London Design Festival 2019: the key events and installations to see across the city in all 11 'design districts'

Get your diary sorted now. The London Design Festival opens in just 10 days (14-22 September).

The 17th year of this seductive display by our finest creatives will delight and inspire Londoners as intriguing installations pop up all over the city, in the streets, in your-face and free to view.

“Yes, London will be a theatre for design,” says festival director and co-founder Ben Evans. “Here is the proof that we are the biggest creative economy of any city anywhere.”

Designer Paul Cocksedge, who has a studio in Hackney, will fill the huge pedestrianised Finsbury Avenue Square with scaffold boards, sanded silky smooth and transformed into undulating wave-like seats of beauty that swoop and arch in three concentric rings.

“We’ve cut and tapered the timber at complex angles, then joined them to make the curves, with a supporting steel structure,” says Cocksedge. “There were calculations and experiments galore.”

Meanwhile pattern duo Patternity (Anna Murray and Grace Winteringham) — loved for their splashy geometrics for fashion and furnishings — will make a “labyrinth” with tranquil resting points in their signature shades of black and white (outside Westminster Cathedral on Victoria Street, SW1).

Further west, architect Adam Nathaniel Furman is pushing up an elongated psychedelic pyramid as a beacon for the Paddington Central design district.

Artist Camille Walala first made her mark with graffiti-covered façades in east London, which introduced her brash, oversized, motifs.

Now her colourful designs grace 10 sculptural benches and planters along South Molton Street in the West End.

“Immersive” is the keynote for other artists — just step inside their work and lose yourself.

As in the seductive seascape with its underwater sunset by design agency Volume Creative at Oxo Tower Wharf on the South Bank, or a multi-sensory trip “into the heart of gemstones” (a Mozambican ruby, it seems, and a Zambian emerald) by photographer Dan Tobin Smith, at Collins Theatre in Islington.

There are a daunting 400 events on the festival agenda. Personalise your plan on the LDF website.

Make a start at the V&A, the official festival hub, where you can pick up the chunky free red festival guide, which also gets you discounts at many bars and restaurants London-wide.

A highlight is a dramatic mirrored cube at the entrance to the V&A by architect Sam Jacob, which highlights the blight of single-use plastics.

And don’t miss the dramatic sculpture celebrating super-sustainable bamboo in the courtyard.

This year the festival has a record 11 “design districts”, each with a distinct flavour.

In the Brompton area Jane Withers explores “Nature/nurture” (bromptondesigndistrict.com, @brompton_design_district).

The Shoreditch Triangle is edgy and active (shoreditchdesigntriangle.com, @shoreditchDT).

Mayfair is elegant and arty (mayfairdesigndistrict.com) and Pimlico on the posh side (thepimlicoroad.com).

Others include Chelsea (inchelsea.co.uk) and Bankside (banksidedesigndistrict.co.uk).

A fistful of big trade shows are exhibiting new products and holding talks but you can only get in on “public” days.

100% Design at Olympia runs from 18-21 September (100percentdesign.co.uk, @100percentdesign).

The London Design Fair (Truman Brewery, E1, londondesignfair.co.uk, @londondesignfair) runs from 19-22 September as does Designjunction in King’s Cross (thedesignjunction.co.uk, @thedesignjunction).

Focus (free) in the décor showrooms of Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, SW10 runs from 15-20 September (dcch.co.uk, @designcentreCH).

September 20, 196 Tottenham Court Road, W1, 6pm-9pm (heals.co.uk). Free, just turn up.

September 22. What can design do? Come to this street festival and see.

There will be a “public feast” of otherwise wasted food on tables upcycled by Royal College of Art students (vam.ac.uk).

September 18 — coolest date in the calendar (shoreditchdesigntriangle.com).

September 16. Drinks/nibbles at upmarket showrooms including SCP, Ochre, Jamb, Pinch, De La Cuona.

Complimentary cocktail at No 11 Pimlico Road restaurant — show the guide (mayfairandbelgravia.com).

Paddington Central Design Night September 18, 5pm-late, 2 Kingdom Street, W2.

Late nights at showrooms and exhibitions. Free.

September 19, 81 Fulham Road, SW3. Free, but register on Eventbrite.

September 18, The Conran Shop, 55 Marylebone High Street, W1. Free, but register on Eventbrite.

September 14-22, day pass £30. Talks, debates, tours and workshops (globaldesignforum.com).

The Industry of Design in Italy September 20, Saatchi Gallery, SW3.

Seminar with top brands/designers, including Giulio Cappellini, Patricia Urquiola and Patrizia Moroso. Free, book on Eventbrite.

Afternoon tours of V&A archives September 17, 5pm; 19 September, 12.30pm, Blythe House, W14, £15.

Book at westkensingtondesigndistrict.com.

A walking tour of Bankside. September 17. Free, book on Eventbrite.

Poggenpohl, 107 Pimlico Road, SW1, email natasha.wegrzyn@poggenpohl.com.

September 19, 7pm-10.30pm, OKA, 155-167 Fulham Road, SW3, £95.

A five-course menu hosted by critic William Sitwell, complete with fine wines. Book on Eventbrite.

September 18-22. In the former King’s Cross gasholders. Free, book on Eventbrite.

September 16-19, Atrium, 28 Leonard Street, EC2.

Demos and workshops plus a virtual reality show of the sculpture The Vessel, by Heatherwick Studio, in New York.

Free, but tickets must be booked on the LDF website.