Totally Thames — London's annual celebration of everything riverine — is back for the entire month of September. Here, we dip our toe into the cultural waters, to bring you our pick of events.
Hosted by the Thames Festival Trust, Totally Thames runs across 20 boroughs (including the City) from 1-30 September 2025. It's awash with exhibitions, performances, art installations, boat trips, walks, talks and more — all designed to help you learn about, and appreciate, the Thames. London's multitude of other rivers, docks, beaches and the like are celebrated too.
Here's a smattering of happenings that've caught our eye:
- Clean Thames Challenge (1-30 Sept) Running throughout the festival, this is a clarion call to get to action, sprucing up the foreshore wherever's close to you, with the help of a free Clean Thames kit.
- Be Still in Flow: Artist Residency with Lyra Morgan (1-30 Sept): Another event running through the month; Lyra Morgan opens up her Bankside Hotel studio for Be Still in Flow, a 'painterly meditation' which incorporates Thames water. Open studio hours posted weekly @contemporary_collective
- Scratching Out a Living: The Medieval Female Proletariat (6 and 24 Sept) Laura Agustín takes you on a walk along the Thames, where you'll 'meet' six medieval women — scullery maid, victualler, laundress, alewife, sex worker, huckster — who once worked and lived here.
- Kayaking for Beginners at Kew Bridge (6-7 Sept): Newbies to sea kayaking can take to the water with the help of experts, with these taster sessions at Chelsea Kayak Club.
- Conduit at Crossness Pumping Station (13 Sept): Even if you've been to Crossness Pumping Station before now, have you seen a band play here live? You can thanks to Conduit, a groundbreaking piece of music, bringing together five innovative artists from London's contemporary jazz scene.
- Sing For Water (14 Sept): Over 40 choirs join forces to form a 'super choir', singing a repertoire of (we assume) water-themed songs at the Scoop near Tower Bridge.
- Great River Race (20 Sept) 250+ boat crews compete in this extraordinary marathon along the Thames from Millwall to Richmond.
- Serene Sounds (20 Sept): Lay on a candle-lit stage while being transported to a place of relaxed focus via sound bath vibrations and classical music from Transposed Ensemble.
- SKYE ZONE Burial (27 Sept): A one-off interpretive dance piece from Samara Langham (artist/choreographer) and Spike Fern (producer), performed in the Brunel Museum Tunnel Shaft.
- Toys from the Thames with Hazel Forsyth (27 Sept): Author of Toys, Trifles & Trinkets, Hazel Forsyth pores over the many small playthings — a number of them medieval — washed up from the Thames.
Totally Thames, London-wide, 1-30 September 2025. Some events are paid-for, others are free. Find out more on the official website.
