What’s on in London this week: 2 - 8 February 2026
Discover our pick of events in London this week: 2 - 8 February 2026.
Classical Mixtape: A Live Takeover
The Southbank Centre will host a roaming, mixtape-style classical music event bringing together 200 musicians from six of London’s leading orchestras for one night. Beginning and ending in the Royal Festival Hall, audiences are free to move between multiple stages, choosing from 20-minute sets that repeat throughout the evening, from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and iconic film music such as The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, to experimental and high-energy performances. The night offers a rare, pick-your-own-path experience, finishing with an after-party of classical favourites.
Date: 5 February 2026. Time: 7pm. Location: Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX. Price: from £30 + £3.50 booking fee. Book now
Image credit Jake Davis @jakephilipdavis
Arcadia
Arcadia at The Old Vic is a witty, moving, and flirtatious play by Sir Tom Stoppard, exploring genius, passion, and the interplay between chaos and order. Set in a country house two centuries apart, the story follows a teenage prodigy uncovering the mathematics of the universe while the adults around her struggle to contain their desires, and in the present day, scholars investigate the same household, searching for truth, proof, and perhaps one another. Directed by acclaimed director Carrie Cracknell, this production brings Stoppard’s masterpiece vividly to life.
Date: 24 January – 21 March 2026. Location: The Old Vic The Cut, London SE1 8NB. Price: Previews and Off-Peak £13–£70, Peak £15–£75, plus £2.50 booking fee. Book now
Kew Orchid Festival
Kew Gardens’ Orchid Festival returns this week to celebrate its 30th anniversary, with displays inspired by China’s biodiversity, culture and long-standing scientific collaboration with Kew. Held in the Princess of Wales Conservatory, the festival focuses on China’s rich plant life, particularly the highly biodiverse Yunnan province, and features large-scale installations such as floral dragons, koi carp, pandas and native Chinese orchids. The festival also highlights Kew’s global conservation and research work, including its partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Date: 7 February – 8 March 2026. Location: Princess of Wales Conservatory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AB. Price: from £24 (£26.50 with donation). Book now
Orchids at Kew Gardens, celebrating the remarkable biodiversity of Madagascar. © RBG Kew.
Dracula
The Noël Coward Theatre will present Dracula, a thrilling reimagining of the classic gothic horror story starring three-time Oscar nominee and Tony®, Emmy® and Grammy® winner Cynthia Erivo in all 23 roles! Directed and adapted by Tony Award® nominee Kip Williams, the production brings the Count’s mysterious castle and seductive terror to life with an intriguing style of “cinetheatre.” Originally staged by the Sydney Theatre Company in 2024, it combines horror, suspense, and darkly intoxicating drama. With no interval and a running time of approximately 1 hour 50 minutes, the show is recommended for audiences aged 12.
Date: 7 February – 30 May 2026. Location: Noël Coward Theatre Address, St Martin’s Lane, London WC2N 4AU. Price: Standard tickets from £30. Book now
Art After Dark
Art After Dark returns to London’s West End this Tuesday, offering a free, week-long celebration of nightlife through public art, music, and late-night cultural events. Led by artist Lakwena Maciver, the programme features Rise and Shine, a seven-metre-tall illuminated disco installation in Piccadilly Circus, alongside large-scale artworks, digital installations, late-night gallery openings, and performances. A highlight of the week is a special after-hours DJ event at the National Gallery on 5 February, featuring Bimini. For more insight into Lakwena’s inspiration and vision for the event, read our interview with her here.
Date: 3 - 10 February 2026. Location: London West End (main installation at Piccadilly Circus). artoflondon.co.uk
Rendering of Lakwena’s Rise and Shine. Image courtesy of Art After Dark.
Deep Azure
Deep Azure, written by the late Chadwick Boseman, opens at Shakespeare’s Globe in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse from 7 February. Directed by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu in his Globe debut, the production features a Black British and Black American cast including Jayden Elijah, Selina Jones, Elijah Cook, and Aminita Francis. Combining Hip-Hop and Shakespeare, the play explores themes that resonate across continents.
Date: 7 February – 11 April 2026. Location: Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe, 21 New Globe Walk, London SE1 9DT. Price: from £5 - £80. Book now
Out-Spoken Masterclass: February
The Southbank Centre will host a three-hour poetry masterclass inviting writers of all abilities to develop and refine their craft under the guidance of acclaimed poet Helen Mort. Part of the ongoing Out-Spoken series, this monthly workshop is open to beginners and more experienced poets alike, offering a supportive space to explore new techniques, approaches and ideas for writing original verse. Participants will have the opportunity to learn directly from one of the United Kingdom’s most respected voices in contemporary poetry, gaining practical insight into the creative process.
Date: 8 February 2026, 1pm. Location: Sunley Pavilion, Level 3, Green Side, Royal Festival Hall, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX. Price: from £27 + £3.50 booking fee. Book now
AOYD in Stoke on Trent credit Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
National Gallery in Croydon
Croydon will be the first London borough to host The National Gallery: Art On Your Doorstep, a free outdoor exhibition bringing 30 life-sized reproductions of world-famous paintings into public spaces across the borough. Running from 3 February to 5 July 2026, the trail features iconic works by artists including Van Gogh, Turner, Monet and Picasso, displayed in parks, town centres and neighbourhood locations such as Croydon Minster, Park Hill Park and Coulsdon. Alongside the exhibition, free community workshops led by artist Rachel Gadsden will invite residents to contribute to The Croydon Masterpiece, celebrating Croydon’s creativity and community spirit.
Click here to discover more.
Image courtesy of Shakespeare’s Globe.
Cinema
Masterpieces of the Iranian New Wave
Masterpieces of the Iranian New Wave, a season celebrating the bold honesty of pre-revolutionary Iranian cinema, opens this week at the Barbican. Taking place 4–26 February 2026, the programme presents UK premieres of newly restored films alongside a world premiere, spanning political dramas, satirical comedies, poetic documentaries, and militant crime thrillers from 1960s–70s Iran. These historically significant works explore sexuality, identity, and oppression, resonating powerfully today as reflections on freedom, artistic expression, and the role of cinema in uncertain times. The season shines a light on one of the least-known yet most remarkable cinematic movements.
Click here for the full programme.
Date: 4 – 26 February 2026. Location: Barbican Centre, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: Various prices (see individual screenings for details).
Ballad of Tara is a 1979 Iranian film written as well as directed by Bahram Bayzai. Image courtesy of the Barbican Centre.
Arts & Culture
Opening this week
Encounters: Giacometti x Lynda Benglis
The third exhibition in the Barbican’s Encounters series, brings together works by contemporary American artist Lynda Benglis and 20th-century Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti for the first time. Benglis presents a new body of previously unseen works alongside her own selection of Giacometti’s sculptures, creating a dialogue across generations. Since the 1960s, Benglis has been celebrated for her playful yet visceral forms that are simultaneously organic and abstract, while Giacometti is renowned for his elongated figures and existential approach to the human form. The exhibition highlights the connections between their practices.
Date: 5 February – 24 May 2026. Location: Barbican Art Gallery, Barbican Centre, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: from £8. Concessions available. Book now
Encounters: Giacometti x Lynda’s Benglis at Barbican Centre. © Jonathan Pow
Samurai
Samurai, a major exhibition exploring the reality behind a millennium of myth surrounding Japan’s legendary warriors, opens at the British Museum this week. The exhibition traces the evolution of the samurai from medieval battlefield fighters to elite political, cultural, and artistic figures, including the often-overlooked role of women. Through armour, luxury objects, and global pop culture references, from historic gifts to modern fashion and video games, the show reveals how the modern mythology of the samurai was shaped and why its legacy continues to resonate worldwide.
Date: 3 February – 4 May 2026. Location: British Museum, Room 30 (Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery), Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG. Price: Adults from £23; Members and under-16s free. Book now
Aki Sasamoto: Grilled Diagrams
Aki Sasamoto’s Grilled Diagrams marks her first solo institutional exhibition in the UK, featuring a site-specific installation that functions as both a sculptural environment and performance set. The work includes a custom-built, oversized griddle, inspired by cooking shows and street food, which Sasamoto activates in live performances during the opening and closing weeks. The installation explores the tension between disorder and control, using commonplace objects and improvised interactions to probe the relationships between people, objects, and their surroundings.
Date: 4 February – 19 April 2026. Location: Studio Voltaire, 1A Nelsons Row, London SW4 7JR. Price: Free. studiovoltaire.org
Laisul Hoque, Legacy of a Heart’s Injury, 2026, copyright the artist
Laisul Hoque: The Ground Beneath Me
An exhibition by Laisul Hoque, winner of the 2025 East London Art Prize, will open this week at Nunnery Gallery, presenting a major new body of work that explores memory, migration and belonging. Opening on 6 February 2026, the solo exhibition is presented by Bow Arts and brings together new installations, film and works on paper developed through Hoque’s time living between London and Dhaka. Drawing on personal histories, community collaboration and the political context of Bangladesh, the exhibition reflects on ideas of citizenship and identity, transforming the gallery into an intimate, participatory space that connects individual experience with wider collective narratives.
Date: 6 February – 12 April 2026. Location: Nunnery Gallery, 181 Bow Road, Bow, London E3 2SJ. Price: Free. Book now
Yinka Shonibare Little Rich Girls, 2010, Victorian children’s dresses made of Dutch wax printed cotton. (Approx) 280 x 460cm
(110 1/4 x 181 1/8in). Image courtesy of the artist/ Stephen Friedman Gallery.
#FLOFAVOURITES
Geometry in Motion
Geometry in Motion is a group exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery bringing together paintings, sculptures and large-scale installations that explore ideas of geometry, seriality and order across a wide range of artistic practices. Featuring works by Tonico Lemos Auad, Jonathan Baldock, Claire Barclay, Tom Friedman, Kendell Geers, Pam Glick, Channing Hansen, Ilona Keserü, Yinka Shonibare, Clare Woods and Luiz Zerbini, the exhibition moves between structured grids and organic forms, examining tensions between control and freedom, pattern and disruption. Through vibrant paintings, intricate textiles, sculptural interventions and a major outdoor work, Geometry in Motion reveals how geometry can be both a formal language and a powerful tool for expressing movement, emotion, politics and global interconnectedness.
Date: 30 January – 28 February 2026.Location: Stephen Friedman Gallery, 5-6 Cork Street, London W1S 3LQ. Price: Free. stephenfriedman.com
Ottavia Sotto Casa Mia by Elena Bianca Zagari from the series Un Mondo Proprio, 2025 © Elena Bianca Zagari
Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2025
This week is your last chance to see the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2025 at the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition showcases the very best in contemporary portrait photography, featuring work by emerging talent, gifted amateurs, and established professionals. From formal commissioned portraits to intimate, spontaneous captures of friends, family, and everyday life, the selected images explore both traditional and contemporary approaches to portraiture while highlighting a wide spectrum of characters, moods, and locations.
Date: 13 November 2025 – 8 February 2026. Location: Floor 2, National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE. Price: £9.50 / £10.50 with donation; free for members. Book now
#FLOFavourites: Pick of the Week
Free event of the week
Sound Service with Movement: Michael Clark’s Satie Studs
Peter Doig: House of Music with Sound system by Laurence Passera / dsp London, Serpentine South, 10 October 2025 – 8 February 2026. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates
In response to Peter Doig’s House of Music exhibition at the Serpentine, Scottish choreographer Michael Clark presents Satie Studs, a solo piece originally created in 2003, now performed by long-time collaborator Jules Cunningham. Known for combining precise dance technique with experimental, punk-influenced movement, Clark sets this work to piano compositions by Erik Satie and features garments by Phoebe Philo. As part of the exhibition’s live sonic programme, Sound Service, Satie Studs integrates dance and movement, continuing Clark’s long history of collaborations across art, music, and fashion.
Date: 2, 4, 6 February 2026. Location: Serpentine South Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA. Price: Free, booking required. Book now
Interview of the week
In conversation with Ted Hodgkinson
Ted Hodgkinson, August 2025. Image credit Pete Woodhead. Image courtesy of the Southbank Centre.
Southbank Centre is launching Indie Nights, a brand-new quarterly series celebrating the bold, vital work of independent presses and the writers they champion. Each event brings together four hand-picked authors across fiction and non-fiction, mixing established names with exciting new voices, all united by an independent spirit. Ahead of the series launch, we spoke to Ted Hodgkinson, Head of Literature & Spoken Word at Southbank Centre, about the importance of independent publishing and what audiences can expect.
Click here for the full interview.
Art news of the week
Courtauld announces new contemporary galleries at Somerset House
The Courtauld. Photo Benedict Johnson
The Courtauld has announced two new contemporary art galleries at Somerset House, supported by a £10 million gift from the Blavatnik Family Foundation. Opening in 2029, the Blavatnik Contemporary Galleries will present exhibitions, commissions and events, strengthening the Courtauld’s commitment to contemporary art.
Click here for the full story.
Food of the week
SACHI Launches Limited‑Edition Matcha Tasting Menu
The Maldon Oysters. Image courtesy of The Pot Luck Club
Japanese restaurant SACHI Restaurant has launched a limited‑edition Matcha Tasting Menu in partnership with ceremonial‑grade matcha specialists SAYURI, showcasing matcha beyond the cup throughout every course. Curated by Head Chef Joonsu and SAYURI founder Yureeka, the three‑course experience highlights matcha’s depth and versatility with inventive dishes such as Octopus Karaage with matcha honey sauce and salt, Salmon Chazuke with matcha broth and onigiri, Aubergine Chazuke with matcha rice, and a Matcha Chocolate Tart for dessert, alongside a choice of drinks including a Matcha Martini.
Click here for our full review of SACHI’s Matcha Tasting Menu.
Date: Available from Monday 26 January (two weeks only). Location: SACHI London, 19 Motcomb Street, SW1X 8LB. Price: £55 per person (three-course menu).
Cause of the week
Volunteer with the City of London Corporation
Image credit João Barbosa
The City of London Corporation offers a wide range of volunteering opportunities across culture, heritage, green spaces, and local communities. Volunteers can help preserve London’s history by supporting exhibitions, welcoming visitors, or assisting with educational programmes at sites like Guildhall Art Gallery, London Archives, and Epping Forest. Nature enthusiasts can get involved in garden maintenance and conservation projects across over 11,000 acres of green space, including Highgate Wood, Hampstead Heath, West Ham Park, and Burnham Beeches. Residents can also engage with local housing estates, helping to strengthen community life. Additional opportunities are available through national and local networks such as Simply Volunteer London, Reach Volunteering, and the London Volunteer Centre Directory, making it easy to find a role that suits your skills and interests while giving back to the city.
https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/explore-volunteering-at-the-city-of-london-corporation/volunteering-opportunitiesClick here to discover volunteering opportunities available.
