London

The show welcomes into office the new Lord Mayor of the City of London. The three-mile-long parade involves 6,000 people, 1,550 of them servicemen and women, 202 horses, 24 marching bands and 71 floats featuring people from a huge variety of...

Gaze up at Alfred Waterhouse's stunning Natural History Museum from the 1,050m square outdoor ice rink, or the smaller rink for children. Spectators can take in the scene with a hot chocolate or mulled wine from the balcony café/bar overlooking...

A number of the 50 independent shops at Gabriel's Wharf and neighbouring Oxo Tower Wharf are offering discounts and free giftwrapping for this shopping event. The day coincides with the Lord Mayor's Show fireworks, which take place on the river...

The creators of the 200 extraordinary works on show in this new art venture are all outsiders; untrained individuals, often socially marginalised and psychologically fragile, whose drive to create powerful, fantastical drawings, paintings,...

In a dark cinema or theatre at the end of a long day, nodding off is too often the swiftest short-cut to unconsciousness. No chance of that in Jonathan Munby's rich and startling production of this highly strung drama by Spain's last great...

The grand eighteenth-century courtyard at Somerset House provides one of the most impressive skating backdrops in town. The skate school offers lessons for beginners and there are special sessions for families, students and disabled people, as...

Former Pulp main man, enthusiastic polymath, beloved national treasure and Parisian emigre reprises the piece he performed in the French capital, a three-day event during which members of the public participate in on-the-spot improv (own...

Hyde Park's seasonal makeover takes place for the third year running in late November. We may have had reservations about the ice rink last year (it was just too narrow for us to demonstrate our prowess) but the lights of the Giant Wheel added a...

Polaroid photographs by artists including Richard Hamilton, Andy Warhol, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Walker Evans and others alongside examples of the medium's use in professions such as medicine, filmmaking and fashion. Coincides with the October 2009...

Tango performers from Argentina and across Europe come together for a weekend tango fest, including Osvaldo Zotto, who has been recognised by UNESCO for his tango teaching and performance. Evening performances are followed by a tango ball with...

In a spot surrounded by vertiginous towers, skaters can glide serenely across the ice, down a dram in the rinkside Moose Bar or just watch the action from the viewing gallery. The rink is located next to the new Park Pavilion which houses bars...

Wayne Coyne's long-running post-grungers cum psychedelic pop nutjobs here tote their brand new album, 'Embryonic', which shows them holding back on the increasingly sugared whimsy in favour of a laudable rawness and directness and a slight return...

Six bored, promiscuous students go on a sexually charged rampage in Martin Crimp's adaptation of Ferdinand Bruckner's 1920s play. Director Katie Mitchell - behind the stellar NT productions of Waves and The Seagull - is at the helm. World Premiere.

Small and independent businesses gather at this annual fair to offer traditional furnishings, home and garden decorations, jewellery, handcrafted toys and regional food and drink not available on the high street.

Purists may disapprove of the vivid emotional shades in Simon McBurney's striking Complicite production. But, for audiences condemned to wait with the actors at the brink of the last abyss, they bring relief to Samuel Beckett's bleakest...

Anna Friel sparkles in this stage adaptation of Truman Capote's slender novella - she even twinkles her way out of Audrey Hepburn's shadow. So it's a shame that director Sean Mathias and adaptor Samuel Adamson have lumbered their diamond leading...

Jerome Lawrence and Robert E Lee's courtroom drama was based on the 1925 Scopes monkey trial in which a Bible Belt schoolteacher was indicted for teaching Darwin. But it's the two grand demagogue roles - of wily secular defence lawyer Henry...

The hugely successful, extraordinarily over-reaching, proggy and space-obsessed rockers bring their squealing guitar solos, quasi-classical arrangements and gee-wow pyrotechnics to the O2 Arena as they tour latest (fifth) Queen-worshipping album,...

Yorkshire company Slung Low bring their follow-up to 'Helium', a walk-though interactive piece combining live performance, dance, music and digital projection.

Two-venue show of recent work by the celebrated German artist; see also White Cube Hoxton Square in King's Cross to Shoreditch.

Second instalment in a four-week run of 'piano talk shows' by prankster hip hopper turned minimalist classical pianist and crooner Gonzales, with a different guest each week, tonight featuring Brummy laptop rapper Akira The Don and the truly...

Offering a grand historical setting for seasonal skating sessions, the rink in the dry moat features views of London's ancient fortress. Ice guides are available for supervised group skating. As at fellow Historic Royal Palace Hampton Court,...

Set in front of Henry VIII's picturesque old pad, this 900-square-metre rink has space for 250 skaters. Sessions last an hour, and the adjacent Frost Fayre café serves hot drinks to counteract exposure to the elements. Wheelchairs are welcome on...

Kapoor has tackled this latest show - and any such criticisms of aesthetic flatlining - head-on, including more new work than tried-and-tested old favourites, trying out big ideas fearlessly. He's also ruined the Royal Academy and the mess is...

The Old Truman Brewery becomes a one-stop Christmas shopping experience with independent retailers, gifts markets, designer sales and a pop-up emporium taking over the T1 space.

Life is tragic, human beings balls of bitterness, complacency and rage - why then do we laugh? Trevor Griffiths's powerful 1975 play sets up the question like an old-fashioned joke: two Irishmen, a Jew, a couple of fools and a nutter walk into a...

In this sassy four-hander, Andrew Bovell makes full use of both interpretations of his title: these characters are locked in mutual incomprehension but they harbour some hope that physical contact will take them further than speech. So they cheat...

A brand new student night with bowling (£3 per person), karaoke and cheap booze (£2.50 beer!) to boot. Dress up and boogie on down to '50s rock 'n' roll to glam and indie classics.

Nineteenth- and twentieth-century photographs from the British Library collection, examining the history of photography and its influence with regard to industrialisation and developments in science.

New play by Nick Payne about the unlikely friendship between a bullied school girl and her hapless uncle. Directed by Josie Rourke.

The two West End streets are presenting joint Christmas lights this year, themed to link in with Disney's 'A Christmas Carol'. Public events including carol singing take place on Regent Street, Oxford Street and in the City of London until Jan 5...

The final exhibition in the BM's series repositioning four great historical leaders in the context of their times looks at Moctezuma II (aka Montezuma), the last elected ruler of the Aztecs, who put up surprisingly little resistance when the...

For the past five decades, Ed Ruscha has worked in the space between words and images, exploring how words look and how we 'read' images. Hollywood mythology, The American Dream, religion, the sublime, cerebral sunset stand-offs and cocktail hour...