London Weekend Guide | 6th-8th December 2024
All of the little doors have been ripped open, and the chocolate in our advent calendar has now been eaten, which can only mean one thing: it’s the first week of December.
And with the first week comes the first weekend, and it’s a belter – you can expect the likes of a free party with a live brass band, pigs in blankets, and curling lanes; a chance to explore a mysterious private island on the Thames; a truly old school vintage Christmas market in a gorgeous setting; an anti-Xmas Xmas fair; and a chance to, finally, once and for all, get a definitive answer on whether or not ghosts are actually real or not.
The Best Things To Do On FRIDAY 6th December
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Pop Up Screens | Watch Festive Flicks in a Victorian Subway
The stately Crystal Palace subway has been closed off to the public for 70 years, but now Pop Up Screens are screening some classic flicks there this weekend. (to be clear, the subway didn’t just reopen for the cinema, you can take a tour and stuff). The halls will be decked with tinsel and fairylights for atmospheric screenings of from Elf, Love Actually, Home Alone and more. Plus, there’ll be a full bar loaded with popcorn, sweets and booze (you can also bring your own snacks if you fancy).
Details: 6th-15th December | Crystal Palace Subway, Crystal Palace Parade, London SE19 2BA | £15 + booking fee
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Festive Fayre | At Hampton Court Palace
You’d be hard pressed to find a more extravagant setting for a Christmas market than Hampton Court Palace – and this weekend they’re filling the courtyard with festive food and drink, dozens of stalls selling seasonal gifts, a bandstand with live music, and jousting. Tickets aren’t cheap, but you’ll get to explore inside the palace and its atmospheric gardens while you’re there – and you could always indulge in a little ice skating too.
Details: 6th-8th & 13th-15th December | Hampton Court Palace, Hampton Court Way, KT8 9AU | £27.20+
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Xmas Massaoke | Yep, it’s mass karaoke
What is massaoke, you ask? Or, at least, we think you did, because we can’t hear you over the joyous crowds simultaneously singing along to some of the best Christmas songs ever written, played live on stage alongside projections of the lyrics and full-on pyrotechnics, creating one of the most euphoric mass-bonding experiences of your life. Maybe you just said ‘stop knocking my beer’.
Details: 6th, 7th & 20th December | Camden, Clapham & the Southbank | £22
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Merry Maltby | Carollers, mulled wine & gift buying
Maltby Street Market is a pretty wondrous sight during the day… but at night the Ropewalks’ Victorian railway arches are beautifully festooned with lights, there are carollers providing a little ambient festiveness, and some barrels of mulled wine adding a little warmth. If you want to get some fancy food & drink for the special people in your life this Christmas, look no further.
Details: 29th November, 6th, 13th & 20th December, 6-9pm | Maltby Street Market, SE1 3PA | Free entry
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The Best Things To Do On SATURDAY 7th December
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Beer Mile Christmas Party | Pints, brass, and curling
Big Penny Social and the Blackhorse Beer Mile crew are throwing a massive (and free) Christmas party. Expect live music from the Brass Funkeys, DJ Austin Ventour spinning house and disco, a Christmas tree market, seasonal eats like pigs in blankets, and boozy winter warmers. Plus, you can book a curling lane if the festive cocktails don’t throw you off your game.
Details: 7 December, 12 PM–2 AM | Big Penny Social, Blackhorse Lane | Free Entry
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Willy’s Winter Wonderland | What Willy Cook throws a party
Insta-famous chef What Willy Cook is taking over Signature Brew, and throwing a festive knees-up with DJs and food trucks from the likes of Mangal 2, Pearly Queen and Magic Momo, all in aid of the children affected by the crisis in Gaza and Lebanon.
Details: 7th December | Signature Brew, Blackhorse Lane, Walthamstow, London E17 5QJ | £24
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Eel Pie Island Open Weekend | explore a mysterious island on the Thames
Despite sounding like some kind of surreal culinary day camp, Eel Pie Island is actually a kind of artists retreat in the river Thames – and ordinarily, it’s completely closed off to Joe Public, except for two weekends a year. This is one of those weekends. Head on over the tiny footbridge, and you’ll find a quirky enclave of artistic expression loaded with eccentric little touches. There isn’t really anywhere else like it in the city.
Details: 7th & 8th December | Eel Pie Island, Twickenham Embankment, TW1 3DY | Free, book here
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Archive & Myth | 50% off cocktails for Nudge Members
Putting a bar below a casino can be a bit of a gamble. After all, there’s always the risk that — after a couple of drinks — you might decide that it would be foolish not to try and double your rent money.
But Archive & Myth manages to feel more like a hidden treasure than a risky bet, pleasantly removed from the bustling energy upstairs, and completely worth the effort to find. All the more so because, in honour of their new festive cocktail menu, Nudge Members (and a lucky guest) are getting 50% off cocktails there from 6th – 20th December.
Details: Below The Hippodrome Casino, Cranbourn Street, Leicester Square, WC2H 7JH | Book here (Just quote MAJOR50 in the ‘Anything Else We Should Know?’ box after booking)
Christmas at the Barbican | A whooole lot of great music
This year the Barbican’s iconic hall will play host to the world-famous choir from King’s College Cambridge; singalongs of classic carols and festive tunes; candlelit concerts; gospel carols; brass bands; and a rambunctious Christmas party bringing Christmas pop songs to life with a talented cast of singers and musicians. Not all at the same time, unfortunately.
Details: 7th, 8th, 20th – 23rd, 27th December | Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS | £15-56
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So Last Century Winter Vintage Market | Old school Christmas shopping
So Last Century runs some of the city’s most popular vintage markets all year round, and this weekend they’ll be hosting a winter vintage (wintage?) market in the palatial settings of Beckenham Palace Mansion. There’ll be 40 hand-picked traders catering to every budget, from sideboards to bric-a-brac like antique maps and quirky ceramics.
Details: 7th & 8th Dec (Beckenham), 15th Dec (Gipsy Hill) | Free entry
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Things to do on SUNDAY 8th December
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UncannyCon | Ghost stories meet science
This terrifyingly long, 7-hour event comes to us from the team behind Uncanny, the podcast that unpacks real-life supernatural encounters with a skeptical, science-based approach. Expect live podcast recordings, panel discussions, meet-and-greets, and a marketplace of eerie curiosities. Perfect for skeptics, believers, and anyone wondering if 7 hours is long enough to cross into the spirit realm themselves.
Details: 8th December | Southbank Centre | £60
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Satanic Flea Market | It’s an anagram of ‘am tackier Santa elf’
Ever see a Christmas gift you’d sell your soul for it? Well, unfortunately the vendors at the Satanic Flea require actual money. We know, it’s truly demonic. But in exchange you’ll find all manner of vintage & bespoke collectibles, curiosities, cultural relics, vintage clothing, unusual toys, occult trinkets, obscure records, and “human skulls”. Stocking fillers, basically.
Details: 8th December | Electrowerkz, 7 Torrens St, EC1V 1NQ
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Basement Orchestra | At Big Penny Social
Sure, Big Penny Social might not technically have a basement. What it does have is 82 taps pouring tank-fresh beers; curling lanes; long bierkeller-style tables perfect for big groups… and for one night only, the Basement Orchestra. They’ll be taking over the whole warehouse-style taproom for a raucous Christmas gig, in which their 50-strong flock of musicians and singers will play through jazzy twists on The Nutcracker, pop anthems and singalong carols.
Details: 8th December, 7-9pm | Big Penny Social, 1 Priestley Way, London, E17 6AL | £7+
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The Gingerbread City | Hansel & Gretel would lose their minds
Luke Hayes
This now-annual tradition sees around 50 architects and engineers turn their finely tuned minds to the serious business of constructing an entire village of gingerbread houses, caramel waterfalls and candy floss steam trains – just try not to eat the artwork.
Details: 30th November – 29th December | The Gaumont, 196-222 King’s Rd, London SW3 5XP | £13
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Winter Wonderland | Ice slides, sing-a-longs, and cocktail bars
Winter Wonderland has become a mainstay in the capital’s festive calendar, but they do at least make a noble attempt to innovate every now and then – this year, they’ve got an actual ice slide which you can careen down in an inflatable tube. And that’s to go with the parade of street food chalets, alpine lodges, sing-a-longs, ice bars, rollercoasters, and more.
Details: 21st November – 5th January 2025 | Hyde Park | Free (off peak), £5 (standard, £7.50 (peak)
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Mars In The Painted Hall | A heavenly body in a heavenly space
UK based artist Luke Jerram has made himself a small cottage industry displaying replicas of heavenly bodies in rather heavenly spaces. And now he’s now planting our neighbour Mars into the immensely grand Painted Hall in Greenwich. Prepare yourself for a little awe time.
Details: 23rd November – 28th January 2025 | Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College, SE10 9NN | £16.50
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Hawk’s Nest Christmas Markets | Maker’s market & wreath making workshops
With its heated terrace, steaming urns of mulled wine & cider and rum-drenched tiramisu, Hawk’s Nest is already a stellar little spot to get into the festive spirit. But on every Sunday in December they’ll also be hosting a Christmas makers’ market late into the evenings, with carol singing to wrap up their last one on the 15th. There’s wreath-making workshops taking place on Monday nights, too.
Details: 8th & 15th December, 1-6pm | Goldhawk Road, London W12 8DF | Free entry
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Feast Off Piste | Dine in a rooftop gondola
The rooftop at The Berkeley is a tad chilly in the winter, so they’ve decided to set up some ski gondolas, and fill them with mulled wine raclette, tartiflette with freshly shaved truffle, a milk chocolate fondue (with edible candles) and gingerbread s’mores to finish. Not too shabby.
Details: 14th November 2024 – 1st January 2025 | The Berkeley, SW1X 7RL | £75
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Fancy escaping the capital? Check out our pick of amazing day trips from London