Only Shoreditch
Walls

The best galleries in Shoreditch and around

OS20 October 2026·By Only Shoreditch Editorial·4 min read
Whitechapel Gallery 2020 (3) - Copy

The best gallery in Shoreditch is Autograph at Rivington Place, EC2A: free, five minutes from Shoreditch High Street, and showing some of the most serious photography in London. The best gallery near Shoreditch is Whitechapel Gallery at Aldgate East, which is marking its 125th anniversary. Between them are Gilbert and George’s own foundation off Brick Lane and two galleries that grew out of the street art outside. Here is where to go and when, checked against each gallery’s own site this week.

Autograph, Rivington Place

Rivington Place is home to Autograph, a charity that has worked since 1988 with photography about race, representation, human rights and social justice. Entry to every exhibition is free; you can book a timed ticket online or just walk in. Two shows run until 13 February 2027: Our Bodies Have Been Bridges, work by three feminist artists from the Americas about the body, and Charan Singh: Your Tongue in My Mouth, on gender-fluid communities in India. It opens Wednesday and Friday 11am to 6pm, Thursday until 9pm and Saturday 12.30pm to 6pm, and is closed Sunday to Tuesday.

Whitechapel Gallery, Whitechapel High Street

Whitechapel Gallery at 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1, is a minute from Aldgate East and a 15-minute walk down Brick Lane from Shoreditch. It opens Tuesday to Sunday 11am to 6pm, and until 9pm on Thursdays, when the Whitechapel Lates let you pay what you can for everything. Otherwise there is one ticketed show a season (£16.50, £9.50 concessions, under-16s free) and several free displays. On now: Cecilia Vicuña’s Living Threads and Foraging Quipu, until 14 February 2027, and This Must Be the Place, an artists’ show for the gallery, until 8 November. The Film London Jarman Award 2026 show opens on Tuesday 17 November and runs to 13 December.

Gilbert & George Centre, Heneage Street

The Gilbert & George Centre at 5a Heneage Street, E1, off Brick Lane, shows only their work. It is open Thursday to Sunday, 11am to 5.45pm, and entry is free. The current show is Our George Crompton, WORLDS and WINDOWS. Go on a Saturday for the free highlights tour at 4pm. Heneage Street is also on the street art route: look up for Fanakapan’s chrome balloon lettering.

StolenSpace, Osborn Street

StolenSpace at 17 Osborn Street, E1, where Brick Lane meets Whitechapel, runs solo and group shows by artists who mostly came up through street art. Clipped Wings, a show by Sandra Chevrier, runs until 15 November 2026. It is the natural indoor stop at the end of a Brick Lane walk.

Pure Evil, Leonard Street

Pure Evil Gallery at 108 Leonard Street, EC2A, near Old Street, is a commercial gallery with a street art lineage and an online shop of screenprints, gold and silver leaf prints and one-off pieces, priced from £100 to £5,000. It opens Thursday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm, and by appointment on Wednesdays.

Victoria Miro, Wharf Road

For blue-chip contemporary art, walk north from Old Street to Victoria Miro at 16 Wharf Road, N1. During exhibitions it opens Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm, free and with no booking. Hernan Bas is showing until 14 November, and Khalif Tahir Thompson’s Send in the Clowns closes on 7 November, so this week is the last chance for that one.

Getting between them

Autograph is about a 7-minute walk from Shoreditch High Street and 8 minutes from Old Street, by its own reckoning, and Rivington Place is a short walk from Pure Evil on Leonard Street. Heneage Street and Osborn Street are both off Brick Lane, so the Gilbert & George Centre and StolenSpace pair naturally, and Whitechapel Gallery is a few minutes on from StolenSpace at Aldgate East. Victoria Miro is the outlier: take the Northern line to Old Street or Angel, or the 43, 214 or 394 bus along City Road. Whitechapel also has its Screen Portraits display, part two, running until 17 January 2027 if you are passing.

By appointment, and outdoors

Flowers Gallery on Kingsland Road, E2, now opens for private viewings by appointment only, with its public shows on Cork Street. And the biggest gallery in Shoreditch has no roof: the rotating wall at Village Underground on Holywell Lane, the ROA crane on Hanbury Street and the rest of the walls in our Shoreditch street art walk.

Plan a Saturday

  • 11am: Gilbert & George Centre, Heneage Street.
  • Noon: StolenSpace, Osborn Street.
  • 12.30pm onwards: Autograph, Rivington Place.
  • Before 6pm: Whitechapel Gallery, or Victoria Miro if you are heading north.
Share
Add us as a preferred source on Google
galleriesshoreditchwhitechapelrivington placebrick lanehoxtonfree things to do

Related Stories

Street art tours in Shoreditch: which one to bookWalls

Street art tours in Shoreditch: which one to book

An artist-led walk from £14, a weekend tour run since 2008, a free tip-based walk that leaves from Shoreditch High Street station and a workshop where you get a spray can. How to see Shoreditch street art with a guide.

30 October 2026·4 min read
A Shoreditch street art walk, from Old Street to Hanbury StreetWalls

A Shoreditch street art walk, from Old Street to Hanbury Street

Start at Old Street, finish under the crane on Hanbury Street. A two-hour walk through New Inn Yard, Holywell Lane, Rivington Street and the back streets off Brick Lane, with the walls that last and the ones that change every week.

8 October 2026·4 min read
Brick Lane street art: where to look, street by streetWalls

Brick Lane street art: where to look, street by street

The crane on Hanbury Street, Stik on Grimsby Street and Princelet Street, paste-ups under the railway bridge and a hall of fame in Allen Gardens. A street-by-street guide to the art on and off Brick Lane, E1.

13 September 2026·4 min read