Museums & Attractions

First Thursdays
Co-ordinated by the Whitechapel Gallery and supported by Time Out, First Thursdays is a year-round initiative in the East End during which many local venues enter party mode on the first Thursday of the month with late opening hours, launches and special events. More than a hundred galleries take part; check the website for full details. Various venues. Next on Dec 4 till 9pm.
wwww.firstthursdays.co.uk

Sir John Soane’s Museum
It’s crammed, cramped and quirky, and is the favourite attraction of many Londoners. The museum occupies a townhouse designed by architect Sir John Soane to house his collection of paintings and glorious architectural salvage. It’s open late on the first Tuesday of each month. Some rooms are candlelit, adding to the atmosphere of a place already oozing character. Be prepared to queue.
Sir John Soane’s Museum, 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2A 3BP (020 7405 2107/www.soane.org). Holborn tube. Tue-Sat 10am-5pm, first Tue of each month open in eve 6-9pm. Adm free but donations welcome. Feature continues

Dennis Severs’ House
Time has stood still at this Huguenot house in Spitalfields where silence reigns, electricity is (apparently) yet to arrive and the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century inhabitants are tantalisingly invisible. Best described as theatre without actors, a visit to Dennis Severs’ House is fascinating at any time of year, but during December, when there are extra evening openings and the place is decorated for the festive season and glowing in candlelight, it’s magical. On December 24 and 30 and January 2’s Exclusive Silent Nights, you can enjoy mulled wine, mince pies and presents (ring for details). The house is also open each Sunday in December between 12noon and 4pm (last adm 3.15pm, £10).
Dennis Severs’ House, 18 Folgate St, E1 6BX (020 7247 4013/www.dennissevershouse.co.uk). Liverpool St tube. Silent Night events Dec 1-Jan 5, Mon-Fri 6-9pm (except Dec 3, 25-27, 31, Jan 1). £15. Booking essential.

Enchanted Woodland Walk
Syon House, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland, is only open to visitors during the spring and summer months but a tradition introduced in recent years draws many visitors to the gardens for an after-dark walk. Dramatic lighting effects temporarily transform the arboretum, where the trees cast off their daytime character, and the frosty lake adds to the atmosphere. The walk, which is suitable for families, takes about an hour.
Enchanted Woodland Walk, Syon Park, Brentford, Middx TW8 8JF (020 8560 0881/www.syonpark.co.uk). Gunnersbury tube or Kew Bridge rail or 237, 267 bus to Brentlea Gate. Walk until Nov 30, daily 5-8pm. £5, children (3-16) £2.

Hampton Court Palace Ghost Tours
Hour-long tours of the palace – built in 1525 by Thomas Wolsey, who subsequently presented it to Henry VIII – examine the legends and apparent evidence (including new CCTV footage) of ghosts in the palace. Henry’s wives Catherine Howard and Jane Seymour and his son Edward are all said to wander it still. The adult tours are unsuitable for under-12s, but new this year are special children’s ghost tours, suitable for kids aged eight plus.
Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, KT8 9AU (bookings 0844 842 777/www.hrp.rg.uk). Hampton Court rail. Adult tours Sun and Fri, 7pm, until Mar 1 2009; children’s tours every Sun 5pm. £25, children £12.50.

Design Overtime
Design Overtime is the museum’s regular late-night offering. In December the theme is ‘Sparkle the Dark Up’. You can do a bit of Christmas shopping at the museum store, where good taste’s a given, then enjoy a glass of wine as you learn how to wrap presents beautifully and make your own cards, gift tags and decorations. ‘London Now and Then’ at 7.15pm (£15) promises to be a lively debate looking at the ways in which Time Out has influenced and stimulated the development of London’s design scene over the past four decades. Don’t forget to check out the retrospective of influential ’60s and ’70s graphic designer and illustrator Alan Aldridge.
Design Overtime, Design Museum, 28 Butlers Wharf, Shad Thames, SE1 2YD (0870 833 9955/www.designmuseum.org). London Bridge tube/rail or Tower Hill tube. Design Overtime, Dec 5, 6-10pm. £5 (includes adm to the exhibitions).

Christmas Pot-Pourri
After a three-month refurbishment, the museum (formerly the Museum of Garden History) reopened on November 15 with new purpose-built exhibition and education spaces designed by Dow Jones Architects. The permanent display includes a collection of antique tools. Check it out – and visit the temporary exhibition devoted to revered plantswoman Beth Chatto – when you attend The Grove Singers’ presentation of readings, and Christmas music, from Medieval carols to modern seasonal songs.
The Garden Museum, St Mary-at-Lambeth, Lambeth Palace Rd, SE1 7LB (020 7401 8865/www.gardenmuseum.org.uk). Lambeth North/Westminster tube or Waterloo tube/rail. Concert Dec 5, 7.30pm. £12, in adv £10.

Ice Age Park: The Truth About Cloning Mammals
The Grant Museum is home to animal skeletons, taxidermy specimens and assorted creatures preserved in fluid, and boasts the remains of many rare and extinct animals. At this after-hours event, Ian Barnes, a molecular palaeobiologist at Royal Holloway, University of London, leads a discussion exploring the reasons why woolly mammoths became extinct – and looks at the future potential that modern molecular genetics might hold for recovering Ice Age animals.
Grant Museum of Zoology, Darwin Building, Gower St, University College London, WC1E 6BT (020 7679 2647/ www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/zoology). Euston tube/rail or Goodge St tube. Dec 11, 6pm. Adm free.

Simon Patterson talk
Simon Patterson, the artist who created ‘The Great Bear’ – an illustration in which he replaced the names of stations on the Underground map with the names of film stars, explorers, philosophers, saints and celebrities – talks about his life and work.
London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, WC2E 7BB (020 7565 7298/www.ltmuseum.co.uk). Covent Garden tube. Artist’s talk Dec 9, 6.30pm. £8, concs £6, students £4.

Seasonal Sounds@Late
As part of the First Thursdays, the London Gay Men’s Chorus will be lending their vocal talents to east London for an evening that will include a late bar and free guided tours of the museum, which is housed in a vast warehouse built 200 years ago to store sugar, coffee and rum.
Museum of London Docklands, West India Quay, Hertsmere Rd, E14 4AL (0870 444 3857/www.museumindocklands.org.uk). Canary Wharf tube or West India Quay DLR. Dec 4, 6-9pm. Adm free from 4.30pm.

December Lates lounge
Perfect for the culturally-inclined partygoer, on December 13 and 14 the Barbican Lates lounge and ground-floor bar will be open until 1am and the foyer cafés will be serving food and drinks until late. If you’re planing to see an exhibition at the Barbican or catch Catherine Wheels’s promenade performance of ‘Hansel and Gretel’, start early with a big-screen screening of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ from 6pm, with live commentary from Boogaloo Stu, and stay around afterwards for a ‘Pump Up the Wireless’ DJ set from Ida Barr & DJ Godslove Mensah.
Barbican Centre, Silk St, EC2Y 8DS (020 7638 4141/www.barbican.org.uk). Barbican tube. Dec 13 & 14.

Festive Fair
As part of December’s First Thursdays late opening, the museum, which traces the history of London from prehistoric times to the present, hosts a festive fair selling ceramics, glass, textiles, bags, badges and stationery, with opportunities to make your own decorations and accessories to take home . Relax with a drink and listen to live Klezmer music and carols or explore the London Before London, Roman London and Medieval galleries and an exhibition devoted to the Great Fire (The Stuart, Victorian and Twentieth Century galleries are currently closed for redevelopment).
Museum of London, 150 London Wall, EC2Y 5HN (0870 444 3851/www.museumoflondon.org.uk). Barbican tube. Festive Fair Dec 4, 10am-9pm.

Concert by Candlelight
Bocca Aperta return to east London’s ‘museum of the front room’, where each room set is currently decked out in authentic period Christmas fashion for an a cappella recital of festive songs. The ticket price includes a glass of sherry or port and a mince pie.
Geffrye Museum, Kingsland Rd, E2 8EA (020 7739 9893/www.geffrye-museum.org.uk). Liverpool St tube/rail or Old St tube then 243, 149, 242 bus. Concert Dec 11, 8pm. £14.

Francis Bacon BSL Evening
Accompanying Tate Britain’s exhibition of work by Francis Bacon is a screening of John Maybury’s 1998 film ‘Love is the Devil’, which chronicles Bacon’s relationship with muse and lover George Dyer, followed by a British Sign Language talk given by lecturer Jane Little and filmmaker Sam Dore and a festive drink.
Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1P 4RG (020 7887 8008/www.tate.org.uk). Pimlico tube or Vauxhall tube/rail. Friday Late Dec 5, until 10pm; BSL evening Dec 12, 6.30pm. Free, booking essential.