This year marks 80 years since VE Day, the anniversary of Germany’s surrender marking the end of the Second World War in Europe in 1945. It has been a long time since, but there are still almost 70,000 veterans still alive today and it’s as important as ever to commemorate the allied victory and pay tribute to those now gone.
London is to host numerous exhibitions, displays and commemorations, including four days of official events. Here’s a run-down of what’s in store for 2025.
Beyond Victory, official events at Westminster Abbey
A special season of events is to take place at Westminster Abbey this year. On VE Day and throughout the summer, ceremonies, displays and talks will pay homage to Britain’s efforts 80 years ago.
The invitation-only service – last year 25,000 people attended – is on May 8, though it will also be televised on the BBC. Before that, here’s a diary of what’s in store:
May 5
May 6
May 7
May 8
Westminster walking tours, selected dates
Lunchtime talk: The People’s Victory, May 14
Panel: Destruction, Restoration, Commemoration, Tuesday 27
An evening with Sir Max Hastings: Commemoration and Remembrance, June 3
Abbey Late, June 4
For more information on any and all of the above, visit westminster-abbey.org
Elsewhere in London
Is Remembrance still working? at the National Army Museum
At the National Army Museum in Chelsea, two grandchildren of high-ranking officers from opposite sides of the war will come together to discuss Remembrance and its place in modern times.
Henry Montgomery, grandson of Field Marshal Bernard 'Monty' Montgomery, and Angela Findlay, granddaughter of General Karl von Graffen of the German Wehrmacht, will join historian Dr Daniel Cowling to reflect on their respective grandfather’s actions and positions in the war.
Free, 2 May 2025, nam.ac.uk
Traces of Belsen at the Wiener Holocaust Library
The Wiener Holocaust Library has opened a new exhibition, Traces of Belsen, which pays tribute to the liberation of the German concentration camp where almost half of the 120,000 prisoners died.
Photos, artefacts, stories and more are on show, including a diary smuggled into the camp by the daughter of the Bloomsbury library's founder, Dr Alfred Wiener, which tells the horrifying truths of life for Jewish prisoners there.
Wiener Holocaust Library, free, now until July 10, wienerholocaustlibrary.org
VE Day in the Gardens at Stephens House and Gardens, Finchley
At Stephens House and Gardens in Finchley will be war film screenings, maypole dancing, and other celebrations, as well as a collection of wartime objects collated by the Finchley Society.
The idea is to recreate the day in 1945 and there will also be an opportunity to take a photo, capturing the same scene 80 years on.
VE Day at Stephens House and Gardens, 4 May 2025, stephenshouseandgardens.com
Choir performance at the Imperial War Museum
Local choirs are to come together for an afternoon of songs from the 1940s up until the present day at the Imperial War Museum.
Organised in collaboration with Sweet Track Productions, the day “will evoke the unique blend of relief, celebration, sadness and community felt across the country 80 years ago, as the Second World War in Europe came to an end”.
Monday May 5 at the Imperial War Museum, iwm.org.uk
The Party at the Royal Albert Hall
The Armed Forces charity, the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Families Association (SSAFA), will salute “Our Greatest Generation” with music, dance and stories at the Royal Albert Hall.
The evening will include a performance from the RAF Squadronaires, the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, and personal accounts from those who were there 80 years ago.
Royal Albert Hall, May 8, royalalberthall.com
Experience on board HMS Wellington
The warship HMS Wellington, moored on the Victoria Embankment, will begin celebrations with a flag raising ceremony on May 8, which all can witness from the riverbank.
The vessel will then be open to the public, with tea, coffee and “wartime” biscuits served on the Quarterdeck (to be paid for) and a performance from the Glenn Miller Orchestra Band. All the money raised will go to the Wellington Trust which works to preserve the ship.
HMS Wellington, Embankment, May 8, thewellingtontrust.org
Brushstrokes from the Front Lines exhibition at gallery@oxo
The trailblazing British war artist Doris Zinkkeisen, once a British Red Cross and St John Ambulance Brigade volunteer, painted moving, elegant artworks of scenes she witnessed during the war, including hospital wards, night raids, rescue missions and the repatriation of prisoners of war.
Zinkkeisen’s paintings are to be displayed for the first time as part of a VE Day exhibition at gallery@oxo in May. Also shown will be her paintings from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after it was liberated – she was one of the first artists to visit, having been commissioned by the British Red Cross to do so.
gallery@oxo, free, May 8-11, southbank.london
