London, after dark and before it
Everything worth leaving the house for
Dated, checked against the venue's own page, and carrying its link so you can confirm before you go. No sponsored entries and no affiliate links.
TonightTuesday 13 October
What's on in London
Tuesday, still quiet, and easier to walk into than anything later in the week. Table 17 leads, at Kiln Theatre in Kilburn at 7.30pm on 13 October: Marisha Wallace and Jamael Westman as exes sharing one dinner table in Douglas Lyons' comedy, from £15 to £55. Later the same evening, JK Comedy Club Soho has Bamph hosting six comics downstairs at the Spice of Life at 9pm for £10.
If you have landed here looking for things to do today near you and you are in London, this is that list: everything we have checked that is on in the city today, in time order, with the free things marked. If nothing tonight suits, tomorrow is already built.
Read moreRead less
The Southbank Centre puts free music in its foyer through the week, and the darts at Flight Club is cheaper before six on a weekday.
Later tonight
-
18:00
Public skating at Queens Ice and Bowl
Queens Ice and Bowl
-
18:00
Cellar Door
Cellar Door
-
18:30
Evening walk: Kensington Gardens to the Round Pond
Kensington Gardens
-
19:00
Stargazing in Richmond Park
Richmond Park
-
19:00
Waterloo Bridge at dusk
Waterloo Bridge
-
19:30
Evening performance at the Victoria Palace Theatre
Victoria Palace Theatre
-
19:30
Royal Court Theatre: Man to Man
Royal Court Theatre
-
20:00
Stargazing on Hampstead Heath
Parliament Hill
-
20:00
A screening at the BFI IMAX
BFI IMAX
-
22:00
Sophisticats
Sophisticats
-
23:00
Cirque le Soir
Cirque le Soir
-
23:00
The Box Soho
The Box Soho
This weekend
Fri 16 to Sun 18 October: full edition-
Theatre £45 to £110, under 30s and students from £10
Main Stage: Kimberly Akimbo
Until 7 Nov
Kimberly Akimbo at the Main Stage. The run is published; the times and prices are on the booking page.
-
Theatre £15 to £35
Bush Theatre: Darkling, by Titas Halder
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.
-
Theatre From £31
Young Vic: Thelma and Louise
Until 24 Oct
Thelma and Louise at Young Vic, Main House.
-
Free
Crossrail Place Roof Garden
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.
-
Sport Free
Dogs on Hampstead Heath
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.
-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Westminster Cathedral
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.
Just opened
All openings
Free this week
All free events-
Sport Free
Dogs on Hampstead Heath
-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Westminster Cathedral
-
Food and drink Free
Leadenhall Market
-
Sport Free
Dogs in Richmond Park
Diary dates
Everything coming upThe 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.
-
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,...
-
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...
-
On now
BFI London Film Festival 2026: dates, prices and what to book
7 to 18 October 2026, across BFI Southbank, the IMAX and cinemas around the city. Tickets from £10,...
-
Fri 16 October to Sun 1 November
Halloween events in London 2026
Ghost tours, the after-dark trails, the late museum openings and the club nights, with the dates that sell...
-
Tue 20 October to Tue 10 November
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,...
-
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...
What is on, and when
All listingsEverything 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.
What's on, by kind
EverythingThirteen 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
330
Stand-up, improv and new material nights across London. The rooms above pubs are where the good stuff is;…
-
Gigs
270
Live music in London tonight and over the next fortnight: the room, the time it actually starts, and…
-
Theatre
92
West End and fringe in one list, with the day-seat and returns tricks where we know them. Closing…
-
Cabaret
88
Cabaret, burlesque, drag and variety, from the old music halls to the Soho supper clubs. Late, mostly over…
-
Seasonal
71
The annual fixtures: Halloween, Bonfire Night, the Christmas markets and lights, New Year, Pride, Carnival. Each has its…
-
Exhibitions
45
Every exhibition worth the trip that is open in London today, soonest closing first, with the free ones…
-
Food and drink
41
Markets, late kitchens, the pubs that are worth the journey, and the strips where dinner is the evening…
-
Clubs
37
Club nights across London with the hours they really run to, not the ones on the poster. Where…
-
Sport
19
Things to do rather than things to watch, mostly: skating, swimming outdoors all year, bowling, darts and the…
-
Talks
10
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
7
Cinemas worth crossing London for rather than the nearest multiplex: the repertory houses, the rooftops in summer, the…
What is on, by part of London
EverythingLondon 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
299
Soho is the densest square mile of evening in the country. Theatres, comedy rooms above pubs, jazz clubs,…
-
Covent Garden
114
What is on in Covent Garden: the Royal Opera House, the theatres around Seven Dials, the piazza at…
-
Bloomsbury
82
What is on in Bloomsbury: the British Museum, the Foundling, the Cartoon Museum and a run of Georgian…
-
Camden
67
Camden is a music town with a market attached, and the order matters. The Roundhouse, the Electric Ballroom,…
-
Dalston
40
What is on in Dalston: small venues, late licences and a Turkish restaurant scene that runs past midnight.…
-
Islington
34
What is on in Islington: Sadler's Wells, the Almeida, the Union Chapel and a run of small rooms…
-
Crouch End
33
Crouch End is the bit of north London that never got a tube station and has been quietly…
-
Shoreditch
32
Shoreditch is the part of London that runs latest and changes fastest. It is not pretty and it…
-
Alexandra Palace
29
What is on around Alexandra Palace: the palace on the hill with the whole city below it, the…
-
Mayfair
24
What is on in Mayfair: the auction houses, the commercial galleries around Cork Street, the Handel and Hendrix…
-
Woolwich
21
The Royal Arsenal and the streets around it, in the south east, reachable on the Elizabeth line and…
-
Fitzrovia
19
North of Oxford Street and quieter for it: a gilded chapel behind a hospital wall, the Charlotte Street…
The venues with most on
EverythingEvery venue page collects what we have listed there, with the door policy, the nearest station and the last train.
-
Museum of Comedy
72
The Museum of Comedy, in the Undercroft of St George's Church on Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2SR: new…
-
Electric Ballroom
67
Camden High Street, opposite the tube, and part of the reason Camden means what it means. It runs…
-
Ronnie Scott's
60
Open on Frith Street since 1959 and still the room every visiting jazz musician wants to play. Two…
-
JK Comedy Club Covent Garden
56
Two hundred seats at Arboretum on Charing Cross Road, four minutes from Leicester Square, and the biggest room…
-
The 100 Club
56
A basement under Oxford Street that has been putting on live music since the 1940s, and the through…
-
Phoenix Arts Club
45
A basement under the Phoenix Theatre that has been running for more than thirty five years, originally as…
-
JK Comedy Club Piccadilly Circus
36
Fifty seats at BOX Piccadilly on Shaftesbury Avenue, a minute from Piccadilly Circus and about as central as…
-
Crazy Coqs
35
An art deco room in the basement of Brasserie Zedel, off Piccadilly Circus, and the closest London has…
-
EartH Hackney
34
A 1930s cinema on Stoke Newington Road, left deliberately unrestored, running as a social enterprise across three rooms:…
-
JK Comedy Club Soho
34
Sixty seats upstairs at The Spice of Life on Moor Street, two minutes from Leicester Square station and…
-
Downstairs at the King's Head
33
The comedy club at 2 Crouch End Hill, London N8 8AA: try-out nights with sixteen acts, doors 8pm…
-
JK Comedy Club Leicester Square
30
Fifty one seats in the Grosvenor Casino on Coventry Street, a minute from Piccadilly Circus. The smallest room…
Questions people ask
What are the best things to do in London tonight?
We do not rank the evening. The Tonight page lists everything we have checked that is running in the city today, in time order, with the free things marked. It is rebuilt each morning from the listings themselves rather than typed out, so it cannot fall behind what actually exists.
What are the free things to do in London today?
Usually a good deal of them. Free entries are marked on every edition and collected on their own page: museums and galleries, foyer music at the Southbank Centre, most park events, and the markets cost nothing to walk into.
Where are the bars open late in London?
Later than the tube, and in more places than people expect. Around a hundred of our listings run past midnight, and the Late edition sorts them by how late they actually go, using the end time each venue publishes rather than a guess.
What are the Night Tube times, and which lines run all night?
On Friday and Saturday the Night Tube runs all night on the Victoria, Central, Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines. Every other night the last tube on most lines goes somewhere around half past midnight, and earlier on a Sunday. After that it is the night buses, the ones with an N in front of the number, which run all night and take the same fare.
Do I need to book?
For theatre, comedy and most ticketed music, yes, and often days ahead. Pubs, markets, galleries and free foyer events are walk in. Where a venue publishes a price we print it, and where it publishes a booking page we link straight to it.
How do you decide what goes in?
Every listing is checked against the venue's own page before it goes in, and nothing here is paid for. Where a date is the usual annual pattern rather than something the venue has confirmed, the listing says so instead of rounding it up to a promise.
What is on in London this weekend, and further ahead?
The weekend edition is built by Thursday and covers Friday to Sunday, so things to do in London this weekend are up before the weekend starts. Beyond that, the coming up page carries places opening in the next few months, and the annual fixtures have a guide each that is rewritten every year with the new dates.
The Late Edition is an independent London publication, edited by Angela. Every listing is checked against the venue's own page before it goes in, and the front page is rewritten through the week. About us.