Complete list of Exhibitions in London this month (November 2026)

There’s so much going on in London, it can be hard to keep up. On this page, part of my London Museum Guide, you’ll find a comprehensive directory of exhibitions on in London this month (November 2026), including all the new exhibitions opening in November. They’re split by theme, and listed in order of the exhibition’s end date.

I keep this page current with exhibitions taking place in London right now. The list updates automatically as new exhibitions open (and when exhibitions close!). So it’s always up to date with this month’s exhibitions, and I regularly add recommendations. If I’m missing anything, let me know.

My top picks for November 2026

Further down the page you’ll find comprehensive lists of exhibitions in London by category. But first, some of the shows I’m most excited for this month.

November is a big month for London’s museums. Several major new exhibitions open in the second half of the month, and on 28 November the new London Museum finally opens its free permanent galleries in the old General Market at Smithfield.

The headline exhibition is Van Eyck: The Portraits at the National Gallery, opening 21 November. For the first time, it brings together all nine of Jan van Eyck’s known painted portraits from across Europe, alongside his only surviving drawing.

The same day, the Royal Academy opens Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector. It tells the story of Guggenheim Jeune, the gallery Peggy Guggenheim ran on Cork Street in 1938 and 1939, which staged the first UK solo show of Vasily Kandinsky.

At Tate Britain, Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury (from 12 November) is the first major exhibition to chart the five-decade creative partnership between the two Bloomsbury Group artists, with more than 300 works.

And on 24 November, Nan Goldin: You Never Did Anything Wrong opens at the Hayward Gallery. It’s the American photographer’s first institutional exhibition in the UK since 2002, and tickets for the first two weeks are £7.50 to mark the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary.

---

Modern art exhibitions on in London this month

There are two big modern art openings this month. Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury opens at Tate Britain on 12 November, tracing the pair’s work from their early post-impressionist and abstract paintings onwards. Then on 21 November, Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector arrives at the Royal Academy from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, with works by artists including Vasily Kandinsky, Eileen Agar and Henry Moore.

Somerset House opens Through Our Eyes: Sámi Art and Culture on 6 November. It’s the first group exhibition in the UK of work by Sámi artists, Europe’s only recognised Indigenous people, and it’s free.

Beyond the Streets returns to the Saatchi Gallery from 11 November with an all-new exhibition of more than 100 artists, tracing six decades of street culture and its influence on art, music, fashion and protest. Over in Ealing, Peter Blake: In the Studio opens at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery on 25 November, built around a full-scale recreation of the pop artist’s Hammersmith studio.

In Greenwich, Peter Walker’s Peace Doves fills the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College from 21 November, marking 300 years of the Painted Hall. And for free contemporary art, the Film London Jarman Award shortlist is on show at the Whitechapel Gallery from 17 November, while the Discerning Eye exhibition of small-scale works is at the Mall Galleries from 13 to 21 November.

You can also still check out Frida: The Making of an Icon, exploring the career and legacy of Frida Kahlo at Tate Modern, open until January 2027. The Modern is also hosting a retrospective of the Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta, until 17 January.

---

Old masters, fine art and historic art exhibitions on in London this month

The big opening this month is Van Eyck: The Portraits at the National Gallery, from 21 November. Van Eyck’s paintings rarely travel, and this is the first exhibition ever devoted to his portraits, including the National Gallery’s own Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?). It runs until 11 April 2027, and Renoir and Love is still on at the National Gallery until 31 January.

For something free, the Wallace Collection opens Cosimo I de’ Medici: Art and Dynasty on 18 November, a display on how the first Grand Duke of Tuscany used art to strengthen his power, including the museum’s newly conserved Portrait of Eleonora of Toledo. It’s also your last chance to see the Wallace Collection’s exhibition of Winston Churchill’s paintings, which closes on 29 November.

Printmaking fans can catch the International Original Print Exhibition at Bankside Gallery (5 to 15 November, free), and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters holds its annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries from 26 November.

South of the river, Hokusai’s complete Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji, including the Great Wave, is on at the Dulwich Picture Gallery until 17 January.

---

---

Photography exhibitions on in London this month

November brings two major photography openings.

Nan Goldin: You Never Did Anything Wrong opens at the Hayward Gallery on 24 November, the American photographer and activist’s first institutional exhibition in the UK since 2002. Alongside her photographs and slideshows, it debuts a new film, You Never Did Anything Wrong, Part II, shown with Part I in spaces designed with the architect Hala Wardé. Tickets for the first two weeks are £7.50.

At the National Portrait Gallery, the annual portrait photography prize returns from 5 November under a new name: the Winston Taylor Photo Portrait Prize 2026, formerly the Taylor Wessing. The exhibition shows the shortlisted and selected images, chosen from nearly 4,000 entries, and runs until 17 January.

You can also still catch October’s big photography openings: Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography at Tate Modern, Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends at the National Portrait Gallery, William Eggleston at The Photographers’ Gallery, and Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the Natural History Museum.

---

History exhibitions in London this month

The biggest history news this month isn’t an exhibition at all: the new London Museum opens at Smithfield on 28 November, with free permanent galleries telling the story of London in the restored Victorian General Market. The museum’s main site has been closed since it left London Wall in 2022.

The major new history exhibition is Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires at the V&A, opening 7 November. It covers 1,600 years of art and design from the Byzantine and Ottoman capital, with more than 200 objects, including loans from the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul.

From 17 November, the Museum of the Home in Hoxton redresses its Rooms Through Time for its annual Winter Past exhibition, exploring the homes and traditions of winters past, present and future. It’s free.

Korea is still on at the British Museum until 31 January, and Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery, marking 50 years since her death, runs at the British Library until June.

And you can still catch the Imperial War Museum‘s Childhood in War, the UK’s first exhibition on how war has shaped children’s lives from 1914 to the present, told through personal objects, immersive set pieces and the children’s books that carried the story home. Free, and running all the way to February.

---

Science and technology exhibitions in London this month

There are no major new science exhibitions opening this month, but there’s still plenty to see.

Becoming America: How Science Shaped a Nation, which opened at the Science Museum last month to mark 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, is free and runs until April. It’s also your last chance to see The Coming of Age at Wellcome Collection, a free exhibition on ageing from adolescence to later life, which closes on 29 November.

I’d also encourage science lovers to visit both the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, and the Astronomy Photography of the Year exhibition, at the Natural History Museum and National Maritime Museum respectively. See the photography section for details.

---

Fashion, design and culture exhibitions in London this month

The Design Museum opens The Nue Black Aesthetic on 6 November, one of the most extensive exhibitions on contemporary Black design ever held in the UK. Guest curated by Charlene Prempeh, it brings together 16 designers working across fashion, furniture, architecture, product design and sculpture.

Japan House’s new free exhibition, Tradition/Rebellion: Coming-of-Age Style in Kitakyushu, Japan, opens on 11 November. It follows eight of the city’s ‘new adults’ as they prepare for their Coming-of-Age ceremony, known for its flamboyant kimono and hairstyles.

And from 21 November, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration hosts Tove Jansson and her Families, the UK’s first exhibition focused on the Moomin creator’s work as an illustrator, with more than 100 rarely seen sketches, paintings, illustrations and photographs.

Es Devlin’s retrospective is still on at the Design Museum until April, and you can see eight of Freddie Mercury’s stage looks for free across the V&A’s galleries in Freddie Mercury | Splendid Things, until 17 January.

---

Exhibitions for children and families in London this month

It’s your last chance to see Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends at Young V&A, which closes on 15 November. The Jolly Postman, an interactive exhibition celebrating 40 years of Janet and Allan Ahlberg’s book, runs at The Postal Museum until the end of the year.

---

Read more London guides

Thanks for visiting my blog! This post may contain affiliate links - which means if you make a purchase, I'll receive a small commission, at no extra cost to yourself. This helps me keep this site running for free.

Share this:

• X
• Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading…

Latest posts