What’s On in Islington This Weekend : 22–24 May 2026
Your full guide to the best gigs, club nights, theatre, dance, markets, brunch and free things to do across Islington, Clerkenwell, Angel, Highbury, Tufnell Park and King’s Cross this Friday to Sunday.
A genuinely packed weekend on our patch. Warmduscher and Motion City Soundtrack kick off Friday at opposite ends of Upper Street, Union Chapel has three nights running of folk and Americana, Sadler’s Wells is closing out Northern Ballet, Scala has back-to-back daytime and nightclub parties on Saturday, Electrowerkz brings a heavyweight house line-up after dark, and Sunday rolls in with the farmers’ market. We’ve also pulled together brunch and bottomless picks, plus the best free things to do across the patch. Here’s the full rundown.
Friday 22 May
Live music
Warmduscher — The Garage
20–22 Highbury Corner, N5 1RD · Doors 7pm
Clipped, sleazy, sweaty post-punk from one of London’s best live bands. Warmduscher at The Garage on a Friday night is exactly the kind of gig the venue was built for — indie-rock rite of passage in a 600-cap room directly opposite Highbury & Islington station. If you’ve been meaning to see them, this is the one.
Motion City Soundtrack — O2 Academy Islington
N1 Centre, 16 Parkfield Street, N1 0PS · Doors 7pm
Minneapolis pop-punk royalty back in London. If you came of age in the early-to-mid 2000s, you don’t need any further explanation. The Academy is tucked into the back of the Angel shopping centre — not the prettiest entrance, but the room itself is one of the best mid-sized spaces in north London for this kind of show.
The Rions — Islington Assembly Hall
Upper Street, N1 2UD · Doors typically 6.30pm
Sydney indie four-piece on their UK tour, in one of the most beautiful Grade II-listed rooms on Upper Street. The Assembly Hall does mid-tier touring acts better than almost anywhere in London — proper sound, sit-down balcony, art deco ceiling. Tickets started around £19.
Jesca Hoop — Union Chapel
Compton Terrace, N1 2UN · Doors typically 7pm
California-born, Manchester-based singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop brings her literate, slightly off-kilter folk to one of London’s most beautiful gig rooms. Union Chapel’s Grade I-listed Gothic Revival interior and famously good acoustics suit her layered, almost sacred vocal arrangements better than just about any other venue in the city.
Weatherday — Scala
275 Pentonville Road, N1 9NL · Doors 7pm
Noise-pop project from Swedish songwriter Sputnik, touring on the back of cult internet acclaim. Scala in its proper indie mode — sweaty, vertical, very loud. Worth knowing about even if you don’t know the band; the room itself is one of the best in King’s Cross.
Theatre, dance & cabaret
Northern Ballet: Gentleman Jack — Sadler’s Wells
Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4TN · Closes Saturday 23 May
Northern Ballet’s run of Gentleman Jack closes on Saturday — Friday and Saturday are your last two chances. The work tells the story of Anne Lister, the 19th-century Yorkshire landowner and diarist whose coded journals chronicled her relationships with women. Narrative ballet in Northern’s signature theatrical style — strong storytelling, big emotional beats.
YAMATO: The Drummers of Japan — Peacock Theatre
Portugal Street, WC2A 2HT · Sadler’s Wells’ West End venue
Just outside the borough but a Sadler’s Wells production so we’re calling it in. YAMATO have been touring the world for thirty years with their full-body taiko drumming spectacle. “Hito no Chikara” — The Power of Human Strength — runs at the Peacock until 30 May. Loud, athletic, weirdly meditative.
Sabrage — Lafayette
11 Goods Way, N1C 4DP · King’s Cross
Cabaret and circus in the New Orleans-styled Lafayette venue, presented by Strut & Fret and the Menier Chocolate Factory. Consistently good word-of-mouth since opening. A solid date-night option if you want something more theatrical than a gig but not as buttoned-up as a play. Open-ended residency running through to September.
Final weekend at the Almeida Theatre
Almeida Street, N1 1TA · Closes Saturday 23 May
Last weekend for the Almeida’s current main production. Return tickets are your best bet — keep an eye on the box office from late morning on the day.
Saturday 23 May
Markets & daytime
Camden Passage Antiques Market
Off Upper Street, N1 8EA · 9am–6pm · Free entry
Saturday is one of the two big market days at Camden Passage, alongside Wednesday. The narrow pedestrian lane behind Upper Street fills with stalls selling vintage clothing, silverware, jewellery, prints, ceramics and one-off bric-a-brac. The permanent shops are also at full strength — Loop for yarn, Annie’s for vintage textiles, Smug for the perfect-but-unnecessary homeware purchase.
Chapel Market
Chapel Market, N1 9PS · 9am–6pm · Free entry
A working London street market, not a curated experience — fruit and veg, household goods, fabric, flowers, plus a few food stalls. It’s been having a tough few years, with traders openly worried about its future, so this is the bit where we say: actually go and spend money there.
Lower Stable Street Market — Coal Drops Yard
King’s Cross, N1C 4DR · Open Saturday · Free entry
Independent designer-makers and emerging brands set up alongside the permanent street tenants — Honest Jon’s Records, Redemption Roasters, Roseur florist. Worth pairing with a long lunch at Caravan, Dishoom or the Lighterman by the canal.
Live music
The Handsome Family — Union Chapel
Compton Terrace, N1 2UN · First of two nights
Brett and Rennie Sparks bring their Southern Gothic Americana back to Union Chapel for two nights running. If their name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, their song “Far From Any Road” probably does — it’s the theme to True Detective. Live, they’re funnier than the records suggest, and the chapel setting suits their murder-ballad sensibility almost too well.
Club nights & after dark
Seamus Haji & friends — Electrowerkz
7 Torrens Street, EC1V 1NQ · Directly behind Angel station
Heavyweight house line-up at Islington’s longest-running alternative venue: Seamus Haji headlining, with Chris de Buerre, CJ Cooper, Hayley Wallace, Wildblood and Queenie on the bill. Electrowerkz has five floors of bare-brick warehouse rooms, has been running club nights since 1987, and was famously a Black Mirror filming location for the San Junipero episode. Properly sweaty, properly dark, properly fun.
Scala on Saturday — three parties, one night
275 Pentonville Road, N1 9NL
Scala genuinely earns its money on Saturday with a back-to-back-to-back programme:
Oddly perfect Scala day if you fancy starting early, going home for a nap, and then coming back out.
The Cross — King’s Cross
2–4 Wharfdale Road, N1 9RY
Honest note: the legendary original Cross nightclub in the Coal Drops Yard arches closed on New Year’s Day 2008. In 2022 one of its founders, Billy Reilly, reopened a new venue called The Cross on Wharfdale Road — part pub, part restaurant, part club space, part roof terrace. A nod to the original rather than a recreation, but a solid late-night option if you’re already in King’s Cross.
Sunday 24 May
Markets & daytime
Islington Farmers’ Market
Chapel Market (Penton Street end), N1 9PS · 10am–2pm · Free entry
London’s oldest farmers’ market, and still one of the best. Wild Country Organics veg, Nigel’s Lettuce and Lovage salads, raw milk and cheese, properly-reared meat, and bread that justifies its price tag. Get there before noon if you want the good loaves.
Lower Stable Street Market — Coal Drops Yard
King’s Cross, N1C 4DR · Open Sunday · Free entry
Different selection of designer-makers from Saturday, plus the same permanent residents. Easy pair with a canalside Sunday lunch.
Live music
The Handsome Family — Union Chapel: Night Two
Compton Terrace, N1 2UN
Second of the two-night Union Chapel run. If Saturday’s gone, Sunday’s the move. Sunday-night Americana in a Victorian church is, frankly, exactly the kind of thing that makes living in Islington feel like a good decision.
Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip — The Lexington
96–98 Pentonville Road, N1 9JB · Doors 8pm
If you don’t know Mik Artistik, the short version: Leeds-based cult comedy-folk-spoken-word three-piece, beloved of Glastonbury crowds, fronted by a man who looks like a retired geography teacher and sings about sweet potato chips. Genuinely one of the most fun small-room gigs you can have in London.
Brunch this weekend
Islington’s brunch scene is one of the most competitive in London. Here are our picks, broken into three categories: the standout sit-down brunches, the quick-fire neighbourhood favourites, and the bottomless options if you want to make a real day of it.
Sit-down brunch — our top picks
Brother Marcus — Camden Passage
1 Camden Passage, N1 8DY
Modern Eastern Mediterranean brunch that consistently delivers. Bright plates, big flavours, room built for long weekend mornings. Try the kefir fried chicken with crispy potato rosti and two fried eggs, or the harissa eggs. Sister sites in Borough, Spitalfields and Spinningfields, but the Angel branch is where it started.
Caravan — Exmouth Market
11–13 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QD
Original Caravan site, still one of the best brunches in London. Their coffee roasting operation runs out the back. The terrace is the move on a sunny May Saturday — expect to wait if you haven’t booked. The Granary Square branch is a viable alternative if Exmouth is rammed.
Sunday — Barnsbury
169 Hemingford Road, N1 1DA
The neighbourhood brunch spot tucked into a residential street north of Caledonian Road. Famous for queues out the door and one of the best brunches in London full stop. Note: at time of writing the original site has been reported as being closed for refurbishment in some recent listings — worth checking their socials before you make the trek.
Ottolenghi — Upper Street
287 Upper Street, N1 2TZ
The original Ottolenghi. The window display alone is worth a stop. Bold, vegetable-forward, Mediterranean-leaning brunch in the daytime; if you can’t get a table, the takeaway counter is one of the best lunches in the area.
Quick & easy neighbourhood brunches
Bottomless brunch
If you’re committed to making it a proper day:
Megan’s — multiple sites including Angel and Upper Street
The accessible-price option. Around £20pp for the bottomless add-on with food (90 minutes), Mediterranean-leaning menu, weekends only. Reliably booked out by mid-Saturday morning. Tip: their Sorting Office branch near Angel station tends to have more weekend availability than Upper Street.
Flight Club — Bloomsbury / Holborn (closest to the patch)
Bottomless pizza and prosecco plus social darts. Thursday to Sunday. If you’ve got a group of 6+ and you want chaos rather than a quiet brunch, this is the one. Not technically Islington, but the closest of the experience-brunch venues.
The Castle — Pentonville Road
Rooftop terrace pub doing a proper Saturday 11am–4pm bottomless slot. 90 minutes, breakfast plates plus unlimited bubbles. The roof is the selling point if the sun’s out.
Homeboy — Ecclesbourne Road
Irish-leaning bottomless brunch on Sundays 1pm–5pm. Two courses including a full Irish or pancakes, plus Guinness chocolate cake. One of the more genuinely good food offerings in the bottomless space — you’re not just paying for the drinks.
The Lounge at John Salt — Upper Street
90 minutes of unlimited drinks with food, slightly less mainstream than Megan’s, with proper kitchen credentials behind it. Books up fast.
A note on bottomless brunch in general: prices have crept up across the board in the last year. Most sit at £35–60pp now, with sub-£25 options getting rare. Always check what the food offering actually is — some venues skimp heavily on the food side once they’ve sold you the unlimited drinks.
Free things to do this weekend
Islington and its neighbours have one of the best free-things-to-do hit-rates in London. Here’s what we’d actually do:
Walks & outdoors
Regent’s Canal towpath: Angel to King’s Cross
The classic local walk. Pick it up at City Road Lock by Islington Tunnel, walk west, and you’re at Granary Square in twenty minutes. Past converted warehouses, narrowboats, the new gasholder flats, and out into Coal Drops Yard. Free, easy, and one of the bits of London that consistently makes visitors jealous.
Highbury Fields
Islington’s biggest green space and the borough’s most-used park. Playgrounds, tennis courts, dog walkers, and on a sunny May weekend you’ll find half of Islington stretched out on the grass with a coffee from one of the cafés on Highbury Park. Free entry, free atmosphere.
Granary Square fountains & grass steps
The grass steps are back for the warmer months. 1,080 individually controlled fountain jets in the main square, free to splash in if you’ve got kids and a change of clothes. Sit on the canal-facing steps with a coffee, watch the world go by.
Camley Street Natural Park
Two-acre wild green space tucked behind King’s Cross, between the canal and St Pancras. Genuine pocket of woodland, pond, and birds in one of the most built-up corners of London. Open every day, free entry, and visitor numbers stay miraculously low.
New River Walk
Less well-known than the Regent’s Canal, this is the surviving stretch of the 17th-century New River that brought water from Hertfordshire to London. The Canonbury section is one of the prettiest five-minute walks in the borough.
Free culture & viewing
Arsenal FC Shirt Exhibition
Islington Council LDP Office · Free entry · Until 31 May
Pop-up exhibition charting Arsenal’s history through its kit, curated by Abdul Rashid Zakari. Short walk from Emirates Stadium. Free, low-commitment, and a perfect bit of culture between the market and a pub.
Word on the Water — the floating bookshop
Regent’s Canal towpath, by Granary Square
The famous floating bookshop on a 1920s Dutch barge, usually moored opposite the Granary Building. Free to browse, occasional live music and poetry readings on the roof deck. Genuinely one of the most charming spots in King’s Cross.
Camden Passage window-shopping
Even if you don’t buy anything, the antiques market and permanent shops on a Saturday morning are basically a free pop-up museum. Strong vintage typewriter and ceramics game in particular.
Wesley’s Chapel & Museum of Methodism
49 City Road, EC1Y 1AU
On the southern edge of our patch. John Wesley’s house, chapel, and a small but interesting museum about the history of Methodism. Free entry, open Saturdays. One of the more underrated free London museums.
Estorick Collection — a note
39A Canonbury Square, N1 2AN
Not free (£9.50 adult, £1 for Universal Credit holders, free for under-18s and members), but worth flagging: their new exhibition Emilio Isgrò: Erasing to Create opens this Wednesday 20 May, so the weekend is the first chance to see it. The café, shop and courtyard garden are free to visit without an admission ticket. The last Thursday of every month is also a late opening with free entry for full-time students after 5pm.
Free things, kids edition
On all weekend
Exmouth Market
Clerkenwell, EC1R 4QE
Semi-pedestrianised, restaurant-and-café-lined, at its best in late May with the outdoor tables out. Caravan, Moro, Morito, Café Kick, Brill, Spit & Roast — no wrong choice. Stalls trade Monday to Saturday.
A note on The Dome, Tufnell Park
Worth mentioning what’s not on, because we keep getting asked: The Dome has a relatively quiet weekend itself, though the venue is back in full action mid-week (Skaiwater played Thursday). If you’re a Dome regular, keep an eye on the calendar for the run of June shows.
Sunday roast picks
Booking is now functionally mandatory at the good ones, but if you’re calling around late, try:
Quick planning notes
Getting around
Angel (Northern), Highbury & Islington (Victoria, Overground, National Rail), King’s Cross St Pancras (Northern, Victoria, Piccadilly, Circle, H&C, Met, Elizabeth Line, Thameslink) and Farringdon (Elizabeth Line, Thameslink, Met, Circle, H&C) are your workhorse stations. Highbury Corner is a one-minute walk from both The Garage and the tube. Electrowerkz is directly behind Angel station on Torrens Street — easy to miss the entrance, look for the metalworks gate. The Lexington and Scala are both a 5–10 minute walk from King’s Cross down Pentonville Road.
Booking
Theatre and live music: book ahead. Restaurants: Saturday night and Sunday brunch both need reservations. Bottomless brunch: book at least a week ahead at the popular spots. Markets, free things and walks: just turn up.
Weather call
Late May in London is a coin flip. Bring a layer for the chapel gigs (they can get chilly) and an umbrella for Sunday’s canal walk.
Listings correct at time of writing — always confirm with the venue before you set off. Spotted something we’ve missed? Email mike@islingtonlocalguide.co.uk and we’ll add it to next week’s round-up.
Bookmark Islington Local Guide and return every Thursday for next weekend’s edit. There’s always more to discover.
What’s on in Islington this weekend updated 20thth May 2026
Islington Local Guide is a discovery-led local editorial platform covering Islington and nearby North and East London. We publish curated guides to what’s on, restaurants, bars, brunch, culture, hidden gems, neighbourhood spots and notable new openings, with a focus on helping readers find what is genuinely worth doing, booking and knowing about.
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