| Check out this week's alternative guide to what's on in London.
| | Saturday, 21st December | | Waterloo Classics is a monthly classic car show/meet in central London. |  | 12pm to 4pm |
|  | Southwark |
|
|
| | Love it or hate it, the concrete landscape of Europe’s largest art centre has been dividing opinion for generations. | | Starts at 6pm |
| | Southwark |
|
|
| | Robin Ince is back to host another four nights of the acclaimed Nine Lessons and Carols for Curious People. | | Starts at 7pm |
| | Islington |
|
|
|
| | Sunday, 22nd December |
| | Monday, 23rd December | | It's quiet over Christmas, so if you've never been, it's a good time to visit Parliament for a tour. | | All day |
| | Whitehall |
|
|
|
| | Tuesday, 24th December | | The Charles Dickens Museum will be filled with festive greenery, authentic Victorian fayre and the scent of citrus and spice. | | All day |
| | Clerkenwell |
|
|
| | Good news for meat lovers and lovers of a meaty bargain as the exceptionally good fun Christmas Eve auction will return to Smithfield this year. | | 10:30am to 12pm |
| | Barbican |
|
|
|
| | Wednesday, 25th December | | Watch from the shore the famous Christmas morning swim in Hyde Park's Serpentine Lake. | | 9am to 11am |
| | Kensington |
|
|
| | On Christmas Day 2019 a free bus service will run on route 430 between Roehampton and Putney Bridge. | | 9:30am to 4:20pm |
|
|
| | The one ice rink that will be open on Christmas Day. | | 12:20pm to 9pm |
| | Hampstead |
|
|
|
| | Thursday, 26th December | | A folk tradition to perform a mummers play at three Middlesex pubs. | | All day |
|
|
| | Morris men are inviting everyone to an ancient midwinter play during their Boxing Day tour of Ewell Village. | | 11am to 3pm |
| | Epsom |
|
|
|
| | Friday, 27th December | | It's quiet over Christmas, so if you've never been, it's a good time to visit Parliament for a tour. | | All day |
| | Whitehall |
|
|
|
| | Saturday, 28th December |
| | Sunday, 29th December | | A monthly open day at a quirky transport museum housed in an old water pumping building. | | 10am to 4pm |
| | Enfield Town |
|
|
| | A lecture about a short-lived island in the Mediterranean that appeared in 1831. | | 2pm to 4:30pm |
| | Hackney |
|
|
|
| | Monday, 30th December | | Tuesday, 31st December |
| | Wednesday, 1st January | | Spend New Year's Day riding a steam train on the Epping to Ongar railway. | | All day |
|
|
| | Probably the largest New Year’s Day Classic Vehicle Gathering in the UK. | | 9am to 4pm |
| | Weybridge |
|
|
| | Annual USA-style parade through the centre of London. | | Starts at 12pm |
|
|
| | A New Year's Day walk around Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park | | 2pm to 3:30pm |
| | Bow |
|
|
|
| | Thursday, 2nd January |
| | Friday, 3rd January | | It's quiet over Christmas, so if you've never been, it's a good time to visit Parliament for a tour. | | All day |
| | Whitehall |
|
|
| | Explore Hogarth: Place and Progress after normal opening hours, accompanied with a Gin & Tonic. | | Starts at 6pm |
| | Holborn |
|
|
|
| | Saturday, 4th January | | Fire, noise and celebration will scare off the bad spirits ensuring a good harvest in the coming year as we bless the apple trees in our orchard with this old English tradition. | | 4pm to 7pm |
| | Waltham Abbey |
|
|
|
| Exhibitions closing shortly | | Highlights include self-driving cars, autonomous flying drones and smart underwater vehicles like the Autosub Long Range Boaty McBoatface. (Ends on Sat, 21st Dec) | | Nine buildings will be lit up at night will illustrations of trees from the Nine Elms. (Ends on Sat, 21st Dec) | | The exhibition looks at Pope’s early life in Twickenham and the creation of his villa, garden and grotto. (Ends on Sun, 22nd Dec) | | An enchanting experience of light, colour and sound as our grounds are transformed into an illuminated world. (Ends on Sun, 22nd Dec) | | Grosvenor Square is set to grow and glow this festive season, as the Ever After Garden; an installation of symbolic, illuminated roses. (Ends on Sun, 22nd Dec) | | To celebrate the work of Freddy Warren, a selection of photographs are showcased in this exhibition that captures the atmosphere and movement of jazz. (Ends on Sat, 4th Jan) | | Step inside to join the rebel celebrations and discover centuries-old traditions that were forced to go underground in the 1600s. (Ends on Sat, 4th Jan) | | To celebrate 50 years since NASA’s Apollo 11 mission landed the first humans on the Moon, the UK’s biggest exhibition dedicated to Earth’s nearest celestial neighbour. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | | This winter, more twinkling and fantastical than ever before, Christmas at Kew returns. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | | A huge floating "Moon" will fill a darkened room and it's oddly exciting to see (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | | A series of striking photographs of science in action will soon go on display at the Science Museum as part of the Royal Photographic Society’s inaugural Science Photographer of the Year competition. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | | Discover what it was like to go to a show in eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | | Jide Odukoya’s photographic series shows Nigeria abuzz through the lens of traditional Nigerian weddings. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | | Discover artists who have risked their lives in times of conflict for the music they love. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | | The exhibition explores why cultural heritage is attacked during war and the ways we save, protect and restore what is targeted. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | | Created in close collaboration with the artist, Elizabeth Peyton: Aire and Angels, explores the development of Peyton’s unique art from the 1990s to the present day. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | | All of the paintings and engravings in Hogarth's series have been united for the first time to examine his complex views on morality, the society and the city. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) | | The Museum of Architecture brings its hugely popular Gingerbread City exhibition to Somerset House. (Ends on Sun, 5th Jan) |
| | Latest blog posts by IanVisits | Ticket Alert: Tours of Canada House
The Canadian High Commission occupies a grand building overlooking Trafalgar Square, and is not generally open to the public to wander in. However, they do offer occasional Friday afternoon tours.Read more ›… | London museums open over Christmas
Lots of museums are open over the Christmas period, but with opening hours as erratic as Aunt Norra on her 3rd sherry of the day – so here is a list of known opening hours. Caveat – the list is…Read more ›… | TfL expects Mayor’s fare freeze to end in 2021
The ongoing fares freeze on TfL services could be coming to an end, with TfL's financial forecasts now expecting fares to rise by above inflation rates from January 2021.Read more ›… | Tangerine Dream coming to the Barbican next year
An exhibition about the legendary German electronica band, Tangerine Dream will be opening at the Barbican in the New YearRead more ›… | See “Father Christmas” fly over London on Christmas eve
OK, it's actually the International Space Station, but if you are dragged awake at an ungodly hour by the kids, then why not go out and watch "santa" rehearsing his present delivery run?Read more ›… | See fist-fighting mice on the London Underground
A photo of two mice in a fist-fight on the London Underground has been put forward for a Natural History photography award.Read more ›… | London’s Alleys: Crawford Passage, EC1
This alley just around the corner from Farringdon Station is the famous one with the weird double yellow lines.Read more ›… | London’s weekly railway news
A weekly round-up of London's rail transport news...Read more ›… | Help complete a narrow gauge railway for South London
A few years ago a dream was announced, to create a narrow gauge railway in South London for visitors to the Victorian steam engines at Crossness.Read more ›… | The medieval St Giles Cripplegate inside Barbican
Surround by the modern Barbican estate, this old church is one of the few within the City of London that are medieval in nature, having survived the Great Fire of London and WW2 bombs.Read more ›… | More trains on the London Overground
There will be a more frequent and earlier trains on parts of the London Overground from next week.Read more ›… | What to do in London on Christmas Day
Most of London shuts down on Christmas Day, but a few hardly venues will open for the visitors stuck in the centre of town and with nothing else to do.Read more ›… |
|
|
|
|
