What’s on in London this week: 5 - 11 May 2025
Discover our pick of events in London this week: 5 - 11 May 2025.
Tate Modern’s 25th Birthday Weekender
Tate Modern is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a free four-day “Birthday Weekender” from 9 - 12 May 2025. The event features a dynamic programme of art, music, and performances, including live music and DJ sets, interactive workshops, artist talks, and special exhibitions. Highlights include the return of Louise Bourgeois’s iconic spider sculpture Maman, a trail of 25 key artworks, and new exhibitions like A Year in Art: 2050 and Gathering Ground. Evening events spotlight South London’s creative communities, with Friday and Saturday nights featuring performances and DJ sets from collectives like Daytimers and Foundation FM. Family-friendly activities, including drop-in workshops hosted by Uniqlo, are also part of the celebration. All events are free, though some may require booking Click here to discover more about what to expect.
Date: 9-12 May 2025. Location: Tate Modern Bankside London SE1 9TG. Price: Free for most events (some require advance booking).
Tate Modern. Image credit Samuel Clifford.
Sketch in Bloom
The 11th edition of Sketch in Bloom returns to sketch London, celebrating the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth through literature and floral art. The iconic Mayfair venue will be transformed by imaginative installations from Lucy Vail Floristry, Rob Van Helden, and Ricky Paul. Visitors can enjoy a Jane Austen-inspired afternoon tea, a specially curated 3 Michelin Star lunch menu in the Lecture Room & Library, and a programme of creative workshops and literary readings in The Parlour. Limited-edition floral collector’s copies of Pride and Prejudice and Emma, created in partnership with Penguin, will also be available to purchase. .
Dates: 1 May – 1 June 2025. Location: Sketch London is located at 9 Conduit Street, Mayfair, London, W1S 2XG.
Peckham Fringe
Peckham Fringe is in full swing this week (running until 6 June 2025), with six shows on across Theatre Peckham and Canada Water Theatre, including House Party (Studio 1, Theatre Peckham; 9 May 8 pm & 10 May 7 pm) — following an East London woman determined to revive the house party scene with only her wit and an aspiring actor named Skip — and Heart Beats Strong(Canada Water Theatre; 8 May & 9 May 7.30 pm), a poignant journey through schoolyard friendships, self‑reflection and the pressures of growing up. With nearly 30 productions spanning theatre, dance, comedy and spoken word, this community‑curated festival—championed by Theatre Peckham’s Ambassadors continues to amplify underrepresented voices.
Date: until 6 June 2025. Location: Theatre Peckham and Canada Water Theatre. Price: £5 - £15. Book now.
Sketch In Bloom. ©Mark Cocksedge.
London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle Janáček's The Excursions of Mr Brouček
Sir Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in a concert performance of Janáček’s The Excursions of Mr Brouček – a witty satire full of colour, humour, and absurdity. The opera follows Brouček, a self-indulgent landlord, on bizarre journeys to the moon and the 15th century, where he repeatedly fails to adapt or learn. Janáček’s vibrant score and sharply drawn characters bring this quirky tale to life.
Date: 4 - 6 May 2025. Location: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: £18 - £70. Book now.
FEEDER + Ellegarden
Welsh rock stalwarts Feeder take the stage at KOKO on 11 May 2025, joined by Japanese band Ellegarden. Rising to fame during the ’90s indie boom, Feeder are known for anthems like Buck Rogers and Just The Way I’m Feeling. They return in support of their double LP Black/ Red, the final chapter in a recent trilogy and their third consecutive UK Top 10 album. With over 30 years of hits and critical praise, this show promises a high-energy celebration of their enduring legacy.
Date: 11 May 2025. Location: KOKO, 1a Camden High St, London NW1 7RE. Price: £35.50. Book now.
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre launches its 2025 summer season this week, the first under new Artistic Director Drew McOnie and Associate Artistic Director Tinuke Craig. Opening with the UK premiere of Broadway hit Shucked (10 May–14 June), the season also features Dream Ballets: A Triple Bill, a new adaptation of Noughts & Crosses, and a reimagined Brigadoon. Family favourite The Enormous Crocodile returns, alongside a series of festivals and a new artist development programme, The Theatre Dance Lab.
Click here to discover what’s on now.
Location: The Regent's Park, Inner Cir, London NW1 4NU. Price: from £15 .
Louis Cole Orchestral Show
On 8 May 2025, the Roundhouse will host the UK premiere of Louis Cole’s acclaimed album nothing, performed live with a full orchestra conducted by Jules Buckley. Known for blending contemporary classical, funk, and jazz, Cole will deliver a show, complete with skeleton-suited musicians and appearances by key collaborators.
Date: 8 May 2025. Location: Chalk Farm Road, London, NW1 8EH. Price: from £27.50. Book now.
Jason Moran, the acclaimed jazz pianist to preform at the Barbican Centre 9 May 2025.
Jason Moran
Jason Moran, the acclaimed jazz pianist, will deliver a special performance influenced by the works of the late artist Noah Davis. Taking inspiration from Davis’s paintings, particularly Pueblo del Rio: Concerto, Moran will musically engage with ideas of community, creativity, and cultural legacy. In this unique concert, Moran reflects the same commitment to accessible art that Davis embodied, especially in his portrayal of a grand piano in a public housing project. Through this performance, Moran channels everyday rhythms and musical influences, with echoes of Thelonious Monk’s innovative style.
Date: 9 May 2025. Time; 19:30. Location: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: £25 + BF. Book now.
Cinema
Sinners
In Sinners, Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler reunite for a tense, supernatural thriller set in the 1930s Deep South. Jordan plays twin brothers Elijah and Elias Smoke, who return to their hometown after working for Al Capone in Chicago. Hoping to start anew by opening a juke joint, they soon uncover a sinister secret as night falls and the undead rise. In a From Dusk Till Dawn-style showdown, the brothers must battle for survival until sunrise. This marks another powerful collaboration between the acclaimed duo behind Creed, Black Panther, and Fruitvale Station.
Date: until 8 May 2025. Location: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS.Price: £13 +BF. Book now.
Michael B. Jordan (left) and Miles Caton in 'Sinners.' WARNER BROS.
Ocean with David Attenborough
In this powerful documentary, David Attenborough explores the vital role of the ocean in sustaining life on Earth. With breathtaking cinematography, he takes viewers on a journey through coral reefs, kelp forests, and the open sea, revealing both the beauty and the threats facing marine ecosystems. Reflecting on a lifetime of ocean discovery, Attenborough offers a message of hope, showing how global efforts can help restore the ocean to a richness unseen in living memory.
Date: 8 - 16 May 2025. Location: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: £20 + BF. Book now.
Arts & Culture
Opening this week
Fake Barn Country
Opening at Ravens Row this week, Fake Barn Country has been co-organised by London-based artists Ruth Angel Edwards, Lawrence Leaman, and Oliver Williams. The exhibition explores a shared sense of practice among a diverse group of artists, bringing together established and emerging voices. The works featured engage with realism, using found materials and familiar objects, often through low-tech processes like repetition, layering, and reconstitution. Drawing on local, international, and intergenerational references, the show highlights connections between artists and their practices, with participants including Terry Atkinson, Rachal Bradley, Andrea Büttner, and many others.
Date: 8 May – 6 July 2025. Location: Raven Row, 56 Artillery Lane, London E1 7LS. Price: Free. ravenrow.org.
Stuart Middleton, Personal effects and things that are biographical in amongst material that might be understood as generic without clear separation under compression (Kebab), 2024. Courtesy Carlos/Ishikawa.
Caspar Heinemann: Sod All
Caspar Heinemann’s first solo institutional exhibition in the UK, Sod All, opens at Studio Voltaire and explores the intersection of spiritual, political, and sexual countercultures through folk art and vernacular architecture. Known for his speculative fiction and queer narratives, Heinemann will present miniaturised dioramas and a major site-specific installation that suspends sculptures from the ceiling, challenging the audience’s perspective. The exhibition builds on his ongoing exploration of land politics, folk revival, and spiritual histories, following an onsite production residency.
Date: 7 May - 3 August 2025. Location: Studio Voltaire, 1A Nelson’s Row, London SW4 7JR. Price: Free. studiovoltaire.org
Encounters: Giacometti x Huma Bhabha
Giacometti x Huma Bhabha, a major new exhibition bringing together works by contemporary artist Huma Bhabha and 20th-century sculptor Alberto Giacometti for the first time, will go on show at the Barbican Centre. Inaugurating a new, intimate gallery space within the Centre, the exhibition spans nearly a century of sculpture, featuring works in plaster, bronze, terracotta, assemblage, and found materials. Bhabha’s haunting, post-apocalyptic figures are presented in dialogue with Giacometti’s iconic postwar forms, with both artists exploring the human body as a vessel for trauma and transformation. Echoing themes of conflict and survival, the exhibition moves fluidly between ancient, modern, and futuristic imagery, and beyond the gallery, four of Bhabha’s monumental sculptures are also on view for free in the Level 2 Foyer.
Date: 8 May - 10 August 2025. Location: Level 2, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London,EC2Y 8DS. Price: £8 + BF. Book now.
Huma Bhabha, 2022. Image credit: Photo by Daniel Dorsa. Courtesy David Zwirner.
Last chance
Claudia Pagès Rabal: Five Defence Towers
Claudia Pagès Rabal’s exhibition The Night of Five Defence Towers at Chisenhale Gallery closes this week. The moving image work explores Catalonia’s historic defence towers, focusing on surveillance, control, national identity, and colonial history. It is presented on an LED screen with light boxes of tower photographs, reflecting on the intersection of history, belief, and power.
Date: 28 February – 11 May 2025. Location: Chisenhale Gallery, 64 Chisenhale Road, London E3 5QZ. Price: Free.
Claudia Pagès Rabal, Five Defence Towers, 2025. Installation view, Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2025. Produced by Chisenhale Gallery, London, and commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery and mumok, Vienna. Photo: Andy Keate.
Christina Kimeze: Between Wood and Wheel
Don’t miss your final chance to experience Christina Kimeze’s debut UK solo exhibition at the South London Gallery. Known for her radiant, textured paintings, Kimeze depicts solitary female figures in dreamlike settings, drawing inspiration from memory, identity, and Black feminist literature. Her latest works, some influenced by the cultural resurgence of roller skating in Black communities, reflect on movement, freedom, and inner life. The exhibition features new paintings, works on paper, and a specially commissioned tapestry, all showcasing her signature soft, tactile surfaces.
Date: 31 January - 11 May 2025. Location: South London Gallery, 65-67 Peckham Road, London, SE5 8UH. Price: Free.
Noah Davis, Untitled, 2015. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner. Photo: Kerry McFate.
Noah Davis
The Barbican Art Gallery’s acclaimed retrospective of American artist Noah Davis closes on 11 May 2025. The exhibition features over 50 works spanning Davis’s career, including paintings, sculptures, and community-focused projects. Davis, who passed away in 2015 at the age of 32, is celebrated for his poignant portrayals of Black life, capturing everyday moments with emotional depth. The exhibition also delves into Davis’s role as the founder of the Underground Museum in Los Angeles, emphasising his commitment to making art accessible to underserved communities.
Date: 6 February - 11 May 2025. Location: Barbican Art Gallery, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: £18 + BF. Book now
#FLOFavourites: Pick of the Week
Free event of the week
The Lord Mayor’s Hot Air Balloon Regatta
The 2019 RICOH Lord Mayor’s Hot Air Balloon Regatta®, 2019. Image credit: Exclusive Ballooning.
The Lord Mayor’s Hot Air Balloon Regatta®—the official ballooning event of the City of London—is set to return on Sunday 11th May 2025, with backup dates on 20th and 27th July. After a six-year hiatus due to the pandemic and poor weather, hopes are high for a successful launch. Up to 50 hot air balloons, including one carrying the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, will soar over iconic London landmarks to raise funds for The Lord Mayor’s Appeal. Since 2015, the event has raised over £250,000 for charity.
Date: 11 May 2025 ( Back up dates 20, 27 July 2025). Location: from Battersea Park. balloonregatta.com
Interview of the week
In conversation with Daniel Pitt
Daniel Pitt in front of Old Diorama Arts Centre. Image credit Matt Mahmood-Ogston.
We had a chat with Daniel Pitt, the Creative Director and Chief Executive of Old Diorama Arts Centre (ODAC). We spoke about the upcoming launch of the Regent’s Park Estate Story Trail — a resident-led public art trail through Camden’s largest housing estate. Launched on 24 April 2025, the trail features 28 new public artworks across 12 site-specific installations by 10 commissioned artists and collectives, each shaped by the stories, culture, and needs of the local community.
Click here for the full interview.
Food of the week
TOZI Pizzeria & Cicchetti Bar
Tozi, Battersea Power Station. Rebecca Hope Photography, March2025.
Brunch gets an Italian twist at TOZI Pizzeria & Cicchetti Bar in Battersea Power Station, where a new weekend menu serves up breakfast-inspired pizzettas topped with everything from smoked salmon to truffle mushrooms. Add fluffy pancakes, Nutella pizzettas, and brunch cocktails like the smoky Bloody Maria, all served Saturdays and Sundays from 12–4pm.
Location: art'otel, Battersea Power Station, 3A Electric Blvd, Nine Elms, London SW11 8BJ. tozibattersea.co.uk;
Cause of the week
The Garden Classroom
The Garden Classroom is a charity dedicated to reconnecting people with nature.
The Garden Classroom is a charity dedicated to reconnecting people with nature, and they are currently seeking volunteers for their community garden in Stoke Newington. Volunteers will engage in various gardening tasks such as pruning, planting, watering, and selecting what to plant, with all necessary tools provided. Sessions are held on Wednesdays from 10am to 12pm, with dates in May, June, and July. The charity also offers opportunities to help with educational activities for children and families.
If you have a passion for nature and community engagement, click here to discover more about how you can get involved with The Garden Classroom.
