Not sure what’s on this September in the City of London? We have you covered. From the opportunity to explore spaces not normally open to the public, free family activities, fascinating tours, theatre productions, markets and more there’s something for everyone on our list of things to do in the City of London this month!
Keep on reading to discover some of the best things to do in the City of London this September.
The annual London-wide festival is back this September and the City of London has a rich array of ancient and modern buildings to explore for free through the festival.
Open House Festival is a celebration of London’s buildings, architecture, and neighbourhoods and the City of London has over 70 things to see and do between 14 to 22 September. Get ready to explore a broad range of major historic spaces, domestic spaces, livery halls, modern buildings and listen to fascinating expert tours and talks all for free.
Read our guide to Open House Festival 2024 to discover everything that will be on in the City of London and find places to eat and drink while you explore.
Apothecaries Hall in the City of London. Photo courtesy of the venue.
Archaeologist Dr Andrew Lane is once again leading a fascinating tour of the ancient Roman city where visitors will see London’s Roman Amphitheatre, part of the Roman city wall, before finishing in the rarely accessible remains of the Roman Fort Gate.
The destruction caused by the Second World War gave archaeologists an opportunity to start exploring this little understood part of the Roman city. Over the course of one and a half hours, seize the opportunity to learn more about this incredibly rich history.
Tickets must be booked in advance!
Returning for its third edition, London Sculpture Week celebrates London’s vibrant creative spirit by transforming public spaces with striking outdoor sculptures. Running from 21 to 29 September, the event unites four major cultural initiatives – Frieze Sculpture, the Fourth Plinth, Sculpture in the City, and The Line – to invigorate London's public spaces and highlight the transformative power of public art in the city.
To coincide with London Sculpture Week, Sculpture in the City is offering an exciting and diverse programme of events. If you’re a local worker, a family with young ones, student or cultural seeker, there’s something for everyone.
Copyright Clare Burnett. Photo © Nick Turpin
Taking place on 22 September from 12 to 4pm, Thames Day is a fun day of family activities where your little ones can unleash their creativity, enjoy live music as well as brilliantly fun walkabout acts while tucking into some delicious food and exploring the Thames Lens photography exhibition. There will even be a face painter! Learn about the riverways from organisations and charities including The Ahoy Centre and the Port of London Authority, who will also be showcasing the incredible work they do.
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Head on over to Baker’s Hall on 11 September for a lunchtime concert with the multi-talented duo, Eleanor Grant and Gus McQuade who have been captivating audiences with their unique combination of voice, guitar and double bass since their debut recital at Wigmore Hall in 2023.
Their concert programme encompasses a wide range of musical genres, from 16th-century lute songs to their own up-tempo arrangements of modern folk, jazz and original compositions, all presented with a winning combination of intimate storytelling and stunning musicianship.
Courtesy of City Music Foundation.
For more than four decades, Goldsmiths’ Fair has brought together a selection of the UK’s best contemporary jewellers and silversmiths.
With 136 exhibitors working across different disciplines and materials, the Fair gives visitors the opportunity to buy directly from makers and to discuss their skills, practices and inspirations, accompanied by a dedicated talks programme and exhibitions.
Goldsmiths' Fair 2024. Courtesy of the venue.
A long-established charity event, celebrating a Freeman’s ancient “right” to bring sheep to market over the Thames, toll free; all in aid of raising funds for The Woolmen Charity and The Lord Mayor’s Appeal. This year’s Sheep Drive will take place on Southwark Bridge.
Located on Queen Street and Queen Street Place, the magnificent Livery Fair offers visitors the opportunity to learn all about the Sheep Drive and the wonderful causes it supports and where livery and specialist wool companies celebrate their trades with interactive displays and sales of their wares. Other fun activities include expert blade shearing displays and some wonderful rare breed sheep!
There will also be a special celebrity guest!
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Get involved in the Giant Dolls House project at Guildhall Art Gallery on 14 September. Guildhall Art Gallery's September Second Saturday brings a special collaboration with The Giant Dolls House Project celebrating Open House festival across the City of London. Join them for a day workshop at the Gallery designing your own shoebox building, home or place as part of growing installation that will be displayed in Guildhall Art Gallery. When you're finished making your shoebox building, head into the Gallery for a story corner with library, cushions, costumes, and soft play building bricks.
Take a children’s Sculpture in the City Tour on 14 September and journey through the City with friendly dragons and their sculptural adventures! On this tour children aged 5 to 12 years and their grown-ups can explore the world-class sculptures from the 13th Edition of Sculpture in the City through fun and creative activities.
Children’s Tour, Sept 2023, photo credit: Mickey Lee
September is the last month to attend one of the fantastic markets at Leadenhall Market. On Saturday 14 September SoLo Craft Fair will be back in the Victorian marketplace with its unique hand-crafted art, jewellery, home accessories, children’s toys and more, from a pool of carefully-selected, talented crafters.
If you are planning on visiting, remember to register for free to attend.
SoLo Craft Fair.
Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned player, a top-notch facility has been designed to provide participants with an exceptional game of Pickleball nestled in the Crescent, a gem stone’s throw from the Tower of London. Simply find your team mates, book your space in advance and be ready to enjoy a fun-filled session of pickleball.
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Get ready to travel back in time to the Middle Ages at the fascinating mudlarking exhibition at St Paul’s Cathedral this month, where visitors will have the chance to handle medieval artefacts recovered by mudlarks from the River Thames.
Visitors will be able to see some of the personal belongings which people escaping from the Great Fire of London lost as they crossed the river fleeing from the all-consuming inferno. Within the stone walls of the magnificent cathedral, mudlarks will display thousands of historic artefacts from their private collections.
This month Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum is filling The Curve at the Barbican Centre with theatrical installations, building an imagined world in which to display her paintings. Featuring drawing, painting and installation, Sunstrum’s artworks reflect her experience of living across Africa, Southeast Asia, and North America. Her boundary-crossing practice is imbued with formative experiences of a life lived at, across, and in the liminal spaces between borders, alongside notions of home and wholeness.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum DYNASTY (commissioned by MOCA Toronto for GTA21), 2021 © Image courtesy the artist and MOCA Toronto. Photo Credit: Toni Hafkenscheid
The City of London is brimming with fascinating exhibitions, and what better way to spend your lunch break than wandering around one of them and learning something new. The deeply personal and endlesley imaginative Anne Desmet: Kaleidoscope/London at Guildhall Art Gallery has been extended until 12 January 2025. Tucked away in Guildhall Art Gallery, you will also find the Heritage Gallery which is showing a free display celebrating 130 years of Tower Bridge until 19 September with previously unseen Tower Bridge archives.
On the riverside of the City of London, the new Thames Lens exhibition has landed and will be in place from 30 August to 30 September showcasing winners and shortlisters from the last 19 years of the Thames Lens photography competition.
If you were away in August and didn’t have the chance to catch the Victorian London in Photographs exhibition outside of St Paul’s Cathedral, don’t worry! It is now moving to Aldgate Square from 30 August to 29 September where visitors will be able to see an extraordinary range of photographs from Queen Victoria’s reign which record the city and its people in stunning detail.
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Head down to one of these outdoor screens to support Team GB in the Paris 2024 Paralympics. There are screens in Seething Lane Garden (near Tower Bridge) and Exchange Square (near Broadgate Circle and Liverpool Street).
Image courtesy of EC BID © Mickey Lee
Blast off into the autumn event season with Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Whether you’re a fan of classical music, emerging jazz talent, modernised operas or gripping theatre that explores love, life and society - they’ve got something for you, whatever your taste.
Courtesy of Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
City of London Guides offer daily, weekly and monthly walking tours around the City of London on topics including the Romans, Christoper Wren's architecture, The Great Fire of London, the Dark Side of the City, Secrets & Symbols and more.
Book your space in advance and discover the fascinating stories and history of the City of London.
Photo Credit: Niki Gorick Photography
Beneath the streets and cobbled pathways of the City of London lies a wealth of Roman history surviving 2000 years of building, fire and bombings. Underneath an unremarkable office building you will find the protected archaeological remains of Billingsgate Roman House and Baths. Preserved in immaculate condition, as if the archaeologists have just left the site, visitors with their City Guide can explore this extraordinary glimpse into Roman City life.
Billingsgate Roman House & Baths can only be accessed by guided tour on Saturdays between April and November and requires advance booking.
Billingsgate Roman House and Bath.
The season is changing and with it comes the last few weeks of some of the beautiful summer terraces as we start to make way for cosy Autumn vibes. This is the last month to make the most of the summer terraces at Pan Pacific, the Engel Terrace at the Royal Exchange and the Barbican Lakeside Lounge.
Engel will also be celebrating Oktoberfest this year! Try foaming steins of German lager on for size — not to mention bottles of fine champagne, with luxury wurst to keep you going long into the evening. Engel specialises not only in the taste of the Berlin twenties but its sights and sounds too. Head down Wednesday and Thursday from 7.30 to 9.30 to experience the bar's flamboyant cabaret performances — not to be missed!
Credit: Eleonora Boscarelli
Hailed as 'the ultimate Broadway musical from the golden age’ (Financial Times), Kiss Me, Kate is a simple love story...about two people who just can't stand each other. Guess who wins...
September is the last month to see Adrian Dunbar (Line of Duty, Ridley) and Broadway royalty Stephanie J. Block (Into The Woods, The Cher Show) as they lead this summer's hottest cast alongside Charlie Stemp, Georgina Onuorah, Nigel Lindsay, Hammed Animashaun and Peter Davison in Cole Porter's legendary backstage musical comedy.
‘Sexy & Sassy with great songs, hot dancing and smart gags.’ (Daily Mail) this five star new production is ‘a supremely lovely way to spend a Summer evening’ (The Independent).
The company of Kiss Me Kate. Photo by Johan Persson.
As part of Thames Day, seize the chance to sail on a classic Thames Barge through the heart of London.
The Thames Sailing Barge ‘Will’ is the largest of her kind ever built and holds great historical significance, playing a part in London’s great maritime and trading history. Launched in 1925, just shy of 100 feet long, and 100 feet tall to the tip of her main-mast, the Sailing Barge Will is the largest spritsail Thames Sailing Barge ever built.
Book your space in advance. Tickets cost £25.
Thames Day - Photo by Milo Robinson.
There are only a few days left to see the free exhibition at Tower Bridge ‘Launching a Landmark’ which showcase a collection of never-before-seen photography from the Bridge’s final few weeks of construction and public opening 130 years ago in 1894, featuring the workers of the Bridge and members of the public. The exhibition will be open to the public unto 10 September.
