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: Sunday, 10th November 2024?
Displayed in date order by how soon they close.
£8.80
100 Years of Air Defence
Explore the origins of the Dowding System and its legacy in later years. (Ending Soon Sat, 10th Nov)
Bentley Priory Museum
This exhibition investigates and reveals Dickens’s deep and influential interest in medicine, chemistry, geology, the energy of the Earth and the ability of science to drive change. (Ending Soon Sun, 11th Nov)
Charles Dickens Museum
£12.50
London Nights
Discover the city at night through the eyes of photographers from the late 19th century to the present day. (Ending Soon Sun, 11th Nov)
Museum of London
Free
Beautiful & Damned
An exhibition that explores the glamorous and grotesque, disturbed and diabolical, surreal and supernatural, merciless and macabre and uncanny and undead! (Ending Soon Fri, 16th Nov)
Vout-O-Reenee's
The feature display will include war and propaganda posters issued by all sides of the conflict, including the UK, USA, Germany and Russia. (Ending Soon Sat, 17th Nov)
Antikbar
This exhibition features two very talented Edwardian female illustrators whose work has been largely forgotten. (Ending Soon Sun, 18th Nov)
Heath Robinson Museum
This year’s winning and commended entries will be exhibited at the Soane Museum this autumn. (Ending Soon Sun, 18th Nov)
Sir John Soane's Museum
Free
WW1 Shrouds
A huge display of over 70,000 miniature shrouds will remember everyone who died in the Battle of the Somme and doesn't have a grave. (Ending Soon Sun, 18th Nov)
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Free
Under Your Nose
The exhibition explores the multifaceted landscape of one of London’s most thriving boroughs and its residents. (Ending Soon Sat, 24th Nov)
Islington Square
Free
Jameel Prize 5
The Jameel Prize is an international award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition. (Ending Soon Sun, 25th Nov)
Victoria and Albert Museum
Explore Michael Palin’s role in creating some of the most brilliant comedy of the 20th century through his own archive. (Ending Soon Sun, 25th Nov)
The British Library
£20
Oceania
Marking 250 years since Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific, celebrate the dazzling and diverse art of the region of Oceania, from the historic to the contemporary. (Ending Soon Mon, 10th Dec)
Royal Academy of Arts
An exhibition featuring items from LSE Library collections related to the UK’s relationship in and out of the EU. (Ending Soon Fri, 14th Dec)
LSE Library
The exhibition reveals the ‘behind the scenes’ of a pioneer excavation and research project of one of the most complex societies of its time. (Ending Soon Sat, 15th Dec)
Brunei Gallery
Fans which reflect the troubadour style and a return to the chivalric principles of the past will be on display alongside fans commemorating Napoleon and the return of his ashes to France in 1840. (Ending Soon Sun, 30th Dec)
The Fan Museum
Drawing on the resources of the National Jazz Archive the exhibition includes photos, posters, journals, video and memorabilia. (Ending Soon Mon, 31st Dec)
Barbican Arts Centre
New and rarely seen works from the internationally renowned South African artist Athi-Patra Ruga.
(Ending Soon Sun, 6th Jan)
Somerset House
Discover this year’s top picks across fashion, architecture, digital, transport, product and graphic design. (Ending Soon Sun, 6th Jan)
The Design Museum
Francis Upritchard’s site-specific installation draws from figurative sculpture, ceramics, glassblowing and more. (Ending Soon Sun, 6th Jan)
Barbican Centre
£11.50
Life in the Dark
Leave daylight behind and put your senses to the test in this illuminating exhibition. (Ending Soon Sun, 6th Jan)
Natural History Museum
The exhibition explores the man, his life and his unprecedented contribution to the nation’s cultural heritage. (Ending Soon Sun, 6th Jan)
Wallace Collection
£16.50
Space Shifters
Featuring 20 artists and spanning a period of roughly 50 years, the exhibition includes innovative, minimalist sculpture from the 1960s as well as recent works that extend the legacy of 'optical' minimalism in different ways. (Ending Soon Sun, 6th Jan)
Hayward Gallery
Free
Votes for Women
A display featuring iconic objects from the museum’s vast Suffragette collection, including Emmeline Pankhurst’s hunger strike medal. (Ending Soon Sun, 6th Jan)
The Museum of London
An exhibition that reveals sunken, forgotten letters recently recovered from a shipwreck. (Ending Soon Sun, 13th Jan)
The Postal Museum
This exhibition explores how factory methods are transforming how we deliver homes in the capital. (Ending Soon Fri, 18th Jan)
The Building Centre
The exhibition explores the day and evening styles of the decade, complemented by photographs of the stars who championed them. (Ending Soon Sun, 20th Jan)
Fashion and Textile Museum
This exhibition traces the development of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings through a selection of over forty masterpieces. (Ending Soon Sun, 20th Jan)
The National Gallery
Free
Dream On
An exhibition which explores dreams, the unconscious and an imaginary world between sleep and wakefulness. (Ending Soon Sun, 20th Jan)
V&A Museum of Childhood
History, as somebody wise once said, is just one damned thing after another. But is it really? Who decides what is ‘history’? (Ending Soon Sun, 20th Jan)
The British Museum
Designed and curated in close collaboration with Piano himself, this is the first exhibition in London to put the spotlight on Piano in 30 years. (Ending Soon Sun, 20th Jan)
Royal Academy of Arts
The first UK exhibition to explore the complex relationship between fashion and nature from 1600 to the present day (Ending Soon Sun, 27th Jan)
Victoria and Albert Museum
Discover two artists who changed the course of Western European art (Ending Soon Sun, 27th Jan)
The National Gallery
£16.50
Ribera: Art of Violence
The first UK show of work by the Spanish Baroque artist and printmaker, Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652). (Ending Soon Sun, 27th Jan)
Dulwich Picture Gallery
The Enchanted Garden explores how Morris's contemporaries and subsequent generations of artists have responded to the allure of garden spaces, using them as stages for the magical, menacing and romantic. (Ending Soon Sun, 27th Jan)
William Morris Gallery
The exhibition explores the Gestetner machine as a device that revolutionised the office. (Ending Soon Thu, 31st Jan)
Bruce Castle Museum
£10
Repton Revealed
See how Repton’s career unfolded in this special exhibition which brings together Red Books and watercolour paintings, many never publicly displayed before, to celebrate the bicentenary of his death. (Ending Soon Sun, 3rd Feb)
Garden Museum
The uncompromising sculpture that emerged in Britain after the Second World War (Ending Soon Mon, 4th Feb)
Tate Britain
Discover the expressive sensitivity and immediacy of Lorenzo Lotto’s portraits in the first UK exhibition of its kind (Ending Soon Sun, 10th Feb)
The National Gallery
A landmark exhibition on the history, art, literature and culture of Anglo-Saxon England. (Ending Soon Tue, 19th Feb)
The British Library
One of the last Pre-Raphaelites, Edward Burne-Jones brought imaginary worlds to life in awe-inspiring paintings, stained glass windows and tapestries (Ending Soon Sun, 24th Feb)
Tate Britain
An exhibition exploring the connection between Sigmund Freud and Salvador Dalí, starting from their one meeting, to which Dalí brought his recently completed painting The Metamorphosis of Narcissus. (Ending Soon Sun, 24th Feb)
Freud Museum
This major exhibition tells the story of Ashurbanipal through the British Museum’s unparalleled collection of Assyrian treasures and rare loans. (Ending Soon Sun, 24th Feb)
The British Museum
This exhibition brings back to Strawberry Hill some of the most important masterpieces in Horace Walpole’s famous and unique collection for a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition. (Ending Soon Sun, 24th Feb)
Strawberry Hill
Explore the design and culture of contemporary videogames (Ending Soon Sun, 24th Feb)
Victoria and Albert Museum
Free
Call in the Cavalry
From flamboyant uniforms to fast horses, this exhibition looks at the shared heritage between the Hungarian and British hussars. (Ending Soon Sun, 3rd Mar)
National Army Museum
Snoopy comes to London in this exhibition of Charles M. Schulz original Peanuts cartoons. (Ending Soon Sun, 3rd Mar)
Somerset House
This exhibition explores how our built environment contributes to our physical and mental health in both positive and negative ways. (Ending Soon Sun, 3rd Mar)
Wellcome Collection
This exhibition presents fifty original magazine covers from Time Out’s archive and explores the stories behind them. (Ending Soon Sun, 3rd Mar)
Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising
Free
African Soldier
This multi-screen installation by artist John Akomfrah remembers the millions of African men and women who participated in the First World War (Ending Soon Thu, 21st Mar)
Imperial War Museum
£16
Home Futures
Explore today’s home through the prism of yesterday’s imagination. Are we living in the way that pioneering architects and designers throughout the 20th century predicted, or has our idea of home proved resistant to real change? (Ending Soon Sun, 24th Mar)
The Design Museum
Explore the extraordinary lives and deaths of Tsar Nicholas II and his family and go behind the scenes to uncover the science behind one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century. (Ending Soon Sun, 24th Mar)
Science Museum
The exhibition showcases how humanity has used medicine to extend life and defy death throughout time. (Ending Soon Wed, 27th Mar)
A.G. Leventis Gallery
In this immersive sound installation, 32 people who fought and lived through the First World War share their personal stories of the Armistice. (Ending Soon Sun, 31st Mar)
Imperial War Museum
Discover more about Georgian Black Londoners, alongside a collection of rare and unusual portraits of Black Georgians. (Ending Soon Sun, 31st Mar)
Bruce Castle Museum
Through a rich collection of photographs, discover the innovation and resourcefulness that shaped the rebuilding and regeneration of the world post-war, revealing resilience and creativity in times of great change. (Ending Soon Sun, 31st Mar)
Imperial War Museum
The Oscar Wilde Temple is a wholly immersive work of art and secular space honouring one of the earliest forebears of gay liberation. (Ending Soon Sun, 31st Mar)
Studio Voltaire
Free
War Brides
Collectively these portraits and stories speak across continents and generations of an extraordinary post-war emigration of women who made a leap of faith for the love of an airman. (Ending Soon Sun, 14th Apr)
RAF Museum
This is the V&A Museum of Childhood’s first major exhibition to focus on fictional pirates and their influence in popular culture. (Ending Soon Mon, 22nd Apr)
V&A Museum of Childhood
Portraits, sculpture, photographs, archival documents and miniature masterpieces by Fabergé illustrate historic events and family meetings between the rulers of the two nations. (Ending Soon Sun, 28th Apr)
The Queen's Gallery
Free
The Lore of the Land
The exhibition features ceramic artworks dispensing scents inspired by the Horniman Gardens, and a soundscape based on the chemical processes occurring in plants and trees.
(Ending Soon Tue, 30th Apr)
Horniman Museum
This exhibition is the story of humanity’s ever-changing relationship with our nearest star. (Ending Soon Mon, 6th May)
Science Museum
Women were inspired to serve their country by Florence Nightingale's work. But in 1918, as WW1 approached its end, nothing could have prepared them for what was to come - the deadly Spanish Flu. (Ending Soon Sun, 16th Jun)
Florence Nightingale Museum
This exhibition showcases extraordinary animal behaviour and the breathtaking diversity of life on Earth. (Ending Soon Sun, 30th Jun)
Natural History Museum
Showcasing the most spectacular space photography of its kind, the exhibition celebrates ten years of awe-inspiring images shot by astrophotographers worldwide. (Ending Soon Sun, 4th Aug)
Royal Observatory Greenwich