Focus/26 at Chelsea Harbour, and Soho's first year as a district (12 September 2026)
London's design fortnight has two centres of gravity this year. The trade one opens on Monday at Chelsea Harbour. The public one has moved back into the West End for the first time, and it is free.
Focus/26 runs 14 to 18 September at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour
Focus/26 opens on Monday 14 September and runs to Friday 18 September at the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, with more than 700 brands represented and over 100 events in the programme. Entry is free, which is unusual for something this concentrated on the specification end of the trade.
The programme splits into a few useful strands. Conversations in Design carries the talks, with Michael S. Smith, India Hicks, Lorenzo Castillo, Paolo Moschino, Ken Fulk, Rita Konig and Paul Smith among those named. The Learning Lounge sessions are the practical ones, covering how to specify rugs, lighting and fabrics. Design Discovery Tours take groups through showrooms, and Emporium Live puts product designers in front of visitors rather than behind a stand.
Four showrooms open during the week: Corston and Armac Martin on hardware and lighting, The Vale London on wallpaper, fabrics and trimmings, and Alhambra on fabrics. The Design Emporium Collective gathers emerging brands and independent makers, with more than 25 pop up house guests including 1882 Ltd, Alternative Flooring, Joro and Zoffany x Michael S. Smith. Phillip Jeffries is marking 50 years and C&C Milano 30.
Source: Interior Designer, 10 September 2026.
Soho becomes a standalone design district
London Design Festival opened on 12 September and runs to 20 September, and Soho is taking part as a district in its own right for the first time. It is curated by Informare and Yasmin Jones-Henry with support from Shaftesbury Capital, and it uses buildings people already know: the Heal's Building, Soho Lighthouse, The Soho Hotel, the Century Club, the Groucho Club and The Union Club.
Three things to see. Claire Davis's photography show Soho: People & Place, which is about the neighbourhood rather than the products in it. Stüdyo Akdoğan's GÜDÜ collection, running 10 to 19 September, presented as the first chapter of a three collection series by Mehmet Yilmaz Akdoğan. And Bocci's Purple 14p light by Bethan Laura Wood, which launches on 16 September. The restored Spirit of Soho mural is also being celebrated in the programme.
Source: Interior Designer, 10 September 2026.
Practice news: Scott Brownrigg appoints a creative interior design lead
Scott Brownrigg appointed Asta Bijeike as Creative Interior Design Lead on 8 September. It is a small item on its own, but the pattern is worth watching: architecture practices creating senior interiors roles rather than subcontracting the work suggests interiors is being treated as a discipline that wins projects, not one that dresses them afterwards.
Source: Interior Designer, 8 September 2026.
Planning a visit
If you have one day, Chelsea Harbour is the efficient choice: 700 brands in one building, with the specification sessions in the Learning Lounge doing more for a project than a week of showroom walking. If you have an evening, Soho is the better walk, and the installations there are free and close together. The two barely overlap in the diary, since Focus/26 starts on Monday and the Soho programme runs across both weekends.