All weekend
LUNAR NEW YEAR: Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year officially falls on Tuesday 17 February, welcoming in the Year of the Horse. Take a look at the events going on in London this weekend to celebrate, including family festivals such as the Lunar New Year event at London Museum Docklands (21-22 February) and in Greenwich Peninsula (21 February). There’s also a parade through central London on Sunday — full details here.
FEBRUARY HALF TERM: Octonauts, Wallace & Gromit, Florence Nightingale… just some of your options for keeping kids and teenagers amused in London during half term. Our guide spans special events, exhibitions and theatre shows for all ages, including some free ideas.
SIX NATIONS: With fixtures on both Saturday and Sunday this week, take a look at our guide to pubs, bars and other venues screening the Six Nations in London, and book your seat, pronto.
GO EAST VINTAGE: Over 40 vintage and independent traders have stalls at the Go East Vintage market, which pops up at Tanner Street in Bermondsey for the weekend. Browse and buy vintage and antique furniture, lighting, homeware, art, vinyl, fashion and jewellery, inside an historic warehouse. 21-22 February 2026
SPACE AT NHM: Could life exist beyond Earth? That’s the topic of the current space-themed exhibition at the Natural History Museum, which showcases evidence that life could exist elsewhere in the universe. Highlights include a chance to touch a piece of the Moon, smell the moons of Jupiter, and to drive a mini Mars rover. It closes this weekend, so you’d better take off promptly! Until 22 February 2026
BACK OF THE CLASS: Onjali Q. Raúf’s novel The Boy At The Back Of The Class has been adapted for the stage, and is performed at the Rose Theatre Kingston, suitable for ages seven+. When a new boy arrives at school from a war-torn country, his classmates come up with a magnificent plan to reunite Ahmet with his family. Until 22 February 2026. If you miss it here, catch it at Southbank Centre in April instead.
SUBLIME SPACE: The Heath Robinson Museum’s exhibition, Sublime Space, showcases work by William Heath Robinson alongside nine contemporary artists, David Inshaw, Ray Richardson, Jemma Powell, Jonathan McCree, Sue Arrowsmith, Daniel Sturgis, Peter Coyte, Ralph Steadman and Barnaby Barford — to explore our relationship with nature and landscape. Until 22 February 2026
WAYNE MCGREGOR: Celebrated choreographer Wayne McGregor is the subject of Infinite Bodies at Somerset House, offering an insight into his three-decade career through multi-sensory choreographic installations, performances and experiments. Until 22 February 2026
TA-DA!: How many times has someone told you — the tears of laughter still glimmering in their eyes — “I saw an amazingly funny Google Slides presentation last night!’? That’ll be you if you manage to score tickets for ta-da!, Josh Sharp’s miraculously brilliant Soho Theatre show, which rakes back over his sexually-repressed adolescence, via a presentation involving exactly 2,000 slides. It magics up a ★★★★★ review from us. Until 28 February
OBJECTS OF ENCHANTMENT: A teacup, a toy and a chair are among the workaday objects elevated to ‘museum-worthy’ status in Wimbledon Museum’s current exhibition Objects of Enchantment. Artist in Residence Alastair Gordon places the everyday on a plinth, in a bid to reinterpret familiar things and invite visitors to reflect on what makes something worthy of attention. The museum’s open Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons. FREE, Until 29 March
NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE: Bloomsbury’s Bertha DocHouse screens newly-released film Fukushima: A Nuclear Nightmare, which chronicles the 2011 earthquake and tsunami which breached the Fukushima nuclear plant’s 10-metre-high seawalls, paving the way for a potentially huge disaster. 20-26 February 2026
Saturday 21 February
IMAGINE FESTIVAL: Today’s the final day of Imagine at Southbank Centre, celebrating fun and creativity through all manner of kid-focussed events, including performances and workshops. Catch a production of Quentin Blake’s Mrs Armitage on Wheels, a Tongue Fu poetry performance for kids, or get creative on a giant chalkboard. From 10.30am
BLACK FILM CLUB: Dugdale Arts Centre’s regular Black Film Club is presented by Enfield Caribbean Association, and screens films showcasing Black talent, filmmakers, stories, voices and actors, across all genres for all audiences. Today, see 2024 release Wicked, starring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba alongside Ariana Grande’s Glinda. 11am
VETERINARY MARVELS: ZSL’s 200th anniversary celebrations continue with a history tour themed on the marvels of veterinary medicine. Meet at the main entrance and hear about pioneering technology over the past two centuries, including how the zoo created prosthetics for a one-legged raven. 11.30am
MEET MARY SEACOLE: A semi-regular opportunity for visitors to Lambeth’s Florence Nightingale Museum to encounter an actor in the role of Mary Seacole, and learn how she helped soldiers during the Crimean War. There are three performances, each 30 minutes long, and included in museum admission. 11.30am/1.30pm/3.30pm
PAPERCRAFT WORKSHOP: Join poets and friends Julia Bird and Mike Sims for an afternoon of John Keats-themed papercraft at Keats House in Hampstead, and make your own personal ‘little book’ to take home. Turn your favourite poem or piece of your own writing into a concertina book with all materials provided, along with tea and cake. 2pm-4pm
ART WALK-THROUGH: Londonist art critic Tabish Khan leads a guided walk-through of the FLOW exhibition at SEAGER Gallery in Deptford. He’s in conversation with the four participating artists, Melitta Nemeth, Lucy Cade, Alex Fox and Georgia Peskett, offering an intimate insight into the artworks on view. 4pm-5.30pm
SPACE BY LUXMURALIS: Trafalgar Square church St Martin-in-the-Fields gets a glow-up as light show wizards Luxmuralis take over the building. Space uses sound and light both inside and outside the building to explore humanity’s relationship with space, including footage of the first rocket launch. 5.30pm-9pm
GALLERY LATE: Dulwich Picture Gallery stays open for an Out Of Frame Late, a special after-hours event celebrating LGBTQI+ stories and histories in art at the Gallery. The programme includes tours, performances and art workshops, including a look at androgyny, cross-dressing, kings that were queens, and saucy saints in the artworks around you. FREE, 6pm-10pm
BALLET SHOES: Noel Streatfeild’s children’s book Ballet Shoes comes to life on stage at the National Theatre, telling the story of three adopted sisters who fight to pursue their individual passions. Tonight’s performance is the last of the run. Age seven+. 7pm
PIANO RECITAL: Argentine pianist Alberto Portugheis offers an evening of live music at the David Josefowitz Concert Hall in the Royal Academy of Music. 7.30pm
THE BODYGUARD: Award-winning musical The Bodyguard is at the New Wimbledon Theatre, starring Sidonie Smith as Rachel Marron and Adam Garcia as Frank Farmer, using the songs of Whitney Houston to tell the story of a former Secret Service agent turned bodyguard who is hired to protect a superstar from an unknown stalker. 2.30pm/7.30pm
KX COMEDY CLUB: Paul Tonkinson, Mike Gunn and an as-yet-unnamed support act form the line-up for tonight’s KX Comedy Club, a new weekly chucklesome event at the Parcel Yard in King’s Cross. 8pm
CHURCHILL COMEDY CLUB: Or, for alternative laughs, head to Bromley’s Churchill Theatre, where Churchill Comedy Club brings together comics from the circuit and TV in a double headliner show. Exact acts TBC, but we know it’s helmed by resident host Carly Smallman. 8pm
SCARED TO DANCE: Rock band Lime Garden take to the decks as guest DJs at alternative club night Scared To Dance. The Shacklewell Arms in Dalston is the venue for an evening of tunes by the likes of David Bowie, Phoebe Bridgers, Kate Bush, The Velvet Underground and Wolf Alice. 11pm
Sunday 22 February
ANTIQUES FAIR: The monthly Adams Antiques Fair rolls back into the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster with over 120 exhibitors selling antique jewellery, silver, decorative pieces and collectables. The event was first established in the 1970s, so it’s fair to say they know what they’re doing. Queues tend to build before the doors open: arrive early to be one of the first inside. 10am-4.30pm
BOROUGH AND BANKSIDE: Footprints of London guide Trevor Mayhew leads a walking tour through Borough and Bankside, focusing on the area’s history, as shaped by its proximity to the City of London. Begin at St George the Martyr in Southwark and end at Borough Market, hearing tales of Shakespeare, brothels and bear-baiting as you go. 10.30am
BRAVE BETTIE: Woodland adventure Brave Bettie comes to the stage at Stanley Arts in Norwood, telling the story of a young girl who loves the forest, and must fight for what she believes in when the council threatens to chop it down. The show features poetry, songs, live music and stories from writer Tatenda Naomi Matsvai’s home heritage in Zimbabwe, and is most suitable for ages three-eight. 11am/2pm
THE GREATEST SHOWMAN: Leicester Square’s Prince Charles Cinema hosts a sing-along screening of 2017 musical film The Greatest Showman. Join in as Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams and Zac Efron do their thing, with a live host on hand to teach you the dance moves. 12.30pm
AISLING BEA: Comedian Aisling Bea shapes her latest show in a work-in-progress performance at the Pleasance Theatre. Notes in hand, she performs for about 90 minutes, honing ahead of her UK and Ireland tour. 3pm
ONLINE WAR TALK: Join Black History Walks for a virtual talk about the importance of the Caribbean during the Second World War. Colin Douglas, author of a book on the topic, highlights the Caribbean contribution to the war effort in the form of raw materials and personnel, without which Britain may have struggled to avoid German invasion. 5.30pm
COLLYWOBBLERS COMEDY: Nick Helm, CK Nath, Claudia Trentino, Sean Little, Bert Broadbent and a special guest TBC are on the programme for Collywobblers Comedy at The Railway in Streatham. Sion James MCs, and if you fancy having dinner there too, ticket holders get a 30% food discount for orders placed pre-show. 7pm
