The best things to do in London this March
Usher in the change of the seasons in London with new exhibitions, seasonal events and anticipated restaurant openings
Spring is in the air in London, as flowers begin to bloom and the promise of outdoor dining beckons. A flurry of new exhibitions provide insight into the subcultures that shaped London and beyond during the 1970s and 80s, while buzzy new openings include a restaurant and listening bar in Bethnal Green.
The best exhibitions in London
Leigh Bowery! at Tate Modern
When: Until 31 August 2025
Location: Bankside, London SE1 9TG
Price: 18 GBP
A new exhibition at Tate Modern charts the life of legendary multi-hyphenate Leigh Bowery, from his emergence as a club kid in the 1980s to his work as a performer, model, artist and personality. His avant-garde and often outrageous costumes are on display, alongside interactive visuals and personal ephemera including homemade glittered gimp masks and illustrated postcards. The exhibition explores the impact that Bowery and the New Romantics had on the cultural landscape in London and beyond. It highlights Bowery’s collaborators, including his wife and companion Nicola Rainbird, fashion photographer Fergus Greer and artist Lucian Freud. A panel discussion on 16 April brings together three of his closest friends: DJ Princess Julia, choreographer Les Child (aka Leslie Bryant), and biographer Sue Tilley.
The Face Magazine: Culture Shift at National Portrait Gallery
When: Until 18 May 2025
Location: St. Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE
Price: 23 GBP
National Portrait Gallery is celebrating the legacy of The Face, the British ‘style bible’ that ran from 1980 to 2004. The magazine became a cultural phenomenon during the 1980s, thanks to its impactful photography and firm finger on the pulse of what was cool and influential in Britain. Iconic magazine covers are on display, including a young Kate Moss photographed by Corinne Day and Kurt Cobain smoking a cigarette while wearing a dress, shot by David Sims, as well as photographic contributions from Glen Luchford, David LaChapelle and Juergen Teller. It is the first time these images have been brought together in an exhibition and together they tell the story of youth culture in London during the magazine’s reign.
Linder: Danger Came Smiling at Hayward Gallery
When: Until 5 May 2025
Location: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
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 andthe 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
When: Until 5 May 2025
Location: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
Price: 19 GBP
The Barbican presents a major retrospective of the late American artist Noah Davis. It presents more than 50 works from 2007 to his untimely death in 2015, at the age of 32. 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
When: Until 30 March 2025
Location: Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG
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
When: Until 21 April 2025
Location: 224-238 Kensington High Street, London, W8 6AG
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).
Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet at Tate Modern
When: Until 1 June 2025
Location: Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG
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
When: Until 5 May 2025
Location: Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG
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 and drink in London this month
Câv, Bethnal Green
When: Ongoing
Location: 255 Paradise Row, London E2 9LE
Price: Drinks from 5.50 GBP
Câv is a new venture from Edwin Forest (who co-founded Islington’s Half Cut and Shoreditch’s Oranj) and Chis Tanner (co-founder of Dram London in Soho). The Bethnal Green bar and restaurant has a rotating kitchen residency, with chef Josh Dallaway of Tasca currently in the kitchen cooking Iberian-inspired dishes such as elevated spicy sandwiches and clams bathed in a garlicky Bilbaína-style sauce. The wine list, curated by Sinead Murdoch, champions low-intervention and natural wines from predominantly female producers, and there is a house martini for 7 GBP. Câv is also a listening bar, with a stellar line-up of DJs spinning vinyl tracks in the evening.
Pasta making classes at Darling’s Eatery, Hackney
When: 1.30-4.30pm; 16 March; 6 April; 4 May
Location: 455 Wick Lane, Bow, London E3 2TB
Price: 67 GBP
Darling’s Eatery, located between Hackney Wick and Bow, is considered one of the best restaurants in Hackney for stellar pasta and Italian wine. For those looking to hone their culinary skills, Darling’s is currently running monthly pasta-making workshops. Learn the art of kneading and shaping, followed by a sociable sit-down meal served with focaccia, olives and salad, with the option to order drinks, too.
Kuro Bagels
When: Ongoing
Location: 5 Hillgate Street, London W8 7SP
Price: Filled bagels from 6 GBP
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.
