As London’s green spaces gently morph into hues of ochre and red, things kick into gear with new openings and a fashion about-face to suit the misty mornings. September’s a liminal month, as it hangs onto the vestiges of summer but isn’t too hot for outdoor events like the citywide London Mural Festival and Frieze Sculpture in Regent’s Park. This fall’s also an especially good time to check out the imaginative new Michelin-starred restaurants and blockbuster-film–worthy hotels across England’s capital.
Whether you’re looking for family-friendly fun or for the coolest shows, on and off the West End, here’s what to know about London as of late, and how you can get in on the action.
The Haldane Suite, with floor-to-ceiling oak paneling, was once the office of the secretary of state for war (a position filled, perhaps most notably, by Sir Winston Churchill).
Courtesy of Raffles London at The OWO
Hotels creating a buzz
Making up for lost time after the COVID-19 pandemic, glitzy new hotels just keep on coming, each one seemingly more sumptuous than the last. In summer 2024, The Mandarin Oriental Mayfair and The Emory opened their doors to join The Peninsula London (which launched in September 2023) as three of London’s most lavish, luxe hotels. To add even more luster, the Park Hyatt London River Thames will start welcoming guests in November, while Six Senses London and The Newman Hotel are scheduled to open in early 2025. Art’otel London Hoxton launched this spring too and has super funky vibes—partly thanks to its two Banksy pieces—very much in keeping with the Shoreditch location.
Set in the Whitehall district’s Old War Office, with an exterior of Portland stone and Yorkstone, Raffles London at the OWO, another Fall 2023 opening, is exquisite. The labyrinthine underground corridors that were integral to the then-new Secret Service form the backdrop to the hotel’s Spy Bar, which is up for a Restaurant and Bar Design Award. Offices at Raffles were once used for briefing and interrogating spies and have even been featured in several Bond movies, most recently Skyfall and Spectre.
Restaurants not to be missed
At Raffles OWO, Kioku by Endo opened in May, with Michelin-starred sushi master Endo Kazutoshi orchestrating a menu that melds Japanese and European favorites. Try the scallops with a twist of smoked lemon ponzu (a citrus sauce) and Japanese ginger, or a fusion of chashu pork and ramen ravioli, while you drink in the jaw-dropping views across to the London Eye from the stunning rooftop terrace.
Mountain in Soho is the latest enterprise from Tomos Parry, the chef behind Shoreditch’s Michelin-starred Brat—and it’s already been awarded an early Michelin accolade. Like Brat, it sources ingredients from fishermen and farmers in Wales and Cornwall, with influences from Parry’s time spent in the Basque Country. Spain provides the inspiration for José Pizarro’s Lolo, which opened in August in Bermondsey. The restaurant has a Mediterranean feel that allows it to transform from an airy, daytime café to an intimate wine bar at night.
After successes with Michelin-starred restaurants in London and beyond (the flagship Pollen Street Social closed in July after 13 years), chef and restaurateur Jason Atherton has exciting plans in store. Sael in St. James’s Market off Regent Street is just one of them: Set to open in September, it will be a relaxed brasserie that will celebrate all things British. Word has it Atherton is launching another, bigger restaurant in November on Savile Row. Row on 5 will be a much more salubrious, multicourse, fine-dining affair; keep an eye on his socials for announcements.
The Goring’s Michelin-starred Dining Room, a regular for the British Royal Family since the day it was founded over a century ago, has reopened its doors after a major design overhaul and kitchen refit. Thankfully, the signature starter of eggs Drumkilbo (a delicate cocktail of native lobster, quail’s egg, aged caviar, and roasted tomato), a favorite of the late Queen Mother, retains its sanctified place on the menu—along with the delectable longhorn beef Wellington.
Award-winning actors performing this fall include Adrien Brody, who makes his U.K. stage debut at Donmar Warehouse in The Fear of 13, and John Lithgow in Giant at the Royal Court Theatre.
Photo by William Barton/Shutterstock
Theatreland’s hot tickets
Theater lovers should book ahead for what looks set to be a thrilling, on– and off–West End season. There’s the first-ever theater adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, in safe hands with master satirist Armando Iannucci and his longtime collaborator Steve Coogan—while the Royal National Theatre stages a new Coriolanus starring David Oyelowo. A revival of Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece, the absurdist Waiting for Godot is another hot ticket, with Ben Whishaw opposite Lucian Msamati.
And looking ahead to early 2025, Shakespeare takes over once more, this time, unusually, at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in the West End’s musical heartland: There hasn’t been a Bard play performed here since the 1950s, and now there will be two—not to mention the added celebrity attraction of Sigourney Weaver (as Prospero in The Tempest) and Tom Hiddleston (playing Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing).
Exhibitions
In addition to London’s permanent exhibitions and galleries, Los Angeles artist Lauren Halsey will mount her first solo U.K. exhibition of immersive installations and stand-alone objects at the Serpentine Gallery. British Art Fair is showcasing artists such as Damien Hirst and David Hockney, and the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square is marking its 200th anniversary with the first-ever extensive exhibition of Vincent Van Gogh. Nearby, at the National Portrait Gallery, the 2023 grand reopening continues to enthrall, with lighter gallery spaces and new, on-trend exhibits from a more diverse pool of artists. This fall you can also check out the regular Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2024, as well as Francis Bacon: Human Presence, curated to demonstrate the painter’s close connection to portraiture and the ways in which he challenged the genre.
October is Black History Month in the United Kingdom, providing a slew of special events, such as the Royal Ballet & Opera’s Pioneers of Black British Ballet exhibition, and serving as a reminder to check out permanent installations, including London, Sugar & Slavery: 1600–Present at the London Museum Docklands.
Family adventures
For family fun and inspiration, start with the Young V & A, a branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which reopened last year in East London to great fanfare after a £13 million revamp. With zoned spaces—Play, Imagine, and Design—aimed at different age groups, the museum has been so well received that it won the United Kingdom’s 2024 Art Fund Museum of the Year, beating stiff competition.
At Halloween, follow the Belgravia pumpkin trail, or walk through the Great Hall dressed as a Hogwarts student during the Harry Potter Studio Tour, which gets a Dark Arts, eerie makeover for the holiday. Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland opens in late November, while around the same time Covent Garden will be festooned with giant baubles and a ginormous tree to match—making shopping in the market so much more festive. Take a behind-the-scenes tour of the Royal Ballet & Opera while you’re there, and book ahead for the holiday season ballet, Cinderella.
Festivals
Fall’s an ideal time to cozy up in a gastropub or attend a gig in one of London’s atmospheric music clubs—or you could go big with the headliners at the EFG London Jazz Festival. Multiple Grammy winner Pat Metheny is taking center stage at the Barbican, while Jamie Cullum’s at the Royal Festival Hall. Legendary jazz-fusion drummer Billy Cobham is celebrating his 80th birthday in style on the South Bank; expect some sweet arrangements, as he’s accompanied by the full BBC Concert Orchestra.
In addition to a raft of new cultural events, regular happenings are being given their annual revamp: The Open House Festival has unique properties to mosey around in, across all 33 London boroughs, including a guided walking tour of “lost Aldwych” and a visit to St. Clement Danes Church, or a drop-in at the Jacobean stately home Swakeleys House—built in Hillingdon in 1638 for the at the time soon-to-be Lord Mayor of London, Sir Edmund Wright, and visited on occasion by London diarist Samuel Pepys. Tickets go on sale in September for the London Film Festival at the South Bank’s BFI; the Opening Night Gala is the world premiere of Steve McQueen’s World War II drama, Blitz, with Saoirse Ronan.
