London in Bloom: The Season’s Most Compelling Exhibitions and Performances

Spring’s Cultural Calendar: Where Art, Fashion and Theatre Converge

London’s cultural calendar this spring unfolds with a sense of grandeur befitting Hotel Café Royal, which has hosted artists, fashion luminaries and society’s most colourful figures since 1865. With couture elevated to art, a duel of wits on the stage, and a regal tribute to the late Queen, the season feels perfectly attuned to a city coming back into glorious bloom.

Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace
This landmark exhibition brings together nearly 200 pieces from ten decades of the late monarch’s wardrobe. From her christening robe to her Norman Hartnell-designed Coronation gown, each look charts a lifetime of assured leadership and quiet diplomacy in Elizabeth’s inimitable style.

Best for: Royal family fans
Distance from Hotel Café Royal: 1 mile / 5 minutes by car.
Dates: 10 April – 18 October 2026
Explore More

Schiaparelli at the V&A
The V&A’s landmark exhibition Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art celebrates 100 years of the Elsa Schiaparelli’s brand, tracing the house’s surrealist beginnings in Paris to its modern couture revival. Expect jaw-dropping gowns and arresting art from Elsa’s inner circle including Cocteau, Dalí and Picasso.

Best for: Artful followers of fashion
Distance from Hotel Café Royal: 2.5 miles / 15 minutes by car.
Dates: Opens 28 March
Discover More

David Hockney at Serpentine Gallery
This contemplative show, David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting, sees one of the world’s greatest living artists capture the changing seasons around his studio in France. Painted on an iPad, but exhibited as a continuous work spanning the circumference of the Serpentine’s North Gallery, it evokes the narrative sweep of the soon-to-arrive Bayeux Tapestry.

Best for: A Spring day in Hyde Park
Distance from Hotel Café Royal: 2 miles / 10 minutes by car.
Dates: Now until 23 August 2026.
See More

Les Liaisons Dangereuses at National Theatre
Christopher Hampton’s elegant adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos’ novel about power games in the pursuit of social standing returns with Lesley Manville and Aidan Turner as the calculating Merteuil and Valmont. Seduction, manipulation and razor-sharp dialogue unfolds in one of the year’s most anticipated revivals.

Best for: Aficionados of The Crown and Rivals
Distance from Hotel Café Royal: 1.5 miles / 10-minute walk.
Dates: Now until 6 June 2026
Book Here

The Coming of Age at Wellcome Collection
The Coming of Age brings together more than 120 artworks and objects exploring how we experience ageing from adolescence to later years. Highlights include installations by Suzanne Lacy and intimate works by Paula Rego. Alongside historical artefacts and scientific material, it challenges assumptions around youth, beauty and longevity—asking how we might all age better.

Best for: Wellness warriors and curious minds
Distance from Hotel Café Royal: 2 miles / 10 minutes by car.
Dates: 26 March – 29 November 2026.
Learn More