What’s on in London this week: 15 - 21 December 2025
Discover our pick of events in London this week: 15 - 21 December 2025.
Final Late night shopping on Columbia Road
It’s the final week of Columbia Road’s Christmas Wednesdays, a much-loved late-night shopping tradition on this historic Shoreditch street. Best known for its iconic Sunday flower market, Columbia Road is also home to the UK’s longest stretch of independent shops, offering everything from homeware to stylish clothing and unique gifts. From 5pm, shopkeepers keep their doors open into the evening, creating a festive local atmosphere with mulled wine, mince pies and the chance to browse at a relaxed pace.
Dates & Time: 17 December 2025, 5pm to 9pm. Location: Columbia Road, London, E2 7RG. columbiaroad.info
Click here to discover our top picks of locations to find unique Christmas gifts in London.
Wreath making with Grace & Thorn
It’s also the final week to take part in Grace & Thorn’s much-loved Christmas wreath workshops, for a festive, hands-on experience led by their expert florists. During the two-hour session, participants are guided step by step through creating a bespoke wreath from scratch, beginning with a live demonstration and followed by one-to-one support. All materials are included, from premium moss bases and seasonal foliage to decorative finishing touches, along with plenty of festive cheer and a celebratory glass of fizz.
Date: 16 December 2025. Location: Grace & Thorn, Studio 1, 5 Mentmore Terrace, London, E8 3PN. Duration: 2 hours. Price: £140. Book now
Click here for our guide to festive wreath making workshops in London this Christmas.
It’s also the final week to take part in Grace & Thorn’s much-loved Christmas wreath workshops.
Almanaque ft. Luca Boscagin & Quentin Collins
This week at Ladbroke Hall, Jazz Nights present Almanaque, featuring Luca Boscagin and Quentin Collins, for an evening of vibrant Brazilian jazz. Performing music from their debut album Nada para o Carnaval, the duo draws on Brazilian rhythms and African influences to deliver energetic, uplifting performances. Inspired by Afro-Brazilian legend Milton Nascimento, Almanaque has performed at renowned venues including Ronnie Scott’s, Ninety One, and Metronome Jazz Bar, as well as festivals across Europe.
Date: 19 December 2025. Time: 7:00 pm | Show: 8:30–10:30 pm. Location: Ladbroke Hall, Ladbroke Road, London W11 3NX. Price: from £15 | Complimentary for Patrons. Book now
Mince Pie Cruises
The London Canal Museum’s Mince Pie Cruises offer a festive way to enjoy London’s canals this December. Lasting just over an hour, the cruise takes passengers through the Islington Tunnel before turning at St. Pancras and returning to the museum. Guests are treated to a locally-baked mince pie with cream and a hot drink while a guide shares the history of the canal, the tunnel, and the route. The boat Long Tom has large windows for excellent views, and tickets include museum entry.
Date: 19 - 21 December 2025. Location: London Canal Museum, 12-13 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RT. Price: Adults £21; Concession £19; Children £15. Book now
Mince Pie Cruises between 19 - 21 December 2025.
Bubbledee: House Music Haven
This weekend, Bubbledee: House Music Haven takes place at Colour Factory in Hackney Wick from 10pm on Saturday to 4am on Sunday. DJs Andrea Giudice and Larry Cadge will play a continuous mix of house and electronic music in the Mezzanine, creating a lively night‑into‑day party.
Date: 20 December 2025. Location: Colour Factory, 8 Queen’s Yard, London E9 5EN. Price: Around £15 (plus fees), 18+ event. Book now
A Christmas Carol at The Old Vic
An old favourite returns to The Old Vic with Carol, running until 10 January 2026. This adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, brought to life by Jack Thorne and directed by Matthew Warchus, stars Paul Hilton as the curmudgeonly Ebenezer Scrooge, offering audiences a festive, music-filled experience. Suitable for ages 8 and up, the two-hour production includes a 20-minute interval.
Dates: 12 November 2025 – 10 January 2026. Location: The Old Vic, 103 The Cut, London SE1 8NB.Price: from £39. Book now
Your first look at A Christmas Carol, with images by Associate Photographer Manuel Harlan.
Christmas at Ham House
A visit to Ham House is a wonderful experience at Christmas, and this year, until 4 January, the seventeenth-century house is transformed for Stars of Wonder: Christmas 2025. Visitors can enjoy star-themed decorations, twinkling lights, grand Christmas trees, and fragrant greenery while exploring the historic Stuart interiors. With a traditional sugar banquet, handcrafted star displays, festive family activities, seasonal treats, and Christmas shopping, Ham House offers an unforgettable holiday celebration. Be sure to stop by the Orangery Café, a delightful spot to enjoy a warming coffee and a delicious festive treat.
Date: until 4 January 2026. Location: Ham House and Garden, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 7RS. nationaltrust.org.uk
Free Carol Services at All Souls Langham Place
The final free Carol Services at All Souls Langham Place run from Thursday to Sunday. There will be festive performances by a live choir and orchestra, angelic solos, and nativity readings. Guests can enjoy complimentary mince pies and hot Christmas punch while joining in classic carols, whether inside the church or outside via large projection screens if the pews fill up. The 9:30 am service on Sunday, 21 December, is especially suited for families with younger children.
Date & Times: Thursday 18 December 2025: 1.05pm, 5.30pm, 7.30pm; Saturday 20 December 2025: 3.30pm, 5.30pm, 7.30pm; Sunday 21 December 2025: 9.30am, 5.30pm, 7.30pm. Location: All Souls Langham Place, London W1B 3DA. Price: Free, services last 60 minutes. carolservice.com
Christmas tree and decorations in the Great Hall at Ham House and Garden, Surrey. © National Trust Images/Chris Davies
Ebony Scrooge ZooNation by Dannielle ‘Rhimes’ Lecointe
Ebony Scrooge starts this week, bringing a bold new Christmas production to Sadler Wells East. Created by ZooNation and choreographed by Dannielle ‘Rhimes’ Lecointe, this high-energy hip hop retelling of A Christmas Carol follows Ebony, a powerful fashion boss who has cancelled Christmas for her biggest show yet. When three mystical visitors arrive, she is taken on a transformative journey that reconnects her with her Caribbean roots and challenges her ideas of success and happiness. Packed with original music, comedy and physical theatre, it’s a festive show for all ages.
Date: 16 December 2025 – 4 January 2026. Location: Sadler’s Wells East, Lathwaite Road, London E20 1JQ. Price: from £15.00 + £4.00 transaction fee. Book now
TLC23 + Proteus present […Things Fall Apart…]
TLC23 and Proteus present […Things Fall Apart…], an evening of experimental noise, performance, and projection featuring Sacrifice Zone (Susu Laroche and Josef Kurtz), Charlie Osborne, and Sophie Sleigh-Johnson, alongside DJ sets from TLC23 and Proteus. The event combines music, performative action, and Gothic-inspired aesthetics to explore moments of collapse and transformation. After covering artist fees, all profits will be donated to Sistah Space, a London-based charity supporting women and families affected by domestic abuse, with a focus on culturally informed care and understanding.
Date & time: Saturday 20 December 2025, 7.30pm. Location: Café OTO, 18–22 Ashwin Street, London E8 3DL. Price: £14 standard / £12 advance / £7 members. Book now
TLC23 And several longer artists will perform at Cafe Oto this week.
Cinema
Burning Man: Art on Fire
Burning Man: Art on Fire (2020), directed by BAFTA winner Gerald Fox, offers an inspiring and richly cinematic look at the extraordinary art at the heart of the annual Burning Man festival. Filmed in the wake of the sudden death of the event’s founder, the film follows a diverse group of artists as they confront impossible deadlines, harsh conditions and fierce dust storms while bringing vast installations to life in the Nevada desert. Unfolding over several months, this multi-character narrative captures the imagination, collaboration and resilience behind the creation, and eventual burning, of the festival’s iconic structures in a temporary city of dreams, and is followed by a Q&A with the director, producer Sophia Swires, and artist Andrew Johnstone, hosted by Andy Hannath of Burning Man UK.
Date: 15 December 2025. Location: Cinema 1, The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London is located at Nash House, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH. Price: £16. Concessions available. Book now
Burning Man: Art on Fire, dir. Gerald Fox, UK 2020, 96 min.
Arts & Culture
Last chance
David Shrigley
It is the final week to see Exhibition of Old Rope, David Shrigley’s ninth solo exhibition at Stephen Friedman Gallery, featuring a monumental installation made from ten tons of discarded rope alongside a large-scale neon work. Sourced from maritime, industrial, and outdoor contexts across the UK, the reclaimed rope fills the gallery in vast coiled forms, revealing varied textures, colours, and states of wear. With his characteristically dry humour, Shrigley turns a familiar idiom into a literal and conceptual gesture, playfully questioning ideas of value, commerce, and what constitutes art, with its provocative £1 million price tag bringing these concerns into focus.
Date: 14 November 2025 – 20 December 2025. Location: Stephen Friedman Gallery, 5–6 Cork Street, London W1S 3LQ. Price: Free.
Installation view Rio Kobayashi’s Crooked Pencils at Kate MacGarry Gallery.
Rio Kobayashi: Crooked Pencils
Crooked Pencils at Kate MacGarry Gallery is Rio Kobayashi’s first exhibition with the gallery, highlighting his inventive approach to repair and reinvention using salvaged materials. Drawing on his Japanese and Austrian heritage, Kobayashi combines traditional craft techniques with modern design, creating playful and collaborative works that reflect a deep understanding of materials and fabrication. The exhibition continues his exploration of craftsmanship and sustainability, showcasing pieces that combine precision, experimentation, and a sense of narrative through repaired and reimagined objects.
Date: 15 November 2025 – 20 December 2025. Location: Kate MacGarry Gallery, 27 Old Nichol Street, London E2 7HR. Price: Free.
A festival of ugly sounds, installation view, The Approach, London, UK
Paloma Proudfoot: A festival of ugly sounds
A festival of ugly sounds at The Approach is a solo exhibition by Paloma Proudfoot exploring the gendered histories of voice and sound, and the long-standing control and suppression of women’s vocal expression. Through ceramic, bronze, and textile works, the exhibition draws on anatomy, myth, and ritual to examine how female voices have been cast as unruly or obscene, from ancient practices to modern technologies. Proudfoot reclaims the voice as a site of power and resistance, revealing sound as deeply shaped by gender, authority, and cultural control.
Date: 8 November 2025 – 20 December 2025. Location: The Approach 1st Floor, 47 Approach Road Bethnal Green, London E2 9LY. Price: Free.
Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah: The Park (Dancing on the Rubble of Empire)
Rushes brings together film, archival fragments and cartographic traces to examine the dismantling of the 1924–25 British Empire Exhibition and the afterlives of empire that prevail in the landscape of Northwest London. The exhibition is centred around The Park (Dancing on the Rubble of Empire), a new moving image work by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah. Combining digital video, 16mm film, archival footage and direct animation, the film is shaped by material from Brent Archives and conversations with residents and archivists, and uncovers hidden traces of the Empire Exhibition in the local area on its centenary year.
Other Cinemas is an award-winning project focused on showcasing the work of Black and non-white filmmakers through a free community screening programme and a year-long film school.
Date: 21 November - 20 December 2025. Opening hours: Thurs–Sat 12–5pm. Location: Metroland Cultures, 91 Kilburn Square, London NW6 6PS. Click here to discover more.
Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah, The Park (2025), production still. Courtesy of the artists
#FLOFavourites: Pick of the Week
Free event of the week
Creative Encounters: Mingle & Mould
Image credit Pete Woodhead
The relaxed, 2½-hour session invites participants to slow down, make, and mingle, creating and decorating clay pots under the guidance of London-based ceramist Princess Fingall, known from Great British Pottery Throwdown. Working at your own pace using pinch and coil techniques, each pot becomes a personal keepsake or gift. The evening is accompanied by live music and DJ sets from Catford-based (((CLEOPATRA))). This event is completely FREE and open to all.
Date: 17 December 2025. Time: 6pm – 8:30pm. Location: The Clore Ballroom, Level 2, Royal Festival Hall, London SE1 8XX. southbankcentre.co.uk
Interview of the week
In conversation with Afra Nur Uğurlu
Afra Nur Uğurlu. Image Afra Nur Uğurlu
Afra Nur Uğurlu is a visual artist and recent London College of Communication graduate whose practice spans beauty, fashion, art, and cultural studies. In this interview, we discuss Hinterland, her zine…
Click here for the full interview.
Food of the week
Pizarro Restaurant
Pizarro Restaurant. Image courtesy of Pizarro Restaurant
This week’s featured restaurant is Pizarro on Bermondsey Street, the acclaimed second London venture by José Pizarro, located just a block from his original tapas bar near London Bridge station. The restaurant features an open kitchen and offers a menu of small tapas-style dishes alongside more substantial plates, perfect for sharing or enjoying as starters and mains. The cuisine highlights José’s dedication to the finest seasonal Spanish ingredients, complemented by an extensive selection of Spanish wines, sherries, and cocktails.
Location: Pizarro is at 194 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3TQ. Website: josepizarro.com. Instagram: @josepizarrorestaurants
Click here for our pick of five locations to dine in London this December 2025.
Cause of the week
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army
Volunteering with The Salvation Army at Christmas offers opportunities to help prepare and distribute meals, wrap and deliver gifts, and support festive community events such as carol singing and Christmas fairs. Early registration is encouraged to ensure better planning, a greater impact, and a fulfilling experience. Click here to discover more about their volunteering opportunities.
