This is the week London becomes a photography city. Photo London moves to Olympia for its eleventh edition — bigger, grander, with Steven Meisel as Master of Photography showing work from his very first London assignment. At the Royal Court, Gary Oldman is on stage for the first time in years, playing Beckett’s Krapp with the kind of haunted precision the critics are calling unmissable. Tonight, the Royal Opera House opens a new Samson et Dalila with Aigul Akhmetshina. At the King’s Head, Rosie Holt and Stewart Lee premiere a play about the urinal Rachel Reeves found in her office. The London Coffee Festival fills Brick Lane. The last days of London Craft Week scatter open studios and workshops across the city. And at the Courtauld, Seurat’s luminous seascapes hang for four more days — a once-in-a-lifetime gathering of paintings that will scatter back to museums across Europe on Saturday night. Go before they go.
Olympia, Kensington · Wed 14 – Sat 17 May · From £28 (VIP preview tonight)
The UK’s leading photography fair moves to Olympia for its eleventh edition — and the extra space changes everything. Over a hundred international galleries fill the vaulted halls with historic and contemporary photography. The headline: Steven Meisel, perhaps the most influential fashion photographer alive and famously exhibition-shy, shows images from his first professional assignment in London. A new section called Source, curated by Tristan Lund, is devoted to solo presentations of significant cultural weight. For the first time, there’s a dedicated screening room for artist film. Galleries like The Photographers’ Gallery, Goodman Gallery, HackelBury and Flowers return alongside newcomers from Paris, Mumbai and Tokyo. This is the week to see photography taken seriously as an art form. Thursday evening is the public opening; go then, before the Saturday crowds.
Royal Court Theatre · Until 30 May · £15 Mondays (sold out, but returns and day tickets available)
Gary Oldman returns to the stage. Beckett’s one-man elegy about an old man listening to recordings of his younger self, performed and directed by Oldman in the same room where the play debuted in 1958. The Guardian gave it four stars: “arresting” and “startling.” He is, to be clear, bloody good. Opening each night is Godot’s To-Do List, a new Beckett-inspired short by Jerwood New Playwright Leo Simpe-Asante. The run is technically sold out, but the Royal Court releases £15 tickets every Monday at 9am, and returned tickets appear throughout the week. This is one of the great actors of his generation doing one of the great plays of the twentieth century. Find a way in.
King’s Head Theatre · Opens today, 13 May · Until 6 Jun
Rosie Holt writes and stars, Stewart Lee contributes additional material, and Daniel Clarkson directs. The premise: a fearless female Chancellor of the Exchequer tries to remove the ancient urinal in her grace-and-favour bathroom — only to discover it was first used by Winston Churchill and therefore historically protected. Based on the real story of Rachel Reeves becoming the first woman in the role and finding a urinal she couldn’t get rid of. Political satire, institutional absurdity and plumbing. The team behind the sold-out The Crown Live reunites for something sharper. Opening night is tonight.
Royal Opera House · Opens tonight, 13 May · Six performances to 3 Jun · From £15
Richard Jones’s staging of Saint-Saëns’s grand opera returns to Covent Garden with a cast built around Aigul Akhmetshina as Dalila and SeokJong Baek as Samson. Alexander Soddy conducts. This is the opera of temptation, betrayal and a trial of faith — and Akhmetshina, still only twenty-seven, is one of the most exciting mezzo-sopranos in the world right now. Six performances across three weeks. Tonight is opening night.
Also This Week
The Truman Brewery, Brick Lane · Thu 14 – Sun 17 May · From £27
275 artisan coffee and food brands under one roof. Workshops from world-class baristas, the Coffee Masters competition, Latte Art Live, and a new cold brew championship. Industry days Thursday and Friday; the public weekend is Saturday and Sunday. Come hungry, leave wired.
Citywide · Until Sat 17 May · Many events free
The final days of the twelfth edition. Makers from 35 countries across 70 disciplines — open studios, workshops, demonstrations. Highlights: Sotheby’s Crafted series with a Secret Ceramics charity sale, Paul Smith’s water-jug commission by five British glassblowers, Rolls-Royce’s hand-sculpted 3D metalwork in Mayfair, and Atelier 76’s ceramics townhouse in west London.
Saatchi Gallery, King’s Road · Thu 14 – Sun 17 May · Free entry (Fri–Sun)
A hundred international antiquarian booksellers under one roof, themed this year around “Revolution” for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. First editions, manuscripts, maps and prints. Thursday evening is the private view; Friday to Sunday is open to all. Beautiful objects, beautiful gallery.
British Library · Sat 16 & Sun 17 May
Writers from 26 countries — Spain to Ukraine, the Faroes to Turkey — gather for two days of panels, readings and a headline Saturday evening event. Nino Haratischwili, Sara Stridsberg, Christy Lefteri, Wendy Erskine and Artem Chapeye among the names. Love, war, myth, translation and what literature can do when everything else fails.
Trafalgar Theatre · Now playing · Until 18 Jul
Catherine Tate as Mary Todd Lincoln in Cole Escola’s riotous satire. Won Best New Comedy at the Oliviers. The Independent asked if it could be the new Hamilton. Set in the chaotic weeks before Lincoln’s assassination, reimagined as a glitter bomb of theatrical absurdity. Seventy minutes, no interval, pure chaos.
Courtauld Gallery · Closes Sat 17 May · £18
The first exhibition ever devoted to Seurat’s seascapes. Twenty-six paintings, oil sketches and drawings from five summer trips to the northern coast of France between 1885 and 1890 — gathered from museums across Europe and now reunited for the only time. The pointillist light on water, the empty harbours, the stillness. General tickets are sold out but the gallery has extended late openings this final week: open until 8pm on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If there is one thing you do this week, make it this. Four days left.
4 days left
Old Vic · Closes Fri 23 May · From £20
Ten days left of Aaron Pierre’s electric West End debut as McMurphy, with Giles Terera as Chief Bromden and Olivia Williams as Nurse Ratched. Clint Dyer’s in-the-round staging at the Old Vic interrogates rebellion and institutional power. £20 day seats release at 10am. The run ends next Friday. Don’t leave it.
10 days left
Also closing: Banana Cabaret Farewell Festival at The Bedford, Balham (final gig 30 May). London Craft Week (Sat 17 May). Thomas Scheibitz: Bright Shadows at Sprüth Magers (Sat 16 May).
Shakespeare’s Globe · Now playing · Until 27 Jun · From £5 (standing)
The first time Brecht has been staged at the Globe. Michelle Terry plays the eponymous war profiteer in Anna Jordan’s new translation, directed by Elle While. A darkly hedonistic production filled with live music, biting humour and raw questions about survival, capitalism and complicity. The yard energy at the Globe turns Brecht’s epic theatre into something visceral. £5 groundling tickets make this the cheapest great theatre in London.
Now playing
Royal Hospital Chelsea · Tue 19 – Sat 23 May · From £77
Members’ days open Tuesday and Wednesday; the public arrives Thursday. This year: Tom Stuart-Smith previews the Tate Britain Clore Garden, Sarah Eberle — the most decorated garden designer in Chelsea history — creates an edge-lands garden for CPRE, and Frances Tophill designs the RHS & King’s Foundation Curious Garden. Themes are bolder colour, urban greening and biodiversity. The most beautiful week in SW3.
Opens next week
Arcade Covent Garden
6 Bedford Street, WC2 · Opens Thu 15 May
A new food hall on Bedford Street, a short walk from the Strand. Multiple concepts under one roof — burgers, Thai, pizza and more. A lunchtime option if you’re heading to or from the Courtauld or the theatreland this week. Opens Thursday.
Opens Thursday
Kawan
Chinatown · Opened 9 May
Nigel Ng — Uncle Roger — opens his first London restaurant with chef Daren Liew, formerly of Duddell’s and the Hakkasan Group. Malaysian-Chinese food in the heart of Chinatown. When a comedian with forty million YouTube subscribers opens a restaurant with a serious chef, the booking system tends to crash. First week of service.
Just opened
| May 20 |
MAAI. Nikita Pathakji — freshly crowned Champion of Champions on Great British Menu — opens her own restaurant in Clapham. Heritage-influenced cooking with great British produce. One to watch. |
| May 21 |
Whistler at Tate Britain. The first major European retrospective in thirty years of James McNeill Whistler. Nocturne in Black and Gold, the Arrangement in Grey and Black and two hundred more works. Opens 21 May, runs to 27 September. |
| May 24 |
Cross The Tracks. Jazz, funk, soul, hip-hop, jungle and drum & bass in Brockwell Park. One of the best one-day festivals in London, back for another year on the late May bank holiday weekend. |
Curated from Time Out, Londonist, The Nudge, Hot Dinners, Resident Advisor, Photo London, Courtauld Gallery, Royal Court Theatre, Royal Opera House, Shakespeare’s Globe, King’s Head Theatre, British Library, RHS & friends.
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Updated 13 May 2026