Classic Boat Festival London

Date: 6 September 2026 – 7 September 2026

Location: St Katharine Docks, London, United Kingdom

The St Katharine Docks Classic Boat Festival is a free weekend event in the historic marina beside Tower Bridge, and the 2026 edition is the festival's 17th year. Around 50 vintage and carefully preserved vessels gather in the central and west basins: Thames sailing barges, historic steam tugs, Dunkirk Little Ships and polished Bates Star Craft motor launches among them. Visitors can walk the pontoons at water level, talk with the owners who keep these boats alive, and hear talks on the events platform. Each day opens and closes with a salute of horns across the dock. Ashore there is food, live music, children's activities and nautical antiques on Marble Quay. It is less a boat show than a floating museum with the curators in attendance, and the setting, a working dock from the 1820s in central London, suits it exactly.

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