London, after dark and before it
Everything worth leaving the house for
Dated, checked against the venue's own page, and carrying its link so you can confirm before you go. No sponsored entries and no affiliate links.
TonightSunday 8 November
What's on in London
Sunday, matinees and roasts, and rather more open than people expect. The Comedy Store Players improvise from audience suggestions at the Comedy Store at 7.30pm on 8 November, with Josie Lawrence, Richard Vranch and Lee Simpson in the line-up and doors from 6.30pm. Earlier the same evening, the Museum of Comedy's course showcase starts at 5.30pm, from £10.25.
If you have landed here looking for things to do today near you and you are in London, this is that list: everything we have checked that is on in the city today, in time order, with the free things marked. If nothing tonight suits, tomorrow is already built.
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The Southbank Centre puts free music in its foyer through the week, and the darts at Flight Club is cheaper before six on a weekday.
Later tonight
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23:00
Cirque le Soir
Cirque le Soir
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23:00
The Box Soho
The Box Soho
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Times vary
A day in Broadstairs
Broadstairs
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Times vary
A day in Canterbury
Canterbury
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Times vary
A day in Deal
Deal
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Times vary
A day in Dover
Dover
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Times vary
A day in Folkestone
Folkestone
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Times vary
A day in Hastings
Hastings
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Times vary
A day in Tunbridge Wells
Tunbridge Wells
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Times vary
Alexandra Palace: BBC TV 90 at Ally Pally
Alexandra Palace
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Times vary
Alexandra Palace: Palace Performing Arts
Alexandra Palace
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Times vary
The Other Palace, Main House: An Oak Tree, by Tim Crouch
The Other Palace, Main House
This weekend
Sunday 8 November: full edition-
Free
Crossrail Place Roof Garden
A garden under a timber lattice roof on top of the station, planted either side of the meridian with species from the hemisphere they belong to. Free, open early, and covered.
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Sport Free
Dogs on Hampstead Heath
Eight hundred acres, off lead almost everywhere, and the one swimming pond dogs are allowed in is not one of the bathing ponds. Busiest at the Parliament Hill end on a weekend morning.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Westminster Cathedral
Neo Byzantine, still unfinished above the arches, and free to walk into. The campanile lift is ticketed and gives one of the least crowded views in central London.
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Food and drink Free
Leadenhall Market
A Victorian covered market in cream and burgundy, free to walk through and open to the street. Busy with the City at lunch and almost empty at the weekend, which is when to photograph it.
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Free
Parliament Hill viewpoint
A protected view all the way to the City, which is why nothing is allowed to be built in front of it. Ten minutes up from Gospel Oak and worth doing an hour before sunset.
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Sport Free
Dogs in Richmond Park
The largest of the royal parks and the one with the deer, which is why dogs must be on a lead in May and June and in September and October. The gates open and close with the light.
Just opened
All openings
Free this week
All free events-
Sport Free
Dogs on Hampstead Heath
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Westminster Cathedral
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Food and drink Free
Leadenhall Market
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Sport Free
Dogs in Richmond Park
Diary dates
Everything coming upThe annual fixtures worth putting in a diary, one page each, rewritten before the dates come round. For places opening soon and everything dated further ahead, see what is coming up.
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On now
Diwali in London 2026: Trafalgar Square, the temples and the fireworks
Diwali on the Square was cancelled for 2026 by City Hall on 24 October, for the storm forecast....
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On now
Bonfire Night fireworks in London 2026
Every London firework display worth crossing town for, which nights they actually happen on, what they cost, and...
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On now
Candlelit concerts in London: what they are and what they cost
The Candlelight series, the free church recitals and the December carol services, with prices and the difference between...
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On now
London Christmas lights 2026: the switch-on dates confirmed so far, and the walk that sees them all
Leicester Square on 1 November, Carnaby on 4 November, Regent Street on 5 November and Covent Garden on...
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On now
London Christmas markets 2026: dates and the ones worth going to
Southbank, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, London Bridge, Kingston and Greenwich, with opening dates as they confirm and the...
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On now
Ice skating in London 2026: every Christmas rink and when they open
Somerset House, Hampton Court, Winter Wonderland and Alexandra Palace, with this winter's dates and prices, the two rinks...
What is on, and when
All listingsEverything here is dated and checked against the venue before it goes in, and each entry carries the venue's own link. The numbers are live.
What's on, by kind
EverythingThirteen kinds of night, from gigs and comedy to markets and museum lates. The number is what is on in the next few months, not a running total.
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Comedy
192
Stand-up, improv and new material nights across London. The rooms above pubs are where the good stuff is;…
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Gigs
169
Live music in London tonight and over the next fortnight: the room, the time it actually starts, and…
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Seasonal
57
The annual fixtures: Halloween, Bonfire Night, the Christmas markets and lights, New Year, Pride, Carnival. Each has its…
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Theatre
57
West End and fringe in one list, with the day-seat and returns tricks where we know them. Closing…
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Exhibitions
38
Every exhibition worth the trip that is open in London today, soonest closing first, with the free ones…
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Food and drink
36
Markets, late kitchens, the pubs that are worth the journey, and the strips where dinner is the evening…
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Cabaret
34
Cabaret, burlesque, drag and variety, from the old music halls to the Soho supper clubs. Late, mostly over…
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Sport
18
Things to do rather than things to watch, mostly: skating, swimming outdoors all year, bowling, darts and the…
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Clubs
17
Club nights across London with the hours they really run to, not the ones on the poster. Where…
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Markets
8
Street markets, night markets and the weekend ones worth crossing town for, with the days they actually run.…
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Talks
4
Talks, readings, lectures and Q and As. Many are free and most need booking a week ahead, which…
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Film
2
Cinemas worth crossing London for rather than the nearest multiplex: the repertory houses, the rooftops in summer, the…
What is on, by part of London
EverythingLondon is not one night out. Pick the part of town you are in, or the one you are willing to cross the city for.
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Soho
174
Soho is the densest square mile of evening in the country. Theatres, comedy rooms above pubs, jazz clubs,…
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Covent Garden
70
What is on in Covent Garden: the Royal Opera House, the theatres around Seven Dials, the piazza at…
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Bloomsbury
50
What is on in Bloomsbury: the British Museum, the Foundling, the Cartoon Museum and a run of Georgian…
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Camden
50
Camden is a music town with a market attached, and the order matters. The Roundhouse, the Electric Ballroom,…
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Mayfair
24
What is on in Mayfair: the auction houses, the commercial galleries around Cork Street, the Handel and Hendrix…
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Crouch End
22
Crouch End is the bit of north London that never got a tube station and has been quietly…
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Dalston
20
What is on in Dalston: small venues, late licences and a Turkish restaurant scene that runs past midnight.…
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Shoreditch
15
Shoreditch is the part of London that runs latest and changes fastest. It is not pretty and it…
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Islington
14
What is on in Islington: Sadler's Wells, the Almeida, the Union Chapel and a run of small rooms…
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Alexandra Palace
13
What is on around Alexandra Palace: the palace on the hill with the whole city below it, the…
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Hampstead
11
The Heath, the ponds you can swim in all year, and a free Adam house at the top…
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Westminster
10
The set pieces, and the free things next to them. The Abbey and the War Rooms are ticketed,…
The venues with most on
EverythingEvery venue page collects what we have listed there, with the door policy, the nearest station and the last train.
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Electric Ballroom
49
Camden High Street, opposite the tube, and part of the reason Camden means what it means. It runs…
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Museum of Comedy
48
The Museum of Comedy, in the Undercroft of St George's Church on Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2SR: new…
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The 100 Club
43
A basement under Oxford Street that has been putting on live music since the 1940s, and the through…
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JK Comedy Club Covent Garden
38
Two hundred seats at Arboretum on Charing Cross Road, four minutes from Leicester Square, and the biggest room…
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Ronnie Scott's
34
Open on Frith Street since 1959 and still the room every visiting jazz musician wants to play. Two…
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The Comedy Store
24
Off Leicester Square on Oxendon Street and open since 1979, which makes it the room most people mean…
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Downstairs at the King's Head
22
The comedy club at 2 Crouch End Hill, London N8 8AA: try-out nights with sixteen acts, doors 8pm…
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JK Comedy Club Piccadilly Circus
21
Fifty seats at BOX Piccadilly on Shaftesbury Avenue, a minute from Piccadilly Circus and about as central as…
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Hyde Park
20
Three hundred and fifty acres from Marble Arch to Kensington, with the Serpentine cutting across the middle. Swimming…
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Phoenix Arts Club
19
A basement under the Phoenix Theatre that has been running for more than thirty five years, originally as…
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JK Comedy Club Soho
18
Sixty seats upstairs at The Spice of Life on Moor Street, two minutes from Leicester Square station and…
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EartH Hackney
14
A 1930s cinema on Stoke Newington Road, left deliberately unrestored, running as a social enterprise across three rooms:…
What other people are looking at
Last 30 days
Questions people ask
What are the best things to do in London tonight?
We do not rank the evening. The Tonight page lists everything we have checked that is running in the city today, in time order, with the free things marked. It is rebuilt each morning from the listings themselves rather than typed out, so it cannot fall behind what actually exists.
What are the free things to do in London today?
Usually a good deal of them. Free entries are marked on every edition and collected on their own page: museums and galleries, foyer music at the Southbank Centre, most park events, and the markets cost nothing to walk into.
Where are the bars open late in London?
Later than the tube, and in more places than people expect. Around a hundred of our listings run past midnight, and the Late edition sorts them by how late they actually go, using the end time each venue publishes rather than a guess.
What are the Night Tube times, and which lines run all night?
On Friday and Saturday the Night Tube runs all night on the Victoria, Central, Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines. Every other night the last tube on most lines goes somewhere around half past midnight, and earlier on a Sunday. After that it is the night buses, the ones with an N in front of the number, which run all night and take the same fare.
Do I need to book?
For theatre, comedy and most ticketed music, yes, and often days ahead. Pubs, markets, galleries and free foyer events are walk in. Where a venue publishes a price we print it, and where it publishes a booking page we link straight to it.
How do you decide what goes in?
Every listing is checked against the venue's own page before it goes in, and nothing here is paid for. Where a date is the usual annual pattern rather than something the venue has confirmed, the listing says so instead of rounding it up to a promise.
What is on in London this weekend, and further ahead?
The weekend edition is built by Thursday and covers Friday to Sunday, so things to do in London this weekend are up before the weekend starts. Beyond that, the coming up page carries places opening in the next few months, and the annual fixtures have a guide each that is rewritten every year with the new dates.
The Late Edition is an independent London publication, edited by Angela. Every listing is checked against the venue's own page before it goes in, and the front page is rewritten through the week. About us.