Here's Where to find the Best of London's Punk Scene in 2026

Punk is still thriving 50 years after its inception in the British capital.

It’s a Saturday afternoon at The Elgin, a pub in London’s Notting Hill (below) that could be classed as a “proper boozer”. It’s virtually unchanged in the past half-century (wood panelling, Sunday roasts) and is a stop on the Strummer Walk, a tour taking in former squats, recording studios and venues around Ladbroke Grove that the late Joe Strummer and his band The Clash frequented. They’re playing a song by The Damned and a group of gen Z women are enthusiastically nodding along.

Next year will mark 50 years since these bands, along with the Sex Pistols and others, ushered in the British punk movement. It was a catalyst for new forms of expression, not only in music but also in fashion and art, that resonate in London to this day.

“The celebration of punk is very much alive here,” says Ladbroke Grove local Selena Dion, who works in music management, as she sifts through the racks at Rough Trade, a seminal record store off Portobello Road that opened in 1976. “And not only in this area.”

In Soho, the one-time home of the Sex Pistols is now a suite at the Chateau Denmark hotel (main image) and in Kensington, The Design Museum has a long-running exhibition on the Blitz club, exploring ’80s style and its connection to punk.

In 2026 the new London Museum will open in Smithfield, with pieces by Vivienne Westwood and Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, the late design duo who famously created the template for punk style. In the meantime, Westwood’s Worlds End boutique in Chelsea (known for a period in the 1970s as SEX) is selling archival items such as bondage trousers and slogan tees. Channel the designer’s rebellious brilliance closer to home when the Westwood/Kawakubo exhibition opens next month at Melbourne’s NGV (until 19 April 2026). And expect London to be calling.