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: Saturday, 20th July 2024?
Displayed in date order by how soon they close.
A Celebration of BBC Television made at Riverside Studios (Ending Soon Sun, 24th Jul)
Riverside Studios
Free
Harp and Crown
This special display explores the history of Irish regiments and their soldiers. (Ending Soon Sun, 31st Jul)
National Army Museum
Visit the museum to see the temporary displays that will feature Royal themed products and packaging from the past 200 years. (Ending Soon Sun, 31st Jul)
Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising
An exhibition centring around Mary Gillick’s portrait of Elizabeth II for the first ever coin featuring The Queen, designed 70 years ago in 1952 and issued in 1953. (Ending Soon Sun, 31st Jul)
The British Museum
£24
Raphael
One of the first-ever exhibitions to explore Raphael's complete career. (Ending Soon Sun, 31st Jul)
National Gallery
This exhibition explores medical themes in literature, looking at those who've left the world of medicine behind to become some of our best-loved wordsmiths. (Ending Soon Fri, 12th Aug)
Royal Society Of Medicine London
An exhibition that explores the possibilities of traditional Korean paper, or hanji. (Ending Soon Fri, 12th Aug)
Korean Cultural Centre UK
Over 400 objects from Tiffany’s archives go on display at the Saatchi Gallery. (Ending Soon Fri, 19th Aug)
Saatchi Gallery
Explore five centuries of UK news through broadsheets, blogs and objects from our own collection and examine era-defining stories close-up. (Ending Soon Sun, 21st Aug)
The British Library
Run without interruption since 1769, the Summer Exhibition showcases art in all forms, from prints, painting, film and photography, to architectural works and sculpture. (Ending Soon Sun, 21st Aug)
Royal Academy of Arts
An exhibition based around the disputed claims that the Dutch painter Philips Wouwerman was a plagiarist. (Ending Soon Sun, 21st Aug)
Dulwich Picture Gallery
A display of infographics illustrating 19th-century news themes (Ending Soon Sun, 21st Aug)
The British Library
Enter into the world of superheroes in this first major exhibition to explore the representation of foundlings, orphans, adoptees, and foster children in comics, graphic novels and sequential art from around the globe. (Ending Soon Sun, 28th Aug)
Foundling Museum
The name Bruce Gilden is synonymous with striking images - his unique and confrontational style has made him a stand-out Icon in the pantheon of legendary American street photographers. (Ending Soon Sun, 28th Aug)
Leica Gallery
Explore the 100-year history of the prestigious Royal Academy of Dance. (Ending Soon Sun, 28th Aug)
Victoria and Albert Museum
In this exhibition, learn more about printmaking in Rudolf's court in Prague during the highpoint of innovative and ambitious prints made from around 1580 until the early years of the 17th century. (Ending Soon Sun, 28th Aug)
The British Museum
Free
Rooted Beings
The exhibition considers what we might learn from plant behaviour, and the impacts of colonial expeditions on the exploitation of natural resources and indigenous knowledges. (Ending Soon Sun, 28th Aug)
Wellcome Collection
Whether you are a fanatical supporter, part-time punter or sporting sceptic, visitors to this exhibition will enjoy discovering the remarkable design stories behind the world's beautiful game. (Ending Soon Mon, 29th Aug)
The Design Museum
This exhibition of art, science, design, music and philosophy invites you to experience different global perspectives on our shared planet, and consider Earth as a community we all belong to. (Ending Soon Mon, 29th Aug)
Barbican Centre
This landmark exhibition will rewrite the history of the revolutionary art movement. (Ending Soon Mon, 29th Aug)
Tate Modern
This exhibition highlights the sporting, economic and wellbeing opportunities generated by the Games, the journey of the Paralympics movement and the remarkable changes to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. (Ending Soon Wed, 31st Aug)
Lee Valley VeloPark
Pitzhanger’s new exhibition by Rana Begum RA explores the perception of light, colour and form within sculpture, painting and installation. (Ending Soon Wed, 31st Aug)
Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery
The exhibition explores women international thinkers and their work at a fundamental moment in the imagining of international relations. (Ending Soon Fri, 2nd Sep)
LSE Library
A retrospective exploring the often-surprising history of one of the UK’s oldest and most revered applied arts organisations. (Ending Soon Sat, 3rd Sep)
Fashion and Textile Museum
Celebrate the work of designer Bethany Williams with this new exhibition embracing the discussion of social and environmental issues. (Ending Soon Sun, 4th Sep)
The Design Museum
A major collection of works by Edvard Munch shown in the UK for the first time. (Ending Soon Sun, 4th Sep)
Courtauld Institute of Art
Sculpture, painting, print, photography, film and installation art come together, to reveal places, cultures and times for which the ‘woman in the window’ had a particular meaning, with responses ranging from empathy to voyeurism. (Ending Soon Sun, 4th Sep)
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Step onto the island of Inujima in this exhibition which explores how an extraordinary living art project has transformed the island’s landscape and lives of its inhabitants. (Ending Soon Sun, 4th Sep)
Japan House
The Garden Museum’s summer exhibition will celebrate Frances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved classic children’s book The Secret Garden. (Ending Soon Sun, 4th Sep)
Garden Museum
This intriguing new display highlights over 50 works engraved on wood by the Brothers Dalziel firm, illustrating literary and commercial work published throughout the Victorian period. (Ending Soon Sun, 4th Sep)
The British Museum
The exhibition showcases a series of works by Anna Marongiu, a Sardinian artist who created 262 illustrations of The Pickwick Papers between 1928–1929. (Ending Soon Sun, 11th Sep)
Charles Dickens Museum
Free
The Future of Ageing
Discover how design can support an ageing population – and indeed our own future selves – to meet their needs, interests and aspirations with greater agency and joy. (Ending Soon Sun, 11th Sep)
The Design Museum
The Hiroshima panels have been brought to this country by Artists for Peace. (Ending Soon Fri, 16th Sep)
Daiwa Foundation Japan House
The exhibition charts in items of all kinds the rise of British Blues music from its US and African roots in the 20th Century through to artists performing today. (Ending Soon Sat, 17th Sep)
Barbican Arts Centre
Free
Cow in the woods
Find out more about Epping Forest’s grazing history, how the ‘cow saved the Forest’ in 1874 and grazing management today.
(Ending Soon Sun, 18th Sep)
Epping Forest Visitor Centre
Free
Eternally Yours
An exhibition exploring ideas around repair, care and healing. (Ending Soon Sun, 18th Sep)
Somerset House
£13.50
In the Black Fantastic
This is the UK’s first major exhibition dedicated to the work of Black artists who use fantastical elements to address racial injustice and explore alternative realities. (Ending Soon Sun, 18th Sep)
Hayward Gallery
Life in a cup presents a fascinating beverage story and explores the traditions that make coffee a way of life in parts of the Islamic world. (Ending Soon Sun, 18th Sep)
The British Museum
£18
Walter Sickert
The first major retrospective of Sickert at Tate in over 60 years, this exhibition explores how he had an often radical, distinctive approach to setting and subject matter. (Ending Soon Sun, 18th Sep)
Tate Britain
The vast array of floral designs on show span the centuries dating back to the late 16th Century. (Ending Soon Sat, 24th Sep)
Fan Museum
A dynamic history, a precarious present: navigate Venice's iconic waterways at the National Maritime Museum (Ending Soon Sun, 25th Sep)
National Maritime Museum
An exhibition that explores female spiritual beings in world belief and mythological traditions around the globe. (Ending Soon Sun, 25th Sep)
The British Museum
Korean artist JeeYoung Lee has created an environment inspired by memories, dreams, emotions, and her personal experience. (Ending Soon Sun, 25th Sep)
Now Gallery
Showcasing a selection from The Courtauld’s collection of works on paper, this display will explore the world of 16th century Flemish print production. (Ending Soon Sun, 25th Sep)
Courtauld Institute of Art
This exhibition outlines the milestones in the research and treatment of diabetes before the discovery of insulin. (Ending Soon Fri, 30th Sep)
Royal Society Of Medicine London
This exhibition celebrates both the release of The Legend of luther Arkwright alongside the history of the character and previous installments of the series. (Ending Soon Sun, 2nd Oct)
Cartoon Museum
£8
Gold
Take a journey around the globe to learn how gold elevated art in manuscripts and books. (Ending Soon Sun, 2nd Oct)
The British Library
Free
The Hop
Jyll Bradley’s new interactive commission links the urban landscape of the Southbank Centre to the hop gardens of Kent. (Ending Soon Sun, 2nd Oct)
Hayward Gallery
For the first time, Picasso’s ‘Woman with a Book’ (1932) from the Norton Simon Museum, California, will be brought together with the painting that inspired it, ‘Madame Moitessier’ by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. (Ending Soon Sun, 9th Oct)
National Gallery
£16
Cornelia Parker
Experience Cornelia Parker’s mesmerising large-scale installations (Ending Soon Sun, 16th Oct)
Tate Britain
Free
In the Air
In the Air explores our relationship with the air around us. Moving freely across borders and through bodies, air is both vital to our existence and a threat to our health. (Ending Soon Sun, 16th Oct)
Wellcome Collection
This exhibition displays American 20th-century hand-drawn animation alongside French 18th-century art to reveal the surprising and enchanting connections between these two artistic movements. (Ending Soon Sun, 16th Oct)
Wallace Collection
For the first time, see the North American painter’s work this side of the Atlantic. (Ending Soon Sun, 16th Oct)
Royal Academy of Arts
Free
Chimps Are Family
This outdoor exhibition featured 28 chimps dotted around the South Bank. (Ending Soon Fri, 21st Oct)
various locations
Encounter a little known and rarely seen side of Britain’s greatest artist. (Ending Soon Sun, 30th Oct)
Turner's House
Life Through a Royal Lens explores the Royal Family through photography and brings together some of the most iconic images ever taken of the Royal Family to Kensington Palace (Ending Soon Sun, 30th Oct)
Kensington Palace
In this exhibition, you will be introduced to the people who lived at Hogarth’s House, their relatives, friends and neighbours. (Ending Soon Sun, 6th Nov)
Hogarth's House
The show traces how menswear has been fashioned and refashioned over the centuries, and how designers, tailors and artists – and their clients and sitters – have constructed and performed masculinity, and unpicked it at the seams. (Ending Soon Sun, 6th Nov)
Victoria and Albert Museum
A display of photographs capturing factories and their workers in an era of rapid transition. (Ending Soon Sun, 6th Nov)
Victoria and Albert Museum
With a wealth of material from the Cathedral's archives, the exhibition tells stories of 200 years of Jubilees alongside photographs, prints, paintings, and treasures, including vestments used for these magnificent occasions. (Ending Soon Thu, 1st Dec)
St Paul's Cathedral
This exhibition comprised a unique collection of medical satire prints from the mid-18th century to the 1980s. (Ending Soon Fri, 2nd Dec)
Royal College of Physicians Museum
An exhibition exploring the trail-blazing research that is turning the tide on cancer (Ending Soon Sat, 3rd Dec)
The Francis Crick Institute
A display honouring the music, people and places central to the grime scene and its roots in East London. (Ending Soon Sun, 4th Dec)
Museum of London
A display celebrating one of the city's most iconic sporting heroes, both on and off the pitch. (Ending Soon Sun, 4th Dec)
Museum of London
£8
Inspired!
This exhibition examines ways in which visual artists have taken inspiration from the literary arts – poetry, plays, novels, and also music. (Ending Soon Fri, 23rd Dec)
Guildhall Art Gallery and Roman Amphitheater
Free
Treasures
Spanning centuries, the unexpected treasures on display in the Art Deco library include hand-drawn illustrations, curious texts and beguiling bindings. (Ending Soon Fri, 23rd Dec)
Museum of Freemasonry
This world-first, object-rich exhibition reveals the past, present and future of how cancer is prevented, detected and treated. (Ending Soon Sat, 31st Dec)
Science Museum
An exhibition exploring the Elstree Extension through the Northern Heights that was suspended during World War 2, and never restarted. (Ending Soon Sat, 31st Dec)
Elstree and Borehamwood Museum
Discover the ground-breaking technology that changed the post forever in a new exhibition. (Ending Soon Sun, 1st Jan)
The Postal Museum
This display brings together items reflecting the varied interests and achievements of the polymath Charles Jennens. (Ending Soon Tue, 3rd Jan)
Foundling Museum
Celebrating the life and work of one of the best loved children's authors of the 20th century. (Ending Soon Sun, 8th Jan)
Victoria and Albert Museum
New research into IWM’s photography archive demonstrates just how keenly The Queen’s role as monarch has been shaped by her wartime experiences. (Ending Soon Sun, 8th Jan)
Imperial War Museum
The first exhibition of Lucian Freud’s work in the home of his grandfather, Sigmund Freud, and aunt, Anna Freud (Ending Soon Sun, 29th Jan)
Freud Museum
An installation of six large-scale clay columns inspired by traditional architectural practices in Chile, by Swedish-Chilean artist Anton Alvarez (Ending Soon Tue, 28th Feb)
100 Bishopsgate
The historical map collections at London Metropolitan Archives show the development of the city in incredible detail, from the late sixteenth century to the present day. (Ending Soon Wed, 29th Mar)
London Metropolitan Archives
£16
Africa Fashion
Africa Fashion explores the vitality and global impact of a fashion scene as dynamic and varied as the continent itself. (Ending Soon Sun, 16th Apr)
Victoria and Albert Museum
Visit an 'abandoned' Tube station underworld and discover what secrets lurk beneath our busy streets in this Hidden London exhibition. (Ending Soon Mon, 31st Jul)
London Transport Museum
Free
Road to Recovery
This exhibition follows the challenging journeys of rehabilitation and recovery taken by soldiers who have suffered a life-changing physical or mental injury. (Ending Soon Mon, 28th Aug)
National Army Museum
Free
Slavery & the Bank
This exhibition explores the history of transatlantic slavery through its connections with the Bank of England and the wider City of London. (Ending Soon Fri, 26th Jan)
Bank of England Museum
This exhibition follows the lives of British soldiers in Germany over the past 75 years. (Ends on Wed, 21st Aug)
National Army Museum