The Best Things to Do in London this November

Feeling festive yet? As the nights draw in and the streets sparkle with twinkling lights, London moves into party season – and we’re here to help you make the most of it. November in the capital sees the return of ice rinks in stunning locations, vintage markets packed with great gifts, major West End shows, and some excellent art and museum exhibitions. These are Broadsheet’s top picks.

For the first time ever in the UK, the complete set of Katsushika Hokusai’s series, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, will be on display at once. It’s a rare opportunity to get up close to some of the world’s most famous prints, created between 1830 and 1833. Exhibition curator Jane Findlay is particularly excited for visitors to enjoy the works as Hokusai intended them to be: “received as a sequence, not in isolation”, she tells Broadsheet. “I hope people can delight in Hokusai’s surprising perspectives of Fuji that are as playful as they are sublime. You’ll see recurring themes and visual play between the prints … [and] get a feel for the texture of the paper, the subtlety of the colours and the detail of the designs.”
Until January 17, 2027; dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

Male punk rockers have stolen the spotlight for long enough – so the Museum of Youth Culture is putting “she-punks” at the centre of its new exhibition God Save the Queens. Through film footage of performances and interviews, photography, art and artefacts, musicians like The Raincoats, Siouxsie Sioux and X-Ray Spex’s Poly Styrene, artists like Linder and Caroline Coon, and fashion designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Pam Hogg are celebrated as the pioneers they were and are.
Until November 22; museumofyouthculture.com

The 21st edition of the capital’s festival dedicated to South Korea’s flourishing film industry will take place across major venues including BFI Southbank and the Institute of Contemporary Arts. It opens with the UK premiere of The Journey to Gyeong-ju, Kim Mi-jo’s 2025 crime drama starring Parasite’s Lee Jung-eun as a grieving matriarch embarking on a road trip with her three daughters to avenge the murder of their youngest family member. The programme spans everything from award-winning horror to romantic drama and coming-of-age stories.
November 2–16; koreanfilm.co.uk

Pitchfork Music Festivalis back, taking over London venues from November 2 to 8 with artists spanning multiple genres. Electronic sample kings The Avalanches are playing at the Roundhouse, supported by Panda Bear & Sonic Boom, Arushi Jain, Shee, Debit and Hekt, while surrealist blues poet Aja Monet will take to the stage at Hackney Wick’s Colour Factory. Then there’s the Dalston Takeover on November 7, which spans venues including The Shacklewell Arms, Cafe Oto and The Victoria with artists like US rockers Diiv, Australian psych-rock band Psychedelic Porn Crumpets and West Yorkshire electronic post-punk group Working Men’s Club.
November 2–8; pitchforkmusicfestival.co.uk

More than 40 vintage traders, fashion sellers, furniture dealers and street food vendors will set up shop at Hackney Bridge – making it the perfect opportunity to secure your Christmas presents or furnish your flat.
November 8; eventbrite.co.uk

Following its sold-out run at the National Theatre, writer Stephen Beresford’s musical adaption of his 2014 film Pride is transferring to the Bridge Theatre. The film’s original director Matthew Marchus is on board for the stage, too – and as a musical, it captures the soaring emotional beats in this extraordinary true story of a group of young LGBTQ+ people in 1984, who travelled to the Welsh village of Onllwyn to support its striking miners.
November 12–May 8, 2027; pridethemusical.com

Dial up the cosy festive factor with toast-your-own s’mores and hot cocktails at Ham Yard Hotel’s annual winter pop-up. Your £19 ticket gets you access to the heated terrace, plus a Smoky Gimlet on arrival and s’mores by the fire pit. There are numerous Sapling Spirits cocktails on offer (including the Clementine Collins, a festive twist on the classic) – plus flatbreads cooked over fire with toppings like pumpkin, gorgonzola and sage.
November 12–December 23; firmdalehotels.com

Sink into a world of abstract painting at this group exhibition showcasing the work of three emerging painters. Each will present paintings on the theme of alchemy – an ancient practice dedicated to the changing states of matter and human participation in nature’s transitions. Look closely and you might spot plaster, marble dust and charcoal incorporated into the rugged Cornish coastlines depicted by May Cockcroft, or figures emerging from a vortex of colourful paint in the energetic paintings by Nour Malas.
November 13–January 23, 2027; victoria-miro.com

Ben Whishaw and Kathryn Hunter star in a darkly comic adaptation of Christian Kracht’s bestselling 2021 autobiographical novel. Eurotrash follows the story of a novelist who is invited to join his aging mother in Zurich on a chaotic road trip to give away her fortune, which carries a dark legacy. Tickets are nearly sold out for the Young Vic’s big show of the season – but it’s always a good idea to check online for returns.
November 13–January 9, 2027; youngvic.org

Ice rinks abound in London as Christmas approaches – but this year, our money’s on The Queen’s House as one of the most scenic spots to glide. It’s doubled in size this year while remaining the same capacity, and the views of the surrounding Old Naval College and Queen’s House are hard to beat. Pair your visit with a trip to the nearby Greenwich Market for some Christmas shopping.
November 18–January 3, 2027; thequeenshouseicerink.com

For wine-lovers, Beaujolais Day (November 19) is like Christmas. For the unacquainted it goes like this: on the third Thursday of November every year, winemakers from France’s Beaujolais region send their Beaujolais Nouveau wine (a young wine made from gamay grapes) across the world. And every year, a host of London wine bars and restaurants throw parties to celebrate the uncorking. Our picks? Noble Rot Lamb’s Conduit Street’s Fete du Beaujolais celebrations are always winners – and this year it’s going big, enlisting Bouchon Racine chef-patron Henry Harris to oversee dinner duties for one night only. He’ll be on the pans following the wine bar’s legendary free tasting, which runs from 4.30pm to 7pm and every year draws hordes of oenophiles into the bar and onto pavement outside to sip the new releases.

Over at Sune in Hackney, chef-patron of Margate’s Sargasso Will Gleave will cook a three-course lunch paired with half a carafe of Beaujolais Nouveau straight from the barrel; afterwards, the bar and restaurant will throw a party to bottle (and drink) the wine, accompanied by Lyonnaise hot dogs and an oyster stand. Meanwhile, The Buxton in Shoreditch is getting the team from Bristol’s Lapin in to cook for a party starring three new Beaujolais drops. And at Top Cuvee in Highbury, celebrations kick off with a two-for-one happy hour at 4pm, followed by two dinner sittings with food by current kitchen resident Firangi and bottomless pours of nouveau.
November 19

A highlight of November’s annual, city-wide EFG London Jazz Festival is sure to be this recreation of Peter Cat, the Tokyo jazz club that legendary author Haruki Murakami ran from 1974 to 1981. This two-night reimagining will host renowned Japanese jazz band The Blend as they perform spins on classics that visitors to Peter Cat would’ve listened to.
November 21–22; barbican.org.uk

Works from Eileen Agar, Salvador Dali, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Piet Mondrian and Vasily Kandinsky will go on display at the RA for Peggy Guggenheim in London, a new exhibition surveying the mark the collector and patron of the arts had on the contemporary art scene. Guggenheim opened her eponymous Mayfair gallery in 1938, presenting surrealist and abstract works, and in the process became instrumental in Britain’s avant-garde art movement. Her impact and the gallery’s role in the London art firmament are at the heart of the exhibition, which runs from November 21 to March 14, 2027.
November 21–March 14, 2027; royalacademy.org.uk

Hayward Gallery will host the first exhibition in a major institution of legendary photographer Nan Goldin’s work since 2002 when it opens Nan Goldin: You Never Did Anything Wrong on November 24 (it runs until March 14, 2027). Alongside her daring, groundbreaking archival work from the 1960s onwards, which documented “underground” subjects like drug addiction, the Aids crisis and LGBTQ+ culture, the exhibition will spotlight four recent Goldin films, including Memory Lost, which relates the experiences of the artist’s own drug addictions.
November 24–March 14, 2027; southbankcentre.co.uk

Belgravia’s Chelsea Barracksis bringing back its free winter fair for another year on November 28 and 29. Get your Christmas shopping out of the way early at its market, where more than 30 independent designers and craftspeople will show off their wares. Expect handmade ceramics from Langtons Pottery, linen clothes from Airy Li, British-made food provisions from The Henley Larder and architectural jewellery by Chalk Jewellery. Naturally, Father Christmas will be present and there will be hot chocolate on the pour, choir performances and other festive activities.
November 28 & 29; chelseabarracks.com

The landmark new London Museum opens in the Victorian-era Smithfield General Market on November 28, bringing an entirely new way to celebrate our city to the capital. At the museum’s core is three pillars: Real Time, an exhibition that captures London as it is now; Our Time, with 13 installations that showcase London in living memory; and Past Time, which offers a run-through of the capital’s history. Highlights of the collection will include the famous Whitechapel Fatberg, Banksy’s Piranha’s and Emmeline Pankhurst’s hunger strike medal, plus there’ll be archaeological artefacts including Roman writing tablets. A slate of restaurants and bars, as well as an events programme that includes a monthly Saturday party, supper clubs starring London’s leading chefs and Friday and Saturday lates round out the offering.
Opens on November 28. londonmuseum.org.uk