What's on in London

1. 
   Save

   Theatre £45 to £110, under 30s and students from £10

   Main Stage: Kimberly Akimbo

   Times vary Main Stage, Hampstead

   Until 7 Nov

   Kimberly Akimbo at the Main Stage. The run is published; the times and prices are on the booking page.

2. 
   Save

   Theatre £15 to £35

   Bush Theatre: Darkling, by Titas Halder

   19:30 Bush Theatre, Shepherd's Bush

   Until 24 Oct

   Titas Halder's play set in Bhopal in 1984, with Linnea Berthelsen, in 90 minutes. A Bush and Actors Touring Company co-production.

3. 
   Save

   Theatre From £31

   Young Vic: Thelma and Louise

   19:30 Young Vic, Main House, Waterloo

   Until 24 Oct

   Thelma and Louise at Young Vic, Main House.

4. 
   Save

   Free

   Crossrail Place Roof Garden

   06:00 Crossrail Place, Canary Wharf

   A garden under a timber lattice roof on top of the station, planted either side of the meridian with species from the hemisphere they belong to. Free, open early, and covered.

5. 
   Save

   Sport Free

   Dogs on Hampstead Heath

   07:00 Hampstead Heath, Hampstead

   Eight hundred acres, off lead almost everywhere, and the one swimming pond dogs are allowed in is not one of the bathing ponds. Busiest at the Parliament Hill end on a weekend morning.

6. 
   Save

   Exhibitions Free

   Free entry: Westminster Cathedral

   07:00 Westminster Cathedral, Victoria

   Neo Byzantine, still unfinished above the arches, and free to walk into. The campanile lift is ticketed and gives one of the least crowded views in central London.

The annual fixtures worth putting in a diary, one page each, rewritten before the dates come round. For places opening soon and everything dated further ahead, see what is coming up.

• Save On now Frieze week in London 2026: the fairs, the free sculpture park and the gallery nights Frieze London and Frieze Masters, 14 to 18 October in Regent's Park. What costs money, what is free,...
• Save On now Bloomsbury Festival 2026: 150 events across 40 venues, a lot of it free The festival's twentieth year, running across October in the squares, museums and university buildings of Bloomsbury. Much of...
• Save On now Halloween events in London 2026 Ghost tours, the after-dark trails, the late museum openings and the club nights, with the dates that sell...
• Save On now Diwali in London 2026: Trafalgar Square, the temples and the fireworks Diwali on the Square is Sunday 25 October, free. Diwali itself is 8 November. The temples to visit,...
• Save Sunday 25 October When the clocks change: what it does to a night out in London The clocks go back on Sunday 25 October 2026 and forward again on Sunday 28 March 2027. One...
• Save Sun 1 to Sun 8 November Bonfire Night fireworks in London 2026 Every London firework display worth crossing town for, which nights they actually happen on, what they cost, and...

Everything here is dated and checked against the venue before it goes in, and each entry carries the venue's own link. The numbers are live.

• Tonight 142
• Tomorrow 158
• This weekend 197
• This week 252
• Free 99
• After eleven 101

Thirteen kinds of night, from gigs and comedy to markets and museum lates. The number is what is on in the next few months, not a running total.

• Comedy 277

  Stand-up, improv and new material nights across London. The rooms above pubs are where the good stuff is;…

• Gigs 229

  Live music in London tonight and over the next fortnight: the room, the time it actually starts, and…

• Theatre 79

  West End and fringe in one list, with the day-seat and returns tricks where we know them. Closing…

• Seasonal 69

  The annual fixtures: Halloween, Bonfire Night, the Christmas markets and lights, New Year, Pride, Carnival. Each has its…

• Cabaret 65

  Cabaret, burlesque, drag and variety, from the old music halls to the Soho supper clubs. Late, mostly over…

• Exhibitions 43

  Every exhibition worth the trip that is open in London today, soonest closing first, with the free ones…

• Food and drink 39

  Markets, late kitchens, the pubs that are worth the journey, and the strips where dinner is the evening…

• Clubs 32

  Club nights across London with the hours they really run to, not the ones on the poster. Where…

• Sport 18

  Things to do rather than things to watch, mostly: skating, swimming outdoors all year, bowling, darts and the…

• Talks 9

  Talks, readings, lectures and Q and As. Many are free and most need booking a week ahead, which…

• Markets 8

  Street markets, night markets and the weekend ones worth crossing town for, with the days they actually run.…

• Film 4

  Cinemas worth crossing London for rather than the nearest multiplex: the repertory houses, the rooftops in summer, the…

London is not one night out. Pick the part of town you are in, or the one you are willing to cross the city for.

• Soho 247

  Soho is the densest square mile of evening in the country. Theatres, comedy rooms above pubs, jazz clubs,…

• Covent Garden 103

  What is on in Covent Garden: the Royal Opera House, the theatres around Seven Dials, the piazza at…

• Bloomsbury 71

  What is on in Bloomsbury: the British Museum, the Foundling, the Cartoon Museum and a run of Georgian…

• Camden 61

  Camden is a music town with a market attached, and the order matters. The Roundhouse, the Electric Ballroom,…

• Dalston 39

  What is on in Dalston: small venues, late licences and a Turkish restaurant scene that runs past midnight.…

• Crouch End 29

  Crouch End is the bit of north London that never got a tube station and has been quietly…

• Islington 24

  What is on in Islington: Sadler's Wells, the Almeida, the Union Chapel and a run of small rooms…

• Mayfair 24

  What is on in Mayfair: the auction houses, the commercial galleries around Cork Street, the Handel and Hendrix…

• Alexandra Palace 23

  What is on around Alexandra Palace: the palace on the hill with the whole city below it, the…

• Shoreditch 22

  Shoreditch is the part of London that runs latest and changes fastest. It is not pretty and it…

• Woolwich 16

  The Royal Arsenal and the streets around it, in the south east, reachable on the Elizabeth line and…

• Fitzrovia 15

  North of Oxford Street and quieter for it: a gilded chapel behind a hospital wall, the Charlotte Street…

Every venue page collects what we have listed there, with the door policy, the nearest station and the last train.

• Museum of Comedy 64

  The Museum of Comedy, in the Undercroft of St George's Church on Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2SR: new…

• Electric Ballroom 61

  Camden High Street, opposite the tube, and part of the reason Camden means what it means. It runs…

• The 100 Club 53

  A basement under Oxford Street that has been putting on live music since the 1940s, and the through…

• JK Comedy Club Covent Garden 50

  Two hundred seats at Arboretum on Charing Cross Road, four minutes from Leicester Square, and the biggest room…

• Ronnie Scott's 50

  Open on Frith Street since 1959 and still the room every visiting jazz musician wants to play. Two…

• Phoenix Arts Club 41

  A basement under the Phoenix Theatre that has been running for more than thirty five years, originally as…

• EartH Hackney 32

  A 1930s cinema on Stoke Newington Road, left deliberately unrestored, running as a social enterprise across three rooms:…

• JK Comedy Club Piccadilly Circus 31

  Fifty seats at BOX Piccadilly on Shaftesbury Avenue, a minute from Piccadilly Circus and about as central as…

• Downstairs at the King's Head 29

  The comedy club at 2 Crouch End Hill, London N8 8AA: try-out nights with sixteen acts, doors 8pm…

• The Comedy Store 28

  Off Leicester Square on Oxendon Street and open since 1979, which makes it the room most people mean…

• JK Comedy Club Soho 27

  Sixty seats upstairs at The Spice of Life on Moor Street, two minutes from Leicester Square station and…

• Alexandra Palace 23

  The people's palace on the hill, with the whole city below it. A 10,000-capacity hall for the big…