The visible remains of an amphitheatre constructed during Roman London lie beneath the Guildhall Art Gallery complex in the City of London. Some of these remains are displayed in situ in a room in the basement of the art gallery. Discovered in 1988, the site is now a scheduled monument.
Lee Darren Boxell is a British schoolboy who disappeared from the London Borough of Sutton in England on 10 September 1988, aged 15. He was last seen in Sutton High Street before saying he might go to watch a football match at Selhurst Park in Croydon. At the time of his disappearance, Boxell was described as 5'7" (170cm), of slim build with light brown hair; he was wearing black jeans, a white Flintstones T-shirt and brown suede shoes.

The Clapham Junction railway crash occurred on the morning of 12 December 1988, when a crowded British Rail passenger train crashed into the rear of another train that had stopped at a signal just south of Clapham Junction railway station in London, England, and subsequently sideswiped an empty train travelling in the opposite direction. A total of 35 people died in the collision, while 484 were injured.

The Inglis Barracks bombing was a bomb attack carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 1 August 1988 on a British Army barracks called Inglis Barracks in Mill Hill, London. The attack killed one soldier, injured nine more and destroyed large parts of the barracks. It was the first IRA attack in England since the 1984 Brighton Bombing.

The Kensington by-election, in Kensington, on 14 July 1988 was held after the death of Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Brandon Rhys-Williams. Normally a relatively safe Conservative seat, it was narrowly won by Dudley Fishburn, who would retain the seat in 1992.

The 1988 Football League Cup Final was an association football match between Luton Town and Arsenal on 24 April 1988 at Wembley Stadium, London. It was the final match of the 1987–88 staging of the Football League Cup. Luton were making their first League Cup Final appearance, while the competition holders Arsenal were appearing in their fourth final.

On the afternoon of 23 March 1988, Deborah Linsley was murdered on a train between Petts Wood and London Victoria stations in Greater London. Although there were about 70 people on the train, and Linsley apparently fought and injured her attacker, only one passenger reported hearing anything suspicious. The killer has not been identified. Stored blood evidence from the scene allowed the case to be re-examined a decade later using DNA technology, and in 2002 it was re-opened with a major publicity campaign. A police reward is on offer.

Miss World 1988, the 38th edition of the Miss World pageant, was held on 17 November 1988 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, UK. The winner was Linda Pétursdóttir from Iceland. She was crowned by Miss World 1987, Ulla Weigerstorfer of Austria. Runner-up was Yeon-hee Choi representing Korea and third was Kirsty Roper from the United Kingdom. The Miss World 1988 was hosted by Peter Marshall, who has hosted other Miss World competitions such as Miss World 1986, and Alexandra Bastedo, with musical performances by Koreana and 1970s American pop musician Donny Osmond.

The Museum of Richmond in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is located in Richmond's Old Town Hall, close to Richmond Bridge. It was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 October 1988.

The statue of Clement Attlee on the Mile End campus of Queen Mary University of London is a bronze sculpture of the British Prime Minister, created by Frank Forster in 1988. The statue was commissioned by the Greater London Council and was intended to stand in Mile End Park. By the time of its completion in 1988, the GLC had been abolished and the statue was offered to any successor authority willing to pay the relocation costs. These were met by Tower Hamlets London Borough Council and the statue was erected outside the Limehouse Public Library to commemorate Attlee’s role as the member for the Limehouse parliamentary constituency. The opening ceremony was carried out by Harold Wilson, the last living member of Attlee's 1945-51 administration. By the 21st century, the statue had been badly vandalised and was boarded up. In 2010, Tower Hamlets Council offered the statue to Queen Mary University of London on permanent loan. It was re-erected on a site at the Mile End Road campus, next to the People's Palace where Attlee had attended the vote counting in the 1945 general election and learnt of the victory which brought in his peace-time government.
The statue of Saint Volodymyr in Holland Park, London, is a work of 1988 by the Canadian-Ukrainian sculptor Leo Mol. The bronze statue stands on the corner of Holland Park and Holland Park Avenue. It was unveiled on 29 May 1988, to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of the Christianisation of Kievan Rus'. Later that year, another statue of Volodymyr by the same sculptor was erected in Rome.