Winter activities in London: 15 best things to do

We’re nearly there – at the end of yet another year on this rock. Before you get too bogged down in resolutions, Dry January and trying to turn over a new leaf for 2026, there’s one last night of fun to be had on New Year’s Eve.Unfortunately, NYE is the kind of night out where you can’t just wing it and expect to have a great time – it takes some serious planning if you want to ring in the New Year in one of the city’s biggest and best clubs. We’re here to help with our list of the best NYE bashes to ring in 2026 at, from never-ending club nights to LGBTQ+-friendly celebrations. Book your tickets, plan the perfect ‘fit and grab your mates to give 2025 the ultimate send-off.

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After a weird false start a decade ago wherein it was announced that an adaptation of Suzanne Collins’s bestselling YA novels would come to a revolving theatre in Wembley (this did not happen) The Hunger Games are finally heading to the stage – indeed, it says that in the name. This adaptation is by the great Irish playwright Conor McPherson, and will run in a brand new, 1,200-set, in-the-round theatre in Canada Water.

Directed by West End stalwart Matthew Dunster – who has good form with big, techy productions via his smash 2.22: A Ghost Story – it’s specifically an adaption of the titular first Hunger Games novel from 2008. Set in a post-apocalyptic North America, it follows teenager Katniss Everdeen as she is enterted into the dystopian gladatorial survival games that the goverment requires all its ‘sectors’ to enter.

Read our review of The Hunger Games: On Stage here.

Amazing news for lovers of neat symmetry, loud primary colours and twee outfits. Following on from autumn 2024's major exhibition on director Tim Burton, west London’s Design Museum will be staging a blockbuster show delving into the iconic aesthetic of another of Hollywood’s most distinctive auteurs, the Texas-born Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning director Wes Anderson. London has had several Anderson-inspired openings over the years, including the ‘Isle of Dogs’ exhibition at 180 The Strand and the ‘Accidentally Wes Anderson’ photo show, but the film director’s first official retrospective promises to be a different beast. A collaboration between the Design Museum and Cinémathèque Française, it has been curated in partnership with Wes Anderson himself and his production company American Empirical Pictures and follows his work from his early experiments in the 1990s right up to his recent Oscar-winning flicks, featuring original props, costumes and behind-the-scenes insights.

Is there anything more wonderfully wintry than wrapping up warm, pulling on some ice skates and gliding around a frosty slab of ice with your loved ones? Each winter, London fills up with pop-up rinks, from legendary venues like Somerset House to exciting new ones like Glide at Battersea Power Station. At all, you’ll find festive vibes ramped up to the max, especially come December – and a lot of fellow Londoners vying for a spot on the ice. Book in advance to guarantee you can show off your best ice moves (or your ability to stay upright, at the very least). Here are some of the best rinks to soar across this winter.

No matter how Scrooge-like you are, you can’t deny that London looks pretty magical once the Christmas lights have been turned on and tinsel-covered trees greet you at every turn. Luckily, the city is never in short supply of festive light displays, whether you’re looking for something classic – like Regent Street’s trumpet-playing angels, or a themed display, like those found on Carnaby Street. Each string beams bright enough to warm the coldest of hearts quicker than you can say ‘Bah, humbug’. Here are the best London illuminations to check out to get you in the Christmas spirit this year.

London might always be bustling with fun things to do and, come winter, a jam-packed calendar of unmissable events, but sometimes you just need a break from it all. When the capital’s hustle and bustle leaves you feeling a little drained, you can find some escape from the crowds and hordes of tourists by getting up and getting out just for a day. In dire need of crisp country air, a relaxing spa day or a gorgeous, long walk? These day trips from London are all under two hours from Zone 1 and will give you the relief you need this winter.

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John Le Carré’s landmark Cold War novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold has a huge reputation but is relatively under-adapted. Well, here’s a theatre version, transferring to London after an acclaimed run at Chichester last year.

Written by David Eldridge and directed by Jeremy Herrin, it stars Rory Keenan as battle weary British intelligence officer Alec Leanas, ready to ‘come in from the cold’ but pressed into one more job by spymaster George Smiley (John Ramm). Posing as dishonourably discharged in an effort to be recruited by East German spy Hans-Dieter Mundt (Gunnar Cauthery), he sets off a dangerous chain of events after falling for well-meaning lefty librarian Liz Gold (Agnes O’Casey).

Prepare for a feast for the eyes, but resist the urge to nibble! The sweetest festive event you’ll find, the Museum of Architecture’s edible exhibition tasks leading architects and designers to ditch their conventional building materials for dough bricks and sugar paste mortar to construct a miniature biscuit metropolis erected in King’s Cross’s Coal Drops Yard for the festive season. With a new theme each year, the exhibition aims to encourage innovation and future-forward city planning, and this year’s ‘Playful City’ theme has resulted in some really fun designs, from school buildings with slides between classrooms to candy-coloured climbing walls. As well as marvelling at all the confectionary craftsmanship on display, visitors can take part in a series of hands-on gingerbread house workshops where they’ll be able to construct a delicious souvenir to take home. 

Shopping for the Ghibli fan in your life just got a whole lot easier this Christmas. A pop-up shop is opening up in Knightsbridge from Saturday November 15 til January 11, 2026, and it's teeming with cuddly friends and licensed memorabilia inspired by the anime universe of Japan's Studio Ghibli. You'll find extremely squeezable plushies of classic Hayao Miyazaki characters like Totoro, No-Face from Spirited Away and Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service. There are also models and minifigures, plus lots of other covetable merch, including puzzles, stationery and homewares. Finish off your visit by getting a snap at the Totoro photo opportunity in the window.

This exhibition will put the work of two rivals – and two of Britain’s greatest painters – J.M.W. Turner and John Constable side by side. Although both had different paths to success, they each became recognised as stars of the art world and shared a connection to nature and recreating it in their landscape paintings. Explore the pair’s intertwined lives and legacies and get new insight into their creativity via sketchbooks, personal items and must-see artworks.

In 1824, the young King Liholiho and Queen Kamāmalu travelled across oceans from their kingdom, Hawaiʻi, to seek an alliance with the British Crown. This winter British Museum will shine a light on the lesser-known story about the historical relationship between Hawaiʻi’ and the United Kingdom, showing artefacts and treasures created by Hawaiian makers of the past and present. You’ll be able to see everything from feathered cloaks worn by chiefs, to finely carved deities, powerful shark-toothed weapons, and bold contemporary works by Kānaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) artists.

Horror and the West End have a mixed recent history: The Woman in Black had a very good innings, and Inside Number 9’s Stage/Fright worked a treat. 2.22 – A Ghost Story was a nice idea that ended up being done to death. The Enfield Haunting was unspeakably awful.

It’s with some trepadition, then, that we approach Paranormal Activity, a theatrical adaptation of the 2007 sleeper screen hit. Found footage horror isn’t the obvious genre to put on stage by a long shot. But this adaptation has a real USP: it’s directed by Felix Barrett, aka the brains behind immersive theatre legends Punchdrunk, his first non-Punchdrunk theatre show in over a decade. If anyone can inject some menace and atmophere into a show that is nominally about two people buying a house, it’s him.

And he’s got a pretty good writer too: playwright Levi Holloway isn’t much known over here, but he sounds eminently qulified having scored a Broadway hit recently with the spooky drama Grey House. His adaptation of the film sounds pretty ‘free’: rather than a stage retelling of the misadventures of the original film’s demon-haunted San Diego couple Micah and Katie, this once concerns James and Lou, a couple who quit Chicago for London in the hope they can escape their past (spoiler alert: they can’t).

Thank god for Burns Night. As the long, bleak month of January rolls on, this kilt-raising, haggis-scoffing, whisky-fuelled celebration of Scotland’s national poet Rabbie Burns is a chance to banish the winter blues and have a rip-roaring time.

The Bard turns 267 this year, but you don’t have to be in the big guy’s motherland to join in the festivities. An estimated 200,000 Scottish expats live in the capital, which technically makes it the third most populous Scottish city, so you can guarantee there’s plenty of feasting, boozing and partying to be done down here too. 

When is Burns Night in London?

Burns Night always falls on January 25, the day Robert Burns was born in South Ayrshire way back in 1759. This year’s celebration falls on a Sunday. 

Whether you want to get sweaty at a ceilidh, pipe in a haggis, or have a classy time at a whisky tasting or indulgent Burns supper, this is how you can enjoy Burns Night 2026 in London. 

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The Tate Modern kicks off its 2026 programme with a retrospective tracing the 40-year career of Croydon’s finest artistic export, Tracey Emin. Over 90 pieces will be exibited in the landmark exhibition, including some of the Young British Artist’s most defining works, from her famous neons and her controversial Turner Prize-nominated installation My Bed, to painting, video, textiles and never-before-exibited sculptures. Expect plenty of raw, confessional art exploring love, trauma and the female body.

Kip Williams is not a massive name in British theatre (yet), but the Aussie writer-director is starting to make some serious waves over here. His dizzyingly high tech, Sarah Snook-starring one woman Dorian Gray was a big West End hit last year, this autumn he directs a version of Jean Genet’s The Maids at the Donmar. It seems questionable as to whether we’ll get part two of his one woman Victorian horror trilogy over here – a version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde received mixed notices Down Under – but part three is coming our way in the new year as his take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula lands on our shores.

In her first full London stage role since her career making turn turn in The Color Purple over a decade ago, Cynthia Erivo will return home to (hopefully) triumphantly take on 23 different roles in a tech enhanced solo romp through Dracula that plays clever visual homage to the early years of horror cinema.