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, 21st April 2024?
Displayed in date order by how soon they close.
An exhibition of the items found during the excavations of the former St James’s Burial Ground near Euston by HS2. (Ending Soon Sat, 22nd Apr)
St. James's Church
A striking outdoor installation, the work comprises two intersecting spirals, 336 metres long, that echo the signage of UK roads and connects our iconic neoclassical courtyard both to locations across the planet and the distant universe. (Ending Soon Sun, 23rd Apr)
Somerset House
Free
Chinese and British
An exhibition about the history and impact of the Chinese community in the UK, and to understand what it really means to be Chinese and British. (Ending Soon Sun, 23rd Apr)
British Library
This new free exhibition is an interactive art installation exploring the lives of five people who were buried at St James’s Burial Ground next to Euston Station during the 1700s and 1800s. (Ending Soon Sun, 23rd Apr)
St James's Church
Free
Print Pound Notes!
The Adana printing press is 100 years old and to mark the centenary of the company St Bride Library launches a new exhibition. (Ending Soon Mon, 24th Apr)
St Bride Foundation
Free
Rites of Passage
Curated by Péjú Oshin, this exhibition features work by eighteen contemporary artists who share a history of migration. (Ending Soon Fri, 28th Apr)
Gagosian
This exhibition explores The Poppy Factory’s fascinating history and displays artefacts which chart the story of this unique local charity. (Ending Soon Sat, 29th Apr)
Museum of Richmond
arebyte presents Rock Bottom, an exhibition by Abe Sugarman, the winner of hotel generation 2022, arebyte’s yearly programme mentoring the next generation of UK digital artists during the critical early stages of establishing a career in the arts. (Ending Soon Sat, 29th Apr)
arebyte Gallery
£29
Tulip Festival
Over 110,000 tulip bulbs erupt in colour in the UK’s biggest display of planted tulips. (Ending Soon Mon, 1st May)
Hampton Court Palace
An exhibition of production material and unseen ephemera from Animaland (1948), Animal Farm (1954) and Watership Down (1978) (Ending Soon Fri, 5th May)
Horse Hospital
Thamesmead Codex celebrates the voices and local community of Thamesmead, London (Ending Soon Sun, 7th May)
Tate Modern
A new series of fresco paintings by Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings (Ending Soon Sun, 7th May)
Tate Britain
The first major survey exhibition of large-scale immersive installations and sculptural works by the internationally acclaimed British artist. (Ending Soon Sun, 7th May)
Hayward Gallery
This exhibition presents photographs from internationally renowned photojournalist Anastasia Taylor-Lind between 2014 and June 2022. (Ending Soon Sun, 7th May)
Imperial War Museum
This street art exhibition features original art, rare ephemera, photography, immersive and site-specific installations, archival fashion from over 150 artists. (Ending Soon Tue, 9th May)
Saatchi Gallery
Jean Cooke’s life-long association with the Sussex coast, particularly Birling Gap and the nearby village of East Dean, is explored and celebrated in a new exhibition of her work. (Ending Soon Wed, 10th May)
Piano Nobile
Photography exhibition showing a decade of Walthamstow Market. (Ending Soon Sun, 14th May)
Vestry House Museum
Free
Seeing Double: Stereo Photography, Historical Cartography and the US Industrial Revolution 1840-1920
An exhibition of 3D-Stero photographs from the USA 19th-century. (Ending Soon Fri, 19th May)
Royal Geographical Society
The largest exhibition to date in the UK of American artist Alice Neel, whose vivid portraits capture the shifting social and political context of the American twentieth century. (Ending Soon Sat, 20th May)
Barbican Centre
This exhibition by Gilbert & George contains the most profoundly personal and confrontational pictures they have ever created. (Ending Soon Sat, 20th May)
White Cube
The exhibition shows the body of works collected by Martin and Joanne Verden. (Ending Soon Sun, 21st May)
Heath Robinson Museum
Explore a forest of towering woven sculptures (Ending Soon Sun, 21st May)
Tate Modern
Focusing on Jacopo de' Barbari and his celebrated 'View of Venice', this display showcases the innovation and variety of printmaking on the lagoon during the High Renaissance. (Ending Soon Sun, 21st May)
British Museum
A celebration of one of the UK’s most enduring rock bands. (Ending Soon Mon, 22nd May)
Barbican Library
This display, marking the 200th anniversary of the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, celebrates the female UCL teachers and students who were core to ancient language teaching in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Ending Soon Sat, 27th May)
Fifty years on from the release of David Bowie’s album, this exhibition delves into the creation of its iconic ‘lightning bolt’ cover portrait by Brian Duffy. (Ending Soon Sun, 28th May)
Southbank Centre
A rare opportunity to view works from this unique and highly personal collection outside Italy. (Ending Soon Sun, 28th May)
Estorick Collection
In his first solo exhibition with Vigo, the artist's androgenous and striking forms are directly reminiscent of the accentuated designs of fairground rides, a nod to Godsk's upbringing in the world of the Danish funfair. (Ending Soon Sun, 28th May)
Wellington Arch
Free
War Games
The UK’s first exhibition to explore what video games can tell us about conflict. (Ending Soon Sun, 28th May)
Imperial War Museum
Learn about the story of Highgrove's transformation through newly-uncovered archival photographs and early design plans. (Ending Soon Mon, 29th May)
The Garrison Chapel
£16
Peter Doig
A major exhibition of new and recent works by Peter Doig – including paintings and works on paper created since the artist’s move from Trinidad to London in 2021. (Ending Soon Mon, 29th May)
Courtauld Institute of Art
In this exhibition Baharier is also showcasing a number of portraits of disabled people who have changed society. (Ending Soon Wed, 31st May)
The Foundry
This exhibition will take visitors back in time to a more magical period of retro-futuristic glitz, glamour and adventure, showcasing classic comic artwork based on the worlds of Gerry Anderson. (Ending Soon Sun, 4th Jun)
Cartoon Museum
An exhibition exploring Pan-African cinema and its relationship with Black British cinema and culture. (Ending Soon Sun, 4th Jun)
Raven Row
This exhibition brings together intimate depictions of gardens and greenhouses, public parks and favoured plant specimens by artists of the interwar years. (Ending Soon Sun, 4th Jun)
Garden Museum
The first major UK exhibition to explore the exceptional talents of the Renaissance master Donatello, arguably the greatest sculptor of all time. (Ending Soon Sun, 11th Jun)
Victoria and Albert Museum
Discover the past, present and possible futures of kumihimo, an intricate, decorative braided cord from Japan, in the first major UK exhibition exploring this ancient yet contemporary Japanese art. (Ending Soon Sun, 11th Jun)
Japan House London
Artist Nalini Malani, our first National Gallery contemporary fellow, presents new ways of seeing well-known works of art. (Ending Soon Sun, 11th Jun)
National Gallery
This exhibition looks again at one of the best-known faces in the National Gallery: Quinten Massys’s 16th-century depiction of an old woman, a painting known as ‘The Ugly Duchess’. (Ending Soon Sun, 11th Jun)
National Gallery
Free
The Faces We Present
This exhibition brings portraits of those once hailed as ‘the great and the good’ of mental healthcare face to face with a range of self-depictions that communicate the complexity of the parts we all play in life. (Ending Soon Sat, 17th Jun)
Bethlem Museum of the Mind
Discover the Black artists from America’s South who created some of the most spectacular and ingenious works of the last century. (Ending Soon Sun, 18th Jun)
Royal Academy of Arts
Come and see centuries of royal fans from across the continent: from a special, printed, English fan marking the restoration of Charles II almost 400 years ago, to contemporary fans. (Ending Soon Sat, 24th Jun)
Fan Museum
This exhibition aims to acquaint a wider public with some unique aspects of Jaina traditions. (Ending Soon Sat, 24th Jun)
Brunei Gallery, SOAS
The exhibition explores how Jews arrived in Britain, and fought for the right to acquire land and the political rights and social status that came with it (Ending Soon Sun, 25th Jun)
Gunnersbury Park Museum
The Front Door Photography Exhibition is part of the Disability and the Home project exploring the idea of the home in relation to the lived experience of disabled people. (Ending Soon Sun, 25th Jun)
The Museum of the Home
The V&A's first exhibition to celebrate the colourful and dynamic popular culture of South Korea, following its early origins to its place on the global stage today. (Ending Soon Sun, 25th Jun)
Victoria and Albert Museum
A special one-room display celebrates through photographs the unique connection The Queen had with her corgis. (Ending Soon Sun, 25th Jun)
Wallace Collection
Free
Yinka Ilori
Dive into the colourful world of artist/designer Yinka Ilori through installations, patterns and graphics that aim to shape and inspire a joyful and playful experience. (Ending Soon Sun, 25th Jun)
The Design Museum
Taking over The Curve, you’re invited to become a part of the art, built on site using objects foraged from some of the UK’s cultural institutions and exhibitions. (Ending Soon Mon, 26th Jun)
Barbican Centre
Discover the natural world in all its wonder and diversity at the newly redesigned Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition (Ending Soon Sun, 2nd Jul)
Natural History Museum
A display of a beautifully crafted model of a festival float, set on a wheeled carriage, that was donated to the British Museum in 1908. (Ending Soon Sun, 2nd Jul)
British Museum
Free
No Place Like Home
The collaborative exhibition features a group of Vietnamese diasporic artists presenting works about the theme of home through the Vietnamese cultural lens. (Ending Soon Tue, 11th Jul)
The Museum of the Home
An exhibition of materials relating to previous coronations from that of Henry I in 1100 to that of our new sovereign. (Ending Soon Tue, 11th Jul)
Lambeth Palace Library
An exhibition exploring the crucial role that Freud’s collection of antiquities played in his development of the concepts and methods of psychoanalysis. (Ending Soon Sun, 16th Jul)
Freud Museum
Free
Hackney 300,000 BC
Hackney Museum is inviting residents to step back in time with its new temporary exhibition. (Ending Soon Sat, 22nd Jul)
Hackney Museum
This exhibition explores the design story of the Moonsoon bar and restaurant (1979-80), Zaha Hadid’s first completed project outside of the UK. (Ending Soon Sat, 22nd Jul)
Zaha Hadid Foundation
Free
Unfamiliar
Photographs will be displayed alongside objects ranging from stethoscopes to snuff boxes, bringing together the worlds of medicine and art. (Ending Soon Fri, 28th Jul)
Royal College of Physicians Museum
£16.50
Ai Weiwei: Making Sense
Ai Weiwei's exhibition focuses on design with a mix recent works and commissioned pieces, inviting us into a meditation on value and humanity, art and activism. (Ending Soon Sun, 30th Jul)
The Design Museum
Celebrating extraordinary artists who paint London on a huge scale. (Ending Soon Sun, 30th Jul)
Guildhall Art Gallery and Roman Amphitheater
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
This exhibition looks at the origins of the war and the work of the British Army to assist Ukraine since 2014. (Ending Soon Tue, 1st Aug)
National Army Museum
This one-room display celebrates through photographs the unique connection The Queen had with corgis throughout her life. (Ending Soon Sun, 6th Aug)
Wallace Collection
What do we find in the LSE Library and Women’s Library archives and special collections if we look for the earth? (Ending Soon Tue, 8th Aug)
LSE Library
Astronomy Photographer of the Year is an annual competition featuring the world’s greatest space photography. (Ending Soon Sun, 13th Aug)
National Maritime Museum
In this immersive genre-defying exhibition you will embark on a once in a lifetime adventure through the cosmos to explore visions of the future through the science of today. (Ending Soon Sun, 20th Aug)
Science Museum
£9.50
Finding Family
Explore new perspectives on what family is and can be, through this exhibition that showcases the ongoing power of art to challenge and question the world around us. (Ending Soon Sun, 27th Aug)
Foundling Museum
See how documenting the animal world has resulted in some of humankind’s most awe-inspiring art, science and sound recordings. (Ending Soon Mon, 28th Aug)
British Library
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
Explore the powerful work of two groundbreaking modern artists. (Ending Soon Sun, 3rd Sep)
Tate Modern
£17
The King's Stamp
Discover the story of definitive stamps, from the very first design to today. (Ending Soon Sun, 3rd Sep)
The Postal Museum
£12.65
Andy Warhol: The Textiles
An exhibition exploring the beautiful and fascinating textile designs by the influential pop artist and icon Andy Warhol. (Ending Soon Sat, 9th Sep)
Fashion and Textile Museum
This new exhibition develops a fertile dialogue between Caro’s sculpture and the unique character of Soane’s building. (Ending Soon Sun, 10th Sep)
Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery
This exhibition brings together around 30 of Morisot’s masterpieces from international collections to reveal the artist as a trailblazer of the movement. (Ending Soon Sun, 10th Sep)
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Free
Milk
This exhibition explores our relationship with milk and its place in politics, society and culture. (Ending Soon Sun, 10th Sep)
Wellcome Collection
Free
Bowie and Beyond
This exhibition looks at the remarkable moment that Ziggy Stardust was launched in Tolworth and the wider music and pop culture scene in the borough. (Ending Soon Sat, 16th Sep)
Kingston Museum
See an edition of Shakespeare's First Folio on display at the National Maritime Museum, celebrating 400 years since its publication. (Ending Soon Sun, 24th Sep)
National Maritime Museum
£22
The Rossettis
A major exhibition devoted to the radical Rossetti generation (Ending Soon Sun, 24th Sep)
Tate Britain
The exhibition explores De Morgan’s unique practice of making gold drawings, showcasing 13 artworks. (Ending Soon Sun, 1st Oct)
Leighton House Museum
This exhibition explores what the Georgians wore, from the practical dress of laundry maids to the glittering gowns worn at court. (Ending Soon Sun, 8th Oct)
The Queen's Gallery
This exhibition explores our devotion to four-legged friends across the centuries. (Ending Soon Sun, 15th Oct)
Wallace Collection
This exhibition peers through the London fog to explore the circumstances that created this problem and how Dickens was inspired by the phenomenon. (Ending Soon Sun, 22nd Oct)
Charles Dickens Museum
Photographer Philip Cunningham's exhibition of people, places and community activism in 1970s East London. (Ending Soon Fri, 27th Oct)
Oxford House
£9
Brick Dinos
A 1.5 metre long model of a Polacanthus, an armoured 125-million-year-old dinosaur found in the UK, will be on show for the first time as part of the Brick Dinos exhibition. (Ending Soon Sun, 29th Oct)
Horniman Museum
£28
Crown to Couture
Crown to Couture sees contemporary couture worn by high profile celebrities including Lizzo and Lady Gaga, displayed alongside historic costumes. (Ending Soon Sun, 29th Oct)
Kensington Palace
This display celebrates the glittering world of musical theatre, exploring the evolution and craftmanship of iconic musicals (Ending Soon Mon, 27th Nov)
Victoria and Albert Museum
Free
Cut + Paste
If you could, would you edit your DNA? To treat disease, or to enhance your body? Which diseases should we try to cure, and who decides? Where would you draw the line? (Ending Soon Sat, 2nd Dec)
The Francis Crick Institute
Free
Inventing the Future
This exhibition celebrates the Tercentenary of the Constitutions of the Freemasons. (Ending Soon Thu, 21st Dec)
Museum of Freemasonry
This exhibition explores the worldwide effort to develop vaccines at pandemic speed. (Ending Soon Sun, 7th Jan)
Science Museum
Four times heavier than Dippy the Diplodocus, 12 metres longer than Hope the blue whale and making its European debut, prepare to meet titanosaur and learn all about life as the biggest dinosaur. (Ending Soon Sun, 7th Jan)
Natural History Museum
From across the sea, an art revolution is coming. Discover the art of the Van de Veldes at the Queen's House (Ending Soon Sun, 14th Jan)
Queen's House
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 free installation invites visitors to orient themselves in the buildings and their complex, fascinating histories in an exciting new display at the heart of the Barbican’s Foyers. (Ending Soon Fri, 5th Apr)
Barbican Centre
How do you develop a vaccine quickly and effectively to combat a global pandemic? (Ends on Sun, 12th May)
Science Museum
This exhibition follows the lives of British soldiers in Germany over the past 75 years. (Ends on Wed, 21st Aug)
National Army Museum
