Modern announced a major retrospective on pioneering fashion maverick Leigh Bowery. Now it’s the Design Museum’s turn to direct its attention towards the most flamboyant subculture of its era, via this exhibition on the Blitz club, the iconic (and we really don’t use that word lightly) Covent Garden nightclub where New Romanticism was born in 1979. Forty years after it closed, the trailblazing club’s atmosphere will be recreated through a ‘sensory extravaganza’ incorporating music, film, art, graphic design and some very ostentatious outfits. This will include several items that have never been on public display before, while some of the scene’s key figures have been involved in the development of the exhibition. Time to liberally apply the kohl eyeliner, fish out your frilliest shirt and whack on some Spandau Ballet: the 80s are back, baby!

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. 

It’s not that long ago that British art bigwigs Gilbert & George grew so frustrated with what they saw as a lack of attention from the UK’s art institutions that they set up their very own museum dedicated to themselves. That big whinge seems a bit premature now that the Hayward is giving them a big exhibition looking at their work since the turn of the millennium, a period that has seen them satirising everything from hope and fear to sex and religion.

Fashion lovers will lose their heads over the V&A’s big autumn 2025 exhibition, focusing as it does on the sartorial tastes of one of history’s most notable bonce droppers. Marie Antoinette Style will look at the ill-fated French queen’s enduring impact on fashion, design and culture, as well as ‘the origins and countless revivals of the style shaped by the most fashionable queen in history’. The V&A’s art collection features two portraits of Antoinette by Jean-François Janinet and François Hubert Drouais which we’d imagine will feature in the exhibition, while visitors can also expect to get up close to some serious couture pieces too; Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Moschino, Dior and the exhibition’s sponsor Manolo Blahnik have all created past collections inspired by the guillotined French Revolution monarch. Let them eat ’fits!

Fashion model-turned-photographer Lee Miller tirelessly pursued her artistic vision in a world that was hostile to female artists, becoming an avant garde luminary in New York, London, Paris and Cairo. 2025 will see the launch of the most extensive retrospective of her photography in the UK, celebrating the trailblazing surrealist as one of the 20th century’s most urgent artistic voices. Around 250 vintage and modern prints will be on display – including some previously unseen gems – capturing her unique vision and spirit.

Every October, the great, good and filthy rich of the art world descend on London for Frieze, a massive fair held in Regent's Park. Frieze is full of the latest works by hyped contemporary artists, while its less frenzied sister fair Frieze Masters is all about works pre-2000, and stretching back to ancient times. Both involve shelling out more than a hundred quid for a ticket, but if you want to get your art fix for free, turn up to Frieze Sculpture, where you can see massive outdoor works in leafy surroundings.

As soon as autumn arrives in London, the city is illuminated with colourful light trails and installations. But one festival of light has been around for a lot longer than all of them. London is home to a Hindu and Sikh population of over half a million, and as such Diwali is a major celebration in the city’s calendar. Symbolising the spiritual victory of light over darkness, the festival takes place over five days in October or November, depending on when the new moon falls. Fancy joining in the festivities? We'll round-up the best Diwali celebrations in London this autumn, from family-friendly events to foodie celebrations, including the traditional centrepiece in Trafalgar Square.

Modernist art was a means of rebellion and self-expression for midcentury Nigerian artists as their country fought against, and ultimately escaped British colonial rule in 1960. As well as unearthing works from across Nigeria, this new Tate exhibition also looks further afield to London, Munich and Paris, exploring how artists reimagined European techniques to create an aesthetic all of their own.

Cecil Beaton was a jack of all trades and master of many, bringing his inimitable touch to the worlds of fashion illustration, photography, costume design, writing and more. While most exhibitions covering his glittering career touch on all sides of his creative world, none has ever looked solely at his ground-breaking fashion work – until now. ‘Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World’ will do just that via some of his most dazzling outfits that defined the Jazz Age or shone on screen in the likes of ‘My Fair Lady’.