What’s on in London this week: 9 - 15 February 2026
Discover our pick of events in London this week: 9 - 15 February 2026.
Summit at Alexandra Palace
London gets a new rooftop adventure this week with Summit at Alexandra Palace, the UK’s highest roof walk. Launching on 14 February 2026, the fully guided experience sees visitors climb the iconic Ally Pally roof to 130 metres above sea level for 360-degree views across the capital, created by the team behind Up at The O2. The hour-long route leads to the Angel of Plenty statue, with landmarks including St Paul’s Cathedral, The Shard and Canary Wharf visible up to 25 miles away. Daytime, sunset and night climbs are available, plus group and private options.
Opening: 14 February 2026. Location: Alexandra Palace, Alexandra Palace Way, London, N22 7AY. Price: from £22 child/ £28 adult. Book now.
Image courtesy of Summit at Alexandra Palace
Imagine Festival 2026
Imagine, London’s leading children’s and family festival, returns this week to the Southbank Centre (11–21 February 2026), transforming the site into a playful cultural hub for February half-term. Launching the venue’s 75th anniversary celebrations, the festival features theatre, music, storytelling and hands-on activities, with highlights including Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Liz Pichon, Horrible Histories: The Concert and the world premiere of Mrs Armitage on Wheels by Quentin Blake. A wide programme of free events and interactive installations runs alongside ticketed shows.
Click here for the full programme of events.
Date: 11–21 February 2026. Location: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
London Symphony Orchestra / Gianandrea Noseda Stravinsky, Chopin & Borodin, with Seong-Jin Cho
The London Symphony Orchestra is joined by conductor Gianandrea Noseda and pianist Seong-Jin Cho for a programme of Romantic and Russian-influenced works by Stravinsky, Chopin and Borodin. Stravinsky’s The Fairy’s Kiss, inspired by the music of Tchaikovsky, offers a graceful neo-Classical tribute, while Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 features one of the composer’s most lyrical and expressive slow movements. The concert concludes with Borodin’s Second Symphony, a folk-inspired work known for its rich melodies and energetic finale. Forming part of Seong-Jin Cho’s Artist Portrait series with the LSO.
Date: Thursday 12 – Sunday 15 February 2026. Location: Barbican Centre, Hall, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Price: From £18 - £72 (plus booking fee). Book now
Thirteen. Image courtesy of Chateau Denmark
Valentine’s Day in London
With Valentine’s Day this week, London is brimming with ways to celebrate love in all its forms. Whether you’re looking to woo someone special or keep the flame burning, the capital offers everything from cheeky champagne breakfasts and indulgent cheese fondue lunches to lingering afternoon teas and extravagant tasting menus. You could even turn it into a full romantic escape with a unique hotel stay.
Click here for our guide to celebrating Valentine’s Day in London this year.
Christian Löffler. Until We Meet Again Tour
Christian Löffler brings his Until We Meet Again Tour to the Barbican on Wednesday 11 February, presenting music from his forthcoming album alongside a European classical ensemble. The electronic composer pairs melodic electronics with strings, piano and subtle textures, creating a live performance that sits between club culture and chamber music. Featuring a mix of fan favourites and new material, the show is accompanied by cinematic visuals, field recordings and analogue sounds. Löffler is joined on stage by Swedish singer-songwriter Adna, with an ensemble led by violinist Johanna Burnheart, cellist Midori Jaeger and pianist Alex Maydew.
Date: Wednesday 11 February 2026. Time: 8pm. Location: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Price: From £30. Book now
Christian Löffler. Until We Meet Again Tour
Ballet Shoes
Catch the final weeks of Ballet Shoes at the National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre, a new version of Noel Streatfeild’s beloved novel by Kendall Feaver. Set in a crumbling house full of dinosaur bones and fossils, the story follows three adopted sisters – Pauline, Petrova and Posy – as they discover their passions and ambitions under the guidance of their guardians Sylvia and Nana. Facing a world not built for women with big dreams, the sisters work to forge their futures, keep their family together, and even learn a dance or two along the way. Directed by Katy Rudd, this production brings the classic tale vividly to life on stage.
Date: until Friday 21 February 2026, Approx. 2h 35min including a 20-minute interval. Location: Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1 9PX. Price: Varies (16-25s tickets from £5/£10; American Express reserved seating available). Book now
Ballet Shoes. Image credit Manuel Harlan. Courtesy of National Theatre.
Cinema
My Father's Shadow (12A)
My Father’s Shadow (12A) is an intimate debut from British-Nigerian director Akinola Davies Jr., set during the political unrest of 1993 Lagos. Over the course of a single day, young brothers Remi and Akin travel into the city with their estranged father to collect his long-overdue salary, as Nigeria approaches a pivotal election that could end military rule. The film observes family distance and political uncertainty through everyday moments and careful visual detail, led by a strong performance from Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù. Winner of the Caméra d’Or Special Mention at Cannes 2025, it marks Davies Jr.’s first feature film.
Date: until 12 February 2026. Location: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: £14 +BF. Book now
My Father's Shadow, debut from British-Nigerian director Akinola Davies Jr.
All That's Left of You (12A)
All That’s Left of You (12A) is a powerful drama that explores the generational impact of occupation in Palestine across the past 75 years. When a Palestinian teenager becomes caught up in a protest in the West Bank, his mother reflects on their family’s history, tracing moments of hope, resistance and survival that have shaped the present. Moving through four key periods of political unrest, from the Nakba in 1948, to life in the West Bank in 1978, the First Intifada in 1988 and the present day, the film places personal stories within a broader historical context. Directed by Cherien Dabis, who also stars alongside the late Mohammad Bakri and his sons Saleh and Adam Bakri, the film is Jordan’s official international feature submission for this year’s Oscars.
Date: until 12 February 2026. Location: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: £14 +BF. Book now
Arts & Culture
Opening this week
Encounters: Giacometti x Lynda Benglis
The third exhibition in the Barbican’s Encounters series brings together contemporary American artist Lynda Benglis and 20th-century Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti for the first time. Benglis presents a new body of previously unseen work alongside a selection of Giacometti’s sculptures she has personally chosen, establishing a dialogue across generations. Renowned since the 1960s for her playful yet visceral forms that merge organic and abstract elements, Benglis is placed in conversation with Giacometti, whose elongated figures and existential approach to the human form defined much of his practice. Together, their works reveal shared concerns and contrasts, creating a compelling exchange between past and present sculptural languages.
Date: 12 February – 31 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
Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends
Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends at the Young V&A offers a behind-the-scenes look at the craft of stop-motion animation. The exhibition showcases how Aardman’s beloved characters and imaginative worlds are brought to life, revealing the storytelling, models, sketches, and techniques that have made the studio’s animations iconic.
Date: 12 February – 15 November 2026. Location: Young V&A, Cambridge Heath Rd, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PA. Price: £11. Concessions apply. Book now
Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting
The National Portrait Gallery will open the UK’s first museum exhibition dedicated to Lucian Freud’s works on paper this week, exploring his lifelong focus on the human face and figure through drawing media such as pencil, ink, charcoal and etching. The exhibition will also include key paintings that reveal the relationship between his drawings and finished canvases. Ahead of the show, the Gallery has acquired 12 works from Freud’s estate, including eight etchings. These are now on display in a free archive exhibition, offering new insight into Freud’s creative process and working methods.
Date: 12 February - 4 May 2026, with tickets available from autumn 2025. Location: National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE. Price: from £23-25 / £25.50-27.50 with donation. Free for members. Book now
Portrait of a Young Man, 1944 (black crayon & white chalk on paper) © The Lucian Freud Archive. All Rights Reserved 2025 / Bridgeman Images. Private Collection.
Klára Hosnedlová
Klára Hosnedlová’s solo exhibition Echo opens at White Cube Bermondsey, marking the artist’s debut with the gallery. Her distinctive multidisciplinary practice, spanning sculpture, performance, architecture, and intricate embroidery, creates immersive installations that draw on historical narratives, utopian design, and Central-Eastern European architectural forms, evoking futuristic archaeological worlds.
Date: 11 February – 29 March 2026. Location: White Cube Bermondsey, 144–152 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3TQ. Price: Free. whitecube.com
The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Seurat and the Sea
The much-anticipated first exhibition dedicated to Georges Seurat’s seascapes opens at the Courtauld Gallery this week. The landmark show is also the first UK exhibition to focus on Seurat in nearly 30 years. Featuring around 25 works, including paintings, oil sketches and drawings, it explores how Seurat developed his pioneering Neo-Impressionist technique during five summers spent on the northern coast of France between 1885 and 1890. Best known for his use of tiny dots of pure colour to capture light and form, Seurat died aged just 31, leaving behind a small but hugely influential body of work.
Date: 13 February – 17 May 2026. Location: Denise Coates Exhibition Galleries, Floor 3, The Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN. Price: £18. Concessions available. Book now
Klára Hosnedlová, Untitled (from the series embrace), 2025 © Klára Hosnedlová. Photo © Zdenek Porcal - Studio
Isaac Julien: All That Changes You. Metamorphosis
The world premiere of Isaac Julien’s acclaimed five-screen installation All That Changes You. Metamorphosis will open at Victoria Miro, accompanied by new photographic works. The exhibition presents Julien’s signature fusion of cinematic and sculptural forms, creating a dialogue between moving image and photography that examines identity, transformation, and contemporary social narratives.
Date: 13 February – 21 March 2026. Location: Victoria Miro, 16 Wharf Road, London N1 7RW. Price: Free. victoria-miro.com
Issac Julien, All That Changes You. Metamorphosis (2025) at Palazzo Te. Image credit © Isaac Julien
Last chance to see
Lee Miller
This is your last chance to experience Tate Britain’s major retrospective of Lee Miller, the most comprehensive exhibition of her extraordinary career, featuring around 230 works, including newly discovered prints and unseen archival material, tracing her journey from surrealist experiments in Paris and iconic British Vogue fashion photography to pioneering frontline war reportage, intimate self-portraits, and post-war work, celebrating her as a fiercely inventive artist and groundbreaking female photojournalist.
Date: 2 October 2025 – 15 February 2026. Location: Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Price: £20 (concessions available). Book now
Lee Miller, David E. Scherman dressed for war, London 1942. Lee Miller Archives. © Lee Miller Archives, England 2025. All rights reserved. leemiller.co.uk
#FLOFavourites: Pick of the Week
Free event of the week
Architecture Explorers: Family Trail
Architecture Explorers: Family Trail at the Southbank Centre. Image credit India Roper-Evans.
Architecture Explorers: Family Trail is a free, interactive activity inviting families to explore the Southbank Centre through a guided architectural journey. Designed especially for children aged five and over, the trail encourages young explorers, with help from their grown-ups, to discover unusual features and hidden details across the site while celebrating the Centre’s 75th birthday. Trail maps are available at the starting point, making it easy to drop in and take part. Co-designed by families alongside award-winning social enterprise MATT+FIONA, the trail offers a playful way to think about how buildings shape the spaces we share.
Date: 13 – 20 February 2026 (10am–4pm, closed Monday 16 February). Location: Blue Side Foyer, Level 2, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX. Price: Free (no ticket required). southbankcentre.co.uk
Fevered Sleep: This Grief Thing – Grief Gatherings
This Grief Thing – Grief Gatherings is a series of small, facilitated group conversations that invite people to come together to think, talk and learn about grief in a supportive and welcoming setting. Led by Fevered Sleep’s Artistic Directors, Sam Butler and David Harradine, the gatherings aim to address the silence that often surrounds grief and grieving, welcoming people from all walks of life. There is no obligation to speak, and participants are equally welcome to sit and listen. Part of The Grief Thing project and the wider Scene Change 2026 programme, the gatherings take place inside the accompanying Pop Up Shop at the Barbican.
Date: 15 – 21 February 2026. Location: Barbican Centre, Level G Studio, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Price: Free (ticketed, advance booking required). Book now
Art news of the week
V&A East launches with powerful debut exhibition exploring Black British music
Soulla Petrou, Mis-Teeq, 2003 © Photo by Soulla Petrou.
V&A East has announced that tickets are now on sale for its inaugural exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story, opening on Saturday 18 April 2026 at the new V&A East Museum on East Bank in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Click here for more.
Food of the week
Albers
Image courtesy of Albers.
Albers in De Beauvoir, East London, is a sunlit neighbourhood spot serving creative European small plates with a modern twist. From Fine de Claire oysters and butterflied mackerel to asparagus with stracciatella and seasonal cheese plates, the menu is fresh and ever-changing. With a curated wine list, signature cocktails, and a warm, sociable vibe, it’s the kind of place to linger, chat, and enjoy great food in a relaxed, stylish setting.
Location: 23A Englefield Rd, London N1 4JX. Website: albers.london Instagram @alberslondon.
Cause of the week
KEEN London
KEEN London
KEEN London is looking for Volunteer Coaches to join its passionate team and help empower young athletes to be the best they can be. Coaches provide one-to-one support during Saturday sessions from 10am to 2.30pm, helping athletes take part in activities, achieve personal development goals and enjoy a fun, inclusive environment. Sessions include playground and ball games, nature walks and creative activities, with occasional trips such as trampoline parks, high ropes courses, pedalo boating and slime-making workshops. Volunteer Coaches are central to the success of each session, playing a vital role in creating positive and meaningful experiences for every athlete.
Click here to apply for volunteering.
