Things to do in London in November 2025
November is a lively time to be in London, with the festive season in full swing and the city buzzing with events. From skating at Somerset House to Christmas lights switch-ons and festive markets like the Southbank Centre Winter Market, there are plenty of ways to embrace the holiday spirit. Beyond the seasonal festivities, London’s cultural calendar is brimming with art, music, and performance. Highlights include contemporary and historical exhibitions, as well as the last chance to experience the Frieze Sculpture trail, alongside world-class classical concerts and the return of EFG Jazz Festival at venues such as the Barbican and Royal Festival Hall. Here is our guide to the best things to do in London this November…
Skate at Somerset House
Skate at Somerset House returns (12 November 2025 – 11 January 2026). Image credit Owen Harvey. Courtesy of Somerset House.
#FLODown: Skate at Somerset House with Virgin Atlantic Holidays returns for the 2025 winter season, running from 12 November 2025 to 11 January 2026, as part of Somerset House’s 25th birthday celebrations. The iconic ice rink transforms the historic courtyard into a festive wonderland, featuring a 40ft Christmas tree, seasonal treats, and unique shopping opportunities. This year introduces an artistic installation by Harold Offeh, turning the ice into a living canvas as skaters create patterns with every glide. Skate Lates offer energetic DJ performances on select nights, while new dining experiences include the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, The Chalet by Jimmy Garcia, and Blondies Kitchen. The event also supports charity through the Shelter Boutique, showcasing donated fashion items. With sessions available for beginners, children, and wheelchair users, Skate at Somerset House is a magical experience for all.
Date: 12 November 2025 – 11 January 2026. Location: Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA. Price: £11 - £26.50. ClBook now
Skate at Somerset House returns (12 November 2025 – 11 January 2026). Image credit Owen Harvey. Courtesy of Somerset House.
Lift 109 Fireworks
Peggy Gou to takeover Drumsheds on 4 October 2025.
#FLODown: Battersea Power Station’s Lift 109 will offer an exclusive Battersea Park Fireworks viewing on 2nd and 3rd November 2025. Guests will ascend in a glass elevator to the top of the north-west chimney, reaching 109 metres to enjoy 360-degree panoramic views of the London skyline while watching the fireworks with a glass of champagne.
Date: 2 - 3 November 2025. Location: Battersea Power Station, Circus Road West, London SW8 5BN. Price: £76 per person. Book now
Click here to discover more locations to enjoy bonfire night and watch fireworks across London.
Christmas at Kew
Palm House light show at the 10th Christmas at Kew © Raymond Gubbay Ltd, Richard Haughton
#FLODown: Christmas at Kew 2025 returns to Kew Gardens from 14 November 2025, featuring eight world-premiere installations including Christmas Orchestra by Culture Creative and In Bloom by Dutch artist Wilhelmusvlug, alongside beloved favourites such as the Fire Garden, Christmas Cathedral, and the Temperate House light show. This year will also include a redesigned 3 km route that begins at the Palm House and features a breathtaking new display of illuminated lilies, interactive dancing floors, and the Great Pagoda lit for the first time. With festive food, drinks, and family-friendly fun throughout, the trail offers a celebration of nature by night, and every ticket sold supports Kew’s mission to protect plant and fungal life for future generations.
Date: 14 November 2025 – 4 January 2026 (closed 25 December). Opening times: 4.20 pm – 10 pm (entry by timed slot). Location: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, London, TW9 3AE. Price: Adults from £27.50; Children (4–16) from £18; Families from £81; Under 4s and Essential Companions free; Kew Members from £23.50. Book now
EFG Jazz Festival Opening Gala
Image credit: Emile Holba
#FLODown: The EFG London Jazz Festival returns this November with its opening gala, Jazz Voice, at the Royal Festival Hall. The evening will feature a line-up of renowned jazz vocalists and musicians, including Dee Dee Bridgewater, Tanita Tikaram, Stella Cole, Tyreek McDole, Caleb Kunle, Natalie Williams, Vula Malinga, and surprise guests. Accompanied by a 44-piece orchestra conducted by Guy Barker, with guest conductor Jack Murray, the evening will be a celebration of jazz’s rich vocal traditions. Hosted by Jumoké Fashola, Jazz Voice sets the tone for a festival that showcases the depth and breadth of jazz music. The EFG London Jazz Festival, produced by Serious, is a ten-day celebration that spans various venues across the city, from iconic concert halls to intimate jazz clubs. The festival aims to celebrate jazz and its place in London, providing artists with a platform for their work and bringing music venues across the capital to life.
Date: 14 November 2025. Location: Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX. Price: from £42. + £3.50 BF. Book now
Click here for the full line up of events for this year’s EGF Jazz Festival.
Carnaby Street Christmas Lights
Carnaby Street Christmas lights display 2023. Image by MTotoe.
#FLODown: Carnaby Street in Soho will kick off the 2025 festive season with its “All is Bright” display, featuring sculptural lights made from 60,000 energy-efficient LEDs suspended above the street. The switch-on coincides with the Carnaby Christmas Shopping Party, with live music, discounts, and festive activities.
Date: Thursday 6 November 2025. Switch-On Time: 6 pm. Location: Carnaby Street, Soho, London
Click here to discover when more Christmas lights will be switched on, from Canary Wharf to Covent Garden to Regent Street.
Maggi Hambling and Sarah Lucas
Image credit: Sarah Lucas, Photograph: Katie Morrison; Maggi Hambling, Photograph: Axel Hesslenberg
#FLODown: Maggi Hambling & Sarah Lucas: A Shared Brutal Wit is a two-gallery exhibition at Sadie Coles HQ and Frankie Rossi Art Projects, London, celebrating the long-standing friendship and artistic dialogue between British artists Maggi Hambling and Sarah Lucas. Their work, marked by irreverent humour, life-affirming vulgarity, and explorations of love, death, and the everyday, reflects how they have inspired and provoked each other over decades. Hambling is renowned for her intimate portraits and large-scale works on war, climate, and nature, while Lucas is celebrated for her sculpture, photography, and installations using readymade objects to explore the body and the everyday. The exhibition highlights their ongoing creative vitality and mutual influence, presenting a conversation between two of Britain’s most distinctive contemporary artists.
Date: 20 November 2025 – January 2026.Location: 8 & 38 Bury Street, London SW1Y. Price: Free. Sadie Coles HQ
Soweto Kinch / LSO: Soundtrack to the Apocalypse
Soweto Kinch and LSO will preform at the Barbican this November.
#FLODown: Saxophonist, rapper, and composer Soweto Kinch presents Soundtrack to the Apocalypse, the concluding part of his acclaimed trilogy with the London Symphony Orchestra, following The Black Peril (2019) and White Juju (2021). Conducted by Ben Palmer, this visionary new work explores themes of collapse, renewal, and revelation, fusing orchestral soundscapes with jazz, hip hop, and experimental electronics. Featuring Kinch’s first use of the aerophone (electronic saxophone), the piece unfolds through short, high-energy movements that capture the restless rhythm of contemporary life. As Kinch notes, “This isn’t about doom – it’s about unveiling what might still be possible.”
Date: 13 November 2025. Location: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: £18–£35 (+£4 booking fee). Book now
Philharmonia Debates... Music & Politics
Image credit Brian Suman
#FLODown: The Philharmonia Orchestra presents Philharmonia Debates… Music & Politics, exploring whether artists can, or should, separate their political views from their work. As part of the orchestra’s 80th birthday season, speakers from the music world and beyond will discuss music and identity, in anticipation of an upcoming concert featuring Sibelius’ Finlandia, a Trump-inspired trombone concerto, and Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. The debate lasts approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, is free to attend (ticket required).
Date: 2 November 2025. Location: Level 5 Function Room, Green Side, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.Price: Free. southbankcentre.co.uk
Gilbert & George: Panel Discussion
Gilbert & George, FUNKY, 2020. 302 x 444 cm. © Gilbert & George. Image courtesy of the artists and White Cube.
#FLODown: The Southbank Centre will host a discussion on Gilbert & George to complement their ongoing exhibition, Gilbert & George: 21st Century Pictures, at the Hayward Gallery which celebrates the artists’ philosophy of “Art for All.” The panel discussion will explore the provocative world of the iconic British art duo through an engaging conversation with leading voices in art and culture. Chaired by award-winning actor and Talk Art podcast host Russell Tovey, the panel features cultural journalist Tim Adams, writer and novelist Michael Bracewell, and Hayward Gallery Chief Curator Rachel Thomas. Together, they will examine Gilbert & George’s bold approach to themes such as identity, self-presentation, societal taboos, and modern urban life, discussing how their work continues to resonate in the 21st century.
Date: 19 November 2025.Location: Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX. Price: from £12 (+£3.50 booking fee).https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/gilbert-george-panel-discussion/
Southbank Centre Winter Market
Image credit Adam Luszniak
#FLODown: The Southbank Centre Winter Market returns for the 2025 festive season, transforming the riverside along the Thames into a cosy wonderland of food, drink, and handmade gifts. From 3 November 2025, visitors can wander among traditional alpine-style chalets twinkling with lights, sampling indulgent seasonal treats such as duck wraps, cheeseburgers, Himalayan dumplings, Yorkshire pudding wraps, and sweet delights like churros and Dutch pancakes. Pop-up bars serve festive drinks, from mulled wine to hot chocolate, while independent craft traders offer jewellery, decorations, and unique fashion pieces. The Bar Under the Bridge adds to the festive cheer with extended opening hours at weekends.
Date: 3 November 2025 – 4 January 2026 (closed 25 and 31 December). Location: Queen’s Walk, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX. southbankcentre.co.uk
Guildhall Opera Double Bill: Smyth’s Der Wald & Respighi’s Lucrezia
Guildhall School to stage Autumn Opera Double Bill from 3-10 November 2025.
#FLODown: Guildhall School’s Autumn Opera Double Bill, directed by Stephen Barlow, unites two rarely performed early 20th-century operas in an evening of passion, power, and resistance. Ethel Smyth’s Der Wald, the first opera by a woman ever staged at the Metropolitan Opera, unfolds as a richly dramatic tale of desire and betrayal set in a shadowed forest. It is paired with the UK premiere of Ottorino Respighi’s Lucrezia, a bold modern retelling of the Roman legend in which one woman’s tragedy sparks political revolution. Together, these operas celebrate formidable female voices and the resonance of their stories.
Date: 3 – 10 November 2025. Location: Silk Street Theatre, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DT. Price: £30 + £4.50 booking fee. Book now
Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals
John Constable, The White Horse, 1819. © The Frick Collection, New York. Photo: Joseph Coscia Jr.
#FLODown: Tate Britain’s Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals brings together over 170 works to explore the intertwined careers, contrasts, and legacies of Britain’s most celebrated landscape painters, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. Marking the 250th anniversaries of their births, the exhibition reveals how their rivalry and differing visions, with Turner’s luminous, experimental depictions of light and nature and Constable’s emotionally charged portrayals of the English countryside, transformed the course of landscape art. Featuring rare loans such as Turner’s The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons (1834–1835) and Constable’s The White Horse (1819), it shows how their innovations shaped landscape painting and inspired generations that followed.
Date: 27 November 2025 – 12 April 2026. Location: Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Price: from £24. Concessions available. Book now
Frieze Sculpture
Elmgreen & Dragset, Life Rings, Fig. 3, 2023. Photo: Linda Nylind
#FLODown: November is the last chance to see Frieze Sculpture, which has transformed The Regent’s Park into an open-air museum of contemporary art. The free public exhibition, part of the wider Frieze programme, features large-scale sculptures and installations for everyone to explore. Curated by Fatoş Üstek, who has chosen the theme In the Shadows, a reflection on darkness in many forms, from inner states and obscured histories to ecological absence, memory, myth, and transformation. The line-up includes works by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Reena Saini Kallat, Elmgreen & Dragset, Assemble, Erwin Wurm, Burçak Bingöl, Henrique Oliveira, Grace Schwindt, Abdollah Nafisi, Simon Hitchens, Lucía Pizzani, David Altmejd, Andy Holden, and Timur Si-Qin.
Date: 17 September – 2 November 2025. Location: The Regent’s Park, London. Price: Free
Nadagogō sake events at Japan House London
Tools of the Trade Woodworking Craftsmanship and Sake in Nadagogo - 14 Nov 2025.
#FLODown: Japan House London is hosting three free events in November in collaboration with the Nadagogō Brewers Association, offering a deep dive into the craftsmanship, culture, and history of one of Japan’s most celebrated sake regions. On Thursday 13 November, Nadagogō: Sake Tradition and Innovation in Hyōgo explores the natural and technical factors that have made Nadagogō a leading sake-producing region, including a live demonstration of the traditional straw-wrapping technique, komomaki. On Friday 14 November, Tools of the Trade: Woodworking Craftsmanship and Sake in Nadagogō highlights the artistry behind the wooden tools used in sake brewing, featuring a live demonstration of a warming barrel (daki-daru). The series concludes on Saturday 15 November with Rhythms of Brewing: Sake Culture and Song in Nadagogō, showcasing the tōji master brewer system and traditional sake-brewing songs.
Date: 13–15 November 2025. Location: Japan House London, 101–111 Kensington High Street, London W8 5SA. Book your free tickets here
Ever After Garden
The Ever After Garden. Image credit MTotoe
#FLODown: The Ever After Garden returns this winter, bringing its 30,000 glowing white roses to a new location at Duke of York Square in Chelsea for Christmas 2025, as Grosvenor Square undergoes a woodland transformation. Created in memory of production designer Michael Howells by Anya Hindmarch and Camilla Morton, the garden provides a reflective space where visitors can dedicate roses to loved ones for a suggested donation of £15 each. Since its first installation in 2019, the installation has raised £1.2 million for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.
Date: 13 November – 16 December 2025. Location: 19 Duke of York Square, King’s Road, London, SW3 4LY. Price: suggested donation per rose: £15. Opening hours: Daily, 3pm–9pm. royalmarsden.org
Artists unite for War Child
Peter Doig
#FLODown: Sound & Vision 2025 is a major art and fundraising initiative led by Kate Bush and Art on a Postcard in aid of War Child UK, the charity supporting children affected by conflict around the world. Marking the 40th anniversary of Bush’s iconic 1985 song Running Up That Hill and its album Hounds of Love, the project invites 52 acclaimed artists - including Peter Doig, Maggi Hambling CBE, Corbin Shaw, and Unskilled Worker - to create original artworks inspired by the lyric “And if I only could, I’d make a deal with God.” The works will be showcased at Iconic Images Gallery from 4–8 November 2025, with an online auction running until 13 November. Proceeds will go to War Child’s vital humanitarian programmes in countries such as Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and Syria. Curated by
Online Auction: Tuesday 28 October – Thursday 13 November 2025. warchild.org.uk
Remember Nature 2025: A Nationwide Day of Action for the Planet
Gustav Metzger, Bruce Gilchrist & Jo Joelson (London Fieldworks) Remember Nature ‘Handwritten Note’ 2015. Digital Collage on notepaper. Image © London Fieldworks.
#FLODown: On Tuesday 4 November 2025, sixteen leading UK arts institutions, including Tate, Serpentine, Turner Contemporary, FACT Liverpool, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, and Kettle’s Yard, will unite for Remember Nature 2025, a nationwide Day of Action marking the 10th anniversary of Gustav Metzger’s original environmental project. Curated by Andrea Gregson and Jo Joelson, the initiative features new works and live interventions from artists such as Cornelia Parker, Anya Gallaccio, Hamish Fulton, A Man Called Adam, and Youngsook Choi, inspiring reflection on humanity’s relationship with nature and collective action against climate change. Events will take place in person across England’s galleries and public spaces, with live streams and films also available online.
Date: 4 November 2025. Click here to get involved
Christmas with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at BOXPARK Wembley
Image credit Andy Paradise
#FLODown: Wembley Park, BOXPARK Wembley, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will present a one-night-only Christmas concert set in London’s largest BOXPARK on Olympic Way. The 45-piece orchestra will bring festive favourites spanning over a century to life, from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker to Taylor Swift’s Christmas Tree Farm, alongside classics like White Christmas, Winter Wonderland, All I Want for Christmas Is You, and Last Christmas. After the concert, BOXPARK Wembley will host a Christmas DJ takeover with access to bars and street food vendors.
Date: 27 November 2025. Location: BOXPARK Wembley, Olympic Way, Wembley Park, Wembley, London HA9 0JT. Price: from £5, children free. Book now.
London’s Private Dining Experience with ChefMaison
Image courtesy of ChefMaison
#FLODown: As the festive season approaches, ChefMaison offers a delightful way to celebrate at home. This innovative service connects you with talented private chefs in London, allowing you to curate a bespoke menu tailored to your tastes. Whether it’s a cozy dinner for two or a lively gathering with friends, ChefMaison ensures a restaurant-quality dining experience without the hassle of shopping, cooking, or cleaning. From setup to cleanup, they handle it all, letting you focus on enjoying the company of your loved ones. It’s the perfect way to make your holiday season unforgettable.
To get involved, simply click here to explore available chefs and book your personalised dining experience.
