What’s on in London this week: 12 - 18 May 2025
Discover our pick of events in London this week: 12 - 18 May 2025.
London Craft Week
London Craft Week returns for its 11th year with its biggest programme yet, featuring over 1,000 global makers. Highlights include artisan showcases on Sloane Street with brands like Louis Vuitton and Fendi, Charlotte Colbert’s sculptures at Battersea Power Station, workshops at top museums, a contemporary craft exhibition at No.9 Cork Street, and live demos at the V&A, including CHANEL millinery and puppet-making.
Click here for our pick of 20 London craft week events.
Date: 12–18 May 2025. Location: Various locations across London. Price: Varies (ranging from free events to ticketed workshops). londoncraftweek.com
Courtesy of Ash & Plumb x The New Craftmaker for London Craft Week 2025.
Bouquet making with Wild at Heart at Sketch
Join Wild at Heart for a Bouquet Making Workshop on 12 May at the Parlour, celebrating Sketch in Bloom. Led by expert florists, this workshop offers guests the chance to create a signature Wild at Heart seasonal bouquet using a mix of beautiful flowers and foliage. Participants will also learn professional flower arranging techniques and gain tips on how to extend the life of their blooms.
Date: 12 May 2025. Location: Sketch, 9 Conduit St, London W1S 2XG. Price: £100 for the workshop only, or £149 including the two-course Origins Dinner. Book now.
The Fleet Street Quarter
The Fleet Street Quarter is launching the Festival of Words this week, a new literary event celebrating the rich history of Fleet Street as a hub for literature and publishing. The festival will feature a diverse programme with leading authors, journalists, screenwriters, and poets, exploring the power of words in shaping society. Key events include Ben Okri discussing his latest novel Madame Sosostris, Kate Mosse OBE reflecting on the 30th anniversary of the Women’s Prize, and Ed Docx and Mick Herron discussing the adaptation of Slow Horses for TV.
Date: 14-17 May 2025. Location: Fleet Street Quarter, London. See the programme and book tickets
Photo London will return to Somerset House in 2025 to mark its milestone 10th edition.
Photo London
Photo London 2025 celebrates its 10th anniversary at Somerset House from 15–18 May, with a standout mix of returning and new galleries. Highlights include Colin Dodgson’s solo show, the London Lives exhibition, a Book Market for indie publishers, and key awards like the Nikon Emerging Photographer of the Year. New sections spotlight emerging and unrepresented talent, while talks and events explore photography’s evolving role in contemporary art.
Date: 15 - 18 May 2025. Location: Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA. Price: £32. Concessions available. Book now.
Click here to discover more photography exhibitions in London right now.
Here We Are
Stephen Sondheim’s final musical Here We Are, with a book by David Ives and direction by Joe Mantello, is now playing at the National Theatre’s Lyttelton Theatre. Inspired by the surreal films of Luis Buñuel, the show follows Leo and Marianne Brink as they host a seemingly perfect brunch that quickly spirals into chaos. Featuring a stylish, critically acclaimed production, Here We Are blends wit, satire, and strangeness in true Sondheim fashion.
Date: until 28 June 2025. Running time: 2 hrs 25 minutes. Location: Lyttelton Theatre, National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1 9PX. Price: from £25. Book now.
Seth Troxler will be at Fabric on 8 February 2025.
FORGE Festival
FORGE Festival, a new initiative by Southwark Playhouse, presents four world premieres by emerging UK theatre companies, developed through a year-long residency. Highlights include a satire on artistic failure in Director’s Cut, a DJ’s journey in UP(BEAT), a climate-change fable in Sail the House Home, and a moving story of queer Black friendship in Positive.
Date: 13 – 17 May 2025. Location: Southwark Playhouse Borough, 77-85 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BD. Price: £10 per show (no booking fee). Book now.
Lewis Walker: Bornsick at The Round Chapel
As part of Serpentine’s 2025 Live Programme, Lewis Walker premieres Bornsick this week at the Round Chapel, blending gymnastics, dance, and theatre to explore queerness and the layered nature of identity. Co-commissioned with Edinburgh Art Festival, the performance heads to EAF25 in August.
Date: 21 - 22 May 2025. Location: The Round Chapel, 1D Glenarm Rd, Lower Clapton, London E5 0LY. Price: £15. Concessions available. Book now.
Lewis Walker, Bornsick, 2025, trailer, still. Film by Leah Walker. Courtesy the artists, Serpentine and EAF.
Ahir Shah: ENDS
Award-winning comedian Ahir Shah brings his acclaimed stand-up show ENDS to the newly opened Soho Theatre in Walthamstow. One of the first major events at the venue, this Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning performance explores themes across six decades, three generations, and two continents, blending sharp political insight with laugh-out-loud humour. Having toured globally and launched as a Netflix special in 2024, ENDS showcases Shah’s celebrated wit, seen previously on Mock the Week, QI, and Live at the Apollo.
Date: 16 May 2025. Running time: 100-minute show begins at 7:30pm. Location: Soho Theatre Walthamstow, 186 Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London E17 4QH. Price: from £28. Book now.
London Symphony Orchestra/Gustavo Dudamel: Strauss & Ravel, with Marina Rebeka
The London Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, presents an evening of music featuring works by Richard Strauss and Maurice Ravel. The programme includes Strauss’ Don Juan, a tone poem that follows a legendary womaniser on his tragic journey, and Ravel’s two nocturnal pieces, evoking distant lands through lush orchestration. The concert also features a suite from Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, which transports the audience to the elegance and grandeur of Vienna’s golden age.Acclaimed soprano Marina Rebeka joins Dudamel and the orchestra, guiding the audience on a spellbinding musical journey.
Date: 14 May 2025. Time: 7pm. Location: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: £18 - £70. + BF. Book now
The London Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, presents an evening of music at the Barbican on 14 May 2025.
Northern Ballet: Jane Eyre
Northern Ballet brings Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel Jane Eyre to life with powerful choreography by Cathy Marston and live music. Follow the passionate and resilient Jane as she navigates love, mystery, and betrayal—from a modest schoolroom to the eerie Thornfield Hall and across the sweeping Yorkshire moors. This stirring adaptation captures the emotional depth and drama of Brontë’s timeless story, performed by Northern Ballet’s acclaimed dance actors.
Date: 13 - 17 May 2025. Location: Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Rosebery Avenue, London EC1R 4TN. Price: from £15, plus a £4 building maintenance fee. Book now.
RIBA + VitrA Building Empathy: Unity of Place
A panel discussion exploring how empathy, craftsmanship, and community participation can shape lasting and inspiring spaces will take place at RIBA, this week. The discussion will feature Takeshi Hayatsu (Director of Hayatsu Architects), Lee Ivett (Head of the Grenfell-Baines Institute of Architecture), and Anna Mansfield (Director of Publica), who will share their insights on participatory design and how it fosters a sense of belonging and pride within communities. This talk forms part of the 2025 RIBA + VitrA Talks Programme, which focuses on how architects can create environments that are accessible, meaningful, and responsive to the needs of the people who use them.
Date: 15 May 2025. Time: 7pm - 8:30pm. Location: RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London, W1B 1AD. Price: £12 general, £6 for RIBA members and students. Book now.
International Booker Prize Shortlist Readings
The International Booker Prize Shortlist Readings will take place on Sunday at the Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, featuring live readings and discussion from the six shortlisted authors and their translators, in conversation with broadcaster and academic Shahidha Bari. The event offers a unique opportunity to hear from the writers behind some of the most compelling international fiction published in English this year. While in-person tickets are now sold out, the event will be live-streamed for free, giving literature lovers around the world a chance to be part of this celebration of international fiction.
Date: 18 May 2025. Time: 7.45pm. Duration: Approx. 1 hour 30 minutes. Location: Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall/ Online. Price: Available to watch live online for free. Book now.
Jane Eyre - Northern Ballet ©Tristram Kenton.
Cinema
In Focus: Fatemeh Motamed-Arya
The ICA will celebrate the extraordinary career of Fatemeh Motamed-Arya as part of their In Focus series. One of Iran’s most respected and award-winning actresses, Motamed-Arya has made a profound impact on Iranian cinema with over 60 films and TV serials, collaborating with iconic directors such as Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, and Abbas Kiarostami. Known for her powerful portrayals of strong, independent women, she has earned more than 30 acting awards, including the 2012 Henri Langlois Award. Beyond her acting, she has been an active philanthropist, supporting various causes, including charities for children with cancer and autism, as well as advocating for the rights of film workers. However, her outspoken support for protests following Mahsa Amini’s death has led to her being prohibited from leaving Iran and working within the country. She is currently touring a theatre play internationally.
Date: 14 May - 1 June 2025. Location: Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH. Price: from £14. Book now.
The Actor (Honarpisheh), dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iran 1993, 89 mins., Farsi with English subtitles.
Arts & Culture
Opening this week
Cecil Beaton’s Garden Party
Cecil Beaton’s Garden Party at the Garden Museum is the first exhibition to explore the central role that gardens and flowers played across Beaton’s wide-ranging creative career. Best known for his fashion photography, Beaton also worked in theatre, film, and visual art. The show brings together photographs, paintings, drawings, and costume designs to reveal how floral imagery shaped his work — from his elaborate garden party decorations to the iconic flower-filled sets of My Fair Lady.
Date: 14 May - 21 September 2025. Location: Garden Museum , 5 Lambeth Palace Rd, London SE1 7LB. Price: from £15. Concessions available. Book now.
Cecil Beaton by Cecil Beaton, 1960s © Cecil Beaton Archive, Condé Nast.
DEATH HOPE LIFE FEAR…
The Gilbert & George Centre presents DEATH HOPE LIFE FEAR…, an exhibition of 18 works by Gilbert & George, spanning 1984 to 1998. Opening on 16 May, it features the iconic DEATH HOPE LIFE FEAR (1984), along with selections from the NEW DEMOCRATIC PICTURES (1991) and RUDIMENTARY PICTURES (1998). This exhibition offers a rare chance to view works that explore universal themes of life, death, hope, and fear, showcasing the artists’ distinctive use of bold colour and symbolic imagery. The exhibition will be on display until February 2026, complementing the Gilbert & George: 21ST CENTURY PICTURES at the Hayward Gallery, opening in October 2025.
Dates: 16 May 2025 – February 2026. Location: The Gilbert & George Centre, 5a Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ. gilbertandgeorgecentre.org
Holly Stevenson: Tracing the Irretraceable
Tracing the Irretraceable explores the impact of Freudian psychoanalysis on the works of contemporary artists Holly Stevenson and the late Jane McAdam Freud. The exhibition celebrates the completion of the first Freud Artist Residency, which Stevenson undertook over eighteen months in Příbor, Czechia, where Freud was born. The show highlights the connection between Stevenson’s and McAdam Freud’s works, drawing on Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams. Stevenson’s decade-long project In Sigmund Freud’s Ashtray is featured, with her ceramic sculptures reflecting on repression through the symbolic reimagining of an ashtray from Freud’s desk. The exhibition also reveals how Freud’s personal collection and psychoanalytic theories continue to influence contemporary art.
Date: 14 May - 29 June 2025. Location: Freud Museum, 20 Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead, London NW3 5SX. Price: £14.50. Concessions available. Book now.
Gilbert & George, Bell Lane (2020).
Cornelia Parker: History Painting
Cornelia Parker returns to Frith Street Gallery this week with History Painting, a new series of abstract oil works and colour plots. Drawing on historic newspaper covers and the colour theories of 19th-century artist Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, Parker transforms iconic headlines—from the sinking of the Titanic to the trial of Donald Trump—into vibrant, grid-like compositions. Using handmade pigments ground from materials she’s collected over decades, including lightning-struck church charcoal, fossilised dinosaur bones and hoover dust from Parliament, these works turn the chaos of history into carefully constructed visual archives, exploring the intersection of memory, media and material.
Date: 16 May – 5 July 2025. Location: Frith Street Gallery, 17-18 Golden Square, London, W1F 9JJ. Price: Free. frithstreetgallery.com.
Image courtesy of Trustees of the Natural History Museum London
Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth?
The Natural History Museum’s anticipated exhibition Space: Could Life Exist Beyond Earth? will open this week on 16 May 2025. This exciting new exhibition delves into the possibility of life beyond Earth, allowing visitors to explore our universe in search of extraterrestrial life. Get up close to a piece of Mars, touch a fragment of the Moon, and snap a selfie with the Allende meteorite, which is older than our planet. The exhibition will offer a glimpse into what scientists believe could be out there.
Date: 16 May 2025 - 22 February 2026. Location: Natural History Museum, Cromwell Rd, South Kensington, London SW7 5BD. Price: from £14. Concessions available. Book now.
Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits
Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits unveils the captivating stories of American women who married British aristocrats during the Gilded Age. These women, including a wartime nurse and the first female MP, were part of an exchange of wealth for titles. John Singer Sargent, renowned for his portraiture, captured their powerful and glamorous images. On the centenary of his death, this exhibition honours Sargent’s legacy, featuring full-length oil paintings and insightful charcoal portraits. Curated by English Heritage, with expert consultation by Richard Ormond, Sargent’s great-nephew.
Date: 16 May – 5 October 2025. Location: Kenwood House, Hampstead Lane, Hampstead, London NW3 7JR. Price: from £10. Book now.
Maya Gurung-Russell Campbell, Another Country Is Possible, 2025. Premiums I, Royal Academy of Arts, 2025. Photographer Andy Keate.
Duets
Teaspoon Projects presents Duets, an exhibition by Maya Gurung-Russell Campbell and Dwayne Coleman, exploring personal and shared histories through everyday materials. Campbell uses knotted rope, flags, and photos to examine migration and identity, while Coleman employs fabric, dye, and stitching to highlight memory and domestic labour. Together, their work reflects on how objects and textures can carry stories and connections.
Date: 15–24 May 2025. Time: 12–6pm. Location: Teaspoon Projects, 65A Charlotte Street, W1T 4PQ. Price: Free.
Artist Talk
body language: broken printer
Join Alessia Arcuri for body language: broken printer, a workshop responding to Nora Turato’s pool7 exhibition, exploring how the body acts as a language-machine that can fail, overwork, or break down. Participants will collaborate on writing and reading prompts, examining what happens when language fails and how it translates through the body, text, and gestures. Open to all, no prior experience needed, with some movement involved but seating available. pool7, Turato’s first UK solo show, features new work across performance, writing, design, video, and sound, investigating how language shapes communication today.
Date: 15 May 2025. Time: 7pm. Location: Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH. Price: £10 (price includes entry to the exhibition). Book now.
Victor Hugo: Astonishing Drawings
The Institut français du Royaume-Uni will host a talk this week exploring the remarkable artistic world of Victor Hugo, best known as a literary giant and human rights advocate. Though celebrated for his novels, Hugo also created striking ink and wash drawings in private, filled with fantastical castles, monsters, and seascapes. Held in connection with the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo, the talk will feature insights from curator Sarah Lea, Gérard Audinet (Director of the Maisons Victor Hugo in Paris and Guernsey), and Professor Bradley Stephens (University of Bristol), revealing the poetic vision behind Hugo’s lesser-known artwork.
Date: 12 May 2025. Location: Institut français du Royaume-Uni, 17 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2DT. Price: from £12. Concessions available. Book now.
#FLOFavourites: Pick of the Week
Free event of the week
Sainsbury Wing at National Gallery reopens
Sainbury Wing at the National Gallery. Image by Edmund Sumner. © The National Gallery, London.
The National Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing has reopened following a major two-year refurbishment as part of the Gallery’s 200th birthday celebrations. The redesigned entrance, created by Selldorf Architects, features a brighter, more spacious foyer, improved accessibility, and new public areas including a café, bookshop, and creative learning spaces. Visitors can also experience C C Land: The Wonder of Art, a landmark rehang of the Gallery’s collection, tracing the story of Western European painting.
The revitalised Sainsbury Wing reopened to the public on 10 May 2025. Click here to discover more.
Interview of the week
In conversation with Lewis Walker
Lewis Walker. Photo by Paul Scala.
Lewis Walker is a London-born queer, non-binary movement artist and former World Champion acrobatic gymnast. Their work spans contemporary dance, theatre, film, fashion, and music, with collaborations including Tim Walker, Yorgos Lanthimos, ANOHNI, and Burberry. Alongside choreographing for national gymnastics teams, they explore movement as a tool for consciousness and connection through teaching and therapeutic practices.
We had a chat with Walker ahead of the premiere of Bornsick—their latest commission for the Serpentine Galleries’ live programme—which debuts at The Round Chapel, Clapton on 21 & 22 May, before being presented at the Edinburgh Art Festival on 23 August 2025.
Click here for the full interview.
Food of the week
Rooftop openings: The Culpeper and Frank’s at Bold Tendencies
The Culpeper. Image credit Veerle Evens.
This week marks the return of two must-visit London rooftops: The Culpeper in Spitalfields and Frank’s Café at Bold Tendencies in Peckham. The Culpeper rooftop garden reopens on 12 May, offering a new grill menu and woodland-inspired cocktails set amidst silver birch and hazel trees, with dishes celebrating British produce and in-house infused spirits. Frank’s Café, located on a car park rooftop in Peckham as part of the Bold Tendencies art space, reopens on 16 May, offering impressive views of London, sunset Negronis, and a selection of small plates to complement.
Cause of the week
Hotpod Yoga x CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably)
Hotpod Yoga has partnered with mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) for Mental Health Awareness Week (12–18 May).
Hotpod Yoga has partnered with mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) for Mental Health Awareness Week (12–18 May). As part of the initiative, Hotpod Yoga studios across London and the UK will host special ‘CALM Hotpod Flow’ charity classes, with 100% of proceeds going to CALM to support suicide prevention and mental health services. The initiative aims to raise £10,000, with additional fundraising through a discounted class pack. Supported by CALM ambassador Shirley Ballas, the partnership highlights the proven mental health benefits of hot yoga, which has been shown to significantly reduce symptoms of stress and depression.
For more information on Hotpod Yoga and to book CALM classes for Mental Health Awareness Week, visit: hotpodyoga.com
