The Time Out London blog team

On a cold November evening, behind the unassuming door of a former jewellery box makers’ on Pentonville Road, an independent creative space is filling up with fashion model managers, cinema workers and engineering consultants. They’re here in search of romance; I’m here to find out what could possibly unite such an eclectic mix of singletons. Unlike regular dating events, attendees at Anomalous Space’s first-ever ‘Admit Two’ night are being paired off based on their film preferences. And those who know their Lynch from their La La Land might just walk out with a new soulmate. ‘Admit Two: Speed Dating for Film Lovers’, to give it its full title, is the brainchild of Raquel Braz, a 24-year-old music manager who clocked a gap in the market after encountering countless Hinge profiles name-checking A24 movies and indie cinemas. ‘Films are the perfect conversation starter,’ she tells Time Out. ‘Every first date I’ve been on includes the question: “What is your Letterboxd top four?”’ Frustrated with the popular movie app’s lack of user-to-user messaging – and conscious of friends’ growing fatigue with online dating – Braz devised an IRL speed-dating event where people share their favourite films beforehand to inspire appropriate meet-cutes. Co-organiser Tiffany Ho, 24, hopes it can stoke recovery from the ‘huge crush recession’ caused by a decline in face-to-face socialising. These carefully curated pairings are now unfolding on this icy Tuesday night in Islington. Photograph:...

Christmas came very early for the people of Bromley when the cast and crew of Pillion rolled into town last summer. The south east London suburb is the setting for Harry Lighton’s BDSM romantic drama, which shifted the setting of Adam Mars-Jones’s 2020 novel Box Hill from leafy Surrey to Bromley, and updated the story from the 1970s to Christmas in the present day. Already hailed as one of the films of the year, Pillion, Lighton’s directorial debut, stars The Queen's Gambit’s Harry Melling as hapless car park attendant Colin and The Northman’s Alexander Skarsgård as Ray, the brooding biker with whom he forms an unexpected sub/dom relationship.  The shift in setting came down to budgetary concerns – ‘You have to film [close] to London to avoid having to put up all your cast and crew overnight, so Box Hill was too far,’ Lighton tells Time Out – but the change in season was pure wish-fulfilment for the  filmmaker. ‘I’m obsessed with Christmas films,’ he says. ‘Every film I’ve made has had a Christmas element. I liked the idea of combining that sort of syrupy Christmas feeling with hardcore sex and seeing how an audience would combine those two things.’ Photograph: Picturehouse Entertainment Cue a towering Christmas tree being erected in the middle of Bromley’s town centre during filming in August 2024. ‘I’d sit by the Christmas tree and hear all these locals walking past and saying how Christmas comes earlier each year,’ laughs Lighton.  I liked the idea of combining that...

London goes all out for Christmas. Now that we’re just four weeks away from the big day, dozens of Christmas markets have popped up across the city, hundreds of thousands of Christmas lights have been switched on and pantos have begun. Add London’s embrace of the festive season to that the fact that it’s is home to some of the finest hotels in the world, and it’s no surprise that one of our luxury establishments was just named the most Christmassy hotel in all of Europe.  We enlisted the help of travel writer and Christmas fanatic Clara Hogan to help us curate a list of Europe’s most festive hotels for 2025. Opulent institutions in Paris, Rome, Vienna and Switzerland all made the cut, but the number one spot went to London’s very own Claridge’s.  Clara said: ‘Claridge’s has been a Mayfair institution for over a century, and at Christmas it’s at its best. Art Deco marble gleams underneath garlands, afternoon teas are served beneath twinkling lights, and the atmosphere is so royal you half expect William or Kate to stroll past (it wouldn’t be the first time).’ The hotel runs a three-night festive package that runs from December 23 or 24 and includes mince pies and carrots for kids to place on the mantlepiece, a visit from Father Christmas and his elves, carol singing, a horse-drawn carriage ride around Mayfair and, of course, a hearty Christmas lunch. But the best thing about the luxury hotel at this time of year is its famous Christmas tree display, which has become a...