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.
Hello September!
As autumn begins and the evenings draw in, London is set to host an impressive calendar of cultural events.
For those with a creative eye, highlights include London Fashion Week, the London Design Festival, and Open House London—each offering unique opportunities to experience the city’s style, innovation, and architecture.
Last Updated: 1st September
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Totally Thames Festival, London – 1st till 30th
Celebrating the River Thames with arts events, active adventures, environmental initiatives, heritage and education programmes.Totally Thames strives to be ‘the cultural voice of the river’ and includes many river and river-related events produced independently and marketed as part of the festival.
Find out more here.
Late at the Tate with Other Worlds – 5th
Celebrate the surreal in response to the Ithell Colquhoun and Edward Burra exhibitions.
Find out more here.
celebrASIA at Battersea Powerstation – 5th to 7th
Tuck into delicious food and drink from some of London’s finest South East Asian street food pop-ups or book a spot at the riverside Feasting Table, which is new for this year’s festival. Browse 30+ independent makers at the indoor Artisan Market, enjoy live music and dance performances, plus arts and crafts sessions for all ages.
Find out more here.
Black On The Square 2025 at Trafalgar Square – 6th
Brought to you by the Mayor of London. Expect music and lots of entertainment, including a packed programme of activities and workshops for all ages. Everyone’s invited – join Londoners and visitors at this flagship event embracing the diversity of Black culture across the city.
Find out more here.
Accession Day Gun salutes in Hyde Park & Tower of London – 8th
Two sets of military gun salutes will take place today to mark the Accession Day of HM The King. The first will take place in Hyde Park (41 rounds). This usually happens at 12, midday.
Find out more here.
Photographic Walk in Cassiobury Park Nature Reserve – 10th
Take a guided walk through Cassiobury Park Nature Reserve led by Andrew Lalchan (local photographer); we will be exploring early autumn in the park with the changing leaves and early fungi.
Find out more here.
Heritage Open Days 2025 – 12th to 21st
Every September thousands of volunteers across England organise events to celebrate our fantastic history and culture. It’s your chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – all of which are FREE to explore.
Find out more here.
Flower Festival 2025: The Faery Tale Castle at Strawberry Hill House – 12th to 14th
The UK’s most sustainable flower festival returns this September, transforming Strawberry Hill House & Garden into a faery-tale realm where imagination runs wild.
Find out more here.
London Design Festival – 13th to 21st
London Design Festival celebrates and promotes our city as the design capital of the world. The 23rd edition will take place on 13–21 September 2025.
Find out more here.
Open House London – 13th to 21st
Open House Festival is a London-wide festival that opens up and celebrates the city’s architecture, special sites and neighbourhoods, with open days and events taking place across all 33 London boroughs.
Find out more here.
The David Bowie Centre at V&A East Storehouse – 13th to TBA
A complex fashion icon, Marie Antoinette’s timeless appeal is defined by her style, youth and notoriety. Explore the lasting influence of the most fashionable (and ill-fated) queen in history – with over 250 years of design, fashion, film and art.
Find out more here.
Radical Harmony Helene Kröller-Müller’s Neo-Impressionists at National Gallery – 13th to 8th February 2026
Neo-Impressionists painted in small dots of pure colour. Viewed from a distance, the colours blend to create nuanced tones and an illusion of light. Now known as pointillism, this technique simplified form and played with colour in an entirely new way, verging on the edge of abstraction.
Find out more here.
Ballerina Shoot in the city of London – 14th
Explore the vibrant streets of London with Meghan, a professional ballerina who brings the elegance of ballet to the urban landscape. As we wander through the city from Liverpool Street to Spitalfields Market, we capture Meghan seamlessly integrating classic ballet poses and movements into the dynamic setting.
Find out more here.
Ballerina / model Shoot in Cassiobury Park – Watford – 16th
Through Cassiobury Park, Watford, with Meghan and the late summer flowers and trees. Meghan will be doing ballet poses and modelling at sunset in the woods. The group will consist of a maximum of five people and a minimum of three people.
Find out more here.
Theatre Picasso at Tate Modern – 17th to 12th April 2026
Marking the centenary of his famous painting The Three Dancers, this exhibition, staged by celebrated contemporary artist Wu Tsang and author and curator Enrique Fuenteblanca, sheds new light on Picasso’s work. They will transform the exhibition space into a theatre for displaying over 45 works by Picasso from Tate’s collection, alongside key European loans. This includes paintings, sculpture, textile and works on paper, some never seen in the UK before.
Find out more here.
Frieze Sculpture at Regents Park – 17th to 2nd November
The much-celebrated public art initiative coincides with Frieze London and Frieze Masters, which take place concurrently in The Regent’s Park, 17 September – 2 November. Curated by Fatoş Üstek, the theme for Frieze Sculpture 2025 is ‘In the Shadows’, broadly engaging with the notion of darkness from multiple perspectives, such as inner darkness, the realm of the unseen or the interplay between clarity and obscurity.
Find out more here.
London Fashion Week – 18th to 22nd
Showcasing British and international designers to buyers, media, and the public through catwalk shows, presentations, and events.
Find out more here.
Colour Walk Meetup at Spitalfields Market – 18th
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.
Chelsea Arts Festival – 18th to 21st
London’s most inspiring new arts and culture festival is coming to Chelsea. Literature | Art | Music | Comedy | & More. This September, the streets of Chelsea will come to life in celebration of its cultural heritage and London’s vibrant arts scene, giving festival goers the chance to see stars from page, stage and screen!
Find out more here.
Kerry James Marshall: The Histories at Royal Acadamy – 20th to 18th January 2026
Internationally acclaimed artist Kerry James Marshall is one of the most important painters working right now. His vivid and mostly large-scale paintings place the Black figure front and centre. Marshall builds upon the Western tradition of history painting and makes visible those people who were so noticeably absent in the works that came before him.
Find out more here.
Marie Antoinette Style at V&A – 20th to 22nd March 2026
A complex fashion icon, Marie Antoinette’s timeless appeal is defined by her style, youth and notoriety. Explore the lasting influence of the most fashionable (and ill-fated) queen in history – with over 250 years of design, fashion, film and art.
Find out more here.
JAPAN MATSURI in Trafalgar Square – 21st
Showcasing Japanese culture in the UK, Japan Matsuri has attracted a loyal audience of Londoners, the Japanese community and other visitors, families and friends each year since 2009 (at Spitalfields in 2009 & 2010, at County Hall in 2011, and at Trafalgar Square since 2012) and has established itself as a symbol of the long-standing bonds (Kizuna 絆) between Japan and the UK.
Find out more here.
Great River Race at Millwall – 25th
The Great River Race is London’s River Marathon. It’s a spectacular boat race covering 21.6 miles from Millwall in the East to Richmond in the West, travelling under London’s famous bridges. It appeals to every level of competitor, from dedicated athletes who come every year to beat their records to those who simply enjoy laughter, fancy dress and making money for their charity. It’s a great fun day out for both competitors and spectators.
Find out more here.
Prix Pictet 2025 – Storm at V&A – 26th
The theme for the 2025 prize is Storm. It invites reflections on the growing volatility of our age, forever poised on the brink of the next crisis. The 12 shortlisted photographers will have their work exhibited at the V&A’s Photography Centre.
Find out more here.
David Lynch Festival at Genisis Cinema – 27th to 28th
Surreal tribute to David Lynch featuring film screenings, Q&As, immersive art, cabaret, and even live music.
Find out more here.
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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.
Hiroshige – artist of the open road at The British Museum – till 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
Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting at National Portrait Gallery – till 7th September
The first UK museum exhibition dedicated to Jenny Saville, showcasing 50 powerful figurative works spanning her career. Saville rose to prominence in the early 1990s, following her acclaimed degree show at the Glasgow School of Art. Since then, she has played a leading role in the reinvigoration of figurative painting – a genre that she continues to test today.
Find out more here.
Falling from the Sky by Sho Shibuya at Unit London – till 25th September
Falling From the Sky turns its gaze toward a more contemplative subject: rain. For Shibuya, rainy days offer a particular kind of beauty; as raindrops roll down window panes, or are pushed along them by strong winds, they form delicate, ever-changing patterns that give renewed meaning to ideas of ephemerality and idiosyncrasy. These patterns, recorded through photographs and transformed into painted compositions, are at once meditative and spontaneous.
Find out more here.
Virtual Beauty at Somerset House – till 28th September
Featuring over 20 international artists, Virtual Beauty will delve into the influence of artificial intelligence, social media, and virtual identities on self-image. The exhibition will feature interactive installations and pioneering works that challenge traditional beauty standards. Highlights include ORLAN’s Omniprésence (1993), a groundbreaking performance in which the artist live-streamed her own facial aesthetic surgery to critique Western beauty ideals, and Amalia Ulman’s Excellences & Perfections, a powerful commentary on the authenticity of social media personas.
Find out more here.
More Than Human at The Design Museum – till 5th October
Why has design traditionally only focused on the needs of humans, when we exist alongside billions of animals, plants and other living beings? This groundbreaking exhibition offers a new perspective, one that will be crucial to enabling the planet to thrive.
Find out more here.
Rachel Jones at Dulwich Picture Gallery – till 19th October
An explosion of colour and feeling, this solo show explores identity and abstraction in Jones’s vivid new paintings.
Find out more here
Edward Burra & Edward Burra at Tate Britain – till 19th October
Edward Burra runs in parallel with an exhibition of works by Ithell Colquhoun, offering visitors the chance to see two influential British artists with one ticket. Edward Burra is one of the most distinctive British artists of the 20th century, renowned for his vibrant, satirical scenes of the uninhibited urban underworld and queer culture during the ‘Roaring Twenties.’
Find out more here
Ancient India: living traditions at The British Museum – till 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.
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.
VE Day – The Tower Remembers at Tower Of London – 11th November
2025 Poppies commemorative display to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The display will feature nearly 30,000 of the original poppies, created for the 2014 installation, ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’, returning to the Tower, marking the sacrifices made by many during the Second World War.
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.
Future Of Food at Design Museum – till 4th January
How does our food today go from field to plate? How did food use to be produced in the past? And how will major advances in ecology and biotechnology change food in the future? Discover the answers to these and many more vital questions in an exciting new exhibition exploring how science is creating more sustainable ways of growing, making, cooking and eating food.
Find out more here.
Emily Kam Kngwarray at Tate Modern – till 11th January 2026
Renowned Australian artist Emily Kam Kngwarray (c.1914–1996) created compelling, powerful works that reflect her extraordinary life as an Anmatyerr woman born in Alhalker in the Sandover region of the Northern Territory of Australia.
Find out more here.
Performance of Entrapment by Jane and Louise Wilson at London Mithraeum – till 17th January 2026
Central to the installation will be 2,000-year-old oak stakes discovered during excavations for Bloomberg’s European headquarters. The Wilsons use high-resolution microscopic imagery of the oak’s grain as a starting point for a new body of work. Blending screen-printing, resin, and carved wooden forms, and drawing inspiration from the wood’s structure, patterns and DNA sequencing to create large-scale, visually layered artworks.
Find out more here.
Sculpture in the City – till spring 2026
Sculpture in the City is an annual sculpture park that uses the urban realm as a rotating gallery space. The 14th Edition of Sculpture in the City will be on display from 16 July 2025 to Spring 2026, and includes 11 artworks from renowned and emerging artists alike: Ai Weiwei, Jane and Louise Wilson, Andrew Sabin, Julian Opie, Maya Rose Edwards, Samuel Ross, Richard Mackness, Elisa Artesero, Daniel Silver, and Oliver Bragg.
Find out more here.
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