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January is a nice reset month and all, but this is when the year truly starts to get going. There are plenty of things to do in London this February, from the classic Valentine’s Day-coded plans to a frightening play at the West End. We can feel the summer growing ever-closer, but embrace that final grip of winter this month to pass the time and have a ball in the capital.
Credit: David Parry
When the time comes to write our annual ‘Things To Do In February’ article, you’re nailed on to see something Valentine’s Day-related at the number one spot. But when an exhibition featuring Wallace & Gromit comes along, only this can be said to it: youuuu areeee, the only exceptionnn.
Over at the Young V&A from February 12, you can learn more about the beloved stop-motion characters from the likes of Wallace & Gromit, Shaun The Sheep, and Chicken Run through storyboards, objects to model, live-action videos, and much more. Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends comes to London as a celebration of Aardman’s 50th anniversary, showing fans the inside scoop on their creative process. It’s certain to be A Grand Day Out if you head along to see it.
Read more about the exhibition here.
Credit: Electric Cinemas
Easy guess as to what was coming next, right? If anything, let this serve as your reminder to get those Valentine’s Day plans sorted now – it’s on a Saturday this year, so you better make sure it’s extra special! Romance isn’t dead everywhere in the city, so make sure you aren’t starting the morning in the bad books of your significant other and lay out a decent plan.
Credit: Tracey Emin, The End Of Love, 2024
This one marks the biggest exhibition of a household name in British art with a career spanning over 40 years. Tracey Emin: A Second Life lands at the Tate Modern on February 27, recognising her seismic achievements in the field and showing off some of her best-known works, as well as a number that have never been seen by the public. As you weave through the exhibit, you’ll see Emin’s early work from her first solo exhibition, before later seeing some of her iconic pieces, including My Bed and Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made. It runs until the end of summer, and your first chance to catch it is February 2026.
Read more about the upcoming Tracey Emin exhibition at the Tate here.
4. Attend an event for LGBT+ History Month 
Credit: Gay’s The Word
LGBT+ History Month runs through February, and there plenty of events that serve to both celebrate and educate during the month. There will be more event announcements to come, but here’s a few to be on your radar.
🏳️🌈 Head on a free LGBTQ+ history tour of Central London: learn about tales of Soho, drag queens in the 1700s, and much more on this tour around the city.
❤️ Read up on charity Queer Britain and visit their museum: established back in 2018, the charity strove to open the first national LGBTQ+ museum, which happened in 2022! Enjoy a day out at their Granary Square space to celebrate queer history and culture, as well as learning about stories and experiences.
🍺Learn about the ‘Molly Houses of Hackney: this talk at Newington Green Meeting House will offer a deep dive into a form of queer community space in 1700s London.
📚 Visit Gay’s The Word bookshop in Bloomsbury: having been at the heart of London’s LGBTQ+ rights movement since 1979, this is a historic bookshop in the city that demands a visit.
Credit: Mark Seliger
Commencing this month at the Noël Coward Theatre, Cynthia Erivo is playing all 23 roles in a new production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Starting its run from February 4, you’ll see the Wicked star take on the role of the Count, as well as every other role in a play that’s got the same team behind it as Sarah Snook’s one-woman performance of The Picture Of Dorian Gray. The all-encompassing piece will see Erivo perform one original song at the end of the production, which is also said to take inspiration from early horror movies. Enter if you dare!
Read more about the production of ‘Dracula’ here.
Credit: The Aziz Foundation
For the past few years, thanks to the work of the Aziz Foundation, Central London has lit up for the month-long period of Ramadan, with glimmering installations shining on through Coventry Street this month. Once they switch on, you’ll be able to see 30,000 glowing energy-efficient LED lights glowing away from 5pm to 5am each evening through Ramadan, bringing the entire community together. It’ll show a lovely display of Islamic geometric art that represents the holy month of celebration, fasting, and care. Read more about the lights for Ramadan here.
Can’t beat a bit of ancient artefacts, can you? Ramses and the Pharaoh’s Gold is landing in London at the end of February, showing off real pieces that date back over 3,000 years, namely exploring the reign of Ramses II, who was known as the ‘builder pharaoh’ due to the sheer number of temples he commissioned. Find out more about Ramses and the Pharaoh’s Gold and plan your visit here.
8. Ring in the Year Of The Fire Horse at London’s Lunar New Year parade 
Credit: Tadeusz Ibrom / Shutterstock
February 17 marks the start of the Year Of The Fire Horse on the Chinese Zodiac, and the annual parade takes place across two days on Saturday, February 21 & Sunday, February 22, promising a lively celebration. As always, you can see plenty of traditional costumes, lots of floats, and a host of stalls & community stands.
Deftones (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
We’ve had some great gigs in January, but things are truly starting to heat up for the year now. Here’s some of what February has to offer in the way of live music.
⚡ Halsey (February 1, 3, & 4): Brixton Academy – the ‘Back to Badlands’ tour sees Halsey commemorate her debut album 10 years on from its release.
🪩 Underworld (February 5, 6, & 7): Brixton Academy – the ‘(nuxx) thirty’ shows are hitting London, so it’s time to get slippy.
🎸 Militarie Gun (February 11): Electric Ballroom – following their fantastic album, God Save The Gun, Militarie Gun will be over to play some of their new tracks for the first time.
🎤 Earl Sweatshirt (February 13): Exhibition – Earl Sweatshirt decided to ‘Live Laugh Love’ in 2025 judging by his album title, so it’s time to see if that’s still the case in 2026 with a lively February show coming up.
😱 Florence + The Machine (February 16 & 17): The O2 – the ‘Everybody Scream’ tour is stopping off in London for a fabulous double-header.
😩 Deftones (February 20): The O2 – first stop: The O2. Second stop: All Points East headliner in August. Big year coming up for one of the best bands to ever do it.
🕺 Fatboy Slim (February 20 & 21): Alexandra Palace – the ‘Acid Ballroom’ tour is rolling through the capital for two huge winter nights at Ally Pally.
🔥 Napalm Death (February 24): Electric Ballroom – the kings of grindcore are back to lay waste to another London venue.
👹 Wednesday (February 25): The Roundhouse – after releasing one of the best albums from 2025, ‘Bleeds’, Wednesday are now playing one of the hottest tickets in town this month.
💍 RAYE (February 26 & 27): The O2 – six nights at the O2 coming up for RAYE this year, starting with these February gigs. It’s time to ask ‘Where [the HELL] is my husband?’
🎵 Read our full guide to more of the best gigs coming up in London this year.
10. Head on a bookshop crawl around the city 
Image: Brick Lane Bookshop
If you can’t face another pub crawl and are eager to tick off plenty of beautiful London bookshops that you’ve been meaning to browse through, then the London Bookshop Crawl was tailor-made for you. Taking place between February 13-15, you can join up on a guided tour of words around the capital or just pop into the participating spots, which will be hosting events including signings and meet and greets. On the Friday, you can even end your journey by heading over to Bard Books for The Big Bookish Quiz – which still has spots left! Read through the full programme of events here.
Credit: The Giant West London Flea
On the first day of the month, you can take advantage of that glorious first pay slip of 2026 by heading over to the inaugural Giant West London Flea. You’ll find it in the coach park of Wembley Stadium (the biggest indoor coach park in Europe, no less), giving a space to more than 200 independent traders from across the UK and mainland Europe to show off their artefacts. Find out more about it here.
12. Settle in to watch some of the Six Nations 
Credit: Flat Iron Square
The Six Nations clashes commence very soon, meaning you won’t be short of rugby action to watch each weekend. Here’s some spots you can catch the action in the city.
🏉 Flat Iron Square: Having made a name for themselves as a hub to watch the big footy tournaments, you can bet that a brilliant atmosphere will be created for the rugby over at Flat Iron Square.
🍻 Big Penny Social: The giant Walthamstow venue is showing all the weekend games between February 5 – March 14, and the giant screens in the beer hall are the perfect way to catch every try.
⚓ Hope & Anchor: 24 screens and heated sports huts? Yeah, this Brixton pub should be high up on your lists for all the winter rugby.
🚢 The Ship: Wandswoorth’s riverside location is a great spot for just about any day in your social calendars, and that’s no different during Six Nations season.
Credit: Pauline Mongarny via Shutterstock
We’re edging ever-closer to the springtime, when the colours will start seeping back into London’s nature. If you can’t wait that long, you can head over to the annual orchid festival at Kew Gardens, whcih chooses a different country to centre its floral displays around for a month each year. This year’s theme is China, so you can expect a floral presentation that represents the wildlife, culture, agriculture and much more. Expect to see dragons, lanterns, plant sculptures and a hell of a lot more that draws from “China’s remarkable biodiversity, heritage and design traditions”.
The Kew Gardens Orchid Festival runs from February 7 – March 8, and you can find out more information here.
Credit: Peckham Farmers Market
Peckham Farmers Market opens up for the first time in late January, but you can head along every Saturday morning to get your produce from more than 25 traders. Once you’ve done your weekly shop, you can stick around for some street food and listen to live music at the community-led space. Read more about Peckham Farmers Market here.
Credit: bluestork via Shutterstock
Super Bowl LX takes place on Sunday, February 8, and here are a few places around the capital showing all the action. We don’t know which teams will be facing each other just yet, but you can catch the clash, which takes place in Santa Clara in California this time around, at these spots in London. Bad Bunny is playing the halftime show this year, so whether your team is appearing or not, is gonna be a lively ol’ time.
⚽ TOCA Social: Usually you’ll catch all the footy here, but this February it’s dialling up the U and the S and the A notches this month for the Super Bowl at both their Greenwich and White City locations. Tuck into wings and drink from red cups at this immersive sports bar.
🏈 The Blues Kitchen: A favourite for a dance at the weekend, this time it’s turning its attention to Sunday night at their Brixton site. Taking you from til late and drip-feeding you beer and food, this is one mean option for Super Bowl LX.
🍺 BOXPARK: Ah, it’s never a where-to-watch-this-sporting-event list without Boxpark, is it? Their giant screens are turning on at the Croydon, Camden, Shoreditch, and Wembley London venues for a raucous night of NFL.
🍗 Big Penny Social: The giant beer hall along the Blackhorse Beer Mile has you well and truly covered for this mammoth event, kicking proceedings off at 8:30pm and running all the way until 3am. Work on Monday will be painful, but worth it all the same.
Credit: Andy Shiels, via Shutterstock
We might be desperately trying to find something good here, but the return of the 5pm sunset is finally going to be with us this month for the first time since, sigh, October 27. February 7 will be the glorious day that you can leave your office when there’s still a hint of sunlight as you stroll towards the pub. By the time we reach the end of February, we’ll be that bit closer to the sun setting at 6pm, and by that point it’s basically summer. Cheers.
© Photography by Jake Davis (instagram.com/jakephilipdavis)
1930s East London awaits, with an evening of dining and a heavy sprinkling of solving a murder. Enjoy the theatrical experience and try to figure out whodunnit as you tuck into a three-course meal on board a beautiful old train. Check it out here and plan your visit.
Image: cacei.ro, Shutterstock
Is it strange to point people towards places that aren’t quite like London? Perhaps, but they’re here in the city and all look pretty incredible, so there’s no reason not to usher people towards them.
😎 BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir – this once had the title of largest Hindu temple outside of India after being built in the 90s, and while it may have been overtaken on this front, it’s still steeped in sheer beauty
🪄 Painshill Park Crystal Grotto – a grotto that just looks cool.
🚽 Crossness Pumping Station – will bet my own lavatory that you haven’t see a sewage system quite like this one. Over at Crossness Pumping Station, which is also known as the ‘Cathedral of Sewage’ a holy level of WC beauty is unlocked.
Read about the extraordinary places in London here.
19. Pick up a slice (or 15) on National Pizza Day 
Credit: Santa Maria
There isn’t much that can’t be cured with sweet pizza pie. It’s lifted us out of the most frightening of hangovers, accompanied us on countless movie nights, and been a go-to choice for any meal out at an Italian restaurant. Falling on February 9, National Pizza Day means it’s time for the dough-licious creation to be celebrated, so you know what to do; an excuse is never needed.
Check out our handy guide to the best pizzas around London.
20. Have a giddy upping knees up at a wild west cocktail experience
Get your Stetsons out, cowboys. Moonshine Saloon beckons to transport you over to the Wild West for a rootin’ tootin’ night of revelry, so bring your bottles and have your cocktails made on this raucous night of fun. Find out more and book your spot here.
Credit: London Wetland Centre
Usually, when we head to a festival, mud is the last thing we want, but in this instance, the festival’s whole premise surrounds it. Taking over the London Wetland Centre for nine days across the February half-term, Mudfest 2026 is putting on a lineup of unmatched mud-based activities, including mud art, animal footprint making, nest making, creating seed bombs, and much more! You can read more about the mud festival and plan a visit here.
22. Take a trip to the West End for a theatre production 
Credit: Brinkhoff Moegenburg
We’ll never get sick of shouting about how lucky we are to live in a city with the West End right on our doorstep, with word-class productions at our fingertips every evening. Read our guide to theatre shows in London this year here.
If you want to add a little more experience to your cocktail, let us introduce you to the world of flavour that is Avora. It’s a cocktail experience. Shuffle over into a Hackney venue to lose yourself in the storyline and enjoy some colourful tipples. Read more about Avora and book your spot here.
24. Keep on exploring this fine old city 
Photo: simonrae via Shutterstock
Sadly, we can’t cover it all (as much as we’ll try), but there’s plenty more to enjoy every month across the city. Here are some more London things we’ve been shouting about recently.
🍝 These Are The New Restaurants And Bars Opening In London In 2026 That We’re Most Excited To Try – From Experimental Cocktail Bars To Hidden Restaurants And More
🎭 These Are The Best Theatre Shows Opening In London This Year
More things to do inspiration…
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The 100 best things to do in London