After celebrating its 10th anniversary, Photo London, the UK’s leading photography fair, has announced that it will move from London’s Somerset House to Olympia for its eleventh edition.
Olympia, in the final stages of a £1.3 bn redevelopment co-designed by Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC will place Photo London near leading institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum, staged beneath the historic canopy of Olympia’s National Hall.
The larger venue will allow for expanded gallery presentations, clearer layouts and improved visitor circulation. Additional capacity will support an extended talks programme, screenings and dedicated areas for collectors, VIP guests and partners.
Visitors will also benefit from Olympia’s wider offer, which includes a refurbished exhibition space, a new theatre, a 4,000-capacity music venue, two hotels and more than thirty restaurants and bars.
Photo London director, Sophie Parker said: “The move to Olympia offers an expanded platform to showcase photography in a setting that embodies both tradition and modernity. The dramatically enhanced Olympia will be a blaze of activity and excitement from morning to night, and it is exactly this energy and excitement that make it an ideal venue for Photo London’s second decade.”
The show was first established in 2004 by Daniel Newburg at the Royal Academy of Arts, and ran there until 2006 when it was purchased by Reed Exhibitions (now RX) and moved to Old Billingsgate. In 2007, the financial crisis hit, and the show was abruptly cancelled. Since then, RX put the show on hold until 2015 when it was relaunched by Candlestar, who now produce the event.
The move to Olympia aims to compete more directly with rival Paris Photo, a long-running, successful show for the photography industry.
The 11th edition will take place from 14 to 17 May 2026, with a VIP preview on 13 May.
