Having trouble deciding on the best spots for photography in London?
Then check out the fantastic events in the London and Watford area this month. These events are more geared towards photography, fashion and art.
Welcome to this month’s newsletter!
April has been a vibrant celebration of culture, colour, and creativity. This edition features another bumper list of events — from inspiring art exhibitions to the historic 80th anniversary of VE Day. Nature has outdone itself, too, with an explosion of spring colour that’s felt even more vivid than in years past.
Last Updated: 6th May
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Hiroshige – artist of the open road at The British Museum – 1st to 7th September
This is the first exhibition on Hiroshige to be held at the British Museum and the first on the artist in London for more than a quarter of a century. It is a visually stunning portrait of a country about to change forever. Born during an unsettled time in Japan’s history, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) went on to become one of the country’s most talented, prolific, and popular artists.
Find out more here
Do Ho Suh: Walk the House at Tate Modern – 1st to 19th October
Wander through the passages and thresholds of Korean-born, London-based artist Do Ho Suh’s renowned fabric architectures. Discover his early installations, delicate works on paper and videos. Move across Seoul, New York and London through his life-sized replicas of past and present homes.
Find out more here
ScilyFEST London at Business Design Centre – 1st to 4th
Immerse yourself in the authentic flavours of the Mediterranean, discover a world of culinary delights, including Sicilian wine, pasta, nuts, couscous, liqueurs, panelle, pizza fritta, preserves, jams, cassata, and much more.
Find out more here
VE Day 80th Anniversary (Multiple Locations) – 5th to 8th
A national commemoration of the end of WWII in Europe, with events including a royal flypast, a tea party for veterans, and a concert at Horse Guards Parade.
Find out more here
VE Day 80 procession and flypast on the Mall – 5th
To honour and remember those who fell during the Second World War, there will be a Military procession from Whitehall to Buckingham Palace, followed by a flypast of current and historic military aircraft, including the famous Red Arrows. The events will start at 12:00 with a short ceremony in Parliament Square. At 12.10 the procession will depart from Parliament Square. It will travel along Whitehall and The Mall, finishing at the Queen Victoria Memorial. The flypast over The Mall and Buckingham Palace will take place at 13:45.
Find out more here
VE Day 80th Anniversary at Henbury Way, South Oxhey – 5th
Join the community for a special celebration commemorating the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. The event features live music, a quiz, burgers and sausages, and encourages 1940s dress.
Find out more here
VE Day – The Tower Remembers at Tower Of London – 6th
2025 Poppies commemorative display to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The display will see nearly 30,000 of the original poppies, made for the 2014 installation, ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’, return to the Tower, marking the sacrifices made by so many during the Second World War.
Find out more here
VE Day 80th Anniversary at Benskin House, Watford – 8th
The evening will include the reading of The Proclamation and The Tribute, followed by the singing of the hymn ‘I Vow to Thee My Country’. The beacon will then be lit as a symbol of remembrance. We’re also delighted to welcome the North London Military Wives Choir, who will be performing.
Find out more here
Tate Modern 25th Anniversary Celebrations – 9th to 12th
Commemorating 25 years since its opening, Tate Modern hosts a four-day free festival featuring art displays, live performances, music, workshops, and family activities. A highlight includes reinstalling Louise Bourgeois’ iconic sculpture Maman in the Turbine Hall.
Find out more here.
Craft in Evolution at Oxo Tower Wharf – 13th to 18th
As it enters its 77th year, Contemporary Applied Arts takes over gallery@oxo in South Bank’s iconic Oxo Tower Wharf for Craft in Evolution, a group exhibition showcasing the work of 25 talented makers which explores the dynamic relationship between craftsmanship and contemporary innovation. PV on 15th.
Find out more here.
Photographic Nature Walk in the Peace Garden & Nature Reserve – 14th
Take a guided walk through Cassiobury Peace Garden to the Nature Reserve led by Andrew Lalchan (local photographer). We will explore spring in the park. This walk offers opportunities to take nature photos, and Andrew will be on hand to provide guidance and advice.
Find out more here.
Photo London at Somerset House – 14th to 18th
Photo London returns for its landmark tenth edition at Somerset House from 14 – 18 May 2025, celebrating a decade as the UK’s leading photography fair.
Find out more here.
Colour Walk Meetup at Spitalfields Market – 15th
It is an informal gathering of colourful, creative souls who meet, dressed in their finest, to walk, talk, and strut their stuff. It is excellent for photography.
Find out more here.
Cornelia Parker – History Painting at Frith Street Gallery – 16th to 5th July
Frith Street Gallery is delighted to announce an exhibition of new works by Cornelia Parker. For this show Parker has created a series of paintings: seemingly abstract oil-on-canvas works inspired by historic newspaper and magazine covers and the colour analysis charts of American artist Emily Noyes Vanderpoel (1842-1939).
Find out more here.
Fashion Unfiltered, Watford – 17th to 18th
Experience two days of live fashion shows and expert style advice. Come and support real people from real life. Showcasing this season’s looks from your go-to stores like Mango, Hobbs, River Island, TK Maxx, Primark and more!
Find out more here.
Urban Village Fete, Greenwich Peninsula – 18th
The Urban Village Fete is celebrating its 10th birthday, and you’re invited. Expect a day packed with world-class DJs, live performances, independent markets, creative experiences, and incredible street food.
Find out more here.
Chelsea in Bloom across Chelsea, London – 19th to 25th
Running parallel to the Chelsea Flower Show, Chelsea in Bloom is London’s largest free-to-attend festival of flowers. Produced by Cadogan in association with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the event transforms the streets of Chelsea into a floral art show, with retailers, restaurants, and hotels adorning themselves with creative designs.
Find out more here.
Belgravia in Bloom across Belgravia, London – 19th to 26th
Belgravia in Bloom returns with the theme ‘Seasons’, featuring eye-popping floral displays and unique experiences across the neighbourhood. Visitors can explore installations reflecting spring, summer, autumn, and winter, with participating shops and restaurants offering floral-themed events and promotions.
Find out more here.
Clerkenwell Design Week at Clerkenwell, London – 20th to 22nd
The UK’s leading independent design festival returns for its 14th edition, transforming London’s EC1 district into a global design hub. With over 16 venues and 160 showrooms, the festival showcases international brands and product launches spanning contemporary furniture, decorative lighting, luxury finishes, and architectural materials. This year’s edition introduces three new venues, forming a bustling southern district.
Find out more here.
RHS Chelsea Flower Show at Royal Hospital Chelsea – 20th to 24th
The world’s greatest flower show reveals cutting-edge garden design, fabulous floral displays, and exclusive shopping experiences. Highlights include Monty Don’s debut garden featuring a ‘shaggy lawn’ and the launch of Gaze Burvill’s National Trust oak furniture collection.
Find out more here.
Feel the Sound at the Barbican Centre – 22nd to 31st August
A new immersive exhibition will rearrange what you think sound is. Feel the Sound includes multi-sensory installations that take you on a journey across locations in the Barbican, from the car parks to the Lakeside Terrace.
Find out more here.
Ancient India: living traditions at The British Museum – 22nd to 25th October
This new exhibition, reaching back more than 2,000 years, explores the origins of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist sacred art in the ancient and powerful nature spirits of India and the spread of this art beyond the subcontinent.
Find out more here.
Celebration Event for St Mary’s Church Open Space Improvements – 23rd
Come and explore the improvements, including accessible pathways, beautiful wildflower areas, welcoming entrances, raised planters, and wildlife‑friendly features such as birdhouses and bee hotels.
Find out more here
Chelsea In Bloom Model Shoot – 23rd
Explore Chelsea In Bloom with a model dressed in a floral dress. Each year, local retailers, restaurants, and hotels participate by creating stunning floral displays based on a specific theme, transforming the streets of Chelsea into a vibrant and colourful floral exhibition. This year, the theme is Flowers in Fashion.
Find out more here.
Wide Awake Festival at Brockwell Park – 23rd
An independent music festival celebrating underground sounds, Wide Awake features a diverse lineup of post-punk, electronic, and experimental artists. Organised by the teams behind Field Day and MOTH Club, it’s a must-attend for music enthusiasts seeking fresh and innovative performances.
Find out more here.
MCM Comic Con at ExCeL London – 23rd to 25th
A pop culture convention featuring cosplay, comic creators, and appearances by stars including David Tennant and Stephanie Beatriz.
Find out more here.
City Splash Festival at Brockwell Park – 26th
London’s premier celebration of reggae, dancehall, and Afrobeat culture, City Splash offers a vibrant mix of live music, Caribbean cuisine, and cultural activities. The festival brings together top artists and DJS for a day of rhythm and flavour.
Find out more here.
Leonardo Drew at South London Gallery – 30th
Known for his explosive sculptural works, this is Leonardo Drew’s first solo exhibition in a London institution. He creates reflective abstract pieces that play on the tension between order and chaos. Transforming and eroding materials by hand in the studio, he explores the cyclical nature of life and decay.
Find out more here.
Fashion In Motion – Copenhagen Fashion Week at V&A – 30th
Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW) is the biggest fashion week in Northern Europe, held biannually in January/February and August. As part of a concerted focus on strengthening its relationship with the UK creative and cultural industry, CPHFW will showcase five key emerging designers from Denmark for this Fashion in Motion. Presenting six key looks that embody their vision and encompass their dedication to creative craft and expression, the designers featured will be: Alectra Rothschild / Masculina, Berner Kühl, Bonnetje, Stamm and Stem.
Find out more here.
V&A East Storehouse at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – 31st
The V&A East Storehouse unveils a groundbreaking facility offering public access to over 250,000 objects, 350,000 books, and 1,000 archives. Visitors can explore curated displays and utilise the innovative “Order an Object” service to view items of personal interest. The Storehouse also features the David Bowie Centre, showcasing a rotating selection of the artist’s archive.
Find out more here.
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Sony World Photography Awards 2025 exhibition at Somerset House – till 5th May
Discover thought-provoking projects, unusual perspectives and the narratives beyond the headlines shown alongside striking standalone shots that will stop you in your tracks. Explore a diverse display, from Bolivian cholas who golf to cosplayers in their family homes. Meet Craig, the last big tusker and be intrigued by the pugnacious side of hummingbirds. Be energised by Indian skatergirls and lift the veil on what it means to be a modern cowboy.
Find out more here.
THE 80s: PHOTOGRAPHING BRITAIN, Tate Britain – till 5th May
Explore one of the UK’s most critical decades, the 1980s. This exhibition traces the work of a diverse community of photographers, collectives and publications –creating radical responses to the turbulent Thatcher years. Set against the backdrop of race uprisings, the miner strikes, section 28, the AIDS pandemic and gentrification – be inspired by stories of protest and change.
Find out more here.
Mickalene Thomas: All About Love at Hayward Gallery – 5th May
All About Love presents two decades of work by the internationally celebrated artist and pioneering portraitist Mickalene Thomas (born 1971, USA). Thomas is renowned for her large-scale paintings of Black women radically luxuriating and in repose, adorned with vivid patterns and ravishing, brilliant rhinestones, as well as her innovative use of collage techniques.
Find out more here.
Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker exhibition at White Chapel Gallery – 4th May 2025
Visceral Canker encompasses the majority of Rodney’s surviving works from 1982 to 1997 including large-scale oil pastels on X-rays, kinetic and animatronic sculptures as well as his sketchbooks and rare archival materials. The exhibition showcases the extraordinary breadth and influence of Rodney’s work, confirming him as a vital figure in British art, and introducing him to a new generation of audiences.
Find out more here.
Noah Davis at Barbican – 11th May
Celebrating the late artist’s expansive creativity, this debut retrospective showcases Noah Davis as one of the most original and uncanny painters emerging in recent years.
Find out more here.
FLOWERS – FLORA IN CONTEMPORARY ART & CULTURE at Saatchi Gallery – 15th May
Flowers have, throughout history, inspired artists, writers and creatives. This exhibition seeks to reveal the myriad ways that flowers continue to be depicted by artists and their omnipresence within our contemporary culture. Occupying two floors and over nine major gallery spaces, this exhibition features large-scale installations, original art, photography, fashion, archival objects and graphic design, exploring the ongoing influence of flowers on creativity and human expression.
Find out more here.
Soane and Modernism: Make It New at Soanes Museum – 18th May 2025
This exhibition will be the first to investigate this by placing drawings from Soane’s collection, some on display for the first time ever, in dialogue with work by modernist architects such as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ernő Goldfinger. Soane and Modernism will bring together a Giles Gilbert Scott drawing of the red telephone box and a Soane drawing of the Soane Family tomb, the inspiration behind the telephone box.
Find out more here.
Electric Dreams – Art & Technology before the Internet, Tate Modern – till 1st June 2025
Discover how artists used machines and algorithms to create mesmerising and mind-bending art between the 1950s and the early 1990s. From the birth of op art to the dawn of the internet age, artists found new ways to engage the senses and play with our perceptions. Electric Dreams celebrates the early innovators of optical, kinetic, programmed and digital art, who pioneered a new era of immersive sensory installations and automatically generated works.
Find out more here.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year at Natural History Museum – till 29th June 2025
Experience the wonder of life on Earth through the world’s best wildlife photography. Our photography exhibition is back for its 60th year to reveal more of nature’s stories. It’ll take you on a visual adventure through different environments and give you a window into the wildlife that calls them home.
Find out more here.
The Craft of Carpentry at Japan House – till 16th July 2025
Step into the serene world of Japanese carpentry. This exhibition transports visitors from the living forests that sustain the craft to the celebrated structures it has produced.
Find out more here.
Arpita Singh Remembering at Serpentine North Gallery – till 27th July 2025
Remembering is the first solo exhibition of Arpita Singh outside India, featuring key works selected in close collaboration with the artist from her prolific career spanning more than six decades. Singh’s paintings centre on her emotional and psychological state, drawing from Bengali folk art and Indian stories, interwoven with experiences of social upheaval and global conflict.
Find out more here.
Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style at Design Museum – till 17th August 2025
A major exhibition celebrating our enduring love of the water over the last 100 years. Explore the full spectrum of the design of swimming — from sports performance and fashion, to architecture.
Find out more here.
Ed Atkins at Tate Britain – till 25th August
Ed Atkins is best known for his computer-generated videos and animations. Repurposing contemporary technologies in unexpected ways, his work traces the dwindling gap between the digital world and human feeling. He borrows techniques from literature, cinema, video games, music and theatre to examine the relationship between reality, realism and fiction.
Find out more here.
Leigh Bowery exhibition at Tate Modern – till 2nd September 2025
This is a celebration of the boundary-pushing career of artist Leigh Bowery. An artist, performer, model, TV personality, club promoter, fashion designer, and musician, Bowery took on many different roles, refusing to be limited by convention.
Find out more here.
Giuseppe Penone at Serpentine South – till 7th September
With a career spanning over five decades, Giuseppe Penone (b. 1947 Garessio, Italy) has created an expansive body of work that encompasses sculpture, drawing, painting, installation, and photography. Born in a village near Cuneo, Italy, his practice is deeply influenced by the forested landscapes of Northern Italy, shaping his lifelong exploration of the relationship between humans and nature.
Find out more here.
Making Egypt exhibition at the Young V&A – till 2nd November 2025
Embark on a fascinating journey through the ancient past to the modern day, exploring ancient Egypt’s creativity and how it continues to influence art, design and popular culture today.
Find out more here.
The Edwardians: Age of Elegance at Kings Gallery – til 23rd November 2025
Explore the opulence and glamour of the Edwardian age – the period between the Victorian era and the First World War. Visitors will learn about the lives and tastes of two of Britain’s most fashionable royal couples – King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and King George V and Queen Mary – from their family lives and personal collecting to their glittering social circles and spectacular royal events.
Find out more here.
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