Your Guide To London Design Festival 2025

London Design Festival is a spectacular showcase that brings together textiles, interiors and design, with exhibitions, installations and panel talks across the capital. Here’s how to make the most of this year’s show.

The C&TH Guide To London Design Festival 2025

Paul Read Photography

London is still the ‘design capital of the world’, asserts this annual festival, a title bestowed on it by the New York Times in 2012. There’s no doubt that the construction, creative design and artistic industries of our city have faced challenges over the years, but the London Design Festival seeks to challenge anyone who might suggest that the design scene here has not quite rebounded to its former glory. It’s easy to believe – the breadth of skill and artistry in this city remains as glorious as ever.

What Is London Design Festival?

Born in the early Noughties and conceived by Sir John Sorrell and Ben Evans CBE, London Design Festival is a sprawling juggernaut of events, exhibitions and installations dotted around the entire city. It’s funded by the Mayor of London (among others) and celebrates the capital’s bounty of design and designers alike.

When Is London Design Festival 2025?

London Design Festival 2025 takes place from 13 to 21 September across London.

Where Is It?

Located in London (duh) the festival is divided into ten distinct design districts: Brompton, Mayfair, Park Royal, Shoreditch, Chelsea, Bankside, EC1, Fleet Street, Dalston to Stokey, and the William Morris Design Line. The festival is also supported by the Material Matters and Design London Shoreditch design fairs.

How Do I Find My Way Around?

The festival is typically made up of over 300 exhibitors across the capital. Check the website for a full list of events and where to find them.

Our Top Picks Of What To See In 2025

The Objects We Live By

Artist and ceramicist Emma Louise Payne is opening the doors of her five-storey London atelier, Seventy-Six, to unveil an immersive exhibition which explores how design shapes our everyday lives. Located just moments from Hyde Park, each room of Seventy-Six will play host to new works by one of nine designers and makers. With no plinths, no spotlights, and no traditional display mechanisms, the objects are placed as they might be found in a lived-in space: a textile draped over a chair, a vessel on a kitchen shelf, a light catching the morning sun. The exhibit invites visitors to experience each object in its natural context and to consider how our lives are subtly shaped by the pieces we choose to live alongside. 76 Sussex Square, London, W2 2SS

Next Generation – Bill Amberg Studio x Kingston University

Shining a spotlight on the next generation of designers, Bill Amberg Studio has collaborated with the students on the Kingston University Product & Furniture Design MA Course and The Leatherseller’s Foundation produce an experimental range of leather-based designs. Participating in review sessions, offering valuable insight into the material’s potential, and welcoming students into their workshop, Bill and his team have guided the students to push the boundaries of what leather can do. The exhibition will feature a curated selection of works-in-progress prototypes and process-led experiments exploring leather’s possibilities through circular design principles, ethics and cultural context. Visitors will also have the opportunity to experience these works within Bill Amberg’s working studio, immersing themselves in conversations around materials, making and place. The main exhibition will take place on 13 and 14 September from 10am to 6pm, with the open studio drop-in from 15 to 19 September, 10am to 4pm. Bill Amberg Studio, 14 Minerva Road, Park Royal, London, NW10 6HJ

Brompton Design District: A Softer World

Curated by renowned gallerist Alex Tieghi-Walker, this year’s theme for the Brompton Design District is A Softer World – asking: ‘What if designed moved with care and made space for us to do the same?’ Gathering together designers whose work resists the hard edges of dominant systems, the creations on display will favour sensitivity over speed and nuance over noise. From tactility and material memory to emotional resonance and poetic form, softness is imagined as a tool to reconnect with each other, the environments we inhabit, and the objects we make and use every day. The curated programme will be centred at The Lavery on 4 Cromwell Place with further exhibitions popping up throughout the District which stretches from the V&A to Brompton Road. The Lavery, 4 Cromwell Place, London, SW7 2JE

Miffy At Bankside

With Miffy charms and pins decorating our bags, and Miffy museums and exhibits taking over our TikTok feeds, it seems that the beloved rabbit-y creature is bigger than ever. From a six ft tall Miffy lamp and a plush wall made of 400 mini Miffys to a range of original limited-edition silkscreens design by her creator Dick Bruna, this joyful installation will take over the lobby and OXBO restaurant at Hilton London Bankside. Guests are invited to explore, interact with and photograph the displays, creating memorable moments that celebrate both art and design. Hilton London Bankside, 2-8 Great Suffolk Street, London, SE1 0UG

Open Studio: Furnishing Futures – Meet the Charity

For those of you unfamilar with the amazing work of Furnishing Futures, this award-winning charity creates beautiful and trauma-informed homes for domestic abuse survivors using furniture saved from landfill. Through their series of talks and tours, discover how design can heal and transform lives at Furnishing Futures’ open house. This open house event offers a unique insight into its innovative approach to tackling furniture poverty. Invited to experience its new events and retail space, The Atrium, visitors will learn about the devastating impact of living in empty social housing, and how trauma-informed design can support wellbeing and recovery for families who have escaped domestic abuse. The Meet the Charity session is running on 20 Sept from 10:30am to 4pm. Unit 4, 11 Argall Avenue, Leyton, London, E10 7QE

What Nelson Sees By Paul Cocksedge

Taking over Trafalgar Square, What Nelson Sees by Paul Cocksedge offers visitors the chance to experience London from Nelson’s vantage point. Born from the designer’s lifelong curiosity about what Admiral Nelson witnesses from his elevated perch, this ambitious public installation represents Cocksedge’s attempt to answer a question that has long haunted him. Comprising of a series of intersecting tubes that form a striking freestanding structure, these lines form telescopic viewing portals which visitors are invited to peer through. Through these portals you will be able to rewind time to experience how London has evolved over the past century and how it may evolve in the future. Nelson’s Column, Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DN

In The Company Of Worms

This immersive installation invites you to become part of an evolving ecosystem of materials, organisms, and design. An exploration of regenerative principles, this exhibit from circular womenswear brand Anciela is crafted entirely from pre- and post-consumer textile waste. Step into the shoes (or the wiggly slimy skin) of a worm to explore the unseen labour of decomposition through compost-inspired soundscapes, inspiring a sensory reflection on the systems of renewal, decay, and care. The Design Museum, 224 – 238 Kensington High Street, London, W8 6AG

Beyond Foam

It’s in your sofas, it’s in your cars and it’s even in your trainers. Despite being one of the most frequently used materials in furniture design, polyurethane (aka foam) is toxic and nearly impossible to recycle. In a bid for sustainability, Aram Gallery and research startup EcoLattice are presenting ‘Beyond Foam’, an experimental design showcase exploring the future of the spongey material. Founded by Yash Shah in 2020, EcoLattice utilises Shah’s passion for 3D printed materials to address the pollution crisis head on. Made from elastomers, such as those used in TPU phone cases and automotive waste, the replacement material is recyclable and scalable, all while remaining affordable. Inviting eight emerging UK-based designers to design an item using his foam replacement, the new sustainable material will be put to the test. Aram Gallery, 110 Drury Lane, Covent Garden, London, WC2B 5SG, London

Beacon by Lee Broom