London events in January

In a city brimming with bars, breweries and prosecco-based pop-ups, it would seem that drinking in London without actually, erm, drinking is an impossibility. Leave your beer goggles at home for one night, however, and you’ll see the selection of non-alcoholic cocktails and booze-less blends available in the capital is pretty extensive. In some venues, the alcohol-free offerings are even more creative and tastebud-seducing than their liquor-rich counterparts. Don’t believe us? Have a sip on one of these teetotal tipples...

Burns Night always falls on January 25 (which is a Thursday in 2024) and gives London an excuse to celebrate Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns, with lots of food, whisky and partying. 

Yes, it's cold out. It's also quite wet. The leaves have fallen from the trees and turned the pavements into a slimy, slippery ice rink. But we're lucky to have some amazing, huge, parks in London, and walking around in them on a crisp winter's day is genuinely one of life’s great joys. Whether you're a Royal Parks stan or a fiend for Hampstead Heath, there are loads of parks to choose from. So, get out there. 

See third-generation Inuit artist Shuvinai Ashoona’s drawings looking at the lives of Canadian Arctic communities, intertwining everyday Arctic life with Inuit animism and shamanism. This is the first time Ashoona’s have been displayed in Europe since she received a special mention at the Venice Biennale in 2022.

As a playwright, Jez Butterworth has become an almost legendary figure – with his transcendent 2009 play ‘Jerusalem’ he kind of left the mortal world behind, and is now a vaguely mysterious figure who emerges from seclusion every few years to drop a new play on the world. His run of ‘Jerusalem’, ‘The River’ and ‘The Ferryman’ is about as good as it gets, a trio of very different plays united by their exploration of where wild landscape meets human mysticism.

We don’t know a huge amount about his latest, ‘The Hills of California’, but it’s definitely not set in California. Rather the place is Blackpool and the time is the sweltering summer of ’76, as the Webb sisters return to the family guesthouse to see their dying mother one last time.

As with 2017’s enormo-smash ‘The Ferryman’, it’ll be directed by the great Sam Mendes and will be produced by Sonia Friedman, alongside Mendes’s own Neal Street Productions. There’s a typically heavyweight cast of Laura Donnelly, Leanne Best, Ophelia Lovibond and Helena Wilson.

We’re pretty sure it’ll be the first play of his career not to premiere at the Royal Court, though one suspects this probably reflects tight schedules and the imminent change of artistic directorship at the Court.

Whatever the case, a new Jez Butterworth play is very much An Event – time to get excited.