Guides September 2027 Updated 21 Sep 2026
Things to do in London in September
The best month, and hardly anyone says so. Totally Thames all month, Open House for a weekend, the Design Festival and Fashion Week in the third week.
September is the month to be in London. The weather often holds, the crowds have gone, and the cultural year restarts all at once.
What is on
Totally Thames runs the whole month along the river. Open House opens hundreds of buildings that are normally shut, free, over a weekend in the middle. The London Design Festival and London Fashion Week overlap in the third week. The Proms finish with the Last Night. The cultural season restarts properly after August.
What to book, and when
Open House is free but the buildings people most want need booking, and the ballot for those opens weeks ahead. Design Festival events are mostly walk-in. September is the month where booking a fortnight ahead is usually enough, which is not true again until January.
The practical part
Arguably the best month in London: the weather holds, the visitors thin out after the first week, and everything cultural has reopened. Sunset falls back from half past seven to about half past six across the month, so evenings shorten quickly.
If the weather turns
London has more indoor answers than almost anywhere, and most of the good ones cost nothing: the free museums are open every day and the collections are free, and we keep a guide to where to go when it rains. If it stays dry, the free views need no ticket. Everything free this month is on our free listings, and if you are out after eleven, what is open late.
Where to go
the City for Open House, which opens buildings normally shut. South Kensington for the Design Festival. Greenwich along the river for Totally Thames. Hackney for the last of the outdoor evenings.
What is free
Open House is the best free weekend of the year in London, full stop: hundreds of buildings, no ticket for most of them. Totally Thames runs free events along the river all month. The Design Festival is largely walk-in and free.
With children, or visitors
The schools go back in the first week, which means the second week onwards is the quietest the big attractions get between spring and January. Open House has a children’s programme and it is free.
If you do one thing
Do Open House. Ballot for the one building you most want, then walk between the ones that do not need booking. It is free, it happens once a year, and there is nothing else like it.
The listings below are what we have actually checked for September, soonest first.
What is on in September
Wed 1 to Thu 30 SeptemberWednesday
1 September-
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.
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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.
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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.
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Food and drink Free
Leadenhall Market
A Victorian covered market in cream and burgundy, free to walk through and open to the street. Busy with the City at lunch and almost empty at the weekend, which is when to photograph it.
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Free
Parliament Hill viewpoint
A protected view all the way to the City, which is why nothing is allowed to be built in front of it. Ten minutes up from Gospel Oak and worth doing an hour before sunset.
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Sport Free
Dogs in Richmond Park
The largest of the royal parks and the one with the deer, which is why dogs must be on a lead in May and June and in September and October. The gates open and close with the light.
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Sport Free
Dogs in Battersea Park
Flat, walled, and small enough to do a full circuit in half an hour, with the river along one side and a cafe at each end. The one park on this list you can reach on foot from a station.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Southwark Cathedral
Free, next door to the market, and almost always empty by comparison. Shakespeare's brother is buried here and there is a memorial to the man himself along the south aisle.
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Free
St Dunstan in the East
A Wren church bombed in 1941 and left as a ruin with a garden planted inside it. Free, open from eight, and quietest before the City arrives. The tower is still standing.
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Free
St James’s Park, free all day
The oldest of the royal parks and the one with the pelicans, fed near Duck Island in the afternoon. The bridge gives the view down the lake to Horse Guards that ends up on the postcards.
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Free
The Italian Gardens, Kensington Gardens
Four basins and a pump house Albert built for Victoria, at the Lancaster Gate corner of the park. Best in the hour before the fountains go off for the night, when the light comes across the water.
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Free
The Kyoto Garden, Holland Park
A Japanese garden given to the borough in 1991, with koi, a waterfall and peacocks that have no fear of anyone. Free, and quietest before the school run ends.
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Sport Free
Towpath walk: Paddington Basin to Little Venice
Twenty minutes of canal that most people who work here never walk. Comes out at the pool where three waterways meet, with the narrowboats and the puppet theatre barge.
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Exhibitions From £32
Churchill War Rooms
The bunker left as it was on the day it closed in 1945, down to the pins in the map. Book a slot: it sells out, and the queue on the day is outdoors.
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Exhibitions From £30
Westminster Abbey
Ticketed for sightseeing, free if you come to a service, and Evensong is sung most weekday afternoons in term. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries are up in the triforium, which most visitors miss.
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Free
Carnaby Street and the courts
The street itself takes five minutes; Kingly Court behind it takes an afternoon. Three floors of a courtyard with the roof open in summer and closed in winter.
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Exhibitions From £24
Frameless
Four rooms of projected painting, floor to ceiling, under Marble Arch. Permanent rather than a touring show, so there is no rush, and quietest in the first hour of the day.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Kenwood House
A Robert Adam house at the top of the Heath with a Rembrandt self portrait and a Vermeer in it, and no admission charge. The library is the room people stand in longest.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the Design Museum
The permanent collection upstairs costs nothing and takes about an hour. The building is the old Commonwealth Institute, and the roof is worth standing under before you look at anything.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the Natural History Museum
Free, permanent, and busiest between eleven and three. Go at opening or after four and Hintze Hall is almost yours. Timed tickets are free but worth booking at the weekend.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the Science Museum
The permanent galleries cost nothing. Making the Modern World runs the whole length of the ground floor and is the one to see if you only have an hour.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the V and A
Seven miles of gallery, free, and nobody sees it all. The cast courts and the John Madejski Garden are the two most people remember, and the garden is a good place to stop rather than leave.
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Exhibitions From £25
Kensington Palace and the sunken garden
The state apartments are ticketed, but the sunken garden outside them is free and is the bit most people photograph. Go on a weekday morning and the King's Staircase is almost empty.
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Free
Leake Street Arches, the legal graffiti tunnel
A road tunnel under the station where painting the walls is allowed, so it looks different every week. Bring a torch for the far end and expect the smell of aerosol.
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Exhibitions From £11
Leighton House, the Arab Hall
A Victorian painter built himself a house with a domed hall of Damascus tiles in it, and it is still there. Small, so an hour does it, and rarely busy.
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Exhibitions Free
Outernet London
Four storeys of screen wrapped around a public hall by Tottenham Court Road station, free to walk into. What is on changes constantly; five minutes is usually enough.
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Free
Sky Garden
Three floors of planted terrace at the top of the Walkie Talkie, free but booked in advance and the slots go about three weeks out. Sunset slots go first. Photo identification on the door.
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Free
Street art on Brick Lane
The walls change every few weeks, so the walk is different from the one anybody photographed last year. Start at the Truman Brewery and work north up the side streets.
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Free
The floating pocket park, Merchant Square
A garden built on a pontoon in the basin, open to anyone. Small, and that is rather the point: it is a place to sit on the water in the middle of a building site of a neighbourhood.
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Sport From £34
Turkish baths at Porchester Spa
A 1929 Turkish and Russian bath house run by the council, so it costs a fraction of the spa hotels. Check which days are mixed and which are single sex before you go, because it changes through the week.
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Exhibitions From £45
The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience
The television set rebuilt under Shaftesbury Avenue, played in teams of up to eight with a maze master shouting at you. Ninety minutes, and you do need to book.
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Food and drink From £14
Crazy golf at Swingers, West End
Two nine hole courses under a glass roof with street food traders around the edge. Over 18s in the evening, and booking is effectively required at the weekend.
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Talks From £12
Planetarium show at the Royal Observatory
The only planetarium in London, in a cone of bronze angled at the pole star, with a live astronomer rather than a recording. Shows run through the day and last about half an hour.
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Food and drink From £6
The Spaniards Inn
A 1585 coaching inn at the top of the Heath with a walled garden, a dog wash at the door and a long history of letting them in. Low beams, so mind your head rather than the dog.
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Food and drink From £6
Netil360 rooftop, Hackney
A roof above a car park in London Fields with the whole City skyline lined up in front of it. Small, so it fills on a warm evening; the view is the reason rather than the drinks list.
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Food and drink From £12
Darts at Flight Club, Shoreditch
Darts with the scoring done for you and a camera on the board, booked by the oche rather than the person. Cheaper before six and on a weekday, and it does run late.
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Clubs From £6
Rooftop at the Bussey Building
Peckham's roof bar, up several flights above the old cricket bat factory, looking back at the city from the south. Runs late at the weekend and the yard below keeps going after it shuts.
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Food and drink From £6
The George Inn, the last galleried coaching inn
The only galleried coaching inn left in London, owned by the National Trust and still working as a pub. The yard fills early on a warm evening.
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Free
Evening at the Brompton Oratory
An enormous Italianate interior a minute from the museums, free to walk into, and almost always quiet. Sung services are listed on the door.
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Sport From £12
Public skating at Queens Ice and Bowl
A full size rink under Queensway, open sessions most of the day and into the evening. Skate hire is included in the session price. Book ahead at weekends, because it fills with birthday parties.
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Free
Evening walk: Kensington Gardens to the Round Pond
The pond sits on the axis of the palace, so the view back at it in low light is the one the garden was laid out to give you. Twenty minutes from the High Street.
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Free
Waterloo Bridge at dusk
The only crossing with both the City and Westminster in one turn of the head. Built largely by women during the war, which is why it is sometimes called the Ladies Bridge.
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Free
Stargazing on Hampstead Heath
As dark as central London gets, which is not very, but Parliament Hill has the horizon and the local society runs public evenings on the hill through the winter. Take a torch and a coat.
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Food and drink Advance fares vary
A day in Brighton
An hour from Victoria or London Bridge and the most reliable seaside day out from London. The Lanes when it rains, the pier when it does not, and the last train back is late.
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Food and drink Advance fares vary, kids £1 each with an adult
A day in Whitstable
Around an hour and a quarter from St Pancras on the highspeed, and under ten minutes from the station to the beach. Oysters on the harbour and the huts along the shingle.
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Free
A walk through Hampstead village
Lanes that were a hill village before London reached them, and still read like one above the high street. Flask Walk and Holly Mount are the two to take if you only take two.
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Food and drink From £35
Bottomless brunch in Soho
More bottomless brunch per square yard than anywhere in London, and the offers change often enough that the street is the reliable part rather than any one room. Book: Saturdays go.
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Food and drink From £28
Bottomless brunch in Brixton
The market halls do it best and cheapest, and you can walk between three sittings in five minutes if the first is full. Two hours is the usual limit.
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Free
Hippodrome Casino
A Victorian theatre off Leicester Square turned casino, free to walk into at any hour, with a working cabaret room upstairs.
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Food and drink From £10
Ping pong at Bounce, Old Street
Tables by the hour in a basement that used to be a ping pong hall, which is a rare thing to be able to say. Loud after nine and quiet before seven.
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Cabaret Free upstairs, basement shows ticketed
The Glory
An East End pub with a performance basement, and one of the rooms new drag and cabaret acts in London actually come up through.
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Cabaret Free entry, minimum spend on some nights
Cellar Door
A former gentlemen's public convenience at Aldwych, now a forty seat bar with cabaret on every night. Free to walk into.
-
Film From £14
A screening at the BFI IMAX
The biggest screen in the country, in a glass drum in the middle of a roundabout. Worth it for something shot on film stock, less so for anything upscaled.
-
Late night Late
Sophisticats
A licensed strip club on Brewer Street, open Monday to Saturday from ten until three and closed on Sunday. Over 18s, photo ID on the door.
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Clubs Guest list or a table booking
Cirque le Soir
A circus themed nightclub on Ganton Street that puts the performers on the floor rather than a stage. Guest list or tables, not a walk up.
-
Cabaret Table booking or membership
The Box Soho
A late night theatre club on Walker's Court running a variety show that is deliberately hard to describe. Over 21s, tables and membership only.
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Exhibitions Advance fares vary, kids £1 each with an adult
A day in Margate
An hour and a half from St Pancras. Turner Contemporary is free, the sand is the best within reach of London, and the old town is a short walk from the station.
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Food and drink From £30
Bottomless brunch in Shoreditch
Cheaper than Soho and longer sittings, mostly around Redchurch Street and the Boundary. Sundays run into the evening here in a way they do not further west.
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Food and drink From £11
Bowling at All Star Lanes, Brick Lane
Four lanes in a basement done out as an American diner, which sounds worse than it is. Booked by the lane for up to eight, and the kitchen runs as late as the bowling.
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Exhibitions Advance fares vary
A day in Oxford
An hour from Paddington or Marylebone. The Ashmolean and the Pitt Rivers are both free, and most colleges let visitors in for a few pounds in the afternoon.
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Free
Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace
Free, and busier than anything else on this list. It does not run every day and it is called off in bad weather, so check the Household Division calendar the morning you go.
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Food and drink From £7
Lower Marsh Market
A weekday street market that has been there since the 1850s, now mostly hot food at lunch. Quieter and cheaper than Borough, and five minutes from the same trains.
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Food and drink From £8
Lunchtime in Leadenhall Market
The traders under the roof are mostly food at midday, and the pubs put their tables out under the ironwork. Weekdays only: most of it shuts by early evening and all of it at the weekend.
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Exhibitions Advance fares vary
A day in Cambridge
Fifty minutes from King's Cross, which makes it the closest of the university towns. The Fitzwilliam is free and punting is the thing everyone does and nobody regrets.
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Theatre From £25
Evening performance at the Victoria Palace Theatre
A Matcham house from 1911, restored to the gilt and then some. Day seats and returns go at the box office in the morning, which is the cheapest way in.
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Food and drink Advance fares vary, kids £1 each with an adult
A day in Broadstairs
An hour and twenty-one minutes from St Pancras. Seven beaches and bays for a town this size, three of them Blue Flag, with Viking Bay in the middle.
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Exhibitions Advance fares vary, kids £1 each with an adult
A day in Canterbury
Fifty-one minutes to Canterbury West on the highspeed from St Pancras. A UNESCO cathedral, cobbled streets and the Stour running through the middle of it.
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Food and drink Advance fares vary, kids £1 each with an adult
A day in Deal
Under an hour and a half from St Pancras. A seafront nobody has built on, a high street that keeps winning awards, and a castle at the end of it.
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Exhibitions Advance fares vary, kids £1 each with an adult
A day in Dover
An hour and a quarter to Dover Priory on the highspeed. The white cliffs, a castle with wartime tunnels under it, and France on the horizon on a clear day.
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Food and drink Advance fares vary, kids £1 each with an adult
A day in Folkestone
Just under an hour from St Pancras on the highspeed, which makes it the quickest way from London to the sea. The Creative Quarter is the cobbled half.
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Exhibitions Advance fares vary, kids £1 each with an adult
A day in Hastings
Under two hours from Charing Cross, the longest here and the only one not on the highspeed. The Old Town alleyways, the castle ruins above them and the pier.
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Food and drink Advance fares vary, kids £1 each with an adult
A day in Tunbridge Wells
Around fifty minutes from London Bridge, the shortest trip on this page. A spa town for four hundred years, with the Pantiles at the middle of it.
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Food and drink From £8
Borough Market, full market days
The full market runs Wednesday to Saturday, and Wednesday is the one where you can actually reach a stall. Monday and Tuesday are limited, which catches people out.
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Exhibitions Free
The Fitzrovia Chapel, open to visitors
All that survives of the Middlesex Hospital: a gold mosaic chapel standing on its own in a new square. Free, and open on set days in the middle of the week rather than daily, so check before crossing town.
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Free
The Rolling Bridge at Merchant Square
Thomas Heatherwick's footbridge curls up into an octagon instead of lifting. It runs to a published timetable posted at the square, and the whole thing takes about three minutes.
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Theatre From £25
Evening performance at the Apollo Victoria
An art deco cinema turned musical house, and one of the few West End auditoriums where the building is worth arriving early for. Straight across from the station.
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Theatre From £30
Evening performance at the Menier Chocolate Factory
A small house in a Victorian factory that sends more work to the West End than its size suggests. The dinner and show ticket is decent value and the room seats under two hundred.
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Exhibitions Advance fares vary
A weekend in the Cotswolds
Moreton-in-Marsh is ninety minutes direct from Paddington and you can walk out of the station into the countryside, which is not true of most of them. Book beds well ahead in summer.
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Exhibitions Advance fares vary
A weekend in Bath
An hour and a half from Paddington. The whole city is a world heritage site, the baths are open until ten in summer, and everything is within twenty minutes on foot.
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Food and drink Advance fares vary
A weekend on the Norfolk coast
Two hours to Norwich then a bus, or drive. Holkham is the beach everyone means and it is big enough to absorb a bank holiday. Seals at Blakeney, seen from a boat rather than the shore.
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Sport From £4.50
Swimming in the Hampstead mixed pond
Open all year, lifeguarded, and colder than you are expecting from about October. The men's and ladies' ponds keep their own hours and their own rules.
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Gigs From £8
BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Until 11 Sep
Eight weeks of concerts and the cheapest classical music in the country: promming tickets are a few pounds on the day, standing in the arena or the gallery. Queue from late afternoon.
-
Markets Free
Totally Thames: river festival, whole programme
Until 30 Sep
A month of walks, boat trips, art on the foreshore and one super-choir on the river. Most of it costs nothing and needs no booking.
Friday
10 September-
Gigs From £75 (weekend ticket)
Electric Ballroom: London MetalFest 2027
London MetalFest 2027 in Camden, with weekend tickets giving general admission to both days of the festival.
Saturday
11 September-
Talks Free
Open House London: buildings open to the public
Until 19 Sep
Nine days of normally shut buildings, free, from private houses to livery halls. The 2027 dates are ours until Open City publishes.
-
Gigs From £30
Proms in the Park
The Last Night relayed to a crowd in Hyde Park with its own bill before it. Ticketed and it sells out, but the atmosphere is the point rather than the sightlines.
Questions people ask
What are the best things to do in London in September?
The best month and the least talked about. Open House opens hundreds of buildings for free, London Fashion Week and the London Design Festival both run, Frieze week begins at the end of the month, and the Proms finish.
What are the free things to do in London in September?
Open House opens hundreds of buildings that are normally shut, free, over a weekend in the middle of the month, though the buildings people most want need booking and the ballot opens weeks ahead. The free museums are open every day, and everything else free this month is marked on our free listings.
Is Open House free?
Yes, entirely. Hundreds of buildings that are normally closed open for a weekend. The popular ones run a ballot or need pre booking, and the rest are walk up queues.
Is there a bank holiday in September?
No. The last was the end of August and the next is Christmas.
Why is September a good time to visit London?
The weather is often better than August, the visitor crowds have gone, the cultural season starts again, and the evenings are still long enough to be useful.
What should I book ahead?
Anything in Open House that runs a ballot, and restaurant tables during Frieze week, when the art world fills Mayfair.
Guides for what is coming
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Guides for September
All guides-
Mon 17 August to Sun 13 September
London Theatre Week: what it is and how to get the cheap seats
Tickets from £15, £25 and £35 to more than ninety London shows, twice a year. The last sale...
-
Tue 1 to Wed 30 September
Totally Thames 2026: a month on the river, and what is still to come
The whole of September, along the length of the river. What it is, who runs it, and the...
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Sat 12 to Sun 20 September
Open House London 2026: how it works and the buildings worth queuing for
The 2026 festival ran 12 to 20 September: more than eight hundred openings, all free. How the booked...
-
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,...
-
Thu 17 to Mon 21 September
London Fashion Week: what the public can actually get into
The September 2026 edition ran 17 to 21 September and has finished. The shows are invite-only, the City...
-
Sat 1 May to Thu 30 September
London lidos and outdoor swimming: which pools open when
Most open at weekends from May and daily from June. Which are heated, which are cold, and which...
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Sat 1 May to Thu 30 September
Outdoor cinema in London 2027: rooftops, parks and how to pick a night
The season runs May to September. Rooftop screens, the touring park and palace cinemas, the free ones, and...
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Fri 16 July to Sat 11 September
BBC Proms 2027: dates, tickets and how to get in for £8
What Promming costs, how to get in on the day for £8 even when a concert has sold...
-
Sat 18 to Sun 26 September
London Design Festival 2027: 18 to 26 September, and most of it is free
18 to 26 September 2027, the twenty fifth anniversary edition. Installations across the city, most of them free...
London month by month
Twelve guides, one a monthThings to do in January Things to do in February Things to do in March Things to do in April Things to do in May Things to do in June Things to do in July Things to do in August Things to do in September Things to do in October Things to do in November Things to do in December
What is on right now
All 2189 listingsThis guide is rewritten each year before the dates come round. For what is actually happening this week rather than what happens every year, the listings below are dated, checked against the venue and carry the venue's own link.
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Soho Covent Garden Islington Bloomsbury Camden Shoreditch Dalston Battersea Fitzrovia Crouch End
This page keeps its address every year and is rewritten each time the month comes round, with every listing checked before it goes in. How we choose what goes in.