Elizabeth Gregory

With festive window displays, mulled cider stalls, and Christmas delights being sold on what seems like every corner, shopping in London in December can sometimes be a little overwhelming. So, to help you get the very best out of London’s West End, a group of companies have commissioned illustrator Olivia Brotheridge to delineate the area’s top festive sights. The result is a map which gives you all the Christmas feels. The illustration extends across the West End, from Marble Arch to Holborn, and covers attractions from shopping destinations Selfridges and Liberty, to cultural hubs such as the National Gallery and the Royal Opera House, plus favourite treat spots The Ritz and The Royal Arcade. And if you don’t know where you’re going, fear not. The map also includes walking distances from the West End’s four main tube stops. Coloured in rich purple, and covered in Christmas lights, the map has illustrations of champagne, hot chocolate, pale ale, cocktails and mince pies floating over your favourite West End destinations, to really get you in the holiday mood. ‘I’ve made quite a few festive maps before but this is the first one I’ve set in nighttime with a focus on all the Christmas lights as well as other attractions,’ says Brotheridge, who specialises in illustrated maps. ‘I love that each area of the West End has its own characteristic lights and I’ll be heading there this weekend to finally explore in real life.’ Each illustration on the map works like an advent calendar

It’s not exactly news that the global refugee crisis is getting worse. According to the UN Refugee Agency, there are more than 26.6 million refugees worldwide, a figure that has more than doubled over the last decade. Right here in London, there are dozens of ongoing initiatives offering services to support the 133,000 people seeking asylum in the UK – from the South London Refugee Association, to Tooting’s Community Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers and Women for Refugee Women. To find out other amazing initiatives supporting refugees, we asked Time Out Instagram followers to share their favourite London-based projects. Check them out below: Refugee Community Kitchen View this post on Instagram A post shared by Refugee Community Kitchen (@refugeecommunitykitchen) Refugee Community Kitchen serves up hot meals to displaced people in the UK and France, offering somewhere for them to gather and make new relationships. They have London outreach projects in Camden, Brixton, Hackney and Bethnal Green, using food donated by The Felix Project – a charity redistributing surplus food from suppliers. Find out more about the Refugee Community Kitchen here. Code Your Future View this post on Instagram A post shared by Code Your Future (@codeyourfuture_) This non-profit offers coding courses for refugees, asylum -eekers and disadvantaged people looking to work in tech. Graduates from its courses work now in companies like the B

The Trafalgar Square Christmas tree has arrived, and it’s looking a little… sad. Every year, Trafalgar Square’s tree-lighting ceremony takes place on the first Thursday of December. Two days ago, in preparation, the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree was erected, ready to be adorned in its sparkling festive coat. But passers-by noticed that the 20-metre-tall Norwegian spruce looked a bit sparse, and soon Twitter started buzzing with words of both comfort and criticism directed towards the coniferous evergreen. Since 1947, Trafalgar Square’s Christmas tree has been gifted to Britain by Norway. The giant 50- to 60-year-old trees are symbolic tokens of gratitude from the country for Britain’s support during the Second World War. Because of this, the slightly… rough… state of the tree’s arrival this year has made some people wonder whether Norway is trying to unsubtly tell us something. Here are some of the Twitter reactions. In the end, though, the Trafalgar Square tree couldn’t remain silent and came out to defend itself. A mixed reception to the Trafalgar Square tree in the replies to this tweet.Here it is alongside the other Westminster trees:- Waterloo Place- Pickering Place- Covent Garden- Trafalgar Square https://t.co/NDTvYQo5lO pic.twitter.com/w0luNNVJky — dan barker (@danbarker) November 30, 2021 Crikey, who has upset Norway?? 🇳🇴 🇳🇴 🎄 🎄 pic.twitter.com/r9ys4gqoAh — Jimmy McLoughlin (@jimmym) November 30, 2021     Are we at war with Norway now?

It’s December 1. Yes, it’s officially Christmas, starting from today. For some of you that means festive adverts, the Christmas light shows, and a pilgrimage to Winter Wonderland. To others it means one thing and one thing only: Whamageddon. For those who are new to Whamageddon, the game appeared on an internet forum a decade ago but became official via the creation of a Facebook group in 2016. The rules are simple: between December 1 and midnight on December 24, players have to try and avoid hearing ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham!. As you might suspect, this does pose a significant challenge. Cafes, shopping centres and Christmas parties become perilous zones, where any moment you may be ‘Whambushed’.  The competition has seen its fair share of dastardly behaviour. Friendships have been destroyed as competitors have stood outside one another’s houses playing ‘Last Christmas’ or sending clips of the song to each other online. Those who fail must post #Whamageddon immediately on their social media, and will be sent to ‘Whamhalla’ until next year. Bear in mind, only the original version of the song counts. Feel free to subject yourself to Taylor Swift’s cover as often as you like. If ‘Last Christmas’ is actually one of your favourite Christmas songs, but you like the idea of this legitimate excuse not to leave the house over the next couple of weeks, there are other versions of the game you can adopt instead. After George Michael’s death in 2016, some players transitioned to using Ma

This evening at 5pm on Carnaby Street, there will be a candlelit gathering to honour the millions of people around the world who have died from Aids.  The vigil is being organised by fashion designer Gareth Pugh and cosmetics brand Mac, and will be held outside the Mac store. A gospel choir will sing as part of the commemoration, and Professor Jane Anderson, chair of the National Aids Trust, will address attendees. Today is World Aids Day, but it also marks 40 years since the first Aids-related deaths were reported in California. Since then, more than 36.3 million people have died of the illness. Today 37.7 million people are living with HIV globally. Despite phenomenal advancements in medicine, which mean that the life expectancy of people living with HIV in the UK is almost equal to that of HIV-negative individuals, Aids continues to cause devastation in developing countries around the world. In 2020 alone, nearly 700,000 people died of Aids-related illnesses. Mac Viva Glam, the beauty brand’s charitable campaign, is one of the largest non-pharma contributors to HIV and Aids charities, having raised more than $500 million for organisations supporting those living with HIV and Aids. One hundred percent of the selling price of Mac Viva Glam lip products goes to these organisations, and approximately 19 million lives have been changed through its charity contributions. While attitudes towards HIV and Aids have changed over the last four decades, there’s still progress to be ma

It’s Black Friday, the weather’s miserable, so of course today’s the day we’re also slapped with a tube strike. And due to its surge pricing system, Uber fares are up by 150 percent. This is the tube’s first multi-line strike since 2018, with the Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines severely disrupted for 24 hours. Londoners have been left little choice but to travel to work on packed buses in gridlocked traffic, walk or take taxis. The tube lines that do remain open are expected to be horrendously busy. With sunset now happening at 4pm, Londoners are being encouraged to try and make plans to travel home early, or to find alternative routes that don’t go through central London. The city is likely to be even busier than usual, with shoppers flocking to the capital to take advantage of the week’s continuing Black Friday sales. The tube strikes are being held in response to the reintroduction of the Night Tube on the Central and Victoria lines on Friday and Saturday nights. RMT staff say that the Night Tube will ‘wreck work-life balance by bulldozing through additional night and weekend working’. But for women’s safety campaigners the reopening of the Night Tube comes as a huge relief. Nearly 160,000 people have signed a petition launched in October to reinstate the Night Tube, after the murders of Londoners Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa this year provoked a national outcry about the very real dangers that women face being on the streets alone at night. Wi

If you were wondering what to wear while eating Greggs’s newly launched Vegan Festive Bake, social enterprise notjust has the jumper for you. Blue, with snowflakes, and covered in Greggs yellow squares and illustrations of vegan sausage rolls, it’s safely the snazziest festive get-up in the vegan bake market. But the jumpers are more than just a good laugh. They are part of a charity sale that is donating 50 percent of its profits to mental health charities. Since 2017, notjust has raised over £80,000 for charities including Save the Children, Kicking Off, Mind and The Big Issue. No strangers to British icons, the Christmas jumpers have previously paid homage to ‘Fleabag’ and Sir David Attenborough with its Flea-bahum-bag and David Attenbrrr editions, both of which can still be bought onsite. The Greggs jumpers cost £34.99, are made of 100 percent acrylic yarn and are described as ‘the perfect attire for wolfing down your Christmas dinner’. They are also designed, produced and distributed domestically, so that notjust can ensure they have been made ethically. A word of warning, though. Only 250 of the Greggs Christmas jumpers have been made to date. So if you want in on the meat-free fashion action, you’ll need to act fast. Accompanying the jumper release, notjust has also started a petition to make the Greggs vegan sausage roll an endangered species, after it was hit by supply-chain disruptions and became unavailable in some London outlets.  Keep doing the Lord’s work, notj

When you think of Portobello Road you probably picture its pastel coloured homes, eclectic antiques and buzzing market. Oh, and a scene from that film with Rhys Ifans in his Y-fronts. You’re probably not thinking about the traffic jamming up the streets around it, or the cars driving down it. But, thanks to Kensington & Chelsea council, you won’t have to. This week, the borough announced that Portobello Road will be closed to traffic during market operating hours (10am-4pm) from Monday to Saturday. Some of the nearby streets will also be closed throughout the week. The restrictions had already been put in place on an experimental basis following the outbreak of the pandemic, but now it will be made permanent. The idea is to reduce carbon emissions while providing shoppers with more room to enjoy their bougie surroundings. In September 2019, Kensington & Chelsea council set itself the goal of carbon neutrality by 2030. The council said that the decision to ban cars from Portobello Road has been made following consultation with, and support from, traders and locals. Residents of the area, those with disabilities and emergency services will be exempt from the vehicle restrictions. The decision follows the mayor’s October announcement that the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is going to be expanded. ULEZ is an area where cars have to meet a strict emission level or pay a fee. According to the London Mayor’s Office, ‘The central London ULEZ works. Before the pandemic, it contribute