London spring 2026: the must-see exhibitions

Spring 2026 in London is a properly stacked season for exhibitions. The Tate, V&A and National Gallery have all timed their headline shows for March-May, the smaller galleries are running their best programmes of the year, and the weather lets you actually walk between them without losing the will to live.

Here are the eight to plan around. The dates and titles for the very biggest will land on the venue sites — track those — but here is what to expect from each programme.

For exhibition openings, late nights, panel talks and gallery events, the London events page on Rifio is the live list. Galleries publish opening events that are often free and properly worth attending.

1. Tate Modern spring blockbuster (Bankside)

Tate Modern's spring show is usually their strongest of the year. £18-22, sells out at peak times, members get free entry and the Members' Bar overlooking the Thames is one of London's best £85-a-year deals.

The Tate Modern permanent collection is always free and the Tanks downstairs are running rotating commissions worth checking even if you are not seeing the headline show.

2. V&A spring fashion / design exhibition (South Kensington)

The V&A's big spring fashion or design show is the cultural booking of the season. Past springs have done Yves Saint Laurent, Mary Quant, the Hollywood Costume show. £20-26, sells out months out, the audio guide is genuinely worth it.

The rest of the V&A is free — the cast courts, the jewellery galleries, the Cafe in the Original Refreshment Rooms is the most beautiful museum cafe in the world.

3. National Gallery spring retrospective (Trafalgar Square)

The National's spring retrospective is usually a single-artist deep dive — Vermeer, Caravaggio, Holbein, that level of curation. £20-24. Book the first hour timeslot to get a quieter room before the school groups arrive.

The permanent collection is, as ever, free and one of the great free things on Earth.

4. Whitechapel Gallery spring season (Whitechapel)

The best free exhibition in London most spring seasons. Whitechapel programmes contemporary international shows that the bigger venues miss — usually mid-career artists getting a proper London retrospective.

The cafe at the front does proper coffee and a sensible lunch. The bookshop is one of the best art-book shops in London.

5. Tate Britain spring contemporary show (Pimlico)

Tate Britain's spring contemporary show usually focuses on a younger British or international artist getting a proper retrospective. £14-18 — cheaper than Tate Modern, often more interesting.

Walk along the river from Tate Britain to Tate Modern via the Thames Path — the canonical London art walk.

6. Royal Academy Summer Exhibition preview (Piccadilly)

Late spring / early summer opening of the Summer Exhibition — the democratic, sprawling, hung-floor-to-ceiling show that has run since 1769 and remains genuinely enjoyable. £20-25, you spend two hours in there easily.

Buy your favourite small print at the Friends Room. They start at £150 and you walk out with proper art.

7. Hayward Gallery main show (South Bank)

The Hayward's programming has been consistently strong — international contemporary, often immersive, properly thought through. £18-22. The roof of the Hayward is one of the best views in London and it is always free.

Pair with a film at the BFI Southbank ten minutes' walk away.

8. South London Gallery / Camden Art Centre

The two best free smaller galleries in London. South London Gallery in Peckham runs serious contemporary programmes — installation work, video, mid-career retrospectives — and the cafe in the Outset Garden is lovely. Camden Art Centre is the same, in north London, with a proper bookshop and a Sunday garden brunch.

Both free. Both walk-in. Both run programmes the big venues miss.

Easy add-on visits

• Sir John Soane's Museum (Lincoln's Inn Fields, free) — the most weirdly brilliant small museum in London, by appointment is a thing, walk-in is also fine.
• The Wallace Collection (Manchester Square, free) — the most underrated free museum in London. Pre-1850, beautiful house, lovely cafe, tourist-free.
• The Photographers' Gallery (Oxford Circus, £8) — runs three shows at a time, proper photography programming.
• Serpentine Galleries (Hyde Park, free) — two galleries, contemporary, the summer pavilion opens in June.

What to skip

The big-screen "immersive" Van Gogh / Monet / Klimt / Frida tents at venues across London — they are inflatable rooms with a Powerpoint. Any exhibition advertised as "the most Instagrammable" anything. The "selfie museums" in Westfield and Oxford Street.

For a walking tour of the spring exhibitions in a single day, the route works: Tate Britain (10am) → walk along the river → Tate Modern (12pm) → walk to Whitechapel (15min on the Overground) → Whitechapel Gallery (3pm) → end at a pub on Brick Lane. That is a proper day.

The this-week London page on Rifio surfaces gallery openings and late nights specifically — most galleries do free First Thursdays or late Friday openings that are properly social, and you can find them filtered by week and venue.