Amazing things to do in London in September 2025

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!

It’s been 25 years since Somerset House transformed from a government office into a cultural powerhouse. Celebrate it’s big quarter century at this birthday weekend extravaganza, which free, open-to-all invitation for people to explore and get to know the entire building. Guests will be able to discover the lesser-known spaces including the Deadhouse and Maker Street where you can meet Somerset House’s resident creatives. There’ll also be dance, music, performance, exhibition viewings, film showings, workshops, tours, family activities, retail and more. Phew. Watch this space for more details closer to the time. 

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 16, with bookings opening on August 20. Get practising your clicking now – these tickets go faster than Glastonbury.

Created by the minds behind Brainchild Festival, Colour Factory, Orii Community and Voices Radio, Jazz on Wick is a new festival for 2025. Taking place across multiple venues in Hackney Wick, the day-to-night celebration of jazz and adjacent astral sounds features neo-soul singer BINA, genre-blending quartet oreglo, multi-instrumentalist Allexa Nava and a special edition of the Orii Jam (complete with special guests TBA). 

This is a bold opener for Indhu Rubasingham’s first season in charge at the National Theatre: first time playwright (though he’s got decent pedigree as an actor) Nima Taleghani offers up what sounds like a racously modern – and probably quite foul-mouthed – adaptation of Euripides’s shockingly violent Ancient Greek tragedy. Rubasingham herself will direct the show, which has a cast including James McArdle, Clare Perkins and Ukweli Roach.

There's just a few weeks left to see Lightroom's 'The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks', so don't miss your chance to see this breathtaking spectacle for just £19. Tom Hanks narrates an epic experience that offers a unique new perspective on humankind’s past and future voyages to the moon. See this exciting Apollo Remastered collaboration with Tom Hanks, Christopher Riley and 59 Productions with an insight into the impending return of crewed surface missions by going behind the scenes of the Artemis programme, including interviews between Hanks and Artemis astronauts. 

Save up to £10 on ticket to 'The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks' at Lightroom, only through Time Out Offers.

The last Lyttelton theatre show to be programmed by Rufus Norris prior to his departure looks like a good one: following the Jodie Comer-fuelled West End smash Prima Facie, writer Susie Miller and director Justin Martin join forces with a new star for for follow-up Inter Alia. Rosamund Pike has had a good few years with screen hits Saltburn and The Wheel of Time, and now she makes her National Theatre debut to star as Jessica Parks, a maverick high court judge who precariously balances her work and her home life. We don’t know a lot more about the Miriam Buether-designed show just yet, but the fact Pike will be joined by actors Jamie Glover and Jasper Talbot points to the fact that this won’t be a monologue in the vein of Miller’s last.

A night at the opera doesn't have to mean fancy outfits, a full orchestra and corseted divas. The Arcola Theatre's alt-opera festival Grimeborn is back and it’s as eclectic as ever, from the fun of Sense & Sensibility, The Musical (Aug 19-23) to the radicalism of a stripped back reworking of Wagner’s magnum opus Tristan und Isolde (Aug 13-16). Affordable tickets and a fun bar for drinks afterwards make this a satisfying night out for music fans of every stripe.

Helping replace Canary Wharf’s corporate image with something fun and family-friendly, Canada Square Park has erected a big screen showing movies throughout the summer. For the final month, you can head down there on watch ‘A League of Their Own’ on September 4, ‘Champions’ on September 9, ‘Whip It’ on September 16 and ‘Invictus’ (September 23). It’s very much a BYO set-up, so bring your own blankets and snacks – though there’s a Waitrose nearby for any last-minute picnic needs.

Anyone who’s ever stepped inside the Royal Albert Hall will understand that it can’t be filled with just any old music – it needs scale and drama. And every year it gets exactly that with the BBC Proms, one of London’s best-loved and most dazzling cultural festivals. This year, highlights include Florence + The Machine – Symphony of Lungs (Sep 11) where Florence Welch and conductor Jules Buckley lead celebrations of her BRIT Award-winning debut album, and of course, the Last Night at the Proms (Sep 14), which is apparently the world’s biggest classical music party. 

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. This year get a front seat at plenty of big shows in the audio world, including No Such Thing As A Fish, Wrong Turns with Jameela Jamil, The Empire Film Podcast and History Hit.

Grab your Ministry of Sound birthday weekender tickets for £10, only through Time Out Offers.

Organised by the people behind Percolate and Love International festival in Croatia, mid-September’s electronic music one-dayer Waterworks is a final chance to squeeze every last drop of festival fun out of the summer. Returning to west London’s Gunnersbury Park for its fifth edition, the festival’s line-up features DJs playing just about every genre of dance music, including the likes of Two Shell, Yung Singh, Special Request, Palms Trax, Skee Mask, Lukas Wigflex, Octo Octa, Eris Drew, Tash LC, DJ Stingray and Djrum. You’ll struggle to find a festival line-up more packed with world-class selectors than this. 

What is a portrait, really? What is its role? And what makes it different from ‘just’ a photograph of a person? These are all questions that spring to mind when walking around A Thousand Small Stories, the first ever retrospective of Eileen Perrier’s photography. Since the 1990s, the London-born photographer has used her camera to capture individuals in their local communities, and this show highlights some of her finest work. 

You don't see many festivals billing themselves as a blend of 'philosophy and music' but that's exactly what you get at HowTheLightGetsIn. Over 300 talks, discussions, debates, musical performances, comedy sets and documentary screenings are on the bill this year. Alain de Boton, Brian Cox, Ash Sarkar, Mary Trump, Cathy Newman, Alastair Campbell, Roger Penrose and John Gray are just some of the thinkers on the line-up, while performances come from the likes of Alex Farrow, The Orb, Lucy Beaumont, Deptford Northern Soul Club, Alexandra Harrow and Kadialy Kouyate on the entertainment bill. Your centrist dad will love it.

Charge the steins! You don’t have to travel all the way to Germany for a lederhosen-clad knees-up this Oktoberfest – and you don't even have to wait until October. Munich’s world-famous beer festival is very much on in London and starting this September; with big steins of beer, platters of excessively long wurst and loud oompah bands blowing brass like they don’t give a schnitzel. 

Whether you’re after a traditional take on the event or want to cut loose with some raucous table dancing, authentic Bavarian beers or east London craft IPAs, you can find the perfect Oktoberfest for you right here in London. Give yourself a warm willkommen at one of these London Oktoberfest events.  

To drink, or not to drink? The Sh!t-faced Shakespeare crew resprise their production of the Bard’s greatest play: as ever, with one member of the company smashed out of their faces. Is it going to be a ‘Hamlet’ for the ages? Absolutely not. Is it going to be a fun, short ‘Hamlet’ best watched over a few beers? Aye, there's the rub.

Ally Pally is collaborating with British-German composer Max Richter for two very special overnight events celebrating the tenth anniversary of his epic composition SLEEP. Comprising 204 individual tracks, SLEEP the mammoth epic, 8 hour and 30 minute-long lullaby was created for listeners to fall asleep to, and has already been performed live at some of the world’s most iconic concert venues, including Sydney Opera House and the Philharmonie de Paris. And now it’s north London’s turn to host more of his truly special all-nighters, with two performances taking place this September, starting at 10pm and finishing at around 6am as the sun rises. 

Yes, it’s a musical adaptation of the 2004 Adam Sandler/Drew romcom, which was a massive hit at the height of Sandlermania, and remains at least fairly well remembered. Its aggressively goofy plot about a louche marine biologist – with a posse of eccentric humans and animals – who falls for a woman who can’t remember the events of the previous day would seem to lend itself to the intrinsic silliness of the genre. Whatever the case, this world premiere run for 50 First Dates at the mid-size The Other Palace looks like it has the potential to be a big deal: American humourists David Rossmer and Steve Rosen have written the songs and script, while the big deal is director Casey Nicholaw, best known for The Book of Mormon, and suggesting this run is a tryout for Broadway.

Bringing together a wide spectrum of voices from various disciplines of alternative East and South-East Asian creativity, Margins United is back for its second year in the capital. Created by Eastern Margins, a platform for alternative Asian culture in the UK, the multi-venue festival will feature a full takeover of Exhibition in White City and an afterparty at Scala, King’s Cross. The first announcement centres around Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, a trailblazer in both hyperpop and J-pop who previously collaborated with SOPHIE and Charli xcx. She's joined by DJ Jax Jones, LA’s alt-pop riser Emei and south London rapper Jianbo.

Its been nine long years since Brick Lane last hosted its Curry Festival, but E1’s curry houses are once again coming together for this free festival taking over Brick Lane and nearby streets over three days this September, with the aim of reestablishing this East End neighbourhood as the curry capital of the UK. Visitors can expect street food stalls and chef demonstrations from the area’s many Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani restaurants, alongside a host of family-friendly fun including DJs, stilt walkers, magicians and live graffiti presentations, plus some opportunities to get stuck in yourself at henna and bangla dancing workshops. You can also get 20% off your bill at a host of participating restaurants by reserving a free ticket here. Very tasty indeed.

Although she turned in a fine adaptation of Lorca‘s The House of Bernarda Alba for the National Theatre a couple of years ago, it’s been an age since we’ve had a ‘proper’ play from the wonderful Alice Birch, whose Anatomy of a Suicide and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. were two of the great British stage works of the ’10s. There’s no secret what she’s been up to since: her screenwriting career has massively taken off, most notably with Lady Macbeth and the screen adaptation of Normal People, although she’s pretty damn busy generally. 

Anyway, long story short, Romans: A Novel is her first ‘original’ play in years, which is cause for celebration in and of itself. Plus it sounds like she’s lost none of her ambition: the somewhat cryptically titled play is a dissection of masculinity from the nineteeth century to the present and the way in which male narratives shape the world as we know. Precisely what it’ll involve is very much TBC, but it will star Andor’s Kyle Soller and will be directed by Sam Pritchard, Birch’s husband. 

Get ready! This autumn, Camden hosts its largest celebration of Bavaria cuisine and of course, beer. Electric Ballroom will be transformed into an all-singing, all-dancing beer hall complete with long wooden tables and traditional bunting, fit for a decadent bohemian party with a host of games and prizes to be won. Enjoy the authentic German taste of sausages and schnitzel to the sound of live music from Oompah Bands & more. 

Get 50% off tickets to Oktoberfest 2024 at Camden's Electric Ballroom, only through Time Out Offers.

Each year, Frieze Sculpture transforms Regent's Park, one of London's prettiest green spaces, into a massive free outdoor gallery. Only this year, things are looking more gloomy than sunny. This year's line up is curated by Fatoş Üstek, on the theme of ‘In the Shadows’, which means they'll be engage with the idea of darkness from many perspectives, whether that's inner darkness or the interplay between light and obscurity. 

If you’re captivated by the stars and the stage, Hampstead Theatre’s latest production is a must-see. For just £15, down from £55, see ‘The Lightest Element’, set in 1956 Boston, where Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, a pioneering astronomer, faces two obstacles: a covert investigation into her political affiliations and the sexism of her male colleagues. When a student journalist offers a profile opportunity, it seems like a chance to shape her own story – if the invitation is genuine…

Head to Hampstead Theatre for just £15, down from £55, only through Time Out Offers.

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!

This 1947 musical from My Fair Lady writers Lerner & Loewe has faded out of fashion in recent years, presumably largely because its premise of a couple of American tourists stumbling across a magical Scottish village that only appears every couple of hundred years is actually pretty patronising to the Scottish. That’s presumably why top Scottish playwright Rona Munro has been brought in to update the book of the first major UK revival since 1988, which will see Drew McOnie direct his in augural production as Open Air Theatre artistic director. The exact nature of the update is TBC, but it appears that lost-in-the-Highlands American protagonists Tommy and Jeff have been changed from game hunting tourists to crashed WW2 fighter pilots.

This month is your last chance to take your dino-loving kid to Jurassic World: The Experience. Staged at NEON, a new venue just outside Battersea Power Station, the experience is roughly 45 minutes long and begins with boarding a ‘ferry’ to get to Isla Nublar, home to Jurassic World. Expect gigantic animatronic herbivores, ‘baby dinosaur’ petting, velociraptor feeding and a face-to-face T-rex encounter.  

Peter Doig is one of the greatest living painters, an artist whose approach to hazy, memory-drenched figuration has had an enormous impact on the visual landscape of today. For his show at the Serpentine, he’s going well beyond the canvas, filling the gallery with speaker systems to create a ‘multi-sensory environment’ and explore the impact of music on his work. 

The Bush Theatre under the reign of outgoing artistic director Lynette Linton has rarely been about celebrity names – on the whole she’s tended to deal with them seperately in her busy freelance career. But with her time in west London coming to an end, she can afford to allow herself something a little fancy. Not Your Superwoman is a new play by Emma Dennis-Edwards – created by her and Linton – and it will star Letitia Wright – aka Black Panther herself – as Erica, daughter to Golda Rosheuvel’s Joyce. In the aftermath of the death of Joyce’s mother, the two find themselves paralysed about what to do with their lives next. 

See why this D&D London restaurant sits at the forefront of the capital's food scene, with a best of British menu, created by executive Head Chef Owen Sullivan. For starters, you can enjoy refined, comforting classics, like the leek and potato soup and spicy salmon maki avocado. It only gets better with the mains, with Delica Pumpkin Tortellini and Aged Beef Ragu on offer. Top it all off with your pick of dessert and a glass of prosecco.

Enjoy three courses and a glass of prosecco for an exclusive £23, only through Time Out Offers.

The 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup is already smashing records before a single match has even been played. A record 220,000 tickets have been sold to date – the fastest-selling tournament ever. The much-anticipated competition will take place between August to September next year across 32 matches, with the final taking place in London at the iconic Twickenham Stadium. There’s even more reason to be excited: England are one of the favourites to win, and we all know that England’s female sporting teams have a greater track record of being victorious. So, fingers crossed, the England women’s rugby team get their own Euro ’22 moment. 

Some of London’s most illustrious institutions – the National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Chelsea and Chelsea Physic Garden – join forces for the seventh edition of this history bonanza. A line-up of 80 events explores history from every angle, with author talks, guided walks, and family-friendly fun. 2025's highlights include two talks from ‘You're Dead To Me’ host Greg Jenner (Sep 27) a walking tour of Chelsea's punk past (Sep 24), a session creating herbal plague remedies in Chelsea Physic Garden (Sep 27) and a discussion of WWII memoirs with journalist Emily Maitlis (Sep 28). 

Katie Mitchell’s second play for the David Byrne-era Royal Court threatens makes last year’s non-linear poetry adaptation Bluets look positively commerical. A collaboration between the legendary avant-garde director, playwright Nina Segal and sound artist Melanie Wilson, Cow | Deer – apparently you’re not allowed to say it ‘Cow-slash-deer’ – it’s a wordless work about a dsy in the life of a cow and a deer that aims to further the eco-minded bent of Mitchell’s work by ‘decentring’ humans from a work. Truly, who can say what this will mean or look like, but presumaby it’s about as out-there a thing as you’ll see on a stage this year. Actors will apparently be involved, though it’s unclear precisely what they’ll be doing.

If you're besotted with bivalves, this one's for you. Bentley's Oyster Bar is once again hosting the London Oyster Championships, which brings together chefs, seafood experts, and foodie types for a day of enjoyable rivalry, refreshments and live music. First up is the speed shucking competition: entries are first come, first served as competitors battle to shell oysters against the clock. Then there's the best dressed competitions, where chefs come up with novel oyster toppings in front of a panel of judges including Prue Leith.

Your ticket gets you the chance to scoff unlimited native rock oysters, plus two drinks, a goodie bag, and entry to the event's after party. 

Ibsen’s 1888 play about a woman named Ellida at the heart of a love triangle between her safe husband Edward and a dangerous ex-lover referred to only as The Stranger gets staged relatively frequently: the last major London production was at the Donmar back in 2017. But it rarely gets the full West End celebrity Hedda Gabler/A Doll’s House/The Master Builder treatment – you’re probably lookig at a late-’70s production at the Roundhouse starring Vanessa Redgrave for its last and really only really big outing in this country.

Until now. In a year otherwise dominated by musicals and Shakespeare plays, the Bridge’s big autumn show is a new version of Ibsen’s play but Aussie auteur Simon Stone, that will mark the professional stage debut of Swedish screen star Alicia Vikander as Ellida, joined by big name Brit Andrew Lincoln as Edward (his first show in front of an audience in 16 years, although he did the Old Vic’s A Christmas Carol to a webcam and an empty theatre in 2020).

It’s hard to know exactly what to expect: Stone’s adaptations are modern, radical and often rather blunt – his Yerma for the Young Vic was explosively good; his Phaedra for the National Theatre was a bit silly; much of his prolific output simply hasn’t been seen in this country. Whatever the case, he’s a good get for the Bridge and if this production could probaby go either way, then that’s part of the Stone magic. 

Kerry James Marshall is an artist with a singular vision. He has become arguably the most important living American painter over the past few decades, with an ultra-distinctive body of work that celebrates the Black figure in an otherwise very ‘Western’ painting tradition. This big, ambitious show at the Royal Academy will be a joyful celebration of his lush, colourful approach to painting, and artist’s largest ever exhibition outside of the US. 

A short kids’ adaptation aside, Rufus Norris was the first artistic director of the National Theatre to not programme a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet at all: it’s been 15 years since Rory Kinnear took on the role for Norris’s predecessor Nicholas Hytner. But new NT boss Indhu Rubasingham isn’t messing around, and her deputy Robert Hastie’s production is her first piece of programming in the Lyttelton. Hiran Abeysekera – best known for his Olivier-winning turn in the Hastie-directed Life of Pi – will take on the mantle of Shakespeare’s Great Dane. We don’t know a huge amount about the production beyond that, though the initial publicity images suggest a certain amount of irreverence, while the 7.15pm start times suggest it’ll be long, but maybe a bit clippier than the average Hamlet.

Forget the same old, same old. The annual Future Of Food Festival, hosted by the culinary hotspots of Regent Street and St James’s, has got events galore that are all about the newest, most exciting, and most sustainable bits of the restaurant industry. This year, there’ll be exclusive dining experiences from chefs including Alex Dilling and Rafael Cagali, masterclasses from sustainable booze brands including Sapling Spirits, and On-Street Feasts where you can dine outdoors, enjoying dishes from four different restaurants at the same time. 

Even if you've never set foot in Greenwich, you'll probably be familiar with the grand stone facade of its Old Royal Naval College. This 18th century building is a much-used movie location that pops up endlessly in period dramas and fantasy flicks, including Bridgerton, Pirates of the Caribbean, Batman, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Now, it's having a bit of fun with its cinematic history by inviting members of the public to turn up in costumes from some of the famous films, in a mammoth Guiness World Record attempt to host the largest gathering of people dressed as TV and film characters. So if you're a closet cosplay fan, the leading light of Halloween fancy dress parties, or just an all-round silly billy who loves putting on a novelty outfit, this one's for you. No need to book: just turn up on the day at 2pm, and have a ball.

There'll be giant photo props on hand including a Bridgerton throne, Cruella's car, and a Batmobile, plus film-themed refreshments. But beware, you can't just throw on a cape and rock up: officials will check you're wearing recognisable elements from specific movie characters before you can join in the fun. 

Don’t miss the final run of Stereophonic’s West End shows. The musical is a lightly fictionalised account of the recording of the Fleetwood Mac’s mega-selling Rumours album, and while not every detail is the same, many are identical, from the cities it was recorded in (Sausalito then LA) to the gender, nationality and internal-relationship makeup of the band, to details like female members ‘Holly’ (aka Christine McVie) and ‘Diana’ (aka Stevie Nicks) moving out out the studio accommodation they were sharing with the band’s menfolk in favour of their own condominiums. 

London’s festival scene caters to just about every kind of music fan, and that of course includes metalheads. After debuting in 2022, this three-day black metal bonanza returns to the O2 Academy Islington for its fourth edition this September. Curated by London-based metal label Cult of Parthenope, its line-up promises to showcase ‘some of the finest, rarest and most transcendental’ bands in the genre. The line-up includes Ritual Death, Bewitched, Kall, Necrophobic, Splendidula, Dark Sonority, Alkhemia, Negative Plane, Shardana, Blood Countess, The Kovenant.

If you thought the National Gallery answered every question that could possibly be asked about what came after the impressionists in their huge blockbuster ‘After Impressionism’ show in 2023, you thought wrong. Because they’re coming back for another go with ‘Radical Harmony’, which will feature the work of the neo-impressionists, including pointilist masters Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. It’s enough to drive you dotty.

Walthamstow's Big Penny Social has only been on the scene for three years, but it's made a name for itself as a fun, down-to-earth spot for locals to hang out and party. Now, it's throwing a mammoth birthday bash that'll be its biggest knees up to date, with a festival feel. Big Penny's Biggest Ever Party will unfold across six different spaces, including new arts venue Big Penny Studio. There'll be a mammoth line-up of over 100 performers, including wrestlers, circus acts, a full orchestra and more, with tons of opportunities to mingle, chat and dance.  

It’s been 16 years since the last major London production of Joe Orton’s breakthrough play Entertaining Mr Sloane, and over a decade since the last major London Orton revival full stop (a 2012 West End production of What the Butler Saw). To a large extent that’s simply a result of the bleak ’60s farceur’s tragically slim body of work, but it’s high time he came around again and new Young Vic artistic director Nadia Fall helms this revival of Mr Sloane as the opening production of her first season at the theatre. What if anything it will tell us about the tenor of her programming at the Vic remains to be seen, but certainly we’ll find out if she can do funny. Tamzin Outhwaite and Daniel Cerqueira lead the cast as a pair of siblings who both fall for their charismatic lodger Mr Sloane, much to the misgivings of their frail father.