AboutLondon Laura – January 2025
Did you try any of my recommendations from last month? Not on my list, but a venue to put on your radar for the future, I saw the Daniel Lismore solo painting exhibition at the Farsight Gallery.
And I stopped by the Royal Academy to see Flaming June again as this wonderful painting is only on display in London until 12 January 2025.
2025 in London
I won't be living in London for much of 2025 as my house has sold (subject to everything that happens before the money and keys are exchanged). But I will be returning to the capital regularly as there is much I want to see. Here’s your inspiration to plan many London trips throughout the year too.
January 2025
The Royal Observatory Greenwich celebrates its 350th anniversary in 2025. Founded by Charles II in 1675 to solve the problem of finding longitude at sea and save sailors’ lives, the Royal Observatory Greenwich also became the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian, making it one of the most important historic scientific sites in the world.
In this landmark year, the Royal Observatory will have a series of events and activities to celebrate the rich history of the site and the latest research. I’ve always been tempted by the amateur astronomy courses but I like the planetarium shows too.
Daily tours will focus on 350 years of the Royal Observatory as a home to the Astronomers Royal and explain how and why the Royal Observatory became the centre of time.
Have you ever stopped to see the time ball drop at Flamsteed House at the Royal Observatory? This photo brings back memories of a fun day out in Greenwich with Mar Dixon – a friend who died in 2024.
February 2025
After my joy over the Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London at the Fashion & Textile Museum, I’m very much looking forward to Leigh Bowery! at Tate Modern (27 February – 31 August 2025).
Leigh Bowery’s short but extraordinary life left an undeniable mark on the art world and beyond. Known variously as an artist, performer, club kid, model, TV personality, fashion designer and musician, Bowery took on many different roles but always refused to be limited by convention.
He reimagined clothing and makeup as forms of sculpture and painting while testing the limits of decorum. Tate Modern will bring together Bowery’s outlandish and dazzling costumes alongside paintings, photography and videos to explore how he changed art, fashion and popular culture forever.
March 2025
The Wallace Collection has a major exhibition by Grayson Perry to mark the artist’s 65th birthday. Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur (28 March–26 October 2025) will be the largest contemporary exhibition ever held at the museum. It’ll include ceramics, tapestries, furniture and collage, displayed alongside some of the Wallace Collection’s masterpieces which helped inspire and shape Perry’s vision for this landmark exhibition.
April 2025
In the first major exhibition on mudlarking, London Museum Docklands has Secret Thames (from 4 April 2025). It’ll explore fascinating finds from the foreshore of the River Thames and discover the role of mudlarks in uncovering thousands of years of history.
In this experiential exhibition, there will be a recreated foreshore. Without getting muddy shoes, we’ll be able to uncover never-before-seen finds and the often surprising stories behind them, plus have a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how they are recorded and researched.
May 2025
A double whammy for cultural institution anniversaries this month, the National Gallery celebrates NG200 by reopening the Sainsbury Wing on 15 May 2025, and Tate Modern marks its 25th anniversary with birthday celebrations from 9 to 12 May 2025.
The National Gallery is also undergoing a once-in-a-lifetime redisplay of over 1,000 works of art alongside new loans (available to see from 10 May 2025). And Tate Modern will display around the building a host of recent additions to Tate’s collection and some of the most iconic works from Tate Modern’s history will return. That includes Louise Bourgeois’s giant bronze spider coming back to the Turbine Hall. (This 10-metre-high monumental sculpture was the first work to greet visitors when Tate Modern opened in 2000.)
June 2025
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2025 (17 June–17 August 2025) – the world’s largest open submission contemporary art show – will be in its 257th year. It provides a unique platform for emerging and established artists to showcase their works from painting, printmaking and photography, to sculpture, architecture and film. Around 1,200 works will go on display, the majority of which will be for sale.
July 2025
2024 was a record-breaking year when Buckingham Palace welcomed the most visitors in the history of its summer opening. The Summer Opening of Buckingham Palace (10 July–28 September 2025) allows us to wander around the opulent State Rooms used by members of the Royal Family for official entertaining, including the White Drawing Room, Throne Room and Ballroom.
August 2025
The first UK exhibition in nearly 50 years dedicated to Jean-François Millet (1814–1875) will open at the National Gallery this summer. Millet: Life On The Land (7 August–19 October 2025) coincides with the 150th anniversary of Millet’s death and presents around 13 paintings and drawings from British public collections. It will include the National Gallery’s The Winnower (about 1847‒8), and the exceptional loan of L’Angelus (1857‒9) from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Oh, and this one is completely free.
September 2025
Blitz: the club that shaped the 80s (19 September 2025–29 March 2026) at the Design Museum is a sensory extravaganza of music, flamboyant fashions, pioneering art, film and graphic design. This small London nightclub brought together the brightest young talents of their generation to revolutionise fashion, music and design.
October 2025
Cecil Beaton's Fashionable World (9 October 2025–11 January 2026) at the National Portrait Gallery looks at the work of the renowned fashion illustrator, Oscar-winning costume designer, social caricaturist and writer. He elevated fashion and portrait photography into an art form capturing beauty, glamour and star power in the interwar and early post-war eras.
The exhibition will showcase Beaton at his most triumphant – from the Jazz Age and the Bright Young Things to the high fashion brilliance of the Fifties and the glittering, Oscar-winning success of My Fair Lady. From 1939 as a royal photographer, by appointment to the House of Windsor, he propelled the monarchy into the modern age.
November 2025
Turner & Constable (27 November 2025–12 April 2026) at Tate Britain will bring together Britain’s most famous artistic rivals, marking the 250th anniversary of their births. These two great artists vied for success through very different but equally bold approaches, transforming landscape painting in the process. This exhibition will allow us to directly compare their spectacular works and see how their rivalry changed the course of British art.
December 2025
Global Pictorialism (4 December 2025–25 May 2026) at Tate Modern is a major photography exhibition about the international movement which first transformed the camera into an artistic tool. It will show how photographers from Shanghai to Sydney, New York to Cape Town, and Brazil to Singapore created beautiful and atmospheric images between the 1880s and 1960s, using experimental new techniques to redefine photography as an art form.
I hope these curated suggestions give you plenty of reasons to enjoy London in 2025. Happy New Year!
A very useful list, thanks Laura - and great to see you on Substack.