The best things to do in London this February
The shortest month of the year is packed with cultural things to do, from exhibitions to exciting new launches
February often gets a bad rep in the UK, with short, chilly days and often grey skies. Take respite, then, in London’s brilliant art galleries and museums, where ongoing and new exhibitions form an action-packed cultural programme. Ease off dry January at one of the city’s top cocktail bars, while Kuro in Notting Hill expands its repertoire with an artisanal bagel shop.
Linder: Danger Came Smiling at Hayward Gallery
Location: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
When: 11 Feb – 5 May 2025
Price: 19 GBP
Danger Came Smiling is the first London retrospective from esteemed British artist, musician and designer Linder Sterling. The exhibit delves into 50 years of the artist’s pioneering work, comprising provocative photomontages and daring performance art that explores radical feminist ideas. Linder’s work emerged during Manchester’s 1970s punk scene and document and the exhibition combines early material with never-before-seen works. The Hayward Gallery, located within the Southbank Centre, presents Sterling’s work alongside a new exhibition on American visual artist Mickalene Thomas.
Noah Davis at Barbican Art Gallery
Location: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
When: 11 Feb – 5 May 2025
Price: 19 GBP
The Barbican presents a major retrospective of the late American artist Noah Davis. Considered one of the most unique painters of his generation, the exhibit explores his rich legacy. Primarily based in Los Angeles, his emotive figurative paintings draw on pop culture and art history, and can be both joyful, dreamlike and melancholic.
Picasso: printmaker at The British Museum
Location: Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG
When: Until 30 March 2025
Price: From 11 GBP
This engaging exhibition at the British Museum celebrates the work of Pablo Picasso through an exciting new lens, uncovering his relationships with wives and lovers through themes of sex and identity, as well as his connections with printers and publishers throughout his career. More than 100 pieces including intaglio prints, lithographs, linocuts and 28 unseen artworks from his series ‘347 Suite’ (1968) are on display. Picasso’s first professional print, The Frugal Meal (1904), depicts two wasted figures in an intricate etching technique, and is considered one of the greatest masterpieces in printmaking. This work opens the exhibition, before the show moves onto thought-provoking pieces from his acclaimed ‘Vollard Suite’ (1930-1937) series.
The World of Tim Burton at the Design Museum
Location: 224-238 Kensington High Street, London, W8 6AG
When: Until 21 April 2025
Price: From 19.69 GBP
For those captivated by the work of boundary-breaking director Tim Burton, this six-month exhibition charts his magnificent 50-year career with objects, sketches, props, costumes and set designs from his early childhood to his most recent film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024). Marking the finale of the exhibition’s decade-long world tour – which has visited 14 major cities including Paris, Barcelona and Tokyo – the show’s narrative has been reimagined specially for London. Visitors will find iconic costumes such as Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman suit from Batman Returns (1992) and the striped dress worn by Christina Ricci in Sleepy Hollow (1990), as well as a detailed insight into Burton’s creative process for some of the biggest films of the past five decades, including Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).
Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism at Royal Academy
Location: Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD
When: 28 January – 21 April 2025
Price: 25.50 GBP
Brazilian Modernism is well known for its 20th-century architectural legacy, with works by Oscar Niemeyer – not least his design of the country’s purpose-built capital, Brasília – celebrated across the world. However, just as much innovation and creativity was also happening in the world of painting. From the 1910s to the 1970s, Brazilian artists adapted contemporary trends, international currents and Brazilian traditions to produce a new form of modern art, informed by the cultures, identities and landscapes of Brazil. Here, the Royal Academy celebrates this movement through more than 130 works by ten significant Brazilian artists working during that period – including Anita Malfatti, who led the movement, and Tarsila do Amaral, who is celebrated as a leading figure of Brazilian Modernism. The exhibition also includes an artist of indigenous descent, Afro-Brazilian artist Rubem Valentim, and performance artist Flávio de Carvalho.
Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet at Tate Modern
Location: Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG
When: Until 1 June 2025
Price: From 22 GBP
Tate Modern champions innovations in digital and immersive art in a new exhibition with more than 150 works from the 1950s to the dawn of the internet age in the 1980s. The exhibition traces how artists used cutting-edge tools to expand art and design, exploring themes of abstraction, kineticism, perception and cybernetics. Visitors will find Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz Diez’s captivating Chromointerferent Environment (1974-2009), a projection which uses moving lattices of light to challenge the perception of colour and space, and Palestinian artist Samia Halaby’s striking kinetic paintings which were coded on the Amiga 1000 (the world’s first commercial computer). The show concludes with an interactive installation by Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss, where visitors are invited to play with their reflection on a touchscreen that acts as a pool of digital water.
The 80s: Photographing Britain at Tate Britain
Location: Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG
When: Until 5 May 2025
Price: From 20 GBP
This group exhibition traces the social and political landscape of 1980s Britain with nearly 350 images from celebrated British photographers such as Martin Parr, Don McCullin, Willie Doherty and Syd Shelton. The show depicts the miners’ strikes, race uprisings, Section 28 rebellion and the Aids pandemic as its central themes. In the opening room, images portray the struggle of activists, with one hard-hitting image by John Harris showing a mounted policeman attacking a female demonstrator with a truncheon during the miners’ strike in South Yorkshire. Elsewhere, photographs from Anna Fox’s ‘Work Stations’ (1988) and Martin Parr’s ‘The Cost of Living’ (1986) are a stark contrast to bleak images of the deprived East End by Markéta Luskačova’s series ‘London Street Musicians’ (1975).
Where to eat in London this month
Kuro Bagels
Location: 5 Hillgate Street, London W8 7SP
Located on Hillgate Street behind Notting Hill Gate station, Kuro is known for its excellent coffee and pastries, served in a refined setting that blends Japanese and Nordic influences. Kuro Coffee’s sibling restaurant, Kuro Eatery, has reopened as Kuro Bagels, with a focus on artisan bagels-to-go. Generous and flavour-packed fillings include wasabi cream cheese, roasted garlic and Italian-style mortadella cheese and salami. There is also an outdoor terrace primed for the warmer months.
Don’t Tell Dad, Queen’s Park
Location: 10-14 Lonsdale Road, London NW6 6RD
Track down the white brick exterior with striking red lettering on Lonsdale Road, and you’ll know you’ve found Queen’s Park’s coolest new bakery and restaurant. At the bakery, you’ll find excellent breads and pastries like hazelnut butter croissants, pistachio danishes and triple decker sandwiches. In the restaurant, you’ll find Anglo-French food courtesy of chef Luke Frankie (previously of Noble Rot, Forza Wine and Spring). Expect bold dishes such as truffle and cheddar beignets, crab tart with charred corn, and roast pumpkin with brown butter. As for the interiors, a low-lit, moody setting is made inviting with candles, wood accents, red-tiled floors and an open kitchen where guests can enjoy a front-row seat to their food being prepared at leather counter stools.
Dove, Notting Hill
Location: 31 Kensington Park Road, London W11 2EU
Price: Starters from 5 GBP; large plates from 10 GBP
Missed out on visiting Jackson Boxer’s acclaimed Notting Hill restaurant Orasay before it closed in 2024? Fear not – the chef is launching a new concept at the same Kensington Park Road address on 7 January. Unlike Boxer’s former seafood menu inspired by the Scottish Western Isles where he holidayed in his youth, seasonal dishes at Dove will focus on what he wants to cook and eat right now. Early highlights include deep-fried taleggio and truffle lasagne, lemon and ricotta dumplings with lobster cream, pork and duck meatballs, and steamed hake with grilled cabbage, capers and lemon. Guests can expect the same natural palette of wood, creams and terracotta hues that the original space was known for.
Bar Valette, Shoreditch
Location: 28 Kingsland Road, London E2 8AA
Price: TBC
Bar Valette is the newest addition to east London’s food scene, serving up modern European plates inspired by chef-owner Isaac McHale’s love of French and Spanish cooking. The restaurant has a distinctly more relaxed vibe than its two-Michelin-star sibling, The Clove Club, which is just a five-minute walk around the corner. Here, menus are organised by small plates such as slow-cooked duck egg with shaved chestnut and trompette mushrooms, and larger plates like chops, steaks, and grilled fish, while the wine list, showcases indigenous varieties from France and Spain. The 40-cover space has an open kitchen and tables topped with white tablecloths and candles, and linen cafe curtains mask the outside bustle of Shoreditch.
