The days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve are weirdly, but enjoyably quiet in London, as the capital shuts down before revving back up for the New Year. If you’re at a loose end and wondering what to do, here’s The Resident’s suggestions.
1 Jurassic World: The Exhibition, Royal Docks
For dinosaur lovers and fans of the blockbuster film series, this is your chance to rub shoulders with your most loved and feared prehistoric reptile. Visitors can roam through the exhibition - which takes up a whooping 20,000 square-feet - and encounter prehistoric animals, including a life-sized Velociraptor, Brachiosaurus and T-Rex, which are also wandering around.
Date: Booking through to mid-January, 2023
Tickets: from £15
Address: Excel London, Royal Victoria Dock, E16 1XL
Website: jurassicworldexhibition.com
2 Dine out
Obviously cooking is low on the priorities this week, but lucky for us, not everything shuts down over twixmas. Woolwich Works will plate up its brunch through this week to New Year's day, but there is also the delectable Tel Aviv-inspired Bubala in Spitalfields (Dec 28-30), the sublime Fallow in St James's (from Dec 28) Kudu (from Dec 29) in Peckham, Indian restaurant Kricket (Dec 28 - 31) in Soho and Bentley's Oyster Bar & Grill in the West End for a real treat.
READ MORE: London's Best Alfresco Terraces & Rooftops For Winter
3 ABBA Voyage
If you haven’t seen this dynamite production yet, take twixmas as an excuse to. A tour unlike any other, digital versions of the fab Swedish four will play all the group's hits, brought to life by George Lucas' visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic. An 850-strong team of techies who used motion capturing and performance techniques with the band members - a process which took months.
Time: 7.45pm nightly & 3pm Saturday, 1pm Sunday
Address: ABBA Arena, Queen Elizabeth Park, Pudding Mill Lane E15 2PJ
Website: abbavoyage.com
4 Swingers City’s Bottomless Festive Set
Swingers City has extended its The Festive Set, which combines crazy golf with bottomless brunch (what could go wrong?). It gives you a round of golf, street food from the likes of Pizza Pilgrims, Breddos Tacos and Patty & Bun, and bottomless drinks for 1.5hours. Not scrimping on the booze, choose from fizz, wine, beer, spirits, frozen cocktails and exclusive tequila cocktails – and the limited-edition festive Mulled Martini.
Address: 8 Brown's Building EC3A 8AL
Website: swingers.club
5 Immersive experiences
Catch up on the myriad of immersive experiences currently on in London. Phantom Peak in Canada Waters has a festive flavour currently. There’s also Dalí Cybernetics: The Immersive Experience, which immerses the audience in works by the Spanish surrealist. Stranger Things and Jurrassic World both wrap up in January.
6 Light Trails & Festive Light Displays
A family activity not just for kids and children, London has some of the best Christmas light displays around. Kew Gardens always put on a cracking display, or pick a trail from The Resident’s round up of the best light trails in the capital.
7 Ice Skating
A perfect wintery activity to get you out and about in the crisp fresh air. London has no shortage of ice-skating rinks either. From Somerset House to the rink at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, The Resident knows where the best ice-skating rinks in London are.
8 Kew Garden, Richmond
Getting out in the fresh winter air is great and Kew Gardens lets you do just that. Stroll around the beautiful grounds and bask in the glory of its impressive collection of plants. Stroll through the vast glasshouses and catch Zadok Ben-David’s installation, Natural Reserve as well. Nearby, Richmond Park is idyllic, should you want to take a walk along the Thames before or after.
Address: Richmond TW9 3AF
Website: kew.org
READ MORE: Best London Hotels & Restaurants For Festive Afternoon Teas
9 Indoor Entertainment Centres
Gravity Southside in Wandsworth has digital darts and electric go-karting as well as bowling and golf simulators. It also has three bars and a Japanese noodle kitchen. Clays in Moorgate is an indoor clay shooting ranges with a bar and kitchen, state of the art technology and private booths to play in. And for the cricket fans amongst us, Sixes in Fulham and Fitzrovia is an indoor cricket simulate that even has UV cricket. Toca Social, in Greenwich, marries competitive football with dining, and Platform in Shoreditch gives punters 9- minutes of gaming on family favourite games like Mario Kart, Just Dance and Fifa 23.
10 Do Festive Things
Tickets are still available to see The Gingerbread City exhibition in Belgravia by the Museum of Architecture. An utterly charming – and edible – exhibition for adults and children, this year’s fantastical city is actually five, each set in different climates. There’s plenty more Christmassy things to do these holidays as well.
11 Go to a Gallery
Tate Modern closes down from Dec 24-26, but reopens for the daily again through to the new year. Exhibitions currently on include Cezanne, which features works unseen in the UK before, as well as sculptures by Maria Bartuszova and Magdalena Abakanowicz. The Hayward Gallery is back open on December 28 with ceramics exhibition, Strange Clay, which closes on January 8, 2023. Royal Academy is also open during Twixmas (reopens Dec 27) and has a host of exhibitions to explore. Also on, an exhibition on Back to the Future, and Seeing Auschwitz is a comprehensive look at the concertation camp, with pictures and testimonials of people who were sent there.
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