London Craft Week 2026: the chauffeur guide to 150 venues in seven days

London Craft Week 2026 runs 11 to 17 May across more than 150 venues in 14 boroughs. No other event in the London calendar requires this much movement between this many locations. Royal Ascot has a racecourse. Chelsea Flower Show has Royal Hospital Chelsea. Wimbledon has the All England Club. London Craft Week has Sotheby's on New Bond Street, Rose Uniacke on Pimlico Road, the V&A in South Kensington, Cockpit Arts in Bloomsbury and Carpenters Workshop Gallery in W10. A collector visiting three of those clusters in one day faces congestion, scarce parking and the £18 Congestion Charge zone.

By Tube, each transition takes 25 to 45 minutes with walking and connections. By chauffeur, 8 to 15 minutes of driving with drop-off at venue entrances. This is the one London event where a full-day chauffeur is not a luxury but a logistics tool.

London Craft Week 2026 essentials

The 12th edition of London Craft Week runs 11 to 17 May 2026. Founded and chaired by Guy Salter OBE, it brings together over 1,000 makers, designers, brands and galleries across 150+ venues in 14 boroughs. The 2024 edition attracted approximately 225,000 visitors and partners from 31 countries. Most events are free. Workshops run £35 to £150. There is no all-access VIP pass.

The 2026 headline stories. JW Anderson sponsors London Craft Week for the first time, with an event at his new Pimlico Road flagship on 13 May. Jonathan Anderson is also the new Creative Director of Dior, making this the most press-covered single event of the week. Sotheby's launches "Crafted," a week-long takeover across New Bond Street and Conduit Street featuring the inaugural House & Garden Craft Prize, the third edition of Secret Ceramics (100 anonymously donated pieces at £650 each), and the first live Curated Ceramics auction on 14 May with works by Lucie Rie, Hitomi Hosono and Felicity Aylieff. Vacheron Constantin continues as founding partner.

The Chelsea Flower Show connection. RHS Chelsea Flower Show runs 19 to 23 May 2026, one day after Craft Week ends. International collectors and interior designers increasingly treat the two events as a single 13-day London season. Chelsea in Bloom and Belgravia in Bloom (both 19 to 24 May) extend floral installations across Sloane Street and Pimlico Road, bridging the two festivals.

The five venue clusters (and how to move between them)

The festival's 150+ venues form five geographic clusters. A chauffeur with local knowledge moves between them in 8 to 20 minutes. The Tube takes 25 to 45 minutes with a connection. The difference compounds across a full day of five to seven venue visits.

Mayfair and St James's (the auction house and gallery spine)

Anchor venue: Sotheby's "Crafted" at 34 to 35 New Bond Street, running the full week. Also confirmed: Frieze No.9 Cork Street, Hauser & Wirth Savile Row, Carpenters Workshop Gallery on Albemarle Street, David Gill on Dover Street, Gallery Fumi, Mint Gallery, Rolls-Royce on Berkeley Street, and The Beaumont on Brown Hart Gardens (Lalique installation, a seven-year London Craft Week participant). Core streets: New Bond Street, Albemarle Street, Dover Street, Cork Street, Savile Row, Berkeley Square. Dwell time: 20 to 30 minutes per gallery, 45 to 60 minutes at Sotheby's. A collector can cover five to seven venues here in a day on foot. Chauffeur drop-off: any side street off New Bond Street. Q-Park Park Lane or Q-Park Burlington Street (2.03m height limit, which excludes Range Rover and above).

Pimlico Road and Belgravia (the interior design heartland)

Anchor venue: The Pimlico Road Series with Grosvenor, now in its 10th year. Approximately 20 brands occupy 400 metres of showroom frontage. Confirmed 2026 participants: JW Anderson (13 May event), Rose Uniacke (Young Weaver of the Year in residence 11 to 16 May), Soane Britain, Linley, Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, Jamb, Howe London, Cox London, Carl Hansen & Son, de Le Cuona, Robert Kime at 190 to 192 Ebury Street, and Edward Bulmer Natural Paint. Extensions reach into Ebury Street, Eccleston Street, Orange Square and Newson's Yard at 57 Pimlico Road (And Objects, Flora Soames, The Lacquer Company, Modernity, Plain English).

Pimlico Road is not pedestrianised during the Series. Dwell time: 20 to 40 minutes per showroom. Six to eight venues in a day is realistic. Chauffeur drop-off: Orange Square or the east end of Pimlico Road. The natural onward route is Sloane Square (7-minute drive) then Knightsbridge.

South Kensington, Chelsea and Knightsbridge (museums and luxury brands)

Anchor venues: the V&A Craft Symposium (a full museum day of live demonstrations, third edition), Design Museum on Kensington High Street (Simone Brewster exhibition), the Royal College of Art, Cromwell Place (international pavilions from Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar and Japan), and Leighton House in its centenary year. The Sloane Street Series "Art of Craftsmanship" brings activations from Louis Vuitton, Fendi (leather Selleria workshops), Burberry, Gucci, Jessica McCormack and L'Objet. Dwell time: 60 to 120 minutes per museum, 20 to 30 per showroom. Three to four venues per day if including a museum. The V&A has no car park. Drop on Exhibition Road. Design Museum: nearest parking Hornton Street at £33 per day.

Shoreditch, Clerkenwell and East London (emerging makers)

Anchor venues: Future Icons Selects at 83 Rivington Street (50+ artisans across 9,000 sq ft, the single largest London Craft Week maker fair), Cockpit Arts in Bloomsbury (175+ resident makers), Sarabande Foundation in Haggerston, East London Cloth on Vyner Street, and Old Spitalfields Market. Disciplines concentrate in ceramics, jewellery, glass, textiles, bookbinding and metalwork. Dwell time: 30 to 45 minutes per venue. Four to five venues per day. All venues outside the Congestion Charge zone east of Commercial Street.

South Bank, the City and West London (the extended circuit)

Oxo Tower Wharf (permanent maker studios, Gallery@Oxo), The Courtauld, Garden Museum, the RSA, and South London Gallery. New for 2026: a City of London livery-hall programme spanning Painters' Hall, Cutlers' Hall, Leathersellers' Hall, Barts North Wing and St Paul's Cathedral, with silver, gilding, calligraphy and architecture-restoration tours. In West London: Carpenters Workshop Gallery at Ladbroke Hall (a 43,000 sq ft Adjaye-restored collectible-design space in W10), Liberty London in Soho, and Selfridges (Reselfridges x LCW pop-up). This western arc is the natural closing leg for any Heathrow-bound itinerary.

Four sample itinerary days

No visitor covers 150 venues. The productive target is four to six per day across one or two clusters. Four itinerary patterns work for most Craft Week visitors.

Day 1: the southwest luxury arc (Mayfair to Pimlico Road)

Morning: Sotheby's Crafted (45 min) then two to three Cork Street galleries (30 min each). Lunch at The Connaught Grill or Scott's. Afternoon: drive to Pimlico Road (12 minutes from Mayfair). Rose Uniacke, JW Anderson, Soane Britain, Newson's Yard. Evening: private view on Sloane Street (6:00 to 9:00pm, outside Congestion Charge weekday hours). Total driving between stops: approximately 25 minutes. Total on foot between Pimlico Road showrooms: 10 minutes. This day covers both headline sponsors in a single arc without retracing the route.

Day 2: the institution day (South Kensington circuit)

Morning: V&A Craft Symposium (90 min) then Cromwell Place international pavilions (45 min). Lunch at The Pelham Hotel or Bibendum. Afternoon: Design Museum (60 min) then Leighton House (45 min). Optional: Sloane Street luxury brand activations on the return east. Total driving: approximately 20 minutes between venues. V&A drop-off on Exhibition Road. Leighton House on Holland Park Road. All South Kensington venues sit outside the Congestion Charge zone.

Day 3: the maker discovery day (East London)

Morning: Cockpit Arts Bloomsbury (60 min) then drive to Shoreditch (15 min). Future Icons Selects at 83 Rivington Street (60 min). Lunch at Rochelle Canteen or Brawn. Afternoon: Sarabande Foundation in Haggerston (45 min) then East London Cloth on Vyner Street (30 min). All venues outside the Congestion Charge zone. Different energy from the Mayfair circuit: working studios, emerging makers, direct commissions. Budget-conscious collectors find the best value here, with ceramics from £80 and textiles from £200.

Day 4: the City and the Heathrow exit

Morning: City livery-hall programme (90 min across Painters' Hall, Cutlers' Hall, St Paul's). Lunch at The Ned or Sweetings. Afternoon: Liberty London (30 min) then Selfridges Reselfridges x LCW (30 min) then Carpenters Workshop Gallery at Ladbroke Hall in W10 (45 min). This arc moves progressively west toward the M4 corridor and Heathrow. A collector with a 7:00pm flight from Heathrow can visit Ladbroke Hall at 3:00pm and reach Terminal 5 by 4:30pm.

Practical logistics for chauffeur-driven visits

The Congestion Charge is £18 since January 2026. It applies Monday to Friday 7:00am to 6:00pm and weekends and bank holidays 12:00 to 6:00pm. Mayfair, St James's, Pimlico Road, Belgravia, Covent Garden and the South Bank are inside the zone. South Kensington (V&A, Design Museum), Chelsea, Leighton House and East London are outside. Evening private views, which typically run 6:00 to 9:00pm, fall outside the charging window on weekdays. A chauffeur absorbs the Congestion Charge inside an hourly rate rather than passing it as a surprise line item.

Parking near Craft Week venues is expensive and scarce. Q-Park Park Lane (24/7, from £10 per hour) and Q-Park Burlington Street (311 spaces, 2.03m height limit) serve Mayfair. Pimlico Road has metered street parking only. The V&A has no car park. Oxo Tower has no on-site parking. For a chauffeur, none of this matters. The driver drops at the venue entrance, circulates or waits on a nearby side street, and returns on a phone call.

Evening events are the highest-value chauffeur moments. Private views run 6:00 to 9:00pm. Gallery dinners run 7:30 to 10:30pm. The V&A runs late-night Friday openings until 10:00pm. These events require wait-and-return service: the chauffeur drops at the venue, waits nearby, then collects for the next stop or return to hotel. A minimum two-hour evening booking is typical.

Heathrow to Mayfair is 20 to 35 minutes off-peak. Premium Transfers' Hayes base is 4 miles from Heathrow, making collection from any terminal a 10 to 15 minute dispatch. For international collectors arriving on Friday or Saturday before the festival opens Monday, the airport transfer is the first touchpoint. For private jet arrivals at Farnborough (45 to 75 minutes to Mayfair) or London City Airport (25 to 40 minutes), the same fleet operates.

Vehicle choice matters for Craft Week. A Rolls-Royce Ghost pulling up to Rose Uniacke or Sotheby's communicates the right signal to gallery staff and fellow collectors. A Mercedes V-Class Jet Class carries fragile purchases, wrapped ceramics and oversized prints that cannot travel safely by taxi or Tube. The S-Class is the working-day default for interior designers covering eight showroom visits. Fleet choice should match the day's programme, not just the passenger count.

Hotels aligned with each cluster

For Mayfair and the auction circuit: Claridge's, The Connaught, The Dorchester, Brown's Hotel, The Ritz, 45 Park Lane, Four Seasons Park Lane. The Beaumont on Brown Hart Gardens has hosted Lalique installations during Craft Week for seven consecutive years and is the most established hotel partnership in the festival's history. Mandarin Oriental Mayfair at 22 Hanover Square ran a dedicated design-week rate code for the February 2026 Collect fair. All sit within walking distance of Sotheby's and the Cork Street galleries.

For Belgravia and Pimlico Road: The Lanesborough, The Berkeley, The Goring, The Emory (Maybourne's suite-only opening in 2024), COMO The Halkin, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park. All within 7 to 15 minutes walk of the Pimlico Road Series. Beaverbrook Town House hosted a Swaine leather workshop during LCW 2025.

For South Kensington and Chelsea: Blakes Hotel, The Pelham (opposite Cromwell Place), Number Sixteen (Firmdale; Kit Kemp was a 2025 Secret Ceramics contributor), The Cadogan (Belmond), 11 Cadogan Gardens. For chauffeur operations, Park Lane hotels are the easiest for vehicle access all day. South Kensington and Belgravia hotels are closest to the densest venue clusters.

The Craft Week and Chelsea Flower Show double-header

International collectors and interior designers increasingly treat London Craft Week and Chelsea Flower Show as a single London season. LCW ends Sunday 17 May. Chelsea Flower Show opens Tuesday 19 May (Members' days 19 to 20 May, public 21 to 23 May). One day separates them. Chelsea in Bloom and Belgravia in Bloom (both 19 to 24 May) extend floral installations across Sloane Street, King's Road and Pimlico Road, bridging the two festivals geographically and aesthetically. A 13-day London stay from 11 to 23 May covers both events with a single chauffeur relationship.

Chelsea Flower Show logistics differ from Craft Week. The show occupies a single site at Royal Hospital Chelsea. Royal Hospital Road and Chelsea Embankment close to through traffic during show week. There is no on-site parking. Best chauffeur drop-off is Chelsea Embankment (SW3 4LW). The showground sits outside the Congestion Charge zone but inside ULEZ. Premium Transfers covers both events with the same fleet and driver continuity, which matters when a collector wants the same person who knows their schedule, preferences and hotel.

Frequently asked questions

When is London Craft Week 2026?

11 to 17 May 2026, Monday to Sunday. This is the 12th edition. Over 150 venues across 14 London boroughs participate, with approximately 1,000 makers, designers, brands and galleries. Most events are free. Workshops are ticketed at £35 to £150.

Do I need tickets for London Craft Week?

Most events are free, including exhibitions, open studios and showroom visits. Workshops and masterclasses are ticketed, typically £35 to £150. Sotheby's Secret Ceramics sells 100 pieces at a fixed £650 each. There is no all-access VIP pass. Private views and dinners are by individual brand invitation.

What is the best way to get around London Craft Week?

A full-day hourly chauffeur. The festival spans 150+ venues across 14 boroughs. Moving between Mayfair, Pimlico Road and South Kensington by Tube involves 25 to 45 minutes per connection with walking. A chauffeur covers the same transitions in 8 to 15 minutes of driving, with drop-off at venue entrances rather than station exits.

What is the Pimlico Road Series?

A curated strand within London Craft Week, now in its 10th year, sponsored by the Grosvenor Estate. Approximately 20 design and interior brands open their showrooms along 400 metres of Pimlico Road in Belgravia. 2026 participants include JW Anderson, Rose Uniacke, Soane Britain, Linley, and Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler. Most events are free with some requiring pre-booking.

What is Sotheby's "Crafted"?

A week-long programme at Sotheby's New Bond Street and Conduit Street during London Craft Week 2026. It includes Crafted: The Fair, the third edition of Secret Ceramics (100 pieces at £650 each), the first live Curated Ceramics auction on 14 May, the inaugural House & Garden Craft Prize showcase, the LCW Symposium and the Festival of Craft. Entry to most components is free.

Can I combine London Craft Week with Chelsea Flower Show?

Yes, and many international visitors do. London Craft Week ends Sunday 17 May. RHS Chelsea Flower Show opens Tuesday 19 May. One day separates them. Chelsea in Bloom and Belgravia in Bloom bridge the gap with floral installations across Sloane Street and Pimlico Road from 19 to 24 May. A 13-day London stay covers both events.

How much does a full-day chauffeur cost during London Craft Week?

Full-day hourly hire in a Rolls-Royce Ghost or Mercedes S-Class starts from approximately £50 to £70 per hour with a three-hour minimum, depending on the vehicle and duration. A typical collector day of six to eight hours covers four to six venues across two clusters. The Congestion Charge (£18 per day since January 2026), parking and wait time are absorbed in the quoted rate.

Does Premium Transfers operate during London Craft Week?

Yes. Premium Transfers operates full-day hourly chauffeur service from its Hayes base, 4 miles from Heathrow. The fleet includes Mercedes S-Class, Range Rover Autobiography and Rolls-Royce Ghost. Services include Heathrow collection, multi-venue itinerary driving, evening private-view transport and Chelsea Flower Show extension. Driver continuity across the full festival is available on request.

Book your Craft Week chauffeur

Premium Transfers operates from Hayes, 4 miles from Heathrow. Owned fleet of Mercedes S-Class through to Rolls-Royce Ghost. Full-day hourly hire with driver continuity across the festival. For collectors, interior designers and international visitors planning London Craft Week 2026, we build multi-venue itineraries that account for the Congestion Charge zone, parking restrictions and evening private-view timings. For other major events in the London calendar, see our Royal Ascot transport guide.