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You might not have realised, given all the Christmas chaos and the fact that it’s been freezing for weeks already, but winter officially arrives this weekend.
With the coldest, darkest months of the year on the horizon, it’s natural to want to bunker down under a weighted blanket as soon as the turkey has been carved and the presents have been opened, not to emerge until mid-March when your bank balance, social battery and liver have finally recovered from all the festive excess.
But with most people’s calendars tending to be a little bit quieter, winter is a great time to pay a visit to all of those museums, galleries and cultural institutions that you’re always saying you want to check out. This is especially true if you’re attempting Dry January and suddenly have endless hours of hangover-free weekend to fill. If you can manage to tear yourself away from the sofa – and series three of The Traitors – for five minutes, there’s loads going on around London over the next few months. Here are five things I’m especially looking forward to.
World Darts Championship Final
Like many unsuspecting pub-goers, I was swept up in the Luke Littler-fuelled darts mania that descended on the nation last Christmas, and now officially consider myself a ‘festive darts ultra’. After finishing as runner up last year, the kebab-loving teenage sensation will be attempting to go one better as he returns to Ally Pally over the holidays, and while you’ll be hard-pressed securing tickets to the live competitions unless you’re willing to fork out a few hundred quid on a resale platform, it should be easier than ever to find a boozer that’s screening the heats. For January’s final, you can’t go wrong with Walthamstow’s 14,000 capacity Big Penny Social, which is hosting a free screening party featuring a group fancy dress competition and post-show DJs til late.
1 Priestley Way, E17 6AL. Fri Jan 3. Free.
‘SOIL: The World At Our Feet’
If you’re anything like me, soil probably isn’t something you spend much time thinking about save for the one weekend a year when you decide to actually care for your poor malnourished houseplants, but this exhibition promises to change that. Opening Somerset House’s 25th anniversary season, it features more than 50 exhibits ranging from scientific artefacts and historical objects to immersive artworks, photography and film installations, aiming to illuminate the vital part that soil plays in sustaining all life on earth, its relationship to human culture and the role of regenerative agricultural practices in tackling the climate crisis. Groundbreaking stuff. Literally.
Somerset House, WC2R 1LA. Thu Jan 23-Sun Apr 13. £18.50.
The Southbank Centre x Montreux Jazz Festival
The Southbank Centre kicks off an exciting new partnership with Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival this winter with a weekend of events honouring the legacy of Nina Simone. Jazz fans can catch saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch premiering his new album ‘Soundtrack to the Apocalypse’, join a celebration of James Baldwin with young talents from the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and get down at a Saturday night party hosted by Peng Femme Jam, but the main event is ‘Mississippi Goddamn’, an epic Friday night concert with the Nu Civilisation Orchestra, where special guests including Corinne Bailey Rae and Laura Mvula will perform some of Simone’s biggest hits.
Southbank Centre, SE1 8XX. Fri Jan 31-Sun Feb 2. Free-£25.
‘Making Egypt’
Young V&A had a hit with its inaugural exhibition Japan: Myths to Manga, so we have high hopes for its second major opening exploring Ancient Egypt’s enduring influence on contemporary culture. The revamped Bethnal Green institution might well be the best cultural institutions in the city when it comes to entertaining hyperactive children, but it’s not just kids who will be fascinated by the 200+ items from the V&A’s collection featured in this major exhibition. These include a painted inner sarcophagus belonging to Princess Sopdet-em-haawt, and displays exploring the influence of Ancient Egyptian design on contemporary comic books and video games.
Young V&A, E2 9PA. Sat Feb 15-Sun Nov 2. £10.
London Soundtrack Festival
There’s a new festival in town and it’s highlighting one of the more unsung parts of our favourite movie. London Soundtrack Festival puts the scores front and centre with a series of screenings, talks and performances celebrating the musicians who make Hollywood sound so exciting, tense and emotional. Highlights include screenings of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, The Silence of the Lambs and Eighth Grade with live scores, a day-long celebration of video game music at The Roundhouse and a concert of iconic movie songs hosted by composer Anne Dudley along with guests including the Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant and Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters. What a banger.
Various venues. Wed Mar 19-Wed Mar 26. Various prices.
Got some free time over the holidays? Here are the 12 best art exhibitions we saw in 2024 – including ones you can still catch, if you’re quick
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