Journal 3 September 2026
Tate Modern is now open until nine every Friday and Saturday
Not monthly. Every week, and still free.
This is the single most useful change to London’s free evenings in a while and it has been almost entirely unreported. Tate Modern now stays open until 21:00 every Friday and Saturday, free, rather than only for occasional Late events.
We had it wrong ourselves until we checked, and have corrected our guides. The old pattern, a big monthly Late, still exists on top of it: the next full Tate Modern Late is on 25 September, built around the Ana Mendieta show, running 18:00 to 22:00.
The reason this matters more than it sounds: the Turbine Hall at eight on a Friday is a completely different building from the Turbine Hall at two on a Saturday. The queues are gone, the school groups are gone, and it costs nothing.
Combined with the National Gallery’s Friday nights until nine and the V and A’s monthly Friday Late, London now has a genuinely good free Friday evening in three separate world-class buildings.
All of it is in our museum lates guide.
By Angela. Updated 4 September 2026.
More on what has changed
All 5 piecesOpenings, closings, new hours and corrections. Short pieces about things that have moved since the last time you checked.
- Hampstead Heath swimming drops bookings on Monday, and goes cashless in October The online system shuts on 7 September until spring 2027, so every swim is pay on arrival. Card only from 1 October,...
- The London Cycling Festival returns, with free rides in 19 boroughs RideLondon is still paused. This is not that, and it is free.
- Hampton Court’s Halloween is included in admission, and it is not a scare event A correction, and a useful one if you have children.
Where to go next
Everything above is drawn from the listings, which are dated and rebuilt as things change.