The Time Out London blog team

Can you feel the crisp in the air? After a hectic summer, we’re looking forward to cosy evenings in pubs with fireplaces, curling up at home in our PJs, and pretending we are far too sophisticated to sip on anything that comes in a pumpkin spice flavour. Winter also means the return of ice skating in London. And while the city has lost a few legends in recent years (RIP the Natural History Museum ice rink), it’s more than made up for it with new additions. And they keep on comin’. A brand new central London ice rink will enter the chat in 2025: Skate Leicester Square. The new outdoor rink, created by Underbelly, will open in London’s West End in time for cosy SZN, with the first skaters taking to the ice on November 1. It will remain open until Sunday, January 4 2026. Sessions will begin every 15 minutes and cost £14.50 for adults and £9.50 for children, with online bookings and availability for walk-ins.  The rink will encircle Leicester Square’s Shakespeare statue, which is at the centre of the plaza. Let’s hope they dress the Bard up in a Santa hat.  As well as the frozen rink, the attraction will have festive lights, music and activities for all ages. There will also be a Christmas pop-up market, selling various winter warmer food and drink options and seasonal gifts. Skate Leicester Square launch date The rink opens on November 1. Prices The venue is priced at £14.50 for adults and £9.50 for children – find out more on the official website here. The best places to go...

London’s house prices are continuing to go up and up. Three more London neighbourhoods have just entered the £1 million bracket for the average house price.   According to research from Savills reported by the Standard, South Hampstead, Ravenscourt Park and West Putney have all just entered the million-pound club, as London’s most moneyed residents are starting to spread beyond the more traditional posho neighbourhoods of Kensington and Chelsea, Hampstead Village and Notting Hill.  Per the figures, the average house prices in the three micro-neighbourhoods have all risen over the past year, despite house prices falling across London by 2.4 percent since the summer of 2022. The average price of a house in South Hampstead, Ravenscourt Park and West Putney is now £1,007,872, £1,223,973 and £1,351,501, respectively.  Photograph: Peter_Fleming / Shutterstock.com Why did this come about? According the the Standard, there are a number of reasons. While sales in London’s most prime, central London locations have slowed down due to changes to non-dom tax regulation, the neighbouring Zone 2 spots are becoming increasingly popular with wealthy families looking for leafy, spacious neighbourhoods with large houses and good schools.  Meanwhile, there has been a reversal of the exodus we saw during the pandemic. Essentially, many deep-pocketed people that fled London during Covid are all making their return. It means that neighbourhoods with an average house price of £1 million...

Last time Sheridan Smith was in the West End it was with Ivo van Hove’s Opening Night, a leftfield art musical that in no way deserved the sneering notices it got in the more backwards quarters of the press, but at the same time was clearly much too weird for a mass Theatreland audience. But Smith’ll bounce back this Christmas, rejoining forces with Opening Night producers Wessex Grove as she plots her West End return.  That said, an Alan Ayckbourn okay definitely sounds like a safer commercial bet than a formally challenging Euro-musical: she’ll star in a revival of the veteran British dramatist’s hit 1985 play Woman in Mind, directed by ex-Donmar boss Michael Longhurst.  As with much of Ayckbourn’s work, this one comes with a conceit. It concerns Susan (Smith), a woman who takes a bump to the head and starts to experience two versions of reality: one real, one imagined.  It’s certainly an interesting play to revive: Ayckbourn was at his commercial zenith when it premiered but it’s been an age since he was last in the West End. It’s not entirely risk free. Then again, it sounds very much up the street of the ever winsome Smith, and a meaty role to get her teeth into to boot. Expect her to be back to her hit-making ways. Woman in Mind is at the Duke of York’s Theatre, Dec 9-Feb 28 2026. The best new London theatre shows to book for in 2025. Denise Gough and Billy Crudup will star in a new West End version of classic Western High Noon.