Welcome to the IanVisits alternative guide to London.
Lectures, talks, heritage events, organised walks and other random geeky miscellany.
This is quite an old listings page, did you want: Thursday, 29th August 2024?
Displayed in date order by how soon they close.
From the fall of Russia’s last Tsar to the rise of the communist state, this exhibition takes a look at the Russian Revolution 100 years on. (Ending Soon Tue, 29th Aug)
The British Library
See sculpture from a Finnish artist who reimagines modern culture in monumental and mythic terms. (Ending Soon Wed, 30th Aug)
Southbank Centre
This exhibition will take you on a journey through the history of the Stationers' Company, giving you a chance to see some of their most precious objects along the way. (Ending Soon Thu, 31st Aug)
Guildhall Library
This festival-style exhibition consists of more than 800 works, many of which have never been seen in the UK before. (Ending Soon Fri, 1st Sep)
Barbican Centre
Free
Our Lives in Data
This exhibition investigates the rapidly evolving role of big data in all our lives and how it is being used to transform the world around us. (Ending Soon Fri, 1st Sep)
An exhibition of 'junk' that has been recycled into something else, inspired by some William Robinson drawings. (Ending Soon Sun, 3rd Sep)
Heath Robinson Museum
£17.50
Sounds of the City
An exhibition featuring the best 100 entries from The Prize for Illustration 2017 (Ending Soon Sun, 3rd Sep)
London Transport Museum
A substantial exhibition featuring around 200 original costumes, props, models, and pieces of artwork. (Ending Soon Sun, 3rd Sep)
O2 Arena / Millennium Dome
A traveling exhibition made up from objects loaned by 6 theatre museums across Europe, showing the history of the theatre. (Ending Soon Sun, 3rd Sep)
Victoria and Albert Museum
The world's largest LEGO exhibition inspired by DC Characters. (Ending Soon Mon, 4th Sep)
Doon Street Car Park
Discover the stories of Jewish immigrants ot the UK from across the Islamic world in this audio-visual exhibition. (Ending Soon Thu, 7th Sep)
Jewish Museum London
If you built a museum of nature in the 21st century, what would it look like? (Ending Soon Sun, 10th Sep)
Wellcome Collection
The UK’s first ever exhibition of handmade background illustrations for classic sci-fi anime films. (Ending Soon Sun, 10th Sep)
House of Illustration
To mark the 150th anniversary of Canada’s confederation, a display from the Canadian photographic collection. (Ending Soon Sun, 10th Sep)
The British Library
This summer Grayson Perry will present a major exhibition of new work. (Ending Soon Sun, 10th Sep)
The Serpentine
Come and see the mosaics from the studios of Southbank Mosaics. (Ending Soon Thu, 14th Sep)
St Lawrence Jewry
Free
50 Years of Mr Benn
This exhibition offers a feast of concept artwork, sketches, and published book illustrations. (Ending Soon Sat, 16th Sep)
Illustration Cupboard
Multi-sensory exhibition featuring ten extraordinary perfumes and their pioneering creators, who have radically changed our perceptions of fragrance over the last 20 years.
(Ending Soon Sun, 17th Sep)
Somerset House
£5.85
Sensational Butterflies
Go among hundreds of live butterflies and moths in a tropical butterfly house. (Ending Soon Sun, 17th Sep)
Natural History Museum
From the trial of Oscar Wilde to the Same Sex Marriage Act, through personal testimony, public protest, art and culture. (Ending Soon Tue, 19th Sep)
The British Library
Photographic exhibition of the architecture of Yemen. (Ending Soon Sat, 23rd Sep)
Brunei Gallery
An exhibition the woman behind the music and beyond the hype. (Ending Soon Sun, 24th Sep)
Jewish Museum London
The BP Portrait Award 2017 represents the very best in contemporary portrait painting. (Ending Soon Sun, 24th Sep)
National Portrait Gallery
The summer opening of Buckingham Palace will tell the story of The Queen’s reign through a display of official gifts presented to Her Majesty. (Ending Soon Sun, 24th Sep)
Buckingham Palace
An exhibition about the life of James Brindley, who, together with the Duke of Bridgwater, and his land agent John Gilbert, was responsible for the UK's first modern commercial canal. (Ending Soon Sun, 24th Sep)
Canal Museum
A display of award winning photography by members of the Royal Air Force, (Ending Soon Mon, 25th Sep)
RAF Museum
The exhibition enables visitors to explore documents, paintings and objects which demonstrate the profound changes in Parliament and democracy that occurred during the war years. (Ending Soon Thu, 28th Sep)
Palace of Westminster
Through the portraits of victims and perpetrators, the exhibition explores the legacy of medical research under Nazism, and its impact on bioethics today. (Ending Soon Fri, 29th Sep)
Wiener Library
The exhibition is made up of a series of panels exploring aspects of the war in the Middle East and its legacy, including a timeline of events. (Ending Soon Sat, 30th Sep)
Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
£16.50
Queer British Art 1861–1967
This exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality in England. (Ending Soon Sun, 1st Oct)
Tate Britain
The first international retrospective of one of the world's most iconic and influential bands. (Ending Soon Sun, 1st Oct)
Victoria and Albert Museum
Explore why artists and soldiers have painted scenes of conflict. (Ending Soon Sun, 8th Oct)
National Army Museum
Learn about a key moment in the history of art, when emphasis on observation and realism was born. (Ending Soon Sun, 8th Oct)
The National Gallery
£15.50
Sargent: The Watercolours
The first major UK exhibition
of watercolours by the artist, John Singer Sargent since 1918. (Ending Soon Sun, 8th Oct)
Dulwich Picture Gallery
£14
California
While California’s mid-century modernism is well documented, this is the first exhibition to examine its current global reach. (Ending Soon Sun, 15th Oct)
The Design Museum
This exhibition offers glimpses into LGBTQ histories, experiences and lives by examining objects from around the world, (Ending Soon Sun, 15th Oct)
The British Museum
This display highlights recent acquisitions of posters, prints, drawings, photographs and artists’ books. (Ending Soon Sun, 22nd Oct)
The British Museum
The creative encounter between artists and sitters is explored in this exhibition featuring portrait drawings by some of the outstanding masters of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. (Ending Soon Sun, 22nd Oct)
National Portrait Gallery
The exhibition explores a largely unknown and under-rated body of Dickens’s work that speaks plainly to social justice with energy and relevance—both then and now. (Ending Soon Sun, 29th Oct)
Charles Dickens Museum
An exhibition of animals that have been recreated using a variety of familiar machine parts and gadgets to reveal how their real life counterparts see, eat, hunt and hide. (Ending Soon Sun, 29th Oct)
Horniman Museum
Free
Trauma
Come face-to-face with a Roman skull uncovered during excavations in the Walbrook Stream. (Ending Soon Sun, 29th Oct)
Guildhall Art Gallery and Roman Amphitheater
70 years of Concrete Quarterly explores the social and architectural history of concrete architecture and engineering over the past 70 years, (Ending Soon Mon, 30th Oct)
The Building Centre
A historical journey that shows you some of the longest, deepest and most advanced tunnels in the world. (Ending Soon Tue, 31st Oct)
Institution of Civil Engineers
The exhibition features examples of many well-known cartoon strips from newspapers and magazines from the past 100 years. (Ending Soon Sun, 5th Nov)
Cartoon Museum
The exhibition presents a spectacular selection of eighteenth-century Venetian art, with Canaletto's greatest works. (Ending Soon Sun, 12th Nov)
The Queen's Gallery
Free
Plywood
More than 120 objects have been brought together in an exploration of how the often-overlooked product has helped create the modern world. (Ending Soon Sun, 12th Nov)
Victoria and Albert Museum
This exhibition examines the British arrival in Helmand province, Afghanistan, and the decisions that shaped the way the conflict escalated and the lessons learnt. (Ending Soon Sun, 26th Nov)
Imperial War Museum
Explore the history of the Wrens in Greenwich. New interviews and research offer a rare female perspective into the fascinating history of the Old Royal Naval College. (Ending Soon Sun, 3rd Dec)
Old Royal Naval College
This is the exhibition on Balenciaga in the UK and marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of his first fashion house. (Ending Soon Tue, 5th Dec)
Victoria and Albert Museum
An exhibition that provides a glimpse of the challenges and joys of theatrical life since the days of Elizabeth I. (Ending Soon Thu, 7th Dec)
London Metropolitan Archives
This exhibition provides snapshots of everyday lives as the metropolis expanded and new communities emerged over the centuries. (Ending Soon Fri, 15th Dec)
UCL Main Library
Free
Reformation
Focussing on London through the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, this exhibition traces the impact of the Reformation on culture and society. (Ending Soon Fri, 15th Dec)
Senate House Library
Free
Falling Shawls
Falling Shawls is a floating textile installation that artist Outi Pieski describes as a ‘drawing in air’. (Ending Soon Sun, 31st Dec)
Southbank Centre
This display explores the fascinating story of the Hall’s design through a variety of historic models, photographs and casts. (Ending Soon Sun, 7th Jan)
Victoria and Albert Museum
An exhibition exploring the unsolved mystery of Sir John Franklin's fatal last journey into the Arctic. (Ending Soon Sun, 7th Jan)
National Maritime Museum
Celebrate the golden era of toys and games, made in the borough by famous names such as Spears Games and Lesney Matchbox and played with by generations of local children. (Ending Soon Sun, 7th Jan)
Enfield Museum
This exhibition remembers the centenary of this battle and the massive medical and human impact of the wounds sustained during and beyond WW1. (Ending Soon Mon, 15th Jan)
Science Museum
This exhibition uses art, archaeology, and modern material culture to explore how seduction, sensuality, and sex have been represented through time. (Ending Soon Tue, 30th Jan)
A.G. Leventis Gallery
Explore the secrets behind Michael’s storytelling through his original drafts, adaptations, scripts and unpublished manuscripts. (Ending Soon Sun, 25th Feb)
V&A Museum of Childhood
£11.50
Whales: Beneath the surface
More than 100 specimens from the Museum's collection will be on display together for the first time, (Ending Soon Wed, 28th Feb)
Natural History Museum
A display of more than 200 original illustrations of the nature of the British Isles. (Ending Soon Fri, 2nd Nov)
Natural History Museum