The Time Out London blog team

London’s culture scene has well and truly got up off its arse and out of hibernation. Whether you’re weeping over the Charli xcx-soundtracked Wuthering Heights or examining the used condoms strung along Tracey Emin’s ‘My Bed’ this Feb, on top of all that you’ve got a wealth of incredible gigs. Expect arena-sized pop moments, cult club residencies and sweaty guitar shows that demand your very last shred of energy. This month’s gigs are guaranteed to lure you away from your heated blankies and food-stained trackies – the telly will still be there when you get home. The best London gigs and concerts in February 2026 Photograph: Courtesy of the artist 1. Deftones Deftones are hitting the O2 this month with Private Music, which came out in 2025 and was their first album in five years. Blending crushing riffs and dreamy textures, tracks like ‘Infinite Source’ were instant big-hitters, with Chino Moreno back in peak emo-metal-god mode. In recent years, Deftones have garnered a sizeable Gen-Z following, thanks to their signature shifts between heavy and melodic. They’re also lined up for Outbreak in Victoria Park this summer, so consider this your pre-festival warm-up. Good for: Metal fans with a whole lotta feelingsDate: Feb 20Venue: The O2, SE10 0DXTickets: Buy now Photograph: Live Nation 2. RAYE After a 2026 viral hit with ‘Where Is My Husband!?’, RAYE’s two‑night O2 run feels like both a celebration of what she’s achieved so far and a teaser of what’s up ahead. Blending...

Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth has been home to many an eye-catching installation. There was the huge ship in a bottle in 2010, a big blue cockerel in 2013, an unsettling horse skeleton in 2015 and that swirl of whipped cream topped with a cherry, a fly and a drone in 2020.  Right now, the plinth is occupied by Teresa Margolles’s ‘Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant)’, a poignant homage to the existence of trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people. But soon, it’ll be time for a new artwork.  ‘Lady in Blue’ by New York-based artist Tschabalala Self will officially take over the Fourth Plinth in September (sorry, we don’t know the exact date yet).  Photograph: James O’Jenkins The 10ft sculpture depicts a confident woman of colour striding in a blue dress and heels and is meant to represent a contemporary everywoman that ‘many can relate to’. She’s made from bronze and patinated with a rare pigment called ‘lapis lazuli blue’.  Self said of her piece: ‘She is not an idol to venerate or a historic figurehead to commemorate. She is a woman striding forward into our collective future with ambition and purpose. She is a Londoner who represents the city’s spirit.’ Selected back in 2024 by the Fourth Plinth commissioning group (which includes artist Jeremy Deller and former broadcaster Jon Snow), it’ll be the sixteenth sculpture to be displayed on the plinth since the scheme started in 1999. Several celebrated artists and sculptors have had pieces atop...

Did you know that the oldest surviving gasholder in the entire world can be found in Fulham?  The imaginatively named Gasholder No.2 is nearing 200-years-old. It was designed by Samuel Clegg (a man widely recognised as the world’s first gas engineer) alongside a guy called John Kirkham, and built between 1829 and 1839. At that time, it was the largest gasholder to have ever been built and is still considered a ‘remarkable feat in design’. Of course, at that age, Gasholder No.2 is looking more than a little weary. The cast iron structure has been plagued by severe corrosion over the years and is currently on Historic England’s list of heritage structures at risk. But now Hammersmith and Fulham Council has given the official thumbs up to plans that will save it.   Photograph: Chris Redgrave The newly-approved plans by Berkeley Group are part of a wider development of the area. They’ll involve the landmark being dismantled, refurbished and then re-erected at the centre of a new public park with seating, planting and water installations. Large parts of the gasholder are past the point of being salvageable but those that are will be restored offsite and reassembled within the park. It should look as good as new in time for its 200th birthday. The proposals have been enthusiastically welcomed by heritage groups like Historic England, the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society and the Hammersmith and Fulham Historic Buildings Group. Tom Foxall, regional director at...