Things to do in London in April 2026
April is shaping up to be an exciting month in London, with a packed calendar of music, literature, film, theatre, and cultural events. From a celebration of the city’s thriving jazz scene at the Brick Lane Jazz Festival to literary highlights at the North London Book Festival, and from the innovative films of the Little Venice Film Festival to the much-anticipated opening of V&A East in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, here is our guide to the events to include on your agenda in London this April.
Brick Lane Jazz Festival 2026
Image courtesy of Brick Lane Jazz Festival
#FLODown: The Brick Lane Jazz Festival returns for its fifth birthday edition, unveiling a full conference programme and exciting new artists. Celebrated for championing London’s underground music scene, the festival brings together jazz, neo-soul, R&B, electronic, and experimental music across 12 stages in East London. The new conference, hosted at the Flow State Hub, features panels, workshops, and networking sessions with an eclectic mix of industry leaders, including Soweto Kinch, Josh Mason-Ǫuinn, Fred Bolza, Binker Golding, Nigel House, and DJ Ritu, alongside partners such as Women in Jazz, Solid State Logic, and Goodhood. Festival highlights include headline performances from Joe Armon-Jones, Brian Jackson, and anaiis & Grupo Cosmo, as well as sets from Steam Down (with a 10-piece NYJO brass section), Charlotte Dos Santos, JGrrey, Lucinda Chua, and HolyBrune & Girls Of The Internet.
Date: 23 – 26 April 2026. Location: Central hub at the Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London E1 6QL. Price: Pro Pass from £19, Early Bird festival tickets from £34.95, Weekend passes from £125. Book now.
North London Book Festival 2026
Image courtesy of North London Book Festival
#FLODown: The North London Book Festival 2026 is a major celebration of literature, bringing together debut and established authors across multiple stages at Alexandra Palace. Over four days, visitors can experience panel discussions, live readings, workshops, Q&As, and book signings, with opportunities to meet their favourite writers and discover new voices. Returning stars include Laura Bates, Natalie Haynes, and Michael Rosen, while newcomers such as Rachel Parris, Alan Hollinghurst, Tessa Hadley, and Natasha Brown join the line-up. The festival opens with Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason presenting To Be Young, Gifted and Black, accompanied by live music from Braimah and Konya Kanneh-Mason. There will also be a wide range of books available for purchase at the Waterstones festival bookstore.
Date: Thursday 23 – Sunday 26 April 2026. Location: Alexandra Palace, Alexandra Palace Way, London N22 7AY. Click here for the full programme of events.
Little Venice Film Festival 2026
Revisit, Director Teng Teng Wong. Image courtesy of Little Venice Film Festival
#FLODown: The Little Venice Film Festival (LVFF) returns, celebrating independent cinema, storytelling, and inclusivity. Showcasing a diverse programme of features, documentaries, and shorts, the festival highlights underrepresented voices across themes including disability, mental health, LGBTQ+ stories, female perspectives, and youth filmmaking. Audiences can also enjoy filmmaker Q&As, panel discussions, and special screenings. Since its debut in 2023, LVFF has grown into a respected international festival, culminating in awards for outstanding films and filmmakers.
Date: 22–28 April 2026. Click here to discover more about the 2026 schedule.
Spring Plant Fair 2026
Image courtesy of Spring Plant Fair
#FLODown: The Spring Plant Fair 2026 returns on 19 April at the Garden Museum, celebrating over 40 years as London’s premier specialist plant event. Bringing together expert growers and renowned nurseries from across the UK, the fair offers a wide selection of garden plants for every space, from window boxes and balconies to allotments and full gardens. Visitors can meet the growers, explore unique plants, and enjoy a programme of talks and activities curated by Susanna Grant and Ollie Whitehead, featuring experts such as Fiona Packe and Flo Dill. The Fair includes stalls from Beth Chatto Gardens, Great Dixter Nursery, Zophian Plants, Heckfield Home Farm, Niwaki, and many more.
Date: 19 April 2026. Time: 10am - 4pm. Location: Garden Museum, 5 Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7LB. Price: from £5. Book now
Veronica Ryan: Multiple Conversations
Portrait of Veronica Ryan in Along a Spectrum, 2021, Spike Island, Bristol. Courtesy Alison Jacques and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. Photo Lisa Whiting
#FLODown: Celebrated artist Veronica Ryan presents over 100 works created across the last forty years, including sculptures, textiles, and works on paper. The exhibition, opening at the Whitechapel Gallery, features recently rediscovered 1980s sculptures in plaster and beaten lead, alongside vivid drawings. Ryan’s art reflects memory, personal stories, history, trauma, and recovery, often inspired by the natural world, where seeds and pods suggest protection, growth, and change. She combines traditional materials with crafts such as crochet and quilting to create rich, textured, and moving artworks.
Date: 1 April – 14 June 2026. Location: 77–82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX. Price: from £18. Concessions available. Book now
Click here for our guide to art exhibitions opening in London in April 2026.
Roundhouse Three Sixty Festival 2026
Image courtesy of the Roundhouse
#FLODown: The Roundhouse Three Sixty Festival returns from 8–29 April 2026 to celebrate 20 years of the Camden venue as a leading arts hub. This month-long festival brings together music, theatre, dance, spoken word, and visual arts, with standout performances from Kae Tempest, Imogen Heap, Amarae, Carl Craig & Octave One, Boy Blue, and Sheku Kanneh-Mason with the Philharmonia. Young people and emerging artists are at the heart of the festival, enjoying opportunities both on stage and behind the scenes, while thousands of affordable tickets, including 600 for under 30s, ensure the festival is accessible to all. Visual artist Yinka Ilori returns with striking festival artwork celebrating the Roundhouse as a cultural hub.
Date: 8–29 April 2026. Location: Chalk Farm Road, Camden, London NW1 8EH. Price: General sale from 16 January; thousands of tickets £5 or less, including 600 for under 30s. Book now
Multitudes
Lee Alexander McQueen © Giovanni Giannoni
#FLODown: The Southbank Centre’s festival Multitudes returns from 16–30 April 2026, offering a fusion of orchestral music with fashion, dance, film, circus, and visual art. This years festival will include a live orchestral reinterpretation of music from Lee Alexander McQueen’s iconic runway shows by the London Contemporary Orchestra, featuring choreography by Michael Clark and Holly Blakey; a collaboration between the Philharmonia Orchestraand Finnish rock band Lordi, blending heavy metal with orchestral ; a semi-staged production of Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with filmed and staged elements by Ilya Shagalov; and Circa’s extraordinary floor-based circus performances set to Bach’s The Art of Fugue, accompanied by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.
Date: 16-30 April 2026. Location: The Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX. Click here for the full programme of events.
My Uncle is Not Pablo Escobar
My Uncle is Not Pablo Escobar. Image credit Harry Elletson
#FLODown: My Uncle is Not Pablo Escobar is a high-stakes heist thriller exploring corporate links to the drugs trade alongside themes of British-Latinx identity. Inspired by the real experiences of Latinx women in South London, it follows four women uncovering a money-laundering scandal at a multinational bank. With telenovela-style drama, movement, and dynamic storytelling, the production challenges stereotypes while highlighting resistance, identity, and belonging. Following a sold-out debut and OFFIES 2024 recognition, it returns to Brixton House with a majority Latinx cast and multilingual surtitles.
Date: 7 April – 3 May 2026. Location: Brixton House, 385 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London SW9 8GL. Price: Pay What You Feel, £5 – £16. Book now
The Great British Crust Comeback at Pizza Pilgrims
Image courtesy of Pizza Pilgrims
#FLODown: Pizza Pilgrims is collaborating with iconic British brands Dishoom, Honest Burgers, Pho, and Sweet Dee’s Jerk to launch The Great British Crust Comeback this April, a limited-edition pizza crust dipping menu. The initiative taps into a popular UK habit: one in four people can’t eat pizza crusts without a dip, and three-quarters are more likely to finish their crusts if paired with a sauce. With up to 47 tonnes of crusts wasted annually, the weight of four London buses, Pizza Pilgrims is aiming to make the “cornicione” the star of the plate through four unique dipping sauces: Dishoom Chilli Chutney, Honest Burgers Rosemary Chips, Pho Peanut Sauce, and Sweet Dee’s Jerk BBQ. The campaign also supports World Wish Month, doubling donations from every dipper sold in April to help grant life-changing wishes for critically ill children and their families.
The limited-edition dipping sauces will be available at Pizza Pilgrims locations nationwide throughout April.
Fulham Pier Fan Zone for Boat Race 2026
Image courtesy of Fulham Pier
#FLODown: The annual Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race returns to the Thames on 4th April. Fulham Pier will become the ultimate Fan Zone for Boat Race 2026, offering front-row river views of the crews as they race, along with big screens, street food, pop-up bars, an interactive rowing simulator, live music, and DJs from 11am to 11pm. The Boat Race carries historic and cultural significance as one of the UK’s oldest sporting rivalries, dating back to 1829, celebrating endurance, teamwork, and the elite sporting spirit of Oxford and Cambridge while remaining a cherished national tradition.
Date: 4 April 2026. Location: Fulham Pier, Stevenage Road, London SW6 6HH. Price: No tickets required, just show up! Book now
Chronic Youth Film Festival 2026
Image courtesy of Barbican Centre
#FLODown: The 11th Chronic Youth Film Festival returns to Barbican Cinemas with Shifting the Lens: Self-Documentation on Screen, curated by Young Film Programmers. Designed for young audiences by young curators, the festival explores the power of self-documentation, showcasing how filmmakers turn the camera into a tool of memory, self-expression, and resistance. Across documentaries, fiction, experimental works, and DIY filmmaking, the programme highlights artists repurposing personal archives and inventive storytelling to document their communities and histories. Click here to discover the full programme of events.
Date: 25 - 26 April 2026. Location: Barbican Cinemas, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS.
Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company: Solera
Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company, Solera, Image Credit Ghassan El Moussa
#FLODown: World-renowned flamenco guitarist Paco Peña presents Solera, a performance that will unite the energy of young dancers with the wisdom of seasoned artists. Running from 2–4 April 2026 at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, the show begins in the rehearsal room, exploring flamenco’s rich, oral tradition, before moving to the stage in a performance that is soulful, celebratory, and full of life. Flamenco is passed down through generations, and Solera honours this heritage while embracing the innovation and vibrancy of youth. Created in collaboration with long-term partner Jude Kelly and first staged at Sadler’s Wells in 2022, the production celebrates the dialogue between artistic experience and fearless creativity, offering audiences a unique glimpse into flamenco’s past, present, and future.
Ahead of Solera’s launch, we had a chat with world-renowned flamenco guitarist Paco Peña. Click here for the full interview.
Date: 2–4 April 2026. Location: Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 4TN. Price: From £15 (+ £4 transaction fee). Book now
The Chimney Lift Lates: Golden Hour Photograph
Image courtesy of Battersea Power Station
#FLODown: Golden Hour Photography at The Chimney Lift is an exclusive after-hours photography workshop taking place on 13, 14, 20, and 21 April 2026 at Battersea Power Station. Rising 109 metres above London, the session, led by renowned cityscape photographer James Burns, offers participants the opportunity to learn practical techniques for sunset and low-light photography, including composition, exposure, and working with shifting light.
Date: 13th & 14th April 2026. Time: 6:30 pm – 8:15 pm (optional 6:15 pm arrival to meet James Burns). Location: The Chimney Lift, Battersea Power Station, Chelsea Bridge Road, London SW8 4NN. Price: £45 per person and includes the Chimney Lift experience and a 105-minute workshop. Book now
Spring at the Old Royal Naval College
Image credit Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich
#FLODown: This spring, the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich presents a lively programme of events celebrating the 300th anniversary of the Painted Hall, with activities for all ages. Visitors can take part in creative Family Days, enjoy experiences like the Tudor Takeover with historical re-enactments, and watch outdoor theatre performances such as King Arthur and the Holy Fail. The popular Greenwich Dog Show also returns, alongside a line-up of live music, including organ recitals, gospel concerts and cinematic scores. Talks, exhibitions and guided tours, ranging from film locations to architecture and gin tasting, offer new ways to explore the site’s rich history and stories.
Date: Spring 2026. Location: Old Royal Naval College, King William Walk, Greenwich, London SE10 9NN. Click here to discover what’s on offer this spring at the Old Royal Naval College.
V&A East Museum
V&A East Museum. Image credit MTotoe/FLO London
#FLODown: The V&A East Museum will open on 18 April 2026 in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as a new cultural space focused on creativity and social change. Co-designed with local communities, it will feature free galleries exploring themes like identity, wellbeing, and social justice through over 500 objects from around the world. The museum includes works by leading creatives, historic artefacts, and new commissions, with a sculpture by Thomas J Price at the entrance. Its opening exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story, highlights the influence of Black British music.
Date: opening from 18 April 2026. Location: V&A East Museum. East Bank, 107 Carpenters Rd, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, E20 2AR. vam.ac.uk
London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Antonio Pappano
Image courtesy of Barbican Centre
#FLODown: The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, will perform works by Holst, Korngold, and Shostakovich at the Barbican. The programme will feature Imogen Holst’s Persephone, an orchestral depiction of the mythical character with influences of Debussy and Ravel, Korngold’s 1945 Violin Concerto with Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang.
Date: 16 April 2026. Time: 7pm. Location: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: £18–72. Book now
Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style
Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Baron, released to mark the Queen’s State Visit to France in April 1957.Queen Elizabeth II, Baron, 1956. © Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2025 | Royal Collection Trust.
#FLODown: Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style, opening at The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, will be the largest exhibition ever devoted to the late Queen’s fashion. Featuring approximately 200 items, including clothing, jewellery, hats, shoes, and accessories, with about half on display for the first time, the exhibition traces her wardrobe across all ten decades of her life. Highlights include her childhood bridesmaid dress by Edward Molyneux, iconic wedding and Coronation gowns by Norman Hartnell, and eveningwear by Hardy Amies and Ian Thomas. The show also reveals the Queen’s involvement in the design process through sketches, fabric samples, and correspondence, and examines her diplomatic and off duty style, demonstrating how her sartorial choices shaped British fashion and influenced designers worldwide.
Date: 10 April - 18 October 2026. Location: The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London SW1A 1AA. Price: from £22. Concessions available. Book now
Click here to discover more fashion exhibitions to see in London in 2026.
Southbank Roof Garden Bar & Kitchen
Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden. Image credit Adam Luszniak.
#FLODown: One of London’s most cherished outdoor spots returns for spring: the Roof Garden Bar & Kitchen at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Southbank re‑opens on 1 April, kicking off the season of alfresco dining and drinks above the Thames. This delightful rooftop garden, tucked away above the Southbank Centre, has become a favourite for locals, offering a sunny, plant‑filled terrace with views across the river, festoon lights, and plenty of relaxed seating among wildflowers and greenery. The bar and kitchen serve classic summer drinks, cold beers, wines, cocktails, and casual snacks, making it the perfect spot to soak up the sun before or after a stroll along the South Bank or a visit to nearby galleries and theatres.
Location: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX. southbankcentre.co.uk
