The best things to do in London this December

December in London is all about festive splendour, with the city’s frosty weather and shorter days brightened by sparkling lights and dazzling trees. Here, we shortlist the finest food and drink openings and the must-visit exhibitions to note, plus where to shop for stocking fillers and celebrate New Year’s Eve in style.

Cultural highlights include a photography exhibition on 1980s Britain at Tate Britain and an adaption of the Brothers Grimm classic Hansel and Gretel at the Globe by British poet and playwright Simon Armitage. There’s a new wagyu burger bar worth making tracks for in Brixton and a Thai-British restaurant drawing crowds in Marylebone for its flavour-packed dishes. Read on to get the lowdown on the best things to do in London this December.

Seasonal things to do in London

Winter markets

When: Until January 2025

Nothing says festive season like London’s winter markets. On the Thames, the Southbank Centre has taken over Queen’s Walk with pop-up bars, street food and independent traders housed in alpine-style chalets. North of the river, Covent Garden’s festive Thursdays are marked by live performances from London International Gospel Choir in front of a 60-foot fir tree that glitters with silver and red baubles. For stocking fillers, the Curated Makers Market at Battersea Power Station is a quieter alternative to the bustle of central London, offering an excellent selection of jewellery and homewares. Over in East London, Spitalfields Market delivers with its seasonal delights, special discounts and mulled wine on tap. Holiday hotspots include Somerset House’s ice rink Skate, which is open into early January.

Pop-up shops and collaborations

As well as supporting London’s independent retailers at the city’s festive markets, including Portobello Road Market on Fridays and Saturdays, and the weekend Broadway Market in Hackney, discover new pop-up spaces across the city. Raye the Store has taken residency at Coal Drops Yard in Kings Cross (already a ROADBOOK-recommended shopping destination), showcasing independent businesses across food, drink, beauty and wellness. Pick up spelt pasta by the Northern Pasta Co, which champions British regenerative farming, and alcohol-free Collider drinks, made with mood-boosting adaptogens functional mushrooms.

Earlier this year, Diptyque opened two impressively designed ‘Maison’ concept stores in Paris and London. Both flagships include an exhibition space, which collaborates with a different artist each season. Visit the Mayfair location throughout December to explore a limited-edition collection designed by British artist Lucy Sparrow, known for her felt-based artistry.

Festive theatre shows

Where: Various West End theatres
When: Until January 2025
Price: Various

A series of legendary festive shows and exciting newcomers illuminate the West End this month. At Soho Place Theatre, British actor and comedian Nick Mohammed takes to the stage in a hilarious retelling of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, while British poet and playwright Simon Armitage is launching an adaptation of the Brothers Grimm’s Hansel and Gretel at the Globe. Tickets to festive favourites such as The Nutcracker at London Coliseum and The Snowman at the Peacock Theatre are expected to sell out soon so it’s worth grabbing tickets while you can. Elsewhere, Bafta-winning actress Sigourney Weaver is making her West End debut in The Tempest at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 7 December, and hot stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Kingsley Ben-Adir are starring in a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Almeida Theatre from 10 December.

New Year’s Eve

When: 31 January 2024

Tickets for London’s New Year’s Eve firework display might be nearly sold out, but there are plenty of spots worth bookmarking for views of the show such as Greenwich Park, Primrose Hill and Alexandra Palace. Key clubs including Fabric, Phonox and Ministry of Sound have revealed stellar lineups with tickets still on sale at their websites, while neighbourhood favourites in East London like Dalston Superstore and Night Tales are ideal for those seeking a more intimate vibe. For a mix of good food and great music, wine bar and restaurant Carousel is bringing a taste of the Balearics to Fitzrovia with seasonal small plates and natural wines courtesy of Ibiza’s beachside restaurant Nodo, paired with jazz-funk sounds from Kaifeng-born DJ and composer Yu Su.

Food and drink happenings in London

AngloThai, Marylebone

Location: 22-24 Seymour Place, London, W1H 7NL
Price: Small plates from 6 GBP; large plates from 20 GBP 

AngloThai has finally opened a permanent site on Seymour Place in Marylebone after years of pop-ups and residencies. Husband-and-wife team John and Desiree Chantarasak blend traditional Thai flavours and techniques such as charcoal cooking and coconut smoking with produce from the British Isles to create a flavour-packed menu. Guests will find snacks like comice pear with beetroot and rapeseed, and grilled bread served with shrimp butter and Cornish shellfish. Standout mains include wok-fired aubergine with sweet basil and soy cured yolk, and pork chops with smoked chili relish, both of which pair with the seasonal wine list brimming with bottles from small-scale European producers. As for the interiors, woven and recycled materials, bespoke ceramic tiles and soothing, warm lights decorate the 50-cover space.

Buster’s, Brixton

Location: 3 Atlantic Road, London, SW9 8HX
Price: Burgers from 8.45 GBP; sides from 4.25 GBP

There’s a tasty new burger bar located in an old railway arch on Brixton’s Atlantic Road. Buster’s hails from chefs Matt Harris and Tommy Kempton, who are behind Clapham’s favourite wine bar Ploussard. Here, a concise menu counts just three burgers made from a sweet, buttery Welsh wagyu, served alongside a handful of sides. While the hamburger and cheeseburger are solid options, we recommend ordering the buster burger: a medium-cooked patty served in a signature sauce (chicken fat mayo, green peppercorn dijonaise and cheese) that’s sandwiched to perfection in a buttered potato roll. Grab some fries to mop up any leftover sauce and don’t miss the chocolate mousse with caramel to finish. While the counter-style seats suit a fleeting visit, the locally brewed beers and crowd-pleasing cocktails – including a top pét nat negroni – provide a good reason to linger a little longer.

Dynamic Vines, East Dulwich

Location: 149 Lordship Lane, London, SE22 8HX
Price: Bottles from 18 GBP; monthly subscription from 5 GBP

Sommelier Frederic Grappe has been supplying some of the biggest restaurants, bars and wine shops across the UK since 2005, yet this month marks the launch of his own bottle shop and wine bar in East Dulwich. The focus at Dynamic Vines is on independent winemakers, with each wine selected for its minimal intervention. You won’t find a sprawling food menu here, instead a simple offering of cheese, bread and charcuterie is on hand to pair with your bottle of choice. Grappe has removed corkage fees with the ambition of encouraging guests to experiment and explore, while a weekly changing rotation of wine tastings promises in-depth discovery. Check out the website for details on memberships to secure discounts in-store and online.

Turo Turo, Tooting

Location: 102 Tooting High Street, London, SW17 0RR
Price: Small plates from 7 GBP; large plates from 12.50 GBP

British-born Filipino chef Rex De Guzman has opened his first permanent restaurant just round the corner from Tooting’s buzzing food market. The street food-style menu showcases delicious small plates such as charred aubergine in a soy garlic glaze, and crispy white bait tossed in chili spices. Grilled classics like chicken and pork skewers work with punchy sides including fried plantain and garlic butter corn. Larger groups should look to book the boodle fight, a traditional sharing-style feast where food is served on a bed of banana leaves and guests are encouraged to eat with their fingers. Don’t miss the dessert menu for turon (deep-fried banana) and bibingka (a coconut-flavoured rice cake).

The Peninsula London

Location: 1 Grosvenor Pl, London SW1X 7HJ
Price: afternoon tea from 95 GBP per person

The Peninsula London by Hyde Park Corner is considered one of the capital’s shiniest luxury hotels, with guest rooms and suites designed by Peter Marino and a fleet of supercars lined up in the outside courtyard, alongside two of the oldest Japanese maple trees in Europe. As one might expect, the hotel goes all out on Christmas Day, while guests can enjoy afternoon tea in the run up to the main event. Petrol heads will love the array of antique motoring memorabilia curated throughout the hotel, and be sure to take a spin in the hotel lift, which is fashioned like a hot-air balloon with wicker sides, padded leather roof and even realistic blast-off sound effects.

The best exhibitions in London

The 80s: Photographing Britain at Tate Britain

Location: Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG
When: Until 5 May 2025
Price: From 20 GBP 

This inspiring group exhibition traces the social and political landscape of 1980s Britain with nearly 350 images from celebrated British photographers such as Martin Parr, Don McCullin, Willie Doherty and Syd Shelton. The show depicts the miners’ strikes, race uprisings, Section 28 rebellion and the Aids pandemic as its central themes. In the opening room, images portray the struggle of activists, with one hard-hitting image by John Harris showing a mounted policeman attacking a female demonstrator with a truncheon during the miners’ strike in South Yorkshire. Elsewhere, photographs from Anna Fox’s ‘Work Stations’ (1988) and Martin Parr’s ‘The Cost of Living’ (1986) are a stark contrast to bleak images of the deprived East End by Markéta Luskačova’s series ‘London Street Musicians’ (1975).

Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet at Tate Modern

Location: Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG
When: Until 1 June 2025
Price: From 22 GBP

Tate Modern champions innovations in digital and immersive art in a new exhibition with more than 150 works from the 1950s to the dawn of the internet age in the 1980s. The exhibition traces how artists used cutting-edge tools to expand art and design, exploring themes of abstraction, kineticism, perception and cybernetics. Visitors will find Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz Diez’s captivating Chromointerferent Environment (1974-2009), a projection which uses moving lattices of light to challenge the perception of colour and space, and Palestinian artist Samia Halaby’s striking kinetic paintings which were coded on the Amiga 1000 (the world’s first commercial computer). The show concludes with an interactive installation by Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss, where visitors are invited to play with their reflection on a touchscreen that acts as a pool of digital water.

The World of Tim Burton at the Design Museum

Location: 224-238 Kensington High Street, London, W8 6AG
When: Until 21 April 2025
Price: From 19.69 GBP 

For those captivated by the work of boundary-breaking director Tim Burton, this six-month exhibition charts his magnificent 50-year career with objects, sketches, props, costumes and set designs from his early childhood to his most recent film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024). Marking the finale of the exhibition’s decade-long world tour – which has visited 14 major cities including Paris, Barcelona and Tokyo – the show’s narrative has been reimagined specially for London. Visitors will find iconic costumes such as Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman suit from Batman Returns (1992) and the striped dress worn by Christina Ricci in Sleepy Hollow (1990), as well as a detailed insight into Burton’s creative process for some of the biggest films of the past five decades, including Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).

Francis Bacon: Human Presence at National Portrait Gallery

Location: St Martin’s Place, London, WC2H 0HE
When: Until 19 January 2025
Price: From 23 GBP

The National Portrait Gallery is staging a major exhibition tracing the extraordinary career of Irish-British painter Francis Bacon this winter, featuring 50 rarely seen works borrowed from private collections around the world. Visitors will explore Bacon’s fascinating relationship with portraiture and how he embraced unconventional figurative art through his works in oil. The exhibit is organised chronologically, from his early works in the late 1940s to portraits painted at the end of his life, including one which remained unfinished on an easel in his studio after his passing. Highlights include a collection of paintings of Bacon’s friends and lovers including Lucian Freud, George Dyer and Isabel Rawsthorne as well as self-portraits and photographs of the artist captured by celebrated photographers Cecil Beaton and Arnold Newman.

Picasso: printmaker at The British Museum

Location: Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG
When: Until 30 March 2025 
Price: From 11 GBP 

The UK’s largest exhibition celebrating the work of the legendary Pablo Picasso is exploring the Spanish artist through an exciting new lens. 100 pieces including intaglio prints, lithographs, linocuts and 28 unseen artworks from his series ‘347 Suite’ (1968), which was acquired by The British Museum in 2014 are on display. Picasso’s first professional print ‘The Frugal Meal’ (1904) – a depiction of two wasted figures that’s considered one of the greatest masterpieces in printmaking for its intricate etching – opens the exhibition while thought-provoking pieces from his most acclaimed series the ‘Vollard Suite’ (1930-1937) is also on exhibit. Visitors will explore Picasso’s relationships with wives and lovers through themes of sex and identity as well as his connections with printers and publishers.

Continue your cultural tour of London with our insider guide to the city’s greatest galleries and museums.