What’s on in London this week: 8 - 14 December 2025
Discover our pick of events in London this week: 8 - 14 December 2025.
Carols at the Royal Albert Hall
The beloved Carols at the Royal Albert Hall returns this week, from Sunday 14 December, with over 15 performances until 24 December 2025. Audiences will be immersed in the magic of the season, surrounded by the grandeur of the Royal Albert Hall. With a full orchestra, a choir, talented soloists, and a charismatic presenter, the performances combine beautiful renditions of traditional carols with modern festive favourites. Performances take place at 11:00 am, 3:00 pm, and 7:30 pm, with doors opening 45 minutes beforehand.
Date: 14– 24 December 2025. Location: Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP. Book now
Royal Albert Hall, Image credit Igor Sporynin
Pop-Up Crisis 2025
Pop-Up Crisis returns to Savile Row this week, offering a week-long pop-up shop and raffle to raise funds for Crisis, the national charity for people experiencing homelessness. From 8 - 13 December, visitors can browse a curated selection of luxury and designer clothing donated by celebrities including Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Naomie Harris, Emma Corrin, David Gandy, Jamie Redknapp, Louis Partridge, and Jarvis Cocker, as well as top Savile Row tailors and brands like Anderson & Sheppard, Huntsman, Mr. Porter, Barbour, Tod’s, and Manolo Blahnik. The pop-up also features an exclusive online edit curated by David Gandy. All proceeds will support Crisis’s vital work providing shelter, meals, and advice to people experiencing homelessness, both during the festive season and year-round.
Date: 8 – 13 December 2025. Location: 18‑19 Savile Row, Mayfair, London W1S 3PP. popupcrisis.com
London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Antonio Pappano
The London Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Sir Antonio Pappano, will celebrate the richness of British music with a programme featuring Thea Musgrave, William Walton, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The evening will open with Musgrave’s Phoenix Rising, an electrifying and adventurous score. Walton’s Viola Concerto, performed by LSO Spotlight Artist Antoine Tamestit, is one of the most celebrated works for the instrument. The concert will conclude with Vaughan Williams’ atmospheric portrait of London, capturing the sights, sounds, and spirit of the city for a truly superb musical experience.
Date & Time: Thursday, 11 December 2025, 7:00 pm. Location: Barbican Hall, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. PRICE: £18 - £75. + BF. Book now
Pop-Up Crisis returns to Savile Row.
Festive Late-Night Shopping in Dalston
Celebrate the season with Dalston’s independent retailers in a cosy evening of local Christmas shopping. Enjoy complimentary festive drinks, free nail polishes, and browse circular fashion alongside cult women’s and men’s wear across four beloved boutiques: Positive Retail, Shoreditch Nails, L.F. Markey, and About Wondrous Theatre. It’s the perfect opportunity to support small businesses, find thoughtful gifts, and soak up the community spirit.
Date & Time: 9 December 2025, 6–8 pm. Location: Dalston Lane, 48–60, East London.
An Evening with Oscar Jerome
New Soil presents a special live performance of Oscar Jerome’s music, reimagined for an ensemble of top London musicians, including Lucinda Chua (cello), Raven Bush (violin), Jihad Darwish (double bass), Richie Sweet (percussion), and Ben Grose (drums). The evening will feature unique arrangements spanning his latest album The Fork, its predecessor The Spoon, and more.
Date & Time: Wednesday 10 December 2025, 7.30pm. Location: STAGE, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH. Price: £28.50 (includes DICE fees + £1.50 venue levy). Book now
New Soil presents An Evening with Oscar Jerome
Festive Season at Fitzrovia Quarter
Visit the Fitzrovia Quarter, London’s independent shopping and dining destination, on Wednesday 10 December, from 4–7 pm, and enjoy complimentary hot chocolate from the mobile hot chocolate bar in Market Place. Explore unique gifts, workshops, masterclasses, live performances, and special festive menus from local retailers, galleries, spas, and restaurants. This festive experience will return on Wednesday 17 December 2025.
Date: 10 and 17 December 2025. Time: 4–7 pm. Location: The Fitzrovia Quarter, London.
Architecture on Stage: Tim Ronalds
Award-winning British architect Tim Ronalds will discuss his practice and notable performing arts projects. With over 30 years of experience in education and cultural architecture, he has specialised in theatre design, including the refurbishment of the Hackney Empire, designs for the 4,000-capacity Bradford Live and Sevenoaks School Performing Arts Centre.
Date: 11 December 2025. Time: 7pm. Location: Frobisher Auditorium 1, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Book now
Sevenoaks School Performing Arts Centre
Christmas in London
The festive season has taken over the capital, with ice skating rinks, Christmas markets, and dazzling lights and displays.
Click here to discover our guide to Christmas in London and make the most of the season.
Cinema
Prime Minister (12A)
Jacinda is a revealing documentary that traces the extraordinary five year tenure of New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. Directed by Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz over seven years, the film includes intimate home footage shot by Ardern’s husband, Clarke Gayford, offering a rare window into her personal life. It showcases her decisive leadership, tackling gun law reforms, navigating the pandemic, and making history with the birth of her child while in office, highlighting the delicate balance between public duty and private life.
Date: 6 - 11 December 2025. Duration: 1 hr 46 mins. Location: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Price: Standard £14 + BF; concessions and members pricing available. Book now
Jacinda Ardern in the documentary Prime Minister. HBO
Arts & Culture
Opening this week
Notes from the Studio
Notes from the Studio opens this week at Incubator, presenting a group exhibition of 46 contributors from across generations and creative disciplines. The show highlights the intimate fragments and materials that shape artists’ thinking, including notes, sketches, reference images, postcards, and other small artefacts from their studios. Each piece is preserved as found, with marks of use intact, and installed within hand-drawn charcoal frames with discreet labels. Together, they form a collective studio wall, offering a rare glimpse into the creative process before artworks are completed. Participating artists include Tracey Emin, Mona Hatoum, Michael Stipe, Pet Shop Boys, Rebecca Ackroyd, and many more.
Date: 10 December 2025 – 31 January 2026. Location: Incubator, 2 Chiltern street Marylebone, W1U 7PR. Price: Free. incubatorart.com
Last chance to see
Maria Bartuszová: The Butterfly Effect
This is your final week to see The Butterfly Effect, a solo exhibition of Slovak sculptor Maria Bartuszová at Alison Jacques Gallery. Spanning three decades, the show displays her nature‑inspired sculptures, from delicate seed‑like forms to experimental plaster casts and translucent Perspex works, exploring themes of growth, decay and the fragility of life.
Date: until 13 December 2025. Location: Alison Jacques Gallery, 22 Cork St, London W1S 3NG. Price: Free. alisonjacques.com
Maria Bartuszová, Untitled, 1981 © The Archive of Maria Bartuszová, Košice
Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien: Mémoires des corps
Also coming to a close this week is Mémoires des corps, the first UK solo exhibition by Paris-based artist Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien. On show at Gasworks in London, the exhibition uses textiles, sculpture, drawing, and video-performance to create intricate ecosystems that reflect femininity, cosmology, and the artist’s Creole heritage. Developed following her 2025 Gasworks residency, it explores the intergenerational traumas experienced by women from former French colonies, imagining the gallery as a space for healing, resistance, and renewal.
Date: until 14 December 2025. Location: Gasworks, 155 Vauxhall Street, London SE11 5RH. Price: Free. gasworks.org.uk
Image credit Tom Carter
Koestler Arts: Night Owls and Abstractions
Koestler Arts: Night Owls and Abstractions at the Royal Festival Hall, curated by poet and playwright Inua Ellams, showcases around 200 artworks from people in the UK’s criminal justice system, selected from over 7,500 entries to the 2025 Koestler Awards. Featuring a striking mix of colour, humour, sadness, textiles, and symbolism, the exhibition reflects creativity behind bars, with recurring owl motifs representing reflection, searching, and clarity in the night.
Date: until 14 December 2025. Location: Level 1, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX. Price: Free. southbankcentre.co.uk.
#FLOFavourites: Pick of the Week
Free event of the week
Ocado Festive Food Pop-Up with Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Ocado Festive Food Pop-Up with Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Ocado is hosting a free festive food pop-up in Richmond on 12 December, celebrating Britain’s quirky Christmas food traditions. From 12 pm to 2 pm on George Street, visitors can sample complimentary treats from Ocado’s “Season’s Eatings” food truck, featuring inventive dishes such as tikka pigs in blankets, crab rarebit, and Dubai chocolate brownies with pistachio cream. The event will also include live performances from the Ocado Choir and Soul Choir, with a special guest appearance by Sophie Ellis-Bextor at 1 pm, performing a reworked Christmas carol inspired by the nation’s festive food favourites
Date: 12 December 2025. Time: 12 pm–2 pm. Location: George Street, Richmond, TW9 1HY. Price: Free.
Interview of the week
In conversation with Neil Gore and Rukmini Sircar
Neil Gore and Rukmini Sircar. We Are the Lions, Mr Manager!, Photo courtesy Townsend Theatre Productions.
We spoke to Neil Gore and Rukmini Sircar ahead of the London run of We Are the Lions, Mr Manager!. They discussed portraying Jayaben Desai’s courage, the play’s research and creative process, and why its themes of solidarity, equality, and collective action remain highly relevant today.
Click here for the full interview.
Food of the week
Maggie Jones’s
Maggie Jones’s, Kensington. Maggie Jones’s famed tart. Image credit MTotoe
Maggie Jones’s, the iconic Kensington restaurant, has reopened after a two-year closure following an electrical fire. A favourite of the Royal Family since 1964, it continues to charm with cosy, rustic interiors and classic British dishes, from Sunday roasts to à la carte favourites. A must-visit this festive season!
We recently went to experience their brand-new space. Click here for the full review.
Location: 6 Old Court Place, Kensington, London W8 4PL. Website: maggie-jones.co.uk Instagram: @maggiejonesrestaurant
Cause of the week
The Message Trust
The Message Trust
The Message Trust is a UK-based Christian charity that supports young people and communities through initiatives like Community Groceries, youth outreach, and creative projects, and you can volunteer by supporting in their community grocery sites, assisting with youth programmes, supporting office work, or joining corporate and group volunteering days, with no prior experience needed and training provided, by signing up on their website.
