The Week Outside the Tents

A Thursday ticket to one of the two Frieze fairs costs £150. On the Tuesday before, Tate Modern opens Tarek Atoui’s Hyundai Commission in the Turbine Hall and charges nothing. That is the week in two sentences. The fairs are the reason the art world is in London from October 12 to 18, 2026, and the city around them is the better reason to stay.

The evidence is specific. Tschabalala Self’s Lady in Blue has stood on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square since September 10. Frieze Sculpture puts 11 artists in the English Gardens of Regent’s Park, the same park as the tents, with no ticket and no booking. On Thursday, October 15, the day the public first enters the tents, the National Gallery opens Yinka Shonibare and Thomas Gainsborough: A Conversation, free, in Room 1. And at the Hayward Gallery, the Anish Kapoor retrospective closes on Sunday, October 18, the same evening the fairs do.

London’s institutions time their autumn programs to the fair, and this year the timing is tight: at least six museum exhibitions open between Tuesday and Thursday, and half a dozen commercial galleries in Mayfair and St James’s open new shows on October 13 alone.

This page sorts it, and says plainly what cannot be seen this week. Fair hours and prices are on the fairs page; tickets and transport are in the guide. Biennale is free to read.

Dates, prices and hours were read from each institution’s own website on October 5, 2026, unless a line says otherwise. Confirm with the organizer before setting out.

Opening This Week

Closing This Week or Soon

Running Through the Season

Commercial galleries are free. Most open Tuesday to Saturday and close on Sunday and Monday. Addresses appear where the research confirmed them.

On sourcing: most entries were read on the gallery’s own site. These rest on the GalleriesNow listing alone and should be confirmed with the gallery: Goodman, GRIMM, Max Hetzler, Cristea Roberts, Perrotin, the “also listed” names in Mayfair, October Gallery, Alice Amati, Frith Street, Elizabeth Xi Bauer and Lisson.

Mayfair and St James’s

• Hauser & Wirth, 23 Savile Row. Cindy Sherman and Lorna Simpson: Previous & Ongoing, October 13 to December 23. Open all seven days this week.
• Gagosian, 20 Grosvenor Hill. This Is Still Not a Pipe: The Afterlife of Magritte, Magritte with more than 40 contemporary artists, to December 12.
• Thaddaeus Ropac, 37 Dover Street. Georg Baselitz: The Heroes 1965–66, October 13 to December 18.
• David Zwirner, 24 Grafton Street. Louis Fratino: Prose and Daichi Takagi: Suchness, to October 31.
• Pace. Kylie Manning: The Mudlarkers, October 13 to November 14.
• Sadie Coles HQ, 17 Savile Row. Nicole Eisenman, to November 21. At 8 Bury Street, Catherine Murphy: Recent Work, to November 7.
• Pilar Corrias, 2 Savile Row. Rirkrit Tiravanija: (situational awareness), to November 14, in which a tailor takes apart nineteenth-century military jackets. Also Mary Ramsden: The Feeling of What Happens, to November 7; which of the gallery’s two spaces was not stated.
• Sprüth Magers, 7A Grafton Street. Lucy Dodd: The good, the true and the beautiful, to October 24.
• Timothy Taylor, 15 Bolton Street. Hayal Pozanti: A Dream That Rhymed With Mine, to October 24.
• Alison Jacques, 22 Cork Street. Graham Little, to November 14.
• Goodman Gallery, 26 Cork Street. William Kentridge: A Nicely Built City, to November 7.
• No.9 Cork Street, Frieze’s own gallery. Robin F. Williams: Act Natural and Jordan Nassar: No History of Shapes, October 9–24.
• Thomas Dane Gallery, 11 and 3 Duke Street, St James’s. Glenn Ligon: Prompts and Paul Pfeiffer: Pasodoble, October 13 to December 19.
• White Cube Mason’s Yard, 25–26 Mason’s Yard. Firenze Lai: North and True North, October 13 to November 14.
• GRIMM, 43a Duke Street, St James’s. Rosalind Nashashibi: Gaza Apollo, October 13 to November 21.
• Galerie Max Hetzler, 41 Dover Street. Walton Ford: An Orbed Drop of Light, to November 11.
• Cristea Roberts Gallery, 43 Pall Mall. Antony Gormley: Where, October 14 to December 23.
• Perrotin, Claridge’s, Brook’s Mews. Iván Argote: Mamarrachos: Quinceañera, to December 19.

Also listed, addresses not captured: Bridget Riley at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, Mira Schendel at Luxembourg + Co., Allen Jones at Gazelli Art House, Fernando Botero at Opera Gallery, Somaya Critchlow at Maximillian William and Nicola Turner at Annely Juda Fine Art.

Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury

• Herald St | Museum St, 43 Museum Street. Esteban Jefferson, to November 28. The gallery’s listing titles it British Museum; the show page gives the name only.
• Union Pacific, 15 West Central Street. Koak: Still Weather, opened October 2; closing date not posted.
• Josh Lilley. Celeste Rapone: How We’re Doing, October 16 to November 28.
• October Gallery. Romuald Hazoumè: My Blue Period, to November 21.
• Alice Amati. Sophie Birch: The eye lives in this texture (...), October 13 to November 20.

The district of the last three was not checked against an address.

Soho

• Sadie Coles HQ, 62 Kingly Street. Martine Syms: Knot Eye, to November 7.
• Frith Street Gallery, 17–18 Golden Square. Colin Self: Unseen, to November 7. The gallery’s own page did not show it when read.

East London

• Maureen Paley, 60 Three Colts Lane and 4 Herald Street. Rebecca Warren: There Will Be Another You, to December 12.
• Carlos/Ishikawa, Unit 4, 88 Mile End Road. Maxwell Alexandre: Black painter, white figuration, to November 28.
• Kate MacGarry, 27 Old Nichol Street. Bernard Piffaretti: Painting & Caption, to November 14.
• Herald St. Elise Nguyen Quoc: sous ultra-vide, to November 7.
• Soft Opening, 6 Minerva Street. Maren Karlson: LAG, closing Saturday, October 17.
• Union Pacific, 17 Goulston Street. Jason Thompson: Sacred and Ordinary; dates not posted.
• Rose Easton. Parker Ito: Happiness is a Butterfly, Full Metal Bunny and the group show Lumps and Bumps, to December 12.
• Hollybush Gardens. Olu Ogunnaike: Did I fall here and Cynthia Hawkins: Regarding Entangled Maps, to October 31.
• Arcadia Missa. Vijay Masharani: Haymakers and Melike Kara: HUSH, to October 29.

Addresses for the last three were not captured and their district was not verified. Arcadia Missa is given a Duke Street address elsewhere in the research; check before heading east.

South London

• White Cube Bermondsey, 144–152 Bermondsey Street. Gabriel Orozco: Chronotopic, curated by Briony Fer, to November 8. Open Sunday afternoon; closed Monday.
• Sid Motion Gallery, South Bermondsey. That Which Appears, to October 31, the gallery’s last exhibition.

King’s Cross, Islington and North

• Victoria Miro, 16 Wharf Road. Hernan Bas: TIME TO SHINE! (the salesmen), to November 14, and Khalif Tahir Thompson: Send in the Clowns, to November 7.
• Elizabeth Xi Bauer, Exmouth Market. Pia Camil: Bestia, to November 22.
• Lisson Gallery, 67 Lisson Street. GalleriesNow lists Carmen Herrera: Pulse, Pause, Repeat and Ha Chong-Hyun to November 7; Lisson’s own page showed neither when read. Unconfirmed

Five outdoor works and one park exhibition make a respectable Frieze week by themselves. All are free, none needs booking, and all outlast the fairs.

Frieze Sculpture

Frieze Sculpture runs from September 16 to November 1 in the English Gardens, at the south end of the Broadwalk in Regent’s Park. It is the 14th edition and the fourth curated by Fatoş Üstek, on a theme of hybridity. Eva Langret, who directs Frieze in Europe, calls it “one of the most open and immediate ways to experience Frieze in London,” in the organizer’s release. For an exhibition with no door, that is fair.

The 11 artists, as Frieze lists them: Angel Otero, Dreams and Salt; Carolina Aguirre, Held; Catriona Robertson, WYRM; Conrad Shawcross, Eye of the Needle (Time Pebble (E30A13)); Douglas White, Black Palm, called Black Palm II in the July announcement; Elena Nemkova, Agony in the Garden; Ivana Bašić, Metanoia; Matyáš Chochola, METEOR, BRUTALIST and MACE II; Özlem Günyol and Mustafa Kunt, Possibilities for a Sculpture; Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Warrior Figure; and Tarini Sethi, The Sun Bathes Its Friends and Neighbours.

An audio tour by Üstek and the artists is on the Bloomberg Connects app. No free curator-led tour is confirmed for Frieze week; the October tour is for Frieze members.

The Fourth Plinth

Tschabalala Self’s Lady in Blue was unveiled in Trafalgar Square on September 10: a bronze of a contemporary woman striding forward, painted a blue that refers to lapis lazuli. It stays for two years; the next commission, by Andra Ursuţa, follows in 2028.

Kensington Gardens

The Serpentine Pavilion 2026, titled a serpentine, is by LANZA atelier, the Mexico City practice of Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo: a brick structure with a translucent roof. It is open daily from 10 am to 6 pm and its last day is Sunday, October 25, one week after the fairs. Jesús Rafael Soto’s Pénétrable BBL Jaune stands outdoors nearby until the same date. Both Serpentine galleries are free too, though closed on Monday.

The Royal Academy Courtyard

Nicole Eisenman’s Stack, a bronze more than eight meters tall, is in the Annenberg Courtyard at Burlington House until February 5, 2027. It is an abstracted self-portrait: a figure carrying a pile of people and objects. No booking and no charge.

Indoors, Still Free

Beyond the Turbine Hall: the Shonibare and Gainsborough room at the National Gallery, Yuko Mohri in the Barbican’s Curve, Michael Landy at the Soane, Monika Sosnowska at the South London Gallery, and the Wellcome Collection. Among the fairs, Minor Attractions, at The Newman hotel in Fitzrovia from October 13 to 17, says entry is free; see the fairs page.

London has no single gallery night this year. It has a Tuesday that behaves like one, a set of Frieze events that are mostly for members, and a long list of museums that stay open late anyway.

Tuesday, October 13

Nobody brands it, but 6 to 8 pm on Tuesday is opening night in Mayfair and St James’s. Receptions are posted for Cindy Sherman and Lorna Simpson at Hauser & Wirth and for Georg Baselitz at Thaddaeus Ropac; one listing adds Antony Gormley at Cristea Roberts. The night before, Thomas Dane opens Glenn Ligon from 6 to 8 pm at 11 Duke Street, St James’s.

Frieze’s list of gallery events marks more as public. On Tuesday: a tour of Nicola Turner at Annely Juda at 3:30 pm, a tour of Colin Self at Frith Street Gallery from 5:30 pm, and receptions for Iván Argote at Perrotin and Sophie Birch at Alice Amati from 6 pm. On Thursday: breakfasts at Hollybush Gardens and Sprüth Magers from 10 am. On Sunday at 11 am: a walkthrough of Cece Philips at Public Gallery. The public labels could not be confirmed on a second reading, so check with each gallery.

Frieze’s Neighborhood Days

Frieze lists a Bloomsbury Afternoon on Friday, October 9, an East End Day on Sunday, October 11, and a West End Day on Saturday, October 17, from 11 am to 6 pm. Only the last falls inside the week, and the program page labels all three as VIP program, though a Frieze article was read as listing them under public access. Assume they are for members. The galleries are open to everyone in normal hours regardless. There is no West End Night or East End Night in the 2026 program as read, and no Bermondsey, Fitzrovia or Cork Street gallery night was found.

Museums Open Late

Two things that look like lates and are not: the Courtauld’s next Friday late is November 6, and the National Gallery’s pay-what-you-wish Fridays for Renoir and Love begin on October 23. No themed late was found at Tate Modern, the V&A or the Royal Academy for the week.

Performance and Film at the ICA

Autumn Knight performs at the ICA on The Mall twice: party pooper 1 on Monday, October 12, and party pooper 2 on Thursday, October 15, both at 7 pm, within her exhibition. Ticketing was not captured. Upstairs, the Frieze × ICA Artists’ Film Programme loops from noon to 8 pm daily, drop-in, and streams until October 30.

Talks belong mostly to the fairs, and no timetable for Frieze Masters Talks was found. Who is speaking is on the people page.

Each route uses only venues on this page. Walking times between galleries were not measured; where a time appears, it is the venue’s own figure. Check Monday closures before choosing a day.

For a ready-made plan, see the three-day Frieze week city journey and the London map on My Biennale.

Route One: Regent’s Park and Bloomsbury

Best on Thursday afternoon, Friday or Saturday.

1. Frieze Sculpture, English Gardens. Regent’s Park station (Bakerloo line) is under five minutes from the Frieze London entrance, by Frieze’s account; Great Portland Street (Metropolitan, Circle, Hammersmith & City) and Baker Street are also close.
2. Frieze London, off Park Square West. Public from 1 pm Thursday, 11 am Friday to Sunday.
3. Optional: Frieze Masters, about 15 minutes’ walk or a free shuttle. Camden Town and Mornington Crescent (Northern line) are about 10 minutes from its entrance.
4. Regent’s Park (Bakerloo) to Oxford Circus, then the Central line one stop to Tottenham Court Road (Central, Northern).
5. British Museum, five minutes from Tottenham Court Road by the museum’s figure: Korea and Multiplied Wonders. Open to 8:30 pm on Friday.
6. Herald St | Museum St, 43 Museum Street, then Union Pacific, 15 West Central Street.

Route Two: Mayfair and St James’s

Best Tuesday to Saturday, and on October 13 for the openings. Start at Green Park (Piccadilly, Victoria, Jubilee lines) or Piccadilly Circus (Bakerloo, Piccadilly), the stations the Royal Academy names.

1. Royal Academy, Piccadilly: Stack in the courtyard, then the Riviera and Richard Dadd. Closed Monday.
2. Cork Street: Alison Jacques at 22, Goodman at 26, No.9 Cork Street.
3. Savile Row: Hauser & Wirth at 23, Sadie Coles HQ at 17, Pilar Corrias at 2.
4. Grafton and Dover Streets: David Zwirner, Sprüth Magers, Thaddaeus Ropac, Max Hetzler; then Timothy Taylor on Bolton Street.
5. Optional: Gagosian at 20 Grosvenor Hill and PAD London in Berkeley Square, which is ticketed.
6. St James’s: Thomas Dane and GRIMM on Duke Street, White Cube in Mason’s Yard, Sadie Coles HQ on Bury Street, Cristea Roberts on Pall Mall.
7. Trafalgar Square: the Fourth Plinth, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and the ICA on The Mall until 8 pm. Their nearest stations were not verified.

Route Three: South Bank to Bermondsey

Best Tuesday to Sunday. Not Monday.

1. Waterloo (Bakerloo, Northern, Jubilee, Waterloo & City lines) or Embankment (District, Circle, Bakerloo, Northern), the stations the Southbank Centre names for the Hayward Gallery: Anish Kapoor, to Sunday.
2. Tate Modern, Bankside: Atoui from Tuesday, Light and Magic from Wednesday. The link from the Hayward was not verified; both are on the river.
3. Southwark station (Jubilee line), about 600 meters from Tate Modern by Tate’s figure, to London Bridge (Jubilee, Northern).
4. White Cube Bermondsey, 144–152 Bermondsey Street: Gabriel Orozco. White Cube names no nearest station, so London Bridge is an assumption to check.
5. Optional: South London Gallery, free, open to 9 pm on Wednesday. Transport link not verified.

An alternative start: Tate Britain, about 600 meters from Pimlico (Victoria line), then the Tate Boat to Bankside. A partly checked fourth route runs east from the Whitechapel Gallery, under a minute from Aldgate East (District, Hammersmith & City lines), through the East London galleries above to Chisenhale; no link beyond Aldgate East was verified.