Pride in London 2025: your ultimate guide to events, parties and more

Get to know the surprising queer histories behind some of the art and artefacts in the British Museum’s vast collection on this free tour of the iconic institution. Led by a knowledgeable volunteer, the 70-minute tour takes in a huge variety of objects ranging from the ancient world to the present day, illuminating the fascinating stories behind some of the musum’s most famous artefacts and lesser-known gems, including the Townley Diskobolos, the Gilgamesh Tablet and the Warren Cup. Can’t make it to one of these dates? There’s also a self-guided version of the tour with free audio commentary you can access through your preferred streaming platform. 

Usually, a trip to Aesop is all about sampling the dizzyingly luxe scents of its toiletries range. But in Pride season, you can scrub up your queer knowledge as well as your hands, with its annual Aesop Queer Library scheme. In the few days before Pride, the store will offer complimentary books by LGBTQIA+ authors, in an installation that celebrates the power of the written word. Best of all? You don't even have to buy a tube of handcream to get your mitts on one. 

Omnibus Theatre's 96 Festival is named after the year when Clapham Common hosted an epic Pride party. Each summer, a host of queer theatremakers and performers keep that spirit alive by filling a leftfield, affordable line-up of new shows. This year's edition is typically eclectic. Check out queer improv show 'Hell Yeah!' (June 26), join a Wicked sing-a-long (June 27) or make for Joseph Aldous' debut 'Get Happy' (July 1-12), about a 30-year-old fighting to have a hot gay summer against all the odds.

In the run up to London’s massive pride parade, this year Pride in London has launched a pop-up shop, flogging exclusive merch, food, drinks and more. Visitors to the store will be able to get their hands on an array of t-shirts, caps, rainbow pin badges and soy wax candles, and a special collection of vintage Pride items, all from LGBTQ+ designers and makers. Refreshing tired shoppers, there will be a range of drinks and artisan ice cream donated by Ariela’s Gelato. If that’s not enough for you, the pop-up will also feature a ‘pledge wall’, which encourages visitors to write motivational or affirming messages to themselves or the community, and there’s an educational wall featuring a guide to each LGBTQ+ community flag.

Women’s football fan collective Baller FC has once again teamed up with craft beer heroes Signature Brew to bring the Women’s Euros to the big screen. Every single England and Wales game will air at the brewery’s Haggerston taproom, as well as a curated pick of group stage clashes and all the knockout stages. This is not just a bunch of screenings, though. This is an all-out month-long footie fiesta. Besides the games themselves, the there’ll be DJs, street skills challenges, foosball contests, karaoke, art takeovers, barber cuts, temp tatts, WoSo-inspired makeovers and the return of Baller’s ‘guess the player by the ponytail’ quiz. No Euros watch party is quite as fun-filled as this one.  

On Saturday July 26, central London will turn pink and blue as London Trans+ Pride celebrates its seventh year. This event will be extra-important this year, as UK trans rights have been jeopardised by a recent Supreme Court ruling. So it's time you showed up, whether you're part of the trans+ community or an ally. Route details are yet to be confirmed, but in previous years, a parade has marched through central London, from Trafalgar Square to Hyde Park Corner’s Wellington Arch. Since 2019, the event has sought to honour the memory of trans lives taken, uphold the next generation of trans revolutionaries and support crucial trans rights. In previous years organisers have asked people taking part to wear flowers ‘to honour the long legacy of transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming and intersex people who came before us.’

Named after a pioneering queer female filmmaker, The Arzner is London's first LGBTQ+ cinema: and what better time than Pride month to take a gander at its line-up? This June, it's screening films including documentary 'Are You Proud?' (June 8), iconic lesbian vampire flick 'The Hunger' (June 6) and taboo-breaking 1930s movie 'Morocco' (July 6).

The rainbow flag offers an idealised portrait of the LGBTQ-plus community: people of different stripes co-existing in harmony, each taking up an equal amount of space. But the reality is messier, scribbled over with conflicts and inequalities. Iman Qureshi’s warm, complex play The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs explores just how difficult it is to create a queer space, while showing how beautiful it can be when the stars align. 

Telling the story of a disparate gaggle of lesbians who form a choir that is due to perform on the main stage at Pride, it could all be the beginnings of a dykier, hopefully less doomed remake of Glee, but Qureshi's play is way smarter than that, toying enjoyably with lesbian cliches only to reach beyond them.

The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs tackles massive themes, and it sometimes feels like it’s struggling under the weight of its ambitions, but it just about works, thanks to its winning performances and Hannah Hauer-King’s taut direction. It's a warm cosy hug of a show, full of life, wit, and pathos that lingers long after its last notes fade.

Discover two decades of Black Pride history at King's Cross museum Queer Britain. This summer, a special exhibition will show photos, banners and mementoes from UK Black Pride celebrations, curated by their founder Lady Phyll, charting their evolution from a small gathering in Southend-on-Sea to today's mammoth festival. 

Don't settle for a lukewarm WooWoo this Pride. Indulgent, clubby spot Kapara is the brainchild of ex-Ottolenghi chef Eran Tibi, and it will be laying on some delectable Pride-themed drinks and dishes to thrill the Soho crowds. Punters can sip on bespoke cocktails like Pisco Inferno (a concoction of pisco, lime juice, mango gazoz, chilli, dill and vegan foam) and the Thelma (st. germain, rose wine, lemon and pomegranate) or the Louise (rose wine, kaffir lime, lemon and mint). The restaurant’s signature bake has also had a colourful upgrade to become the Pride Babka, decked out with colourful pistachios, cherry compote and lemon thyme creme anglaise. Divine.

Showtune-loving gays, look no further. This is THE Pride spot for you. Musical theatre bar The Room Where It Happens is laying on a full day of entertainments on Saturday July 5, starting with a Drag Brunch hosted by West End stars, followed by Pride-themed sing-a-long, and culminating in MINT Pride party which'll run til 4am. You'll be hoarse for weeks afterwards but c'mon, belting out 'Defying Gravity' with dozens of glitter-decked strangers is worth it.

The world’s largest celebration for LGBTQ+ people of African, Asian, Caribbean, Latin American and Middle Eastern, UK Black Pride celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and around 20,000 attendees are expected to descend on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for another big party and protest. The festivities will include performers, community stall-holders, food and drink, and special workshops. The theme for this year has yet to be announced at the time of writing, but organisers are promising the “biggest and boldest” edition of UK Black Pride yet.

This year, much-loved Clapham gay pub Two Brewers is going all out for Pride, with a three-day celebration that runs from Friday to Sunday (we're begging you, please go home in between). Each party boasts a teeming line-up of drag queens including Marsha Mallow and De Experience, DJs spinning disco tunes, and free entry if you arrive early(ish) - plus dancing til 4am (or 2am on Sunday). Sounds like a perfect recipe for a proper Pride knees up.