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: Wednesday, 24th January 2024?

 

 


Displayed in date order by how soon they close.

The Art of Innovation explores the relationship between science and art over the past 250 years, and how it has helped to interpret, study and explore the world around us. (Ending Soon Fri, 24th Jan)

Science Museum
SW7 2DD
2020-01-24
This display of selected clothes, accessories and memorabilia demonstrates Hartnell’s innovation and lasting effect on British design and craftsmanship. (Ending Soon Sat, 25th Jan)

Fashion and Textile Museum
SE1 3XF
2020-01-24
Norman Hartnell – A Tribute
Canary Wharf will be transformed by over 25 spectacular installations, leaving the dark winter evenings aglow. (Ending Soon Sat, 25th Jan)

Canada Square Park
E14 5AB
2020-01-24
Winter Lights
This comprehensive exhibition will explore five decades of the distinguished career of a British design legend. (Ending Soon Sat, 25th Jan)

Fashion and Textile Museum
SE1 3XF
2020-01-24
Zandra Rhodes: 50 Years of Fabulous
Spanning 70 years of Riley’s work, this exhibition offers visitors an unparalleled opportunity to experience powerful and engaging works by one of the most important artists of our time. (Ending Soon Sun, 26th Jan)

Hayward Gallery
SE1 8XX
2020-01-24
 Bridget Riley
This exhibition features a large-scale installation and paintings that draw on the scientific concept known as string theory. (Ending Soon Sun, 26th Jan)

White Cube Bermondsey
SE1 3TQ
2020-01-24
Anselm Kiefer Superstrings, Runes, The Norns, Gordian Knot
The first-ever exhibition devoted to the portraits of Paul Gauguin. (Ending Soon Sun, 26th Jan)

The National Gallery
WC2N 5DN
2020-01-24
Gauguin Portraits
Charting the history of cultural and artistic interactions between East and West, this exhibition explores the impact the Islamic world has had on Western art for centuries. (Ending Soon Sun, 26th Jan)

The British Museum
WC1B 3DG
2020-01-24
Inspired by the east how the Islamic world influenced western art
The Gallery becomes a painting studio, an imagined chapel and a room-sized experiment in this immersive exhibition that leads you through the mind of Leonardo da Vinci to explore his masterpiece, ‘The Virgin of the Rocks’. (Ending Soon Sun, 26th Jan)

The National Gallery
WC2N 5DN
2020-01-24
Leonardo - Experience a Masterpiece
See more than 50 paintings, prints and drawings in which this modern master of British art turns his unflinching eye firmly on himself. (Ending Soon Sun, 26th Jan)

Royal Academy of Arts
W1J 0BD
2020-01-24
Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits
The first exhibition in the UK to fully explore the relationship between the English Arts and Crafts movement and the Bauhaus, the ground-breaking German art school. (Ending Soon Sun, 26th Jan)

William Morris Gallery
E17 4PP
2020-01-24
Pioneers - William Morris and the Bauhaus
This major exhibition is the first-ever to focus on the untold story of the women of Pre-Raphaelite art. (Ending Soon Sun, 26th Jan)

National Portrait Gallery
WC2H 0HE
2020-01-24
Pre-Raphaelite Sisters
Artists Anna Alcock, Hannah Ford, Miyuki Kasahara, Alke Schmidt and Sandie Sutton respond to this crisis with new work that draws on research into the causes of the decline of pollinators. (Ending Soon Sun, 26th Jan)

Vestry House Museum
E17 9NH
2020-01-24
Swarm: artists respond to the pollinator crisis
An exhibition of paintings by Alison Chaplin of the ever-changing landscape of Epping Forest. (Ending Soon Wed, 29th Jan)

Barbican Arts Centre
EC2Y 8DS
2020-01-24
‘I loved the song which Nature sung’ - London’s Epping Forest
On the centenary of the Bauhaus school, one of the most famous and influential design schools in modern history, this exhibition looks afresh at the birth of Modernism in Britain.  (Ending Soon Sat, 1st Feb)

Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
W1B 1AD
2020-01-24
Beyond Bauhaus - Modernism in Britain 1933 to 1966
This exhibition tells the hidden story of fire hazards, how they have changed, and the efforts that have been invested in preventing and treating injuries. (Ending Soon Sat, 1st Feb)

Museum of the Order of St John
EC1M 4DA
2020-01-24
A major exhibition exploring the artist’s mastery of light through 35 of his greatest paintings, etchings and drawings. (Ending Soon Sun, 2nd Feb)

Dulwich Picture Gallery
SE21 7AD
2020-01-24
Rembrandt's Light
Experience Blake’s visionary art in his largest show in a generation​. (Ending Soon Sun, 2nd Feb)

Tate Britain
SW1P 4RG
2020-01-24
William Blake
Industrial design studio PriestmanGoode explores the issue of waste in travel. (Ending Soon Sun, 9th Feb)

The Design Museum
W8 6AG
2020-01-24
Get Onboard: Reduce. Reuse. Rethink
This exhibition uses paintings, drawings, photographs and memorabilia to illustrate the surprising histories of London’s Royal Parks. (Ending Soon Sun, 9th Feb)

Garden Museum
SE1 7LB
2020-01-24
Play, Protest and Pelicans: A People’s History of London’s Royal Parks
These photographs, often taken by monks and housed within monasteries, depict day-to-day life for both the monastic and lay communities. (Ending Soon Sun, 9th Feb)

The British Library
NW1 2DB
2020-01-24
Sacred Laos in Photographs: The Monks’ Gaze
This display of winning entries from the latest Army Film and Photographic Competition gives a unique insight into life in the British Army. (Ending Soon Thu, 13th Feb)

National Army Museum
SW3 4HT
2020-01-24
Army Film and Photographic Competition: 2020 winners
In a cold room, specially created for the exhibition, slices taken from Antarctic ice cores appear to float on a solid ice floor. (Ending Soon Fri, 14th Feb)

Arup Phase 2 gallery
W1T 4BQ
2020-01-24
Wayne Binitie: Ice Floor
Explore the underbelly of our digital world in this exhibition revealing the powerful, and often hidden, forces at play in artificial intelligence. (Ending Soon Sat, 15th Feb)

Barbican Centre
EC2Y 8DS
2020-01-24
Trevor Paglen - From 'Apple' to 'Anomaly'
This exhibition showcases original archives from the collections which illustrate the prolific activism of the people of Tower Hamlets in the latter decades of the twentieth century. (Ending Soon Sat, 15th Feb)

Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives
E1 4DQ
2020-01-24
Unite and Resist
The little known story of one of the capital’s most intriguing cemeteries is revealed for the first time in this exhibition. (Ending Soon Sun, 16th Feb)

Brent Museum
NW10 2SF
2020-01-24
House of Life Exhibition
The winning and commended entries of the third Architecture Drawing Prize will be exhibited at Sir John Soane’s Museum. (Ending Soon Sun, 16th Feb)

Sir John Soane's Museum
WC2A 3BP
2020-01-24
The Architecture Drawing Prize
An exhibition about the making of Chinatown - find out about the construction and history of the iconic Leicester Square neighbourhood.  (Ending Soon Sat, 22nd Feb)

Westminster City Archives Centre
2020-01-24
The Making of Chinatown
£14  
An exhibition exploring the non-stop nature of modern lives.  (Ending Soon Sun, 23rd Feb)

Somerset House
WC2R 1LA
2020-01-24
24/7
This small display considers the historical creation of single-use and repurposed objects and presents an artistic response to plastic waste washing up in Pacific islands.  (Ending Soon Sun, 23rd Feb)

The British Museum
WC1B 3DG
2020-01-24
Disposable? Rubbish and us
Discover how architects, artists and designers are responding today to some of the most urgent ecological issues of our times. (Ending Soon Sun, 23rd Feb)

Royal Academy of Arts
W1J 0BD
2020-01-24
Eco-Visionaries - Confronting a planet in a state of emergency
See how fairies and elves have been imagined from the early Victorian period to the 1970s. (Ending Soon Sun, 23rd Feb)

Heath Robinson Museum
HA5 1AE
2020-01-24
Fairies in Illustration
The exhibition features immersive environments, about 200 objects about a future live on Mars. (Ending Soon Sun, 23rd Feb)

The Design Museum
W8 6AG
2020-01-24
Moving to Mars
This exhibition showcases often unseen and recently acquired items to tell the history of the Child family of bankers and their rise to fame and fortune. (Ending Soon Sun, 23rd Feb)

Osterley Park and House
TW7 4RB
2020-01-24
Treasures of Osterley: Rise of Banking Family
£14  
Explore the origins, philosophy and contemporary relevance of Buddhism, from its beginnings in India in the 6th century BC to having 1 billion followers worldwide today (Ending Soon Tue, 25th Feb)

The British Library
NW1 2DB
2020-01-24
Buddhism
An exhibition about the modern model of dating -- online and smartphones. (Ending Soon Sun, 1st Mar)

Watermans Art Centre
TW8 0DS
2020-01-24
A family-friendly exhibition bringing together young rebels from children’s literature (Ending Soon Sun, 1st Mar)

The British Library
NW1 2DB
2020-01-24
 Marvellous and Mischievous: Literature's Young Rebels
£20  
A lit up garden display in Chiswick. (Ending Soon Sun, 1st Mar)

Chiswick House and Gardens
W4 2RP
2020-01-24
Lightopia
The infographics created by sociologist and activist W.E.B. Du Bois in 1900 were a remarkable development in data visualisation and a direct challenge to institutional racism. (Ending Soon Sun, 1st Mar)

House of Illustration
N1C 4BH
2020-01-24
W.E.B. Du Bois: Charting Black Lives
From Botticelli to Michelangelo, the exhibition reveals how Bomberg’s rebellious, youthful works drew inspiration from the paintings he most admired in the Gallery. (Ending Soon Sun, 1st Mar)

The National Gallery
WC2N 5DN
2020-01-24
Young Bomberg and the Old Masters
From Helen of Troy’s abduction to the deception of the Trojan Horse and the fall of the city, tread the line between myth and reality in this exhibition. (Ending Soon Thu, 5th Mar)

The British Museum
WC1B 3DG
2020-01-24
Troy myth and reality
This free exhibition connects the specimens in the Grant Museum to a wider history of science and Empire, by asking one simple question: “How did all these things come to be here in the first place?”  (Ending Soon Sat, 7th Mar)

Grant Museum of Zoology
WC1E 6DE
2020-01-24
Displays of Power: A Natural History of Empire
Free  
Why do we play? How important is it for all of us, young or old? What does it mean to play well? (Ending Soon Sun, 8th Mar)

Wellcome Collection
NW1 2BE
2020-01-24
Play Well
Free  
An exhibition of photographic representations that emerge from the threshold of dyke intimacy and public life in the 1980s and 90s. (Ending Soon Sat, 14th Mar)

Auto Italia
E2 9JS
2020-01-24
Hot Moment
An exhibition telling the story of the Old Lady through items selected from the vast collections amassed since the Bank was founded in 1694. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Bank of England Museum
EC2R 8AH
2020-01-24
An exhibition about the man, the Christmas he created, and how he fell out of love with the season he helped to create. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Charles Dickens Museum
WC1N 2LX
2020-01-24
Beautiful Books: Dickens and the Business of Christmas
As we approach another major turning point in automotive design, this exhibition looks at the role of the car in shaping the world we live in today.  (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Victoria and Albert Museum
SW7 2RL
2020-01-24
Cars: Accelerating The Modern World
This exhibition visits each stage of the production process; from design to construction, sourcing and alterations, to dressing, repairs and laundering. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

The National Theatre
SE1 9PX
2020-01-24
Costume at the National Theatre
Intrinsically bound to German identity and the upheaval that followed the First World War, Notgeld is a fascinating microcosm of public feeling in post-war Germany. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

The British Museum
WC1B 3DG
2020-01-24
Currency in crisis - German emergency money 1914-1924
This exhibition shines a spotlight on the subject we’d all rather avoid, from ancient societies to modern day medicine. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

The Octagon Gallery
WC1E 6BT
2020-01-24
This is the first UK exhibition of works by Indian master painters commissioned by East India Company officials in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Wallace Collection
W1U 3BN
2020-01-24
Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company
This exhibition presents George IV's life through the art that enriched his world. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

The Queen's Gallery
SW1A 1AA
2020-01-24
George IV: Art & Spectacle
A small heritage gallery in the basement of the Guildhall currently has three documents on display. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Guildhall Art Gallery and Roman Amphitheater
EC2V 5AE
2020-01-24
Hidden London - The Exhibition takes people on an immersive journey of some of London’s most secret spaces belonging to the oldest subterranean railway in the world (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

London Transport Museum
WC2E 7BB
2020-01-24
Hidden London - The Exhibition
The Tate Modern hall is filled with a 13-metre tall working fountain inspired by the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, London. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Tate Modern
SE1 9TG
2020-01-24
Kara Walker
This exhibition tells the story of the print industry across the 20th century, focussing on the east London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Nunnery Gallery
E3 2SJ
2020-01-24
Lightboxes + Lettering
A selection from a gift of nine ‘manner posters’ displayed across Tokyo’s Seibu Railway network between 2016 and 2019. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Victoria and Albert Museum
SW7 2RL
2020-01-24
Manners and Modernity: Ukiyo-e and etiquette on the Seibu Railway
This display brings together a wide range of palaeoart, from nearly 200 years ago to the present day. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Natural History Museum
SW7 5BD
2020-01-24
An exhibition exploring representations of the pregnant female body through portraits, over 500 years. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Foundling Museum
WC1N 1AZ
2020-01-24
Portraying Pregnancy: From Holbein to Social Media
This exhibition marks 50 years since the beginnings of two significant social movements in the UK: the first women’s liberation conference in Oxford and the first UK meeting of the Gay Liberation Front at LSE. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

LSE Library
WC2A 2HD
2020-01-24
Social Revolution: women's liberation and gay liberation in the 1970s and 80s
Glowing arches fill Granary Square at Kings Cross during the winter months. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Granary Square
N1C 4AA
2020-01-24
Space Frames
Discover the creative process behind designing for performance, from costume to set design (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Victoria and Albert Museum
SW7 2RL
2020-01-24
Staging Places: UK Design for Performance
Tangerine Dream, the German band widely credited as laying the foundations for the Ambient and Trance music styles, will be celebrated by this exhibition. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Barbican Arts Centre
EC2Y 8DS
2020-01-24
Tangerine Dream: Zeitraffer
A display celebrating The Clash’s iconic London Calling – an album that rocked the music scene, serving as an anthem for London, Londoners and music lovers globally. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Museum of London
EC2Y 5HN
2020-01-24
The Clash: London Calling
This exhibition highlights a diversity of artistic observations on the lived experiences of women from childhood to old age, including but by no means restricted to experiences of mental distress. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Bethlem Museum of the Mind
BR3 3BX
2020-01-24
Explore one of the most audacious crimes of the 20th Century and the subsequent investigation, alongside other stories of crime through the post.  (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

The Postal Museum
WC1X 0DA
2020-01-24
The Great Train Robbery: Crime & The Post
A display exploring the unique and largely untold history, heritage and culture of the Krio people of Sierra Leone. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Museum of London Docklands
E14 4AL
2020-01-24
The Krios of Sierra Leone
This exhibition, in the Weston Room at the Maughan Library, marks the 75th anniversary of VE day and the liberation of the Nazi death and concentration camps. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Maughan Library
WC2A 1LR
2020-01-24
The long hard road: 75th anniversary of the liberation of occupied Europe.
This exhibition reveals the architectural setting of swimming and bathing from Roman springs and Victorian bathhouses to contemporary swimming spaces. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Victoria and Albert Museum
SW7 2RL
2020-01-24
The origin and revival of pools, swimming baths and lidos
Peeling back the surface of existence to reveal what lies under the skin. An exhibition exploring the unsettling beauty of the human body from the medieval age to the contemporary world. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Royal College of Physicians Museum
NW1 4LE
2020-01-24
Under the skin: anatomy, art and identity
Explore the contrasting worlds of Japan’s urban future and rural traditions in WOW’s new digital art installation. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Japan House
W8 5SA
2020-01-24
WOW: City Lights and Woodland Shade
Japan House presents two installations by WOW looking at both the urban future and timelessness of rural Japan. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Japan House London
W8 5SA
2020-01-24
WOW: City Lights and Woodland Shade Digital art encounters with Japan
The fifty-fifth Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition will immerse you in the breathtaking diversity of the natural world. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Natural History Museum
SW7 5BD
2020-01-24
Wildlife Photographer of the Year
This exhibition commemorates 100 years of nursing registration in the UK by delving into the heated arguments that characterised the registration debate. (Ending Soon Wed, 18th Mar)

Royal College of Nursing Library & Heritage Centre
W1G 0RN
2020-01-24
“Wake Up Slackers!” The Great Registration Controversy
To coincide with JMW Turner featuring on the new £20 note, find out about the variety of stock purchases made by Turner in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. (Ending Soon Fri, 22nd May)

Bank of England Museum
EC2R 8AH
2020-01-24
Painting a fortune: JMW Turner and the Bank of England
This immersive experience charts their music, lyrics, creative process and influence as one of the most iconic pop bands of the modern age. (Ending Soon Sat, 23rd May)

O2 Arena / Millennium Dome
SE10 0DX
2020-01-24
ABBA: Super Troupers The Exhibition
From ‘honey dew’ drinking parties to Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, discover Beatrix Potter’s response to the world of fairies and fairytales.  (Ending Soon Sat, 23rd May)

Victoria and Albert Museum
SW7 2RL
2020-01-24
Beatrix Potter's Fairyland
The exhibition explores Victorian London from the 1830s until the turn of the twentieth century, focusing on Dickens’s child characters. (Ending Soon Sat, 23rd May)

Senate House Library
WC1E 7HU
2020-01-24
Childhood in Dickensian London
See original drafts of Wordsworth’s verse, his notebooks, correspondence and more. (Ending Soon Sat, 23rd May)

The British Library
NW1 2DB
2020-01-24
William Wordsworth