Unmissable Things To Do In London in September 2026
Chill out! It’s our September list of Unmissable Things To Do in London!
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf | The Yard Theatre | From 2 September
A new production brings Ntozake Shange’s 50 year old choreopoem into Hackney Wick.
Stamptown | Soho Theatre Walthamstow | 3-5 September | From £25
Zack Zucker’s batshit stadium chaos comedy has reached the gorgeous Soho Walthamstow. Pabst Blue Ribbon at the ready!
The Sirrah Sisters Present – Much Ado About Nothing | The Lady Garden | 3 September | From £13.70
An all-female and non-binary cast turn Shakespeare’s classic into a romcom.
London Mid-Autumn Festival | Goldsmiths, University of London | 5 & 6 September | £2
Yummy food and culture from around the East-Asian diaspora.
National Cinema Weekend | Cinemas Nationwide | 5 & 6 September | £4
£4 cinema tickets for an epic movie weekend. Maybe it’s finally time to see The Odyssey (bring a cushion)? Or perhaps something a little more offbeat like Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma?
The Art Car Boot Fair | Lewis Cubitt Square | 5 September | From £5
The tongue in cheek artsy farty community come together for a delightful day of accessible art.
LOUD WOMEN Fest LDN | Rich Mix | 5 September | From £6
London brace yourselves for a DIY art punk festival full of unmissable bands.
Tapestry of Black Britons | Bernie Grant Arts Centre | 8 September | Free
A celebration of new woven exhibition Tapestry of Black Britons, curated by Paula Ogun Hector.
Our Eyes Looking for God | Barbican | 9-13 September | From £39
‘An opera. A ghost story. A love story. Black boy joy and Black boy nightmares. ‘ One not to miss at the Barbican. Opera not for you? Try this.
Romantic World of Barbara Cartland | British Library | 10 September | £12
BBC Radio 3’s Matthew Sweet and Shahidha Bari discuss the impact of kitsch cultural icon and writer of more than 720 books, Dame Barbara Cartland.
Image Credit: Stephen Shepherd / Alamy
b-side festival 2026 That Other Place | Portland, Dorset | 10-13 September | Free
Get outside the M25 to Dorset to discover the offbeat events happening on the Isle of Portland.
Select/26 | Photofusion | From 10 September | Free
Photographers Maura Jamieson, Deepthi Muralibabu, Naomi Woddis and Maxwell Anderson are given space to explore legacy and community displacement in this powerful exhibition.
SET’s 10th Birthday | SET Social | 10-12 September | From £9
DIY art heaven SET celebrate 10 years of supporting extraordinary culture and community in their venues.
Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival 2026 | Strawberry Hill House | 10-13 September | £30
Flower festival with installations peppered all over the stunning faery wonderland of Strawberry Hill House.
Taste of Iceland London | Multiple Venues | 10 September
Not the supermarket but a celebration of Iceland’s contemporary culture including bands like Inspector Spacetime. Will it tempt you to go?
Creative Intelligence | Southbank Centre | 11-13 September
There is a pretty hefty pricetag attached to the industry day ‘summit’ at the heart of this future thinking festival, even though it is supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). However, there are plenty of associated free artworks, events and experiences around the Southbank Centre’s massive riverside site, as well as less spenny paid-for events with the likes of Jack Thorne and Holly Herndon.
Memories of Care: Trans+ Contributions to Health, Culture and Social Justice | Wellcome Collection | 12 September | Free
A day of events (some ticketed) on trans+ contributions in healthcare and social justice.
The Music Is Black: Black to the Future | The Yard Theatre | 13 September | Free
A free day of Black British music, across two venues in one Hackney Wick yard as part of the V&A’s The Music is Black series.
Housemates Festival | Brixton House | 15-19 September | £17
This daring festival comes with ideas from the dark world of London’s first assisted suicide clinic in Goodbye (pictured above) to the trials of gay Muslim men in We can’t be friends.
Fleurs de Villes DIANA in Support of The Diana Award | Somerset House | From 16 September | £34.25
The cultural and visual legacy of Diana is celebrated through floral artworks at Somerset House for charity.
Film Screening: Omnipresentes (2026) | The Cinema Museum | 18 September | From £10
A Peruvian zombie movie in a grainy black and white world.
Pelargoniums in the Park | Battersea Park Library | 19 & 26 September | Free
Discover Battersea Park’s famous Sub-Tropical Garden’s hidden histories rooted in Africa through the tale of African Perlagoniums being mislabelled as geraniums in Victorian times.
This Is My Life: Duckie Salutes Shirley Bassey | Southbank Centre | 20 September | From £18
Salute the Welsh diva, Shirley Bassey with dancing, cabaret, drag and debate.
The First Year (of the Gaza Genocide in the Media) | New Diorama Theatre | From 22 September | £19
Featuring an all-Palestinian and Palestinian heritage ensemble BÉZNĂ Theatre presents a unmissable and eye-opening multimedia investigation into the relationship between mainstream media, public opinion, and state crime. Unmissable political theatre at New Diorama Theatre.
Tibet Film Festival | Kagyu Samye Dzong | 25-27 September | £5
The place to be to see contemporary Tibetan cinema.
Frankie Monroe: DEAD AND ALIVE!!!! | Soho Theatre Walthamstow | 26 September | £23.50
Frankie Monroe is more horrible than ever.
The City for Incurable Women | Old Operating Theatre Museum | 28 September | £25
A tale of medical misogyny exploring female hysteria which was ‘performed’ in Victorian times.
Return to Palestine | Pleasance London | From 30 September | £16
Join Jad, an American-born Palestinian, on his first journey to Palestine.
Bull | Park Theatre | From 30 September | From £15
Deafinitely Theatre adapts Mike Bartlett’s play Bull to explore bullying in BSL and spoken English.
Did we forget any unmissable things to do in London? We almost certainly did – please let us know in the comments below or contact us!
I am Joint Editor at To Do List. I like: nice pubs, film marathons, not doing real marathons, bad comedy, plays/musicals with shorter second halves, and the Oxford comma.
