Visit London Blog - Enjoy the very best of London
Relive the magic of London’s Christmas Carol once more with our choice of video of the week. It’s all here: the Christmas lights’ switch-on, the brilliant open-air concerts across London, and the red carpet action from the world premiere of Disney’s A Christmas Carol.
Feeling festive yet? There’s only 48 days to go…
Last night, Westfield London was home to the BT Visit London Awards 2009.
After a champagne reception, guests made their way through to the Atrium of the shopping centre. Screened off with flowing curtains from high on the first floor, the cream of London’s hoteliers, venue operators and London lovers were dressed to the nines and celebrating the achievements of the year.
It was easy to get into the swing of things with some fabulous acts, including a hula hooping marvel Marawa Ibrahim, currently starring in La Clique!
An illustrious panel of judges had made the hard decisions on who won what, and it was great to see the excited winners claiming the rewards for their hard work.
The lucky winners included the National Maritime Museum (Gold Award for Visitor Attraction of the Year), Wicked The Musical (Best Family Fun) and Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley (Outstanding Achievement Award).
Full details of all the winners can be found at awards.visitlondon.com
Yesterday, three of London’s smaller galleries, The Wallace Collection, The Courtauld Gallery and Dulwich Picture Gallery announced their exhibition programmes for 2010.
Less well-known than many of London’s bigger galleries, these galleries have their work cut out attracting visitors in the difficult economic climate. Happily, they’ve responded to the challenge with gusto, and these exciting exhibitions should attract plenty of attention and visitors:
The Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection has been busy refurbishing, creating new galleries, and generally having a bit of a refresh. It’s holding four contemporary exhibitions next year:
The Courtauld Gallery
The Courtauld Gallery also have some big names in their upcoming exhibitions:
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Situated in leafy Dulwich, take the chance to get out of Central London and visit this historic building. It’s only 12 minutes from Victoria by train!
Dulwich Picture Gallery is celebrating its bicentenary next year – so watch this space for news of how they’ll be marking the occasion.
Covent Garden is offering one lucky tweeter the unique chance to turn on the Christmas lights and launch Covent Garden’s A Very Merry Christmas this Monday 9 November.
All you need to do is to follow Covent Garden on Twitter @CoventGardenLDN and tweet your “Covent Garden Christmas wish” with the tag #averymerrychristmas! For example: “I wish that Santa Claus would land his sleigh on the Covent Garden Market Building! #averymerrychristmas”
Those who tweet with the tag will be entered into a draw for the chance to turn on the lights. The Covent Garden Christmas lights are by renowned British creative collective UnitedVisualArtists. Head to the Market Building to see what promises to be a “unique, sculptural light installation featuring four large-scale interactive chandeliers”.
Come down to the launch of A Very Merry Christmas on Monday 9 November at 5.30pm on the West Piazza to enjoy choir performances, falling snow, genuine reindeer (both real and topiary!), free mulled wine, roasted chestnuts and much more.
Keeping you up-to-date with news from London’s theatres and the West End
We’re pleased to let you know that J B Priestly’s An Inspector Calls is transferring, following its limited run at the Novello theatre this autumn. Book now if you’re looking for a classy theatrical treat this Christmas: Stephen Daldry’s multi-award-winning production is on at Wyndham’s Theatre from 3 December.
In theatreland, where there’s one superb success story, there’s generally an early closing to add to the mix. And so this week, we bring you news that The Shawshank Redemption will be closing on 29 November. (It had been booking until 14 February.) Similarly, Prick Up Your Ears, which originally starred Matt Lucas as Kenneth Halliwell, has also announced it will close three weeks early. The play’s struggled since the departure of Lucas, and despite good reviews for Con O’Neill, ticket sales haven’t sustained the show.
We can also tempt you with long-range news this week. Our mouths are watering at the prospect of seeing David Suchet (Poirot to you and me) and the wonderful Zoe Wanamaker in Arthur Miller’s classic All My Sons at the Apollo Theatre in May next year (such a long wait – it’s not fair!).
And we’re also excited about the next instalment from The Old Vic’s Bridge Project. Stephen Dillane, Michelle Beck, Christian Camargo, and Juliet Rylance, following her famous father into Shakespeare, take on two of the bard’s plays from June next year. Sam Mendes directs this tasty cast in As You Like It and The Tempest. Kevin, you’re spoiling us.
Finally, silly season is nearly upon us with pantos and kids’ shows galore. And little sounds sillier than Stephen and The Sexy Partridge at the Trafalgar Studios. “Ever had a problem that really only a partridge could solve?” asks the show’s blurb. “And a sexy one, at that?” We’re not sure we have. But that doesn’t mean we’re not fascinated by Mighty Boosh director Cal McCrystal’s Christmas show, opening at the end of the month, featuring “bagpipe-playing potatoes, revolutionary hens, and dancing swans, and a love between one man and his bird.”
More next week…
They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, but should you go and see the bands you had posters of on your bedroom wall 20 years ago? If the band in question is a-Ha, the answer is yes!
From the Sun Always Shines On TV to the closing notes of Take On Me (via their latest hit single Foot of the Mountain), a-Ha’s gig at The O2 last night was worth waiting two decades for. The music still sounds fresh and exciting and, despite pushing 50(!), Morten, Mags and Pal still look as young and tasty as they did in that poster. No signs of ravaged rock star looks or excessive pie-eating retirement on this stage.
a-Ha plan to play a final worldwide tour in 2010 before splitting up, so you’ll have one last chance to see them in London next year. While you’re waiting for the details of the tour, we say go and indulge your 80s crushes, Smash Hits obsessions and dirty secrets.
Artists who defined the 80s embarking on London gigs in the near future include:
Loads of 80s stars are still touring, and you can even catch Belinda Carlisle in Hairspray.
A-Ha are the second band that I loved in the 80s and hadn’t seen live until this year (I saw The Shadows in September; I love you Bruce!) Now I’m on a mission to tick some more names off a slightly embarrassing list.
Who were your teen crushes, the bands and singers you never got to see when you were 13? And will you be going to see them live in London in 2010?
We know you’ve all been waiting with baited breath for our second Halloween instalment, following our Met Bar Spooktacular – Part I, and now that we have *finally* recovered, here it is!
Last Thursday the Met Bar was transformed by the fabulous Serena Mattar into a rock’ n’roll graveyard for our Death on the Dancefloor party. Giant cobwebs, dismembered skeletons and ex-rockstars’ gravestones littered the bar, making more than a few of our day-time guests jump!
As dusk descended, the Broken Hearts hit the decks and the special effects make-up team from Lost In Beauty, Primrose Hill arrived to give the Met Bar team our macabre makeovers. With us both transformed into a vixen vampire victim and suicide cupid (guess which was which!), it was time to drink some Devil’s Punch and get the party started.
Joined by the ever fabulous Johnny Blue Eyes (stylist to Beth Ditto) dressed as no other than Jesus (complete with light-up crown) the party was full of the weird, the wonderful and the downright scary. Miss Pandemonia was resplendent in her usual PVC get up. Throw in a couple of super-sized red Japanese wigs, Marie Antoinette’s ghost and a dead prom queen and you’ll get the idea!
When Freddie Mercury scrambled onto the bar for a rendition of We Will Rock You, we knew our Halloween party was going down in the history books! Definitely one of the wildest and kookiest nights we’ve ever had in the bar, and our members certainly created the infamous electric atmosphere.
And, as if one Halloween party weren’t enough, on Saturday night the bar hosted fright night festivities again. Yes, two of our members clubbed together and hosted a Halloween party for a crowd of 150 guests. Jamie dusted down his wings and shot himself through the heart once again to join in yet another gory celebration, with the bar hitting capacity for the second time in a week!
Suffice to say we are now ready to leave Halloween behind for another year… roll on Christmas!
Comics and manga are the next big thing in London! Here are some dates for your diary.
COMICA – The London International Comics Festival
The Comica Festival runs at the ICA from the 5-26 November and explores the world of comics, graphic novels and manga. Events include workshops, lectures, exhibitions and films.
We’re intrigued by the Uncle Hans-Peter Party, a live comic event where the audience are required to wear masks and collectively assume the persona of Uncle Hans-Peter – dress code smart casual; lederhosen optional.
Prices for Comica events vary, some are free. The Uncle Hans-Peter Party is on 17 November and costs £10.
Manga: Professor Munkata’s British Museum Adventure
Leading Japanese Manga artist Hoshino Yukinobu has created an exhibition featuring his manga character Professor Munakata having an adventure at the British Museum.
As usual, the museum are putting on a great free programme of events about the exhibition including gallery talks, lectures and family digital comic workshops. The exhibition is free and runs from 5 November – 3 January 2010.
30 Years of Viz at the Cartoon Museum
Viz, Britain’s adult comic celebrates its 30th birthday with an exhibition at The Cartoon Museum. Love it or hate it, this lewd, rude comic has scores of fans including Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson. If you’re looking for an offensive exhibition in London, don’t miss this one! 4 November – 24 January 2010.
Caped Crusader Exhibition at Orbital Comics
Orbital Comics is one of the best comic shops in London and they hold regular comic themed events. The Caped Crusader Exhibition (1 -13 December) will feature lots of postcards doodled and scribbled on by artists, performers, writers and musicians with links to the comic book and science fiction universe. If you’ve ever wondered what Brian Blessed, Russell Tovey, Doctor Who, James Earl Jones and Batman would doodle on a postcard, you’re about to find out. The postcards will be sold for charity.
The London Zine Symposium
The London Zine Symposium is a place for anyone interested in fanzines, small press, comics or radical writing to meet up, swap ideas, buy something new to read and attend workshops about zines. Yes, 3 May 2010 seems like ages away, but put it in your diary now and you won’t forget it.
The winner of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize was announced last night.
Paul Floyd Blake took the top prize for his portrait of 13-year-old swimmer Rosie Bancroft, who hopes to compete in the 2012 Paralympic Games.
Blake says, “She had just swum a personal best in her event and I think that’s why she has such a confident, self-assured look in the portrait.”
You can see Blake’s photo and the best of the other entries in a free exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from tomorrow.
Last night I was happy to discover a fringe theatre in London I’d never visited before. Positioned on The Cut, opposite the Young Vic, I must have walked past The Calder Bookshop Theatre many times, but never noticed it.
What makes this theatre unique is that, as its name suggests, it’s in a bookshop. I don’t mean in a room above a bookshop, but literally in the shop. We squeezed into the small shop, between walls of books, to see a series of short plays.
Love Bites is a showcase for new writing and currently features six shorts by various writers. All the plays are centred around the same bar and loosely based on the theme of love (with the emphasis on loosely).
The stories are really comedy sketches, apart from the third and most affecting play, Late One Evening, a conversation between a man who has been stood up and an intriguing older lady.
I was thoroughly entertained for two hours and, at just £10 a ticket, I’d highly recommend the show.
Love Bites is on at The Calder Bookshop Theatre until 13 November.
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