5 Reasons to Visit London This Fall

Game-changing openings and refurbishments have set a new bar for a city already overserved by top-tier hotels, including two of the most exciting new arrivals in decades: Raffles London at The OWO, taking over the majestic Old War Office, Sir Winston Churchill’s former workplace; and The Peninsula London, bookended by Hyde Park and a leafy corner of Buckingham Palace Garden. Just blocks from the Pen is the all-suite urban retreat The Emory, a steel-and-glass stunner designed by the late Richard Rogers. In nearby Mayfair, the dazzling new Mandarin Oriental Mayfair is the second London property from the M-O group, while venerable Claridge’s and The Dorchester glow with refreshed accommodations and dining rooms.

Launched on International Women’s Day (March 8), the East London–based Women’s Museum highlights the oft-unsung trailblazers of London’s past and present through women-centered exhibitions and programs. The inaugural exhibition gives “An Idea of a Life” (through December 2024) of the nuns and saints at Barking Abbey, once based in the museum’s neighborhood. Through nearly a millennium’s worth of artifacts and replicas, three local contemporary artists interpret the changing seasons of these spiritual women.

If you fell as hard for The Wolseley, Zédel, The Delaunay, and the late great Le Caprice as we (and all of London) did, rejoice: Jeremy King, co-creator (with Chris Corbin) of the aforementioned classics, is back in the restaurant game. After a brutish corporate takeover of the Corbin & King empire, King now stands on his own, with three high-profile openings in 2024 alone: Arlington, a Le Caprice revamp on the original site in St. James’s; contemporary brasserie The Park, opposite Kensington Gardens in Bayswater; and, early next year, a revival of the historic (circa 1828) Simpson’s in the Strand at the Savoy hotel.

Barbie mania rages on with the unparalleled focus only London’s Design Museum can lavish. Working with the Barbie archives in California, a team of curators consider the wide world of the Mattel doll, from fashion and architecture to furniture and vehicle design, including Barbie’s Dream House and how Day to Night Barbie manages to do it all. “Barbie: The Exhibition” (through Feb. 23, 2025) also showcases decades of Ken and the ever-evolving, diverse representations of our favorite gal. Meanwhile, the V&A South Kensington honors pop culture royalty with “Fragile Beauty” (300 photos from Sir Elton John and David Furnish’s art collection) and “Naomi in Fashion,” a look at the career of oh-so-fabulous Naomi Campbell.

In London’s West End, aka the center of the theater universe, the fall season is nothing to sniff at: Mark Rosenblatt’s drama Giant is set during the 1983 scandal that encircled celebrated children’s-book author Roald Dahl, known for such works as Matilda, James and the Giant Peach — and an explicitly anti-Semitic essay. John Lithgow stars as Dahl at the Royal Court Theatre (September 20–November 16). Seán O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock, a rueful comedy about opportunity and regret, brings together two virtuosos, English actor Mark Rylance and American actress J. Smith Cameron, in the Irish classic (Gielgud Theatre; September 21–November 23). Stanley Kubrick’s satirical film Dr. Strangelove is adapted for the first time as a stage play with comedy trio Armando Iannucci, Sean Foley, and star Steve Coogan at the controls. Set during the Cold War, the black comedy centers around a U.S. general who goes rogue, provoking a nuclear crisis. That’s not relevant nowadays, right? Right??? (Noël Coward Theatre; October 8–January 25, 2025)