What's On
CANARY WHARF ICE RINK
Ice ice baby! That’s right, the ice rink is returning to Canada Square Park this festive season and this time it’s going to be open well into the New Year and beyond Valentine’s Day, so you’ve got plenty of time to get your skates on. The rink is covered and adorned with hundreds of fairy lights (with a Christmas tree under a disco ball in situ during the festive season) so you can practise your pirouettes whatever the weather and when you’re done you can grab a well-deserved drink from the Oasis Bar & Terrace.
Somerset House is probably one of our fave places to go skating in London. As well as being able to whizz around the 900 sqm outdoor rink, you can take to the ice once night falls as they play host to an array of DJs, artists, and clubs. It’s a truly diverse programme with the likes Rinse FM, Jay Jay Revlon, Rohan Rakhit and Dankie Sounds. Whispering Angel will be running the Skate Lounge and Jimmy Garcia will be popping up with Chalet Suisse, serving up winter warmers and Alpine favourites.
WINTER VILLAGE WESTFIELD LONDON
The 1000m² ice rink is back at Westfield London this winter so you can take a spin on the ice after you’ve crossed off your Christmas shopping. It’ll also be home to a 65ft tree, the tallest tree to feature on an ice rink in Europe, and lots of illuminations, so it’ll be extra, extra festive and extra, extra Insta-worthy.
Make it a Kitsch Christmas at Miracle
The US’s renowned Miracle bar is coming back to London just in time for Christmas. Popping up on the Henrietta Hotel’s mezzanine, the Christmas-themed pop-up will be serving up their famous festive cocktails with a side of kitsch. You can also enjoy a selection of snacks whilst taking in the extravagant retro Christmas decorations and being transported back to Christmas past.
Curl the Night Away at Club Curling in Coal Drop's Yard
Club Curling is back at Coal Drops Yard for some winter sports action for 2024 and this year, it’s nineties-themed. You can curl the night away on one of the six lanes in teams of up to six, and children under 12 play for free when accompanied by an adult. There’ll be a pop-up cocktail bar on site decked out in neon God’s Own Junkyard so you can have a festive tipple while you curl.
This Exhibition Is Spotlighting Palestinian Artists
London’s P21 Gallery, whose mission is to promote visibility for Arab artists, is hosting an exhibition that celebrates Palestinian artists. Art of Palestine | from the river to the sea features the work of 25 creatives (including some who are currently living in Gaza, or were recently evacuated), spanning various disciplines, such as painting, sculpting, photography and textile making. As well as addressing the severe challenges faced by the Palestinian people, the show explores the entirety of the rich Palestinian cultural tapestry.
Step Inside Legendary Nightclub Taboo at the Fashion & Textile Museum
Tate Modern is opening a Leigh Bowery exhibition next year and clearly he’s a hot topic as the Fashion & Textile Museum is doing a show on Taboo, the legendary Leicester Square nightclub that he opened in 1985. Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London showcases the creative scene that converged around the nightclub, which had a ‘dress as though your life depends on it, or don’t bother’ dress code and was known for hedonistic excess. Garments and accessories from Bowery, Boy George, Pam Hogg, John Galliano, Michael Clark, Stephen Linard, BodyMap and more will be on display alongside photography, film and artworks.
See Iconic and Unseen Images of Oasis at This Exhibition
If you didn’t manage to bag tickets for the reunion tour, you can still get your Oasis fix by heading to the Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green. The hotel is hosting the Definitely Maybe: A View from Within exhibition, featuring work by photographer Michael Spencer Jones in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the band’s seminal album. Spencer Jones worked with the band for several years after first meeting them in 1993 and many pieces from that collaboration will be on show, including the iconic cover for Definitely Maybe and some previously unseen images of Oasis.
Shop Items From Your Favourite Netflix Shows at This Pop-Up
For one day only, you’ll have the chance to browse a selection of props, memorabilia and costumes from some of Netflix’s biggest shows and films – and you could even bring something home with you. The streaming giant’s As Seen on Netflix pop-up shop will open on Bethnal Green Road at 10am on Sat 12th October, stocked with the likes of original Lady Whistledown Papers from Bridgerton, Princess Diana’s jeans from The Crown, Otis’ bike from Sex Education, a Casio watch from KAOS signed by Jeff Goldblum and much more. Objects will be listed at a range of prices – starting as low as just £1 – and all proceeds will go towards Mind, a mental health charity that provides people with free advice and support, as well as campaigning for improvement in the mental health services available across England and Wales.
Somerset House Is Showcasing Black LGBTQIA+ Creativity
The Making a rukus! Black Queer Histories through Love and Resistance exhibition at Somerset House explores the radical world of the rukus! Federation, an art project and living archive dedicated to contemporary Black LGBTQIA+ cultural and political history. Artist and rukus! Federation co-founder Topher Campbell is curating the show, which features over 200 objects that celebrate the work of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans artists and activists, highlighting how they created space for their community, celebrated friendship and joy, documented their experiences and continue to do so.
NOW Gallery Is Hosting an Exhibition on UK Protest Imagery
Documentary photographer Inès Elsa Dalal is presenting photographic essays highlighting the protests of striking workers in the UK as part of NOW Gallery’s Human Stories: Unreported Uprisings exhibition. Her work, captured during the first quarter of 2023, features striking junior doctors, nurses, train drivers, teachers, firefighters and civil servants, and will be presented alongside archival images from the 70s and 80s from Getty Archives. The show is an act of solidarity, underscoring workers’ right to strike and their right to fair pay.
See Some of the World's Most Threatened Plants at Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens is putting some of its rarest and most-endangered plants on show, some of which are never publicly displayed, with the Rare and Extinct exhibition in Temperate House. In the ‘Room of Rarity’ and the ‘Room of Extinction’, around twenty plants that are either rare (classified as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable) or Extinct in the Wild will be on view, alongside the stories of each plant and the dedicated horticulturalists that care for them. The exhibition will show how these skills are being used to halt biodiversity loss and conserve the world’s most precious species.
The Barbican Is Showcasing Indian Art from 1975 - 1998
With The Imaginary Institution of India exhibition, the Barbican is showcasing work from over 30 Indian artists produced during a pivotal time in the country’s history. Bookended by two significant events, Indira Gandhi’s declaration of a state of emergency in 1975 and the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998, the exhibition covers a turbulent period of social change, rapid urbanisation and economic collapse. The pieces on display show how artists lived through and interpreted these major episodes, covering topics like religion, caste, love, desire, family, community and protest.
See How the Tube Map Has Evolved Over the Years at The Map House
The Tube map is one of the world’s most iconic pieces of transport design and The Map House is exploring how it came to be and how the city’s Tube system has evolved over the last 160 years. Mapping the Tube: 1863-2023 will feature hand-drawn and annotated manuscripts by Tube map designer Harry Beck, including a rare 1st edition 1933 Underground poster and an unfinished sketch from 1950 proposing a new layout for the District Line branch to Richmond, as well as designs and posters by the likes of Cecil Walter Bacon and Macdonald Gill that were created to help encourage Londoners to use the Tube.
Japan House London Is Showcasing Japan's Food Replica Culture
Food replicas or sampuru (samples), hyper realistic 3-D recreations of dishes, are commonly displayed outside restaurants in Japan, and now the craft is coming to London with the Looks Delicious! exhibition at Japan House London. The practice of producing food replicas started in the 20th century as a way of introducing Japanese people to new kinds of food, like yōshoku (Western food) and unfamiliar dishes. For this exhibition, food replica manufacturer Iwasaki has made 47 new pieces, one for every prefecture of Japan, including bitter melon stir fry from Okinawa to seafood from Hokkaido. You’ll also be able to learn about the history of food replica culture and the techniques used in the production process, as well as having a go at building your own bento box using a selection of replicas.
This Is the World's First Sculpture Garden Dedicated to the Work of Women Artists
MARY MARY presented with theCOLAB at the Artist’s Garden, on a roof terrace on top of Temple tube station, is the world’s first sculpture garden featuring the work of women artists. Pieces by Rong Bao, Candida Powell–Williams, Alice Wilson, Lucy Gregory, L R Vandy, Olivia Bax, Frances Richardson, Holly Stevenson and Virginia Overton. The show represents a reclamation of space by women artists, both physically and conceptually, whose representation in galleries and collections is below 30%.
The Hayward Gallery Is Hosting the First Major UK Survey of Haegue Yang
With Leap Year, the Hayward Gallery is hosting the first major UK survey of Haegue Yang, known for her immersive and multi-sensory installations. As well as working across a wide range of media, from collage to video to sculpture, Yang’s influences are just as broad, including East Asian traditions, folklore, nature and modernism. Her pieces often use household objects, like drying racks and light bulbs, to comment on ideas of domesticity, the everyday and cultural connotations. The exhibition will showcase a range of works from the early 2000s to today, including pieces from her Light Sculptures and Sonic Sculptures series, plus three new commissions.
Serpentine South Is Presenting the First UK Exhibition on Lauren Halsey
LA-based Lauren Halsey is taking over Serpentine South in what will be her first solo exhibition in the UK. Halsey is known for her maximalist work blends influences like funk, architecture and iconography of ancient African cultures and acts as creative resistance to the gentrification of South Central LA. With emajendat she’ll be transforming the Serpentine South galleries into an immersive maximalist ‘funk garden’ with a live water feature, found objects, sculpture, plants and wallpaper, alongside her first moving image work.